We've done 7 DCL cruises. On our first NCL cruise now and it's beyond horrible!

[Anna131517]

We’re sailing NCL Jewel (one of the smaller, older ships) in a week in Alaska. We intentionally chose that ship because I didn’t want to deal with reserving everything like you have to on the bigger NCL ships. I’m nervous though. We have sailed NCL several times before but it was all pre-pandemic. We’ve never been huge into ship activities but our kids were much much younger or we were childless on our previous sailings. So we’ll see how it goes! I’m mostly worried about whether my kids will want to do the kids clubs. I love the DCL kids clubs! It’s so hard because while we love DCL their itineraries just don’t tend to be as good.

 

[DCLMP]

Are you meaning paragraph breaks would help?

Yes. The review is good, but it would make for easier reading if it was broken up.

 

[jimmymc]

I actually did this exact cruise last year and really enjoyed it, but I've heard from a lot of people how far it seems to have fallen. Here are some of the cuts/changes made between last summer and now:

1. Room services: Last year, I met my room steward the morning of the second day of the cruise, which is totally understandable with how busy they are on embarkation day. We had service twice a day, and my room was always cleaned while I was at breakfast, even if it was only 30 minutes, and turned down while at dinner. Things like shore excursion tickets and the paper guides were easily available.

2. Entertainment: Last year, the ship featured two premier shows: Choir of Man and Kinky Boots. Choir of man showed 4 total times over two separate days, which I think is still the same. Kinky Boots also showed 4 total times, and it was great. Similar quality to a touring cast on land, and the show was an hour and 45 minutes with no intermission, so you were getting almost the entire original Broadway performance. The Beatles tribute band also did two shows in the main theater and three in the Cavern Club. There were a few comedians in the comedy club, but they were never on the main stage. And the only ones to require reservations were the comedy club; everything else was first come, first serve, and on the second night for the two big shows it was easy to get a good seat.

3. Go karts, laser tag, and the virtual reality area all didn't require reservations. Although this did lead to longer lines, so maybe it's better to have them?

I have heard that the food is still pretty good, and I was pleasantly surprised how good the buffet was last year. It's kind of odd not having poolside food, but the pool is right next to the buffet which was tasty and open all the time, so that wasn't a big issue for me and I doubt it ever would be. 3 dining rooms sharing one menu is normal for non-Disney cruises. Your choice is more about which setting/how formal you want it to be. The local was also really good, and food would come out within minutes, so if you wanted something fast that wasn't a buffet you had the option.

Another thing I really liked about NCL was how little upselling they did. Since almost everyone already had a drink and specialty dining package, they weren't constantly upselling them, and it was really easy to get a drink anywhere on the ship.

There were really only two things I disliked. First was the lack of entertainment during the day. You're correct that it was basically only gambling/bingo or product sells disguised as informational lectures. If I were to do it again, I would bring some more entertainment for sea days. The second dislike was our short port days. We didn't arrive in Juneau until 2:30 pm, and my excursion ended at 8. So even though we didn't need to be back on board until 11, everything closed right around 8 pm, so it was effectively 3 hours shorter. The worst though was docking at Ward Cove in Ketchikan. It's already a shorter day, 7a to 1p, but since the last bus back from town left at 11a, you had at most 3.5 hours to see the town, and if you did any excursion that wasn't the lumberjack show, you couldn't see the main town at all.

All in all I do plan on sailing NCL more in the future because of the destinations, but when it comes to on-board entertainment, I'll make sure to do some research and bring things to keep myself occupied.

 

[DCLMP]

I think with every cruise there’s a bit of luck involved. I’ve had ok service to excellent service on DCL. I’ve never had bad service on DCL, but I’ve had servers I didn’t care for.

I’ve been lucky with my non DCL cruises. At this point the only thing separating DCL from the rest is cost and entertainment. Before my last two cruises I would have said DCL is step above, but after the disappointment in the WIsh and my new found love for Odyssey of the seas I’m not sure I can say that.

If I’m cruising an itinerary where all the ships are old Magic would be my first choice. There are just so many new and exciting ships out there to try for half the price with better food options, better design and better technology. I feel like Disney lost a step with the Wish. Can they make it up with the next ship. Let’s hope so.

 

[lklgoodman]

Sorry you didn't like your NCL cruise despite researching ahead of time. We went in with an open mind knowing we were paying 1/3 the cost sailing DCL over Spring Break. We too did not meet the stateroom host, and did not run into him, until the 3rd day of the cruise by chance. Although he didn't take the time to introduce himself, when I asked for a favor he knew exactly who I was and which room we were in. They are very overworked with the new room servicing structure. We still got our room cleaned every day with fresh towels so we had zero complaints. The one day we didn't get service was because we left for port and forgot to turn the dial from "do not disturb" to "service please."
As for activities, it sounds to me like you had plenty just not continuous like Disney has. Of course, they are family oriented so that's to be expected. For Easter, NCL organized a scavenger hunt which ended with the Easter Bunny. They also had origami, towel folding, a PG comedy show, and live music. They had a kids glow party and the Splash staff was wonderful. Was the cruise less well organized than DCL? I mean yeah. But it was far from horrible.
We had a great time and would do it again, to experience an itenerary different than DCL, not to mention the thousands of $$ saved. NCL isn't our first choice, but despite not having pool side food, we found overall the food and entertainment much more family friendly than CCL.

We had none of those activities that you had. I knew it would be different from DCL, that's why we booked it. Before I booked the cruise I had conversations with a TA about what we were looking for in a new cruiseline. I was very specific with her that family friendly nightly shows and daily family activities were very important since we wouldn't be spending time in the pool area since it would be too cold. I was told there would be a family show every night in the theater. We had 3 nights of different shows. Choir of Men was shown 2 nights(We really liked it) 1 night was 2 comedians, and 1 night of the Beatles. The other 3 nights nothing(and it was't because they had last minute cancellations, I asked). I also asked if there would be multiple family activities going on throughout the day. We would have been happy to do any type of activity, if they had some. Pictionary offered 1 time for the entire cruise. I knew about the make my room/don't disturb sign. Had make my room sign on for over 6 hrs each day and room still wouldn't get served. Had to call for fresh towels and even for more toilet paper. This wasn't a one time thing, it was this way for the entire cruise. We had a family club balcony. I loved the size and location of the cabin. I also thought the food was very good. We loved the race cars and would have gladly paid to do them more than once but all the reservations were taken. We had a lot families in our cruise group who never got to do them. I really wanted to love NCL. I was going to book the Joy to Bermuda for 2024 and Prima to Iceland for 2025. But this cruise has me extremely hesitant. I'd rather pay more for DCL knowing we're going to have what we want in a cruise. I just wish they would change up the Fantasy's iteneries. My dd is in high school so we can't pull her from school in the Fall to go to Bermuda on DCL.

 

[lklgoodman]

I’m sorry to hear you aren’t having a good cruise OP. We are booked on NCL Encore next June to Alaska. I get a bit nervous when I read bad reviews of NCL but DCL was $13,000+ on opening day(16+ now) for a balcony and NCL is $6200 with the military discount for a balcony so we are sticking with NCL. Using that extra $6000+ to do a cruise on DCL fantasy 5 months later.

I also looked into Princess and Hal but nothing matched all of my criteria like NCL. I really prefer to leave on a Sat/Sun and want to hit the same ports as the Wonder would.

As far as the ports and Alaska is concerned how was your cruise?

We had done an Alaskan cruise on DCL years ago that went to the same ports, so we were fine with them on this cruise. We had booked the river rafting in Juneau through NCL. A lady in my fb cruise group had booked the same excursion independently. She had it canceled a week before the cruise by the company because of low water issues. Our excursion was booked for Tues at 3:30. Monday afternoon we got a letter saying the excursion was canceled. Which is understandable, can't do anything about lack of rain. I went straight to the excursion desk and unfortunately everything was fully booked. We got off the ship as soon as it was cleared and tried to book something with the vendors at the dock. Everything they had for the day was fully booked. There was several ships who had docked earlier than the Encore so the passengers from those ships had already booked all the available excursions. We took a shuttle to Mendenhall Glacier. We gone there on our previous DCL cruise and enjoyed it. Had great excursions in Skagway and Ketchikan, just wish Ketchian time was longer. Did have slight problem with meeting location in Skagway. Excursion was booked with NCL. Tickets said to meet at end of dock. We were told there would be people holding signs for the excursion once we got to the end of the dock area. No people anywhere with signs. Everyone was walking up and down the area asking each other if anyone had seen people with excursion signs. We eventually found our excursion people 3 blocks away. Loved the excursion, but it was stressful trying to find them. We had terrifc weather while in Glacier Bay. About 15 mins after we left it, the weather turned foggy and cold and the rest of the day/night was very low visibility. Our ship arrived in Victoria around 7:45, but didn't get cleared until after 8:30. The dock area has no shops or restaurants and is a 45 mins walk to anything. My advice is to book everything as soon as possible or you won't get a chance to do it. We went to Cagneys and it was very good. Los Lobos was good, but nothing great. We were hoping Food Republic would be open for lunch, but it wasn't. We had a family club balcony. Was very comparable in size to verandah on the Fantasy/Dream. Very little space in the closet for hanging up clothes. My dd and I use packing cubes and there were a lot of shelves that we were able to use. No drawers in the room either, except for in the bathroom. Had 2 in the bathroom under the sink. I felt like we had more storage in the bathroom than in DCL's bathrooms. Bring some magenetic hooks. There's only 2 little ones in the cabin. I got some and they came in handy for jackets, bags, lanyards.

 

[Mango7100]

We had none of those activities that you had. I knew it would be different from DCL, that's why we booked it. Before I booked the cruise I had conversations with a TA about what we were looking for in a new cruiseline. I was very specific with her that family friendly nightly shows and daily family activities were very important since we wouldn't be spending time in the pool area since it would be too cold. I was told there would be a family show every night in the theater. We had 3 nights of different shows. Choir of Men was shown 2 nights(We really liked it) 1 night was 2 comedians, and 1 night of the Beatles. The other 3 nights nothing(and it was't because they had last minute cancellations, I asked). I also asked if there would be multiple family activities going on throughout the day. We would have been happy to do any type of activity, if they had some. Pictionary offered 1 time for the entire cruise. I knew about the make my room/don't disturb sign. Had make my room sign on for over 6 hrs each day and room still wouldn't get served. Had to call for fresh towels and even for more toilet paper. This wasn't a one time thing, it was this way for the entire cruise. We had a family club balcony. I loved the size and location of the cabin. I also thought the food was very good. We loved the race cars and would have gladly paid to do them more than once but all the reservations were taken. We had a lot families in our cruise group who never got to do them. I really wanted to love NCL. I was going to book the Joy to Bermuda for 2024 and Prima to Iceland for 2025. But this cruise has me extremely hesitant. I'd rather pay more for DCL knowing we're going to have what we want in a cruise. I just wish they would change up the Fantasy's iteneries. My dd is in high school so we can't pull her from school in the Fall to go to Bermuda on DCL.

If you can swing it do the Haven. We went on one NCL cruise last summer in the Haven—loved it, not one single issue. After walking through the regular pool area seeing it wall to wall people and seeing the lines for dinner, I’m not sure I would have enjoyed the cruise without the Haven. At least for our week long Eastern Caribbean in July the Haven for us was cheaper than a veranda DCL on a 7 day Fantasy.

 

[lklgoodman]

Sorry for your experience but thank you for sharing! My DD is older now and had also been thinking of NCL due to the race track and other options for older kids but didn't consider the fact that they may not be available often. Glad we decided to stick with DCL!

We loved the race cars and were so disappointed that we couldn't do them more often. They only had them open for a few hours each day(not weather related). They started boarding the ship around 12pm. We got on about 20 mins later and went to book them right away. I saw that they were only limited for a few hours each day, so I'm glad we got a reservation. You could only book them one time. So many people in my cruise group never got a reservation for them. I don't understand the limited hours. We would have happily paid to do them every day.

 

[lklgoodman]

We are sailing the NCL Escape in February for our first non-Disney cruise - BUT, we are doing it as part of a cruise group put together by a radio station. So, first off, we will know other people on the cruise, and second, the cruise group kind of does it's own activities during the cruise. Hopefully those two things will help ensure we still have an enjoyable cruise. Sorry yours has not been.

The Escape has the rope course and I think mini golf. Hopefully those will be open all the time so you'll have more to do. We like doing shuffleboard on DCL. We searched all over the ship and never found one. Was kinda surprised they didn't have it.

 

[lklgoodman]

Yes. The review is good, but it would make for easier reading if it was broken up.

Sorry it was difficult to read. My phone kept freezing up and then I'd lose internet service. I was just happy I finally got it to post(and that I didn't toss my phone overboard out of frustration!)

 

[lklgoodman]

If you can swing it do the Haven. We went on one NCL cruise last summer in the Haven—loved it, not one single issue. After walking through the regular pool area seeing it wall to wall people and seeing the lines for dinner, I’m not sure I would have enjoyed the cruise without the Haven. At least for our week long Eastern Caribbean in July the Haven for us was cheaper than a veranda DCL on a 7 day Fantasy.

Before this cruise I was going to book a Haven cabin on the Joy for next summer to Bermuda. What ship were you on? I saw the race cars had a line for Haven guests. I wondered if Haven guests were able to do the activities as many times as they wanted. If so, I would be more open to book the cruise on the Joy. If they didn't have such limited time frames for those activities more people would be able to do them though.

 

[stout]

We did the same Alaskan NCL cruise as OP on the Bliss in summer 2019. It was horrible. We are DCL fans, but we also had a couple we were sailing with who had never cruises before, and they too vowed never NCL again. The housekeeping was almost nonexistent, the meal service took forever and was almost always with errors…the worst being them serving wheat buttered noodles to my celiac daughter after a 55 minute wait…, there wasn’t much included activities for kids, and I was told that I could not bring sealed gluten free bread onboard for safety reasons (but my two Ulu knives were fine). By the fourth day, my kids just wanted to sit in the room…I just wanted to drink. I will never go on NCL again. I would love to try other ships (and will be this summer), but NCL is a never again for the above reasons which echo much of what OP posted.

 

[Mango7100]

Before this cruise I was going to book a Haven cabin on the Joy for next summer to Bermuda. What ship were you on? I saw the race cars had a line for Haven guests. I wondered if Haven guests were able to do the activities as many times as they wanted. If so, I would be more open to book the cruise on the Joy. If they didn't have such limited time frames for those activities more people would be able to do them though.

We did the Getaway so no go karts, but yes I believe Haven guests are allowed front of the line access for go karts ( I have been looking at Haven on Joy to Bermuda as well since we have to do summer for Bermuda due to school). Of course if they are closed for weather that’s a different story. Most Havens also have a retractable roof over the pool as well, so that helps for colder weather sailings.

Now the kids club is a different story. Our 10 year old hated the kids club on NCL (it was limited still last summer), but she loved the rest of the cruise.

I think you would find that your experience in Haven vs. non Haven is night and day. We do have a 4 night Wish this year booked and a 10 night Southern Caribbean Fantasy cruise next year, but we would do Haven NCL again for sure.

 

[DCLMP]

The Wonder doesn't really have much to do. It sounds like there was a lot to do on the Encore just the times were limited. There is no mini-golf, race cars, or rope courses on the Wonder. I'm a little confused about how they are even comparable. Shows are really good on Disney I'll give you that.

 

[DCLMP]

We did the same Alaskan NCL cruise as OP on the Bliss in summer 2019. It was horrible. We are DCL fans, but we also had a couple we were sailing with who had never cruises before, and they too vowed never NCL again. The housekeeping was almost nonexistent, the meal service took forever and was almost always with errors…the worst being them serving wheat buttered noodles to my celiac daughter after a 55 minute wait…, there wasn’t much included activities for kids, and I was told that I could not bring sealed gluten free bread onboard for safety reasons (but my two Ulu knives were fine). By the fourth day, my kids just wanted to sit in the room…I just wanted to drink. I will never go on NCL again. I would love to try other ships (and will be this summer), but NCL is a never again for the above reasons which echo much of what OP posted.

That's too bad. I would give Royal a try. They are pretty consistent. Even prior to Covid the NCL reviews were hit or miss.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I was very specific with her that family friendly nightly shows and daily family activities were very important since we wouldn't be spending time in the pool area since it would be too cold.

I also asked if there would be multiple family activities going on throughout the day. We would have been happy to do any type of activity, if they had some.

Could this have been an issue with your expectations of exactly what you consider to be family activities and what the cruise line does? Could this have been an issue with what your expectations were based on how DCL does things and you wanted the same on another cruise line?

Before you booked it did you go to the website for NCL for the particular cruise you were interested in and the ship and what it offers?

 

[Kwami]

The Wonder doesn't really have much to do. It sounds like there was a lot to do on the Encore just the times were limited. There is no mini-golf, race cars, or rope courses on the Wonder. I'm a little confused about how they are even comparable. Shows are really good on Disney I'll give you that.

The Wonder has plenty to do because Disney is always running trivia, crafts, origami, game shows, and other activities. There's also a show every night and additional shows in the bars after hours. There are characters to meet. There's usually live music somewhere. There's the promenade for a walk or shuffle board. One-off events like the diaper dash, Freezing the Night Away, and the various shorter character shows. And a movie theater! Plenty of things to do.

It sounds like NCL wasn't running many activities at all and they didn't have shows most nights. That's my biggest worry about my upcoming NCL cruise: nothing to do for five days at sea.

 

[auntlynne]

Could this have been an issue with your expectations of exactly what you consider to be family activities and what the cruise line does? Could this have been an issue with what your expectations were based on how DCL does things and you wanted the same on another cruise line?

Before you booked it did you go to the website for NCL for the particular cruise you were interested in and the ship and what it offers?

”Family activities” has a wide variety of meanings! I was also thinking that as I wondered about the Travel Agent’s recommendation. Just because there are some activities that a kid can do, doesn’t make them family friendly.

I definitely recommend potential guests do some research on their own - either into the Travel Agent and/or watching video or print reviews.

It helps to know yourself and what you like to do.

I do think cruise lines are fairly honest about the atmosphere on their cruises. Even the decor of a shop can be a giveaway - if it looks like Las Vegas, don’t be surprised when it’s more “adult” oriented.

 

[auntlynne]

The Wonder has plenty to do because Disney is always running trivia, crafts, origami, game shows, and other activities. There's also a show every night and additional shows in the bars after hours. There are characters to meet. There's usually live music somewhere. There's the promenade for a walk or shuffle board. One-off events like the diaper dash, Freezing the Night Away, and the various shorter character shows. And a movie theater! Plenty of things to do.

It sounds like NCL wasn't running many activities at all and they didn't have shows most nights. That's my biggest worry about my upcoming NCL cruise: nothing to do for five days at sea.

You’ve got an edge: you expect limited provided entertainment. Gives you time to consider how you can use your free time in a different way - reading, spa, gym, walking, pools, bring your own games. With a seating shortage in the Atrium, we proactively sought out a cast member to get folding chairs for the crowd - so we didn’t miss the activity.

Even with a 30% capacity, my Encore Covid-restart cruise was full of music in lots of venues - at the same time, pretty much all evening. This was one of few cruises where I actually purposefully sought out specific artists.

 

[Kwami]

You’ve got an edge: you expect limited provided entertainment. Gives you time to consider how you can use your free time in a different way - reading, spa, gym, walking, pools, bring your own games. With a seating shortage in the Atrium, we proactively sought out a cast member to get folding chairs for the crowd - so we didn’t miss the activity.

Even with a 30% capacity, my Encore Covid-restart cruise was full of music in lots of venues - at the same time, pretty much all evening. This was one of few cruises where I actually purposefully sought out specific artists.

I guess. I'm only going on that NCL cruise because it's a family thing. I'm sure that I'll try the ropes course once, but otherwise, there doesn't seem to be much to do on the ship except for gambling, high-end shopping, and drinking. There's no way that you'd get me into one of those people soup pools!

Maybe I'll just bring some books and read out on the verandah. That's something.