Advice in choosing a cruise

On Saturday, January 15, 2011 9:31:06 PM UTC-8, Stu wrote:


Carnival would as well handle your want list. Make sure you get travel
insurance, and stay away from the party cruises unless that's all you
want to do 24/7.

Not from what my wife and I just experienced. We just went on Carnival Triumph and the ship's facilities and entertainment were pathetic compared to our cruise on Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas last year. It sucks that RCI is pulling out of the US west coast. I'd never try Carnival again. I guess we'll give NCL a try next. Their ships look pretty good.

On 1/16/2011 12:42 AM, unfrostedpoptart wrote:
On Saturday, January 15, 2011 9:31:06 PM UTC-8, Stu wrote:


Carnival would as well handle your want list. Make sure you get travel
insurance, and stay away from the party cruises unless that's all you
want to do 24/7.

Not from what my wife and I just experienced. We just went on Carnival Triumph and the ship's facilities and entertainment were pathetic compared to our cruise on Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas last year. It sucks that RCI is pulling out of the US west coast. I'd never try Carnival again. I guess we'll give NCL a try next. Their ships look pretty good.

If you prefer RCI to Carnival, you'll probably hate NCL. IMHO, NCL has
appeal only to those who don't know that there is anything better out
there. Also be prepared to spend money to eat at the specialty
restaurants as the regular food venues are pretty awful. The paid
specialty restaurants aren't much better, but better than the included
fare.

If you are used to Royal Caribbean's well-trained crews, you will be
unhappy with the level of service on NCL. Look for cheap flights on
Southwest Airlines and find a real cruise. Personally, if someone gave
me free tickets for an NCL cruise, I'd give them back. No cruise is
better than an NCL cruise.

--
Janet Wilder
Way-the-heck-south Texas
Spelling doesn't count. Cooking does.

In article m, Janet
Wilder wrote:

If you prefer RCI to Carnival, you'll probably hate NCL. IMHO, NCL has
appeal only to those who don't know that there is anything better out
there. Also be prepared to spend money to eat at the specialty
restaurants as the regular food venues are pretty awful. The paid
specialty restaurants aren't much better, but better than the included
fare.

I have to agree with most of what you say above about NCL. Also if
someone does not like Carnival they likely are not going to like NCL. I
suggest they check out Celebrity or Princess.

If you are used to Royal Caribbean's well-trained crews, you will be
unhappy with the level of service on NCL. Look for cheap flights on
Southwest Airlines and find a real cruise. Personally, if someone gave
me free tickets for an NCL cruise, I'd give them back. No cruise is
better than an NCL cruise.

I don't agree that no cruise is better than an NCL cruise but I would
not book NCL or Carnival unless one of the groups I go with books them.
Friendship overcomes my issues with both lines because you can have fun
with your friends and ignore the issues. My main issues with Carnival
are not the food and entertainment. They were fine. I did not think the
entertainment was pathetic at all. I did find the ship layout and
public areas to be bad on the Valor last month. But also the way that
ship is designed is that there is a lot of second hand smoke in the
public areas. I am particularly sensitive to second hand smoke. Even
though other ships also have second hand smoke issues I have found they
seem to have a better separation from the smoking areas than on the
Carnival ships.

--
Charles

On Jan 16, 8:39*am, Janet Wilder wrote:

If you are used to Royal Caribbean's well-trained crews, you will be
unhappy with the level of service on NCL. *Look for cheap flights on
Southwest Airlines and find a real cruise. *Personally, if someone gave
me free tickets for an NCL cruise, I'd give them back. No cruise is
better than an NCL cruise.

--
Janet Wilder

So the pull quoteis that you're so convinced of NCL's superiority that
"No cruise is better than an NCL cruise"
(I couldn't resist)

Mark

"Janet Wilder" wrote in message
b.com...
On 1/16/2011 12:42 AM, unfrostedpoptart wrote:
On Saturday, January 15, 2011 9:31:06 PM UTC-8, Stu wrote:


Carnival would as well handle your want list. Make sure you get travel
insurance, and stay away from the party cruises unless that's all you
want to do 24/7.

Not from what my wife and I just experienced. We just went on Carnival
Triumph and the ship's facilities and entertainment were pathetic
compared to our cruise on Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas last
year. It sucks that RCI is pulling out of the US west coast. I'd never
try Carnival again. I guess we'll give NCL a try next. Their ships look
pretty good.

If you prefer RCI to Carnival, you'll probably hate NCL. IMHO, NCL has
appeal only to those who don't know that there is anything better out
there. Also be prepared to spend money to eat at the specialty restaurants
as the regular food venues are pretty awful. The paid specialty
restaurants aren't much better, but better than the included fare.

If you are used to Royal Caribbean's well-trained crews, you will be
unhappy with the level of service on NCL. Look for cheap flights on
Southwest Airlines and find a real cruise. Personally, if someone gave me
free tickets for an NCL cruise, I'd give them back. No cruise is better
than an NCL cruise.


I wouldn't totally discount NCL...of our 52 cruises, five have been on
NCL...the first way back in 2000 on the Norwegian Sea sailing from Galveston
and one of the most fun filled and best cruises we have taken; then we took
the Norwegian Crown to South America and that was very good...perhaps having
a penthouse helped there and it had a great narrator onboard while going
through the Panama Canal that made it very interesting, as well as visiting
and mingling with the gentle and kind people of Peru and Chile. The next one
was on the Norway.. and who could say a word against that wonderful
ship?...I can still hear her mighty horn! A wonderful memory that will
always remain for anyone who ever sailed on that magnificent cruise liner.

We have taken the Norwegian Spirit twice because we liked the ship and
service so much and our most recent NCL cruise was the Norwegian Gem last
September that had a Mediterranean itinerary leaving and returning to
Venice. The ship itself did not impress us with its gaudiness and the
service was not up to par... The head of guest services told us that the
crew was mostly new and would have to make a lot of adjustments to provide
the type of service they were striving for and during our conversation, she
asked that since we had cruised so often, would we give her an idea what we
expected and had gotten on our cruises with the other cruise lines. She
wrote down all the comments we made, covering a whole large sheet of paper!
We got treated to dinner and wine in Le Bistro for that information...the
service and food there was impeccable! The itinerary was port intensive
with lovely Split, Croatia and the beautiful islands of Corfu, Santorini,
Mykonos and Crete which really made that a memorable cruise for us.

I can only speak of the NCL ships that we have taken...I have heard many
derogatory statements about NCL, but this is my story! Does every cruise
line or ship meet all our expectations? No...but I guess the closest for us
might have been the RCL Oasis that we took last October. We are looking
forward to seeing how the Celebrity Eclipse compares when we take her next
month. We find that ships, like people, have different
personalities...that's what makes cruising such fun! I don't like "cookie
cutter" ship experiences!

--Jean

On 1/16/11 11:25 AM, Stu wrote:
On Sat, 15 Jan 2011 22:42:15 -0800 (PST), unfrostedpoptart
wrote:

On Saturday, January 15, 2011 9:31:06 PM UTC-8, Stu wrote:


Carnival would as well handle your want list. Make sure you get travel
insurance, and stay away from the party cruises unless that's all you
want to do 24/7.

Not from what my wife and I just experienced. We just went on Carnival Triumph and the ship's facilities and entertainment were pathetic compared to our cruise on Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas last year. It sucks that RCI is pulling out of the US west coast. I'd never try Carnival again. I guess we'll give NCL a try next. Their ships look pretty good.

That's too bad you had that experience, have you let Carnival know? We
just were on the Victory and it was wonderful.

Maybe the ships, facilities and entertainment were similar but you just
have different concepts of what's wonderful and what isn't.

I just got off Sapphire Princess (Mexico Riviera) yesterday. Many of us
though the dining room food was horrible, but others on the ship thought
it was good.

--Tom

On Sun, 16 Jan 2011 10:39:51 -0600, Janet Wilder wrote:

Personally, if someone gave
me free tickets for an NCL cruise, I'd give them back. No cruise is
better than an NCL cruise.

Would you email or call me first?
--
Ari Silverstein, C.T.A; C.T.A.S, FREE Cruise Travel Advisory Services
I never have nor ever will solicit or accept a booking.
http://www.cruisecompare.co.uk/ USA site due 1Q 2011.

On 1/16/2011 11:07 AM, Mark (SF) wrote:
On Jan 16, 8:39 am, Janet wrote:

If you are used to Royal Caribbean's well-trained crews, you will be
unhappy with the level of service on NCL. Look for cheap flights on
Southwest Airlines and find a real cruise. Personally, if someone gave
me free tickets for an NCL cruise, I'd give them back. No cruise is
better than an NCL cruise.

--
Janet Wilder

So the pull quoteis that you're so convinced of NCL's superiority that
"No cruise is better than an NCL cruise"
(I couldn't resist)

Mark

g I'll give you one for that and rewrite it: *No* cruise at all would
be better than taking an NCL cruise.

How's that?

--
Janet Wilder
Way-the-heck-south Texas
Spelling doesn't count. Cooking does.

On 1/16/2011 4:03 PM, Ari Silverstein, C.T.A. wrote:
On Sun, 16 Jan 2011 10:39:51 -0600, Janet Wilder wrote:

Personally, if someone gave
me free tickets for an NCL cruise, I'd give them back. No cruise is
better than an NCL cruise.

Would you email or call me first?

I wouldn't give them to a friend or an enemy. g

--
Janet Wilder
Way-the-heck-south Texas
Spelling doesn't count. Cooking does.

On Sun, 16 Jan 2011 15:45:03 -0500, Tom K
wrote:

I just got off Sapphire Princess (Mexico Riviera) yesterday. Many of us
though the dining room food was horrible, but others on the ship thought
it was good.

I was on the Sapphire Princess in December (the 4 day sampler that did
the marine rescue).

The food was better than it had been on NCL the previous year, and had
more variety. The "formal" night had the best food, but it was all
good.

Food seemed better in one of the dining rooms than in the others. I
don't know how this could be - it all comes out of central kitchens.

I need to sit down and write up my trip report. The main dining room
and buffet food beat that on NCL, but there were other areas where NCL
does a better job.