Bermuda with NCL ?

In article , Karen Selwyn
wrote:

Our experience with NCL's food says otherwise. The food on last month's
cruise on the JEWEL was not significantly different from the food on our
5 Celebrity cruises, our 2 Princess cruise, our 3 HAL cruises, and our 2
Oceania cruises. Of course, we may be discussing apples and oranges. On
our recent NCL cruise, we only ate two meals at the buffet restaurant.
The steak restaurant on the JEWEL was every bit the equal of the steak
house on Oceania. The French restaurant on the JEWEL was only marginally
worse than the Normandie restaurant on the SUMMIT.


My experience on NCL Dawn, the food was worse than Celebrity and
Princess. The buffet was horrible. The steak house was not even close
to the steak house on Princess or Royal Caribbean. And the French
restaurant was not even in the same class as the Normandie on Summit.
The Normandie was the best speciality restaurant I have been to at on a
ship. The French restaurant on NCL was not even close. It was more like
the quality of the main free dining room on Celebrity.

--
Charles

In article , gwm215
gwm215 wrote:

As an aside, does anyone know if Celebrity Journey will be
open/unassigned seating [as it is on the "same" vessels of Oceania] or
traditional Celebrity fixed seating.

It looks like it will be open seating but there will be a $30 charge
for the two specialty restaurants unlike on Oceania.

As a general remark, I am always puzzled about negative comments about
FreeStyle seating which, after all, is really the same as coveted
open/unassigned seating on much more luxurious vessels such as Oceania,
SilverSea, Seabourn, QM2 Grill/Princess, etc. I feel NCL provides an
excellent value and great dining options for a less-expensive albeit
mass market line.

On Oceania et al. you don't pay for the decent restaurants. On NCL you
pay. So I consider Freestyle to be different than the open seating on
those premium cruise lines. Freestyle is a revenue enhancement program
for NCL. And ala Carte cruising for the budget cruiser. That niche
appeals to some, not to me.

--
Charles

You are correct when you say you are comparing apples to
oranges. A specialty restaurant where you have to pay more
for food is not the same as their regular sit down
restaurants. The food quality, I agree, in their specialty
restaurants is pretty good. The specialty restaurant food
was at the quality of the food in the regular restaurant on
the RCL ship I just went on in January. Overall the NCL
service has suffered in recent years and IMHO much more than
that of other lines.


"Karen Selwyn" wrote in message
...
LVTravel wrote:

If you have been on Celebrity and HAL you will probably
not like the service on NCL. The food has gone downhill
in recent years and with "freestyle" cruising you will
not have the same waiter or busboy at your meals.

Our experience with NCL's food says otherwise. The food on
last month's cruise on the JEWEL was not significantly
different from the food on our 5 Celebrity cruises, our 2
Princess cruise, our 3 HAL cruises, and our 2 Oceania
cruises. Of course, we may be discussing apples and
oranges. On our recent NCL cruise, we only ate two meals
at the buffet restaurant. The steak restaurant on the
JEWEL was every bit the equal of the steak house on
Oceania. The French restaurant on the JEWEL was only
marginally worse than the Normandie restaurant on the
SUMMIT. (And frankly, the food at the Normandie is so rich
that my husband and I always feel uncomfortable after our
meal there.) On the JEWEL, the food in the Asian and
Tex-Mex restaurants included some really appealing dishes
and some indifferent dishes. The only item that was really
awful in any specialty restaurant were the sushi rolls
because the chefs used too much rice. The food in the
dining room was absolutely the equal of other cruise
lines.

You're right that freestyle dining results in multiple
waiters.
However, I'm more than willing to tell new waiters what I
want and how I want it prepared. As a trade-off, I have
the luxury of being able to eat when I want with my
husband at a table for two. That's a trade-off I'm happy
to take. Even though Oceania claims to function the same
way, it does not. There are too few tables for two to
offer true freedom. I'm not interested in having the
maitre d' greet my request for a table for two with a long
face and the statement, "We can seat you immediately if
you're willing to join other cruisers." That's what we
routinely heard on Oceania. We never heard that on the
JEWEL.

Was on NCL ship last year and 8 other NCL previously,
along with 7 other cruises and this was the worst cruise
yet. Food and service really lacked and no one seemed to
care about their passengers.

With the rare exception of the waitress one night in the
steak restaurant, the service on NCL was not so different
that it interfered with our pleasure on the cruise.
Service might not be quite as crisp or eager to please as
on other cruise lines, but I wouldn't consider it a deal
breaker. Probably the biggest negative about service was
the fact that the steward was responsible for too many
rooms. As a result, our room often wasn't made up until
close to noon. It's not that we didn't care about this,
but we didn't let it gnaw at us since we were usually on
our balcony, walking about the ship or in port during the
messy hours.

Comparing the Journey and the Crown is apples and oranges. The journey
is the closest thing to a luxury ship without the price and perks of the
luxury ship. The Crown is just another ship.The Journey is much smaller
and the food and service much better.

~~DORIS~~
**________*/*/___/*/___/*/_________
*\::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::/
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She sails again on April 14th for Europe

In article , Cruise
Crazy wrote:

Comparing the Journey and the Crown is apples and oranges. The journey
is the closest thing to a luxury ship without the price and perks of the
luxury ship. The Crown is just another ship.The Journey is much smaller
and the food and service much better.

That is a guess. A good guess probably.... but just a guess that the
food and service will be much better.

--
Charles

"Charles" wrote in message
d...

That is a guess. A good guess probably.... but just a guess that the
food and service will be much better.

Most likely a good one, Charles..I've been on the NCL Crown for 15 days to
South America and also been on a Ren ship which the Journey now is and liked
the Ren much better...With all the extras offered with Journey, it should be
a step up for sure...The smaller ship ambiance is a plus...From the photos
of the cabins, it looks as if they kept the Renaissance bedspreads...a
pretty blue and white Mediterranean decor...You will have to post a review
when you return!

--Jean

"Sue and Kevin Mullen" wrote in message
...

I was just trying to agree with your information about the prices coming
down and at the same time I was trying not to mention names, reasons for
the date we picked etc.

I just wish you were able to join us on the Journey!!


I know you were, Sue...and for our sakes, I hope they continue to come down
for October.
Thanks, I wish we could too, but there are just too many different things
going on in our lives to fit one in at that particular time.
You'll have to do a review when you get back...same goes for Charles!

--Jean

Jean O'Boyle wrote:
"Charles" wrote in message
d...

That is a guess. A good guess probably.... but just a guess that the
food and service will be much better.

Most likely a good one, Charles..I've been on the NCL Crown for 15 days to
South America and also been on a Ren ship which the Journey now is and liked
the Ren much better...With all the extras offered with Journey, it should be
a step up for sure...The smaller ship ambiance is a plus...From the photos
of the cabins, it looks as if they kept the Renaissance bedspreads...a
pretty blue and white Mediterranean decor...You will have to post a review
when you return!

I agree that with it being a very small ship, the food and service will
be much better. I hope the crew is half as good as the crew on the
Pacific Princess.

I wouldn't count on the stateroom pictures being what we will have on
the ship. The Journey will be going through an extensive dry dock before
the first Bermuda sailing and who know what Celebrity will change.

Jean, I know you sailed on of the "R" ships, any chance it was the R6
which is not going to be the Journey? Do you remember how handicapped
accessible the ship was? Our TA has said since it was built in 2000 it
should be ok, but I would love some first hand info. if possible.

sue

Jean O'Boyle wrote:
"Sue and Kevin Mullen" wrote in message
...

I was just trying to agree with your information about the prices coming
down and at the same time I was trying not to mention names, reasons for
the date we picked etc.

I just wish you were able to join us on the Journey!!


I know you were, Sue...and for our sakes, I hope they continue to come down
for October.
Thanks, I wish we could too, but there are just too many different things
going on in our lives to fit one in at that particular time.
You'll have to do a review when you get back...same goes for Charles!

I know there is speculation that the Journey will only go to Bermuda for
this one season, so I hope you do get to sail on her.

If I didn't know about your other plans, I would be after you to join
us. I think the other thing is something you should grab if at all possible.

I hope that life settles down around here a bit, so I can start writing
reviews again. Right now we are both trying to get the Volendam pictures
set up and when that is done, we hope to write a review.

sue

Answered Inline:
"Sue and Kevin Mullen" wrote in message
...

I agree that with it being a very small ship, the food and service will be
much better. I hope the crew is half as good as the crew on the Pacific
Princess.


If you get a crew like the Pacific Princess had, you will have it made!


I wouldn't count on the stateroom pictures being what we will have on the
ship. The Journey will be going through an extensive dry dock before the
first Bermuda sailing and who know what Celebrity will change.

Never can tell, maybe the ship had a big stock of those pretty blue and
white bedspreads...You'll have to let me know!

Jean, I know you sailed on of the "R" ships, any chance it was the R6
which is not going to be the Journey? Do you remember how handicapped
accessible the ship was? Our TA has said since it was built in 2000 it
should be ok, but I would love some first hand info. if possible.

We sailed on the Ren7 and I don't remember how accessible it was for the
handicapped...When you don't have or see anyone who is handicapped, you
don't really pay attention to those details...and it was in March, 2001.

--Jean

sue