Seeking some GOOD advice...NCL

"Len C." wrote in message
...
Hi, looking for some professional advice regarding a cruise I currently
have on hold for November 19-27 over the Thanksgiving holiday. It will
be on the Norwegian Spirit from New York to St. Thomas, St. Maarten, &
Kings Wharf, Bermuda. No so concerned about the ports since have been to
them, however I am more concerned over NCL and this ship?

Have nine cruises behind me, but all have been either Royal Caribbean or
Carnival. I don't know anything about NCL? Seems that $1,155 p/p for an
eight day cruise is not a bad deal? What do you posters think? This
would be a standard ocean view (not balcony) GTY with a possible
upgrade.

Any advice before I shell out any money would be greatly appreciated!

Len...
This is only my experience and opinion... I felt that service was lacking in
the dining room on the Norwegian Sun during our Hawaii cruise in 2003 and
attribute it directly to freestyle cruising. When you have the same waiter
and busboy every night, they know their tips are directly related to the
service you receive. With freestyle, we never even SAW the same wait staff
again, let alone were we served by them. Then, to "make things easier for
you" NCL adds a "tip" to your bill for your wait staff, since they need to
pool them and everyone gets the same share, regardless of their level of
service.
This was my 5th cruise, all the others being on Princess and Carnival, and
honestly, I feel that I was treated better, and SERVED better on any of the
other 4 cruises.
We have just booked a 10 day with RCL and have a set dining time and table
arranged.
Momma

"Everyboysmomma" wrote:


"Len C." wrote in message
...
Hi, looking for some professional advice regarding a cruise I currently
have on hold for November 19-27 over the Thanksgiving holiday. It will
be on the Norwegian Spirit from New York to St. Thomas, St. Maarten, &
Kings Wharf, Bermuda. No so concerned about the ports since have been to
them, however I am more concerned over NCL and this ship?

Have nine cruises behind me, but all have been either Royal Caribbean or
Carnival. I don't know anything about NCL? Seems that $1,155 p/p for an
eight day cruise is not a bad deal? What do you posters think? This
would be a standard ocean view (not balcony) GTY with a possible
upgrade.

Any advice before I shell out any money would be greatly appreciated!

Len...
This is only my experience and opinion... I felt that service was lacking in
the dining room on the Norwegian Sun during our Hawaii cruise in 2003 and
attribute it directly to freestyle cruising. When you have the same waiter
and busboy every night, they know their tips are directly related to the
service you receive. With freestyle, we never even SAW the same wait staff
again, let alone were we served by them. Then, to "make things easier for
you" NCL adds a "tip" to your bill for your wait staff, since they need to
pool them and everyone gets the same share, regardless of their level of
service.

Al thought I felt that our cabin steward(s) were lacking [there was a
dirty ashtray in the room when we checked in etc.], I thought the
servers in the dining room and also at the buffets really hustled and
tried to please. We DID have the same wait staff for more than one
meal. This was on the Crown

If you find a server that you particularly like I'm informed that you
can chose to have them again, If you opt to let them just add the
overall tip to the bill, then you are free to tip additional to the
folks that gave you good service and IIRC, they don't have to share.
The only time when they have to share is if you opt to NOT have the
automatic service charge added.
..


This was my 5th cruise, all the others being on Princess and Carnival, and
honestly, I feel that I was treated better, and SERVED better on any of the
other 4 cruises.
We have just booked a 10 day with RCL and have a set dining time and table
arranged.
Momma


grandma Rosalie

In article , RichC
wrote:

We haven't been on a cruise since the inception of either PC seating or
freestyle...how does it work out with the slow lounge start times? If you
opt to eat at 7:30 PM you'd be pretty rushed to catch the start of the show
which seems to me you're pretty locked in to eating around 6 to 6:30 in
order to arrive on time. The idea of anytime seating works OK but you still
have to consider the show or movie schedules.

I had no problem making the shows when eating in the main dining room
at that time on NCL because one of the "features" of Freestyle is that
they want to turn that table over so you get rushed through the meal. I
don't care much for the Freestyle I experienced on NCL Dawn but I do
think Len should try it and see if he likes it.

--
Charles

"Len C." wrote in message
...
Hi, looking for some professional advice regarding a cruise I currently
have on hold for November 19-27 over the Thanksgiving holiday. It will
be on the Norwegian Spirit from New York to St. Thomas, St. Maarten, &
Kings Wharf, Bermuda. No so concerned about the ports since have been to
them, however I am more concerned over NCL and this ship?

Hi Len!
I don't know whether you could get a better price, but I do know that you
will love the Norwegian Spirit..The GGC2005 took her and I really liked
her..the ambiance and decor were great...she comes close to being my
favorite ship..You will like the Freestyle for a change....The option to eat
in either dining room is nice. You will find it a plus when you come off
from being onshore and you are not restricted to a certain time to eat in a
main dining room..

If you would like I will send you a review of that cruise.
--Jean

Len C. wrote:
Hi, looking for some professional advice regarding a cruise I currently
have on hold for November 19-27 over the Thanksgiving holiday. It will
be on the Norwegian Spirit from New York to St. Thomas, St. Maarten, &
Kings Wharf, Bermuda. No so concerned about the ports since have been to
them, however I am more concerned over NCL and this ship?

Hi Len! Just wanted to let you know that my family just booked this
cruise last week. It's definately pricier b/c of the holiday weekend -
we were looking at the 12/8 sailing of the Spirit as well and it was
around the same price for a 10-11 day cruise. My sister-in-laws work
schedule determined that we would be going on 11/19 instead - that and
the owerwhelming desire to be free of roasting a turkey, peeling
potatoes, and cooking/mashing turnips LOL!

Please investigate some of the online agencies - we booked through
www.cruisequick.com and got some fabulous rates (but we are a group of
seniors & repeat NCL cruisers, so ours were reduced a bit). I also got
some fabulous prices from buycruises.com. We ended up going for a
bacony as well. I just took a quick peek, and it does look like the
prices are on the way up so you may want to make your decision soon.

Hubby and I have been on two other NCL ships - the Norwegian Majesty
and the Norway. We enjoyed both cruises immensely. I heard many
fellow cruisers who were dissatisfied with their experience on the
Norway, but that mostly stemmed from the fact that the ship was much
older and not built to cruise around the Caribbean. Hubby and I
enjoyed the experience but took it at face value - for the incredible
price I got I was happy to be on a cruise! Plus the ship was historic
so it was fun to be on a ship that is so different than your standard
cruise ship of today.

From what I have heard, people who have cruised other lines like
Celebrity & Royal Caribbean never seem as happy with NCL. I don't
think NCL's food was as top rated as some others. We enjoyed it,
though we have nothing to compare it to cruise wise. I will miss
assigned dinner tables, as dinnertime was our favorite part of the
cruise b/c of the friendly, super attentive waitstaff we had both
times. Since we are travelling with our young child this time, the
Freestyle Cruising concept should be a big help, since we can get there
when it's convenient for us, and switch up the scenery every day.

I've been happy with NCL service on my two prior cruises, but if you
are a stickler for meeting your expectations from other cruiselines you
may want to think it over. Then again, how will you know for future
cruises if you don't try NCL out? Personally I'm looking forward to
seeing what the Spirit has to offer, it sounds like a fascinating ship
and the Thanksgiving cruise is the inagural voyage from NYC if I am
correct. The convenience of getting a ship from New York and not
having to fly all over the place makes this itinerary worth it to me.

Good luck and happy cruising!

Mabster

"Charles" wrote in message
d...
In article , RichC
wrote:

We haven't been on a cruise since the inception of either PC seating or
freestyle...how does it work out with the slow lounge start times? If
you
opt to eat at 7:30 PM you'd be pretty rushed to catch the start of the
show
which seems to me you're pretty locked in to eating around 6 to 6:30 in
order to arrive on time. The idea of anytime seating works OK but you
still
have to consider the show or movie schedules.

I had no problem making the shows when eating in the main dining room
at that time on NCL because one of the "features" of Freestyle is that
they want to turn that table over so you get rushed through the meal. I
don't care much for the Freestyle I experienced on NCL Dawn but I do
think Len should try it and see if he likes it.

--
Charles
That sounds great to me since the whole diner takes to long to begin with.
I can hardly remember anything shorter than 1 3/4 hours from appetizer to
dessert with most of the time being the wait between courses.

"RichC" wrote:
"Charles" wrote in message
id...
In article , RichC
wrote:

We haven't been on a cruise since the inception of either PC seating or
freestyle...how does it work out with the slow lounge start times? If
you
opt to eat at 7:30 PM you'd be pretty rushed to catch the start of the
show
which seems to me you're pretty locked in to eating around 6 to 6:30 in
order to arrive on time. The idea of anytime seating works OK but you
still
have to consider the show or movie schedules.

I had no problem making the shows when eating in the main dining room
at that time on NCL because one of the "features" of Freestyle is that
they want to turn that table over so you get rushed through the meal. I
don't care much for the Freestyle I experienced on NCL Dawn but I do
think Len should try it and see if he likes it.

--
Charles
That sounds great to me since the whole diner takes to long to begin with.
I can hardly remember anything shorter than 1 3/4 hours from appetizer to
dessert with most of the time being the wait between courses.

And if the dining room takes too long (it didn't take that long for
us) you could always go to the buffet and eat and run.


grandma Rosalie

"Rosalie B." wrote in message
...
"RichC" wrote:
"Charles" wrote in message
id...
In article , RichC
wrote:

We haven't been on a cruise since the inception of either PC seating
or
freestyle...how does it work out with the slow lounge start times?
If
you
opt to eat at 7:30 PM you'd be pretty rushed to catch the start of
the
show
which seems to me you're pretty locked in to eating around 6 to 6:30
in
order to arrive on time. The idea of anytime seating works OK but you
still
have to consider the show or movie schedules.

I had no problem making the shows when eating in the main dining room
at that time on NCL because one of the "features" of Freestyle is that
they want to turn that table over so you get rushed through the meal. I
don't care much for the Freestyle I experienced on NCL Dawn but I do
think Len should try it and see if he likes it.

--
Charles
That sounds great to me since the whole diner takes to long to begin
with.
I can hardly remember anything shorter than 1 3/4 hours from appetizer to
dessert with most of the time being the wait between courses.

And if the dining room takes too long (it didn't take that long for
us) you could always go to the buffet and eat and run.


grandma Rosalie

It's to long a process for me but the wife enjoys it so....as long as I can
get to the show before it starts I sit there patiently & wait for the food
to be served. I realize it's more of a social function more than anything
else but I endure it. If the wife had her way we'd be there for hours on
end as she seems to talk up a storm.