anyone ever go on an NCL cruise?

Question

i am going on this cruise in may and it is the Norweigan Crown from Norweigan Cruise Lines. The destination is Bermuda,Anyone ever been on the Norweigan Crown? if so, was it good?

Answer 1

I have been on many Norwegian ships and have been to Bermuda twice on cruises. NCL is a good cruise line and you will enjoy the ship, food, service and entertainment. I think I made our trip to Bermuda on a sister ship to the Crown.

NCL does the Freestyle Cruising which is different from other cruise lines. It basically means that you don't have a table and time assigned for dinner. That procedure has its plusses and minuses. I personally prefer the traditional cruise set up where I know where my table is and I get to know my waiter and he/she gets to know what I want. I think it makes the cruise more personal.

If you want to have an assigned table and time you can do so on NCL just by asking for a specific reservation and time, and requesting the same waiter. Otherwise the Freestyle is no different from any other cruise line.

There are NO slums and ghettos in Bermuda like you may see on other islands. All of the houses are well maintained and painted in pastel colors. All of the public beaches are great. Be sure to go to Elbow Beach and Long Beach. A five, six, or seven day cruise to Bermuda is plenty enough time to see and enjoy everything there. There is not a lot to do in Bermuda other than water sports and golf. There are two main towns Hamilton, the largest (where most cruise ships dock for at least a day) and St George (also a port stop) which is like a small town and has just a few shops. The third place ships may dock while there is The Kings Dockyard.. The Dockyard is on the far end of the 22 mile long island and has a small mall with shops and a museum. The Crystal Cave and Fantesy Caves are worth visiting as a tour, or on your own. I also visited one of the lighthouses, for lack of anything else to do. You can visit one of the many forts on the island like Fort St Catherine if you like that type activity.

Hope you enjoy

Answer 2

I know this probably doesn't answer your question. In 8 years of travel I have had so many reservation problems with them I personally tend to shy away from NCL. I think they have some very nice ships yes, but there are several other cruise lines/ships out there that we as agents just don't encounter as many problems with as opposed to NCL. I have heard this also from several agents in the industry and these are seasoned agents like myself. So if you hear it so much then you do tend to be a bit Leary and it isn't usually a very good sign. In fact NCL over the years is the one line many agents seem to agree with. I have never heard an agent say "I love NCL". Which all agents have there favorites it seems. So if that tells you anything..... I'm glad to hear that you had a good experience with NCL to Alaska. Again I'm not trying to say that all cruises with them aren't good, by no means is that true. The lines I use often for Alaska are RCCL, Holland and Princess depending on your age group and what you are expecting of the cruise/cruisetour. In answer to your question though I have not had much experience with this particular ship. If I do use NCL it tends to be more for Hawaii because of there itineraries are pretty good. If there is anything I can do to assist you with travel arrangements feel free to email me and I can give you my contact information.

Answer 3

Norweigan is terrible! if you haven't booked your tickets already, reconsider!

The food is incredibly sparce. I ended up ordering 2 appetizers, a salad, 2 entrees and 2 desserts--just to get a reasonable amount of food each night.

The people/waitstaff are quite rude. I found the paper thin room keys quite difficult when ordering drinks to keep it dry and ended up getting it replaced while on the ship.

And if you are remotely young, yes they check your id and your room key tells them if you can order drinks--but if you look too young the waitstaff still won't bring you drinks. I ended up having to flag down 5 or 6 waiters just to order a drink.

I'd spend a lot of time in the bowling alley though. It seems cool.

As far as reviews,

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/index.cfm

I usually find cruise critic to be overly optimistic but still useful.

http://www.smartcruiser.com/travel/cruise/ship.rvlx?ShipID=135

http://www.cruisemates.com/articles/memreviews/index.cfm

Hope those help. And a know me telling you that it was terrible means I wont get best answer, but since I hadn't been on a cruise before (it was my first)--so I thought it was an ok experience. The people who had been on 5 cruises or more were the ones who spent the entire time telling me how much better other cruise lines were. I'm just trying to give you the best answer to your question (and i did find several reviews!) Hope it helps.

Answer 4

My friend works for NCL out of Hawaii, the boats are really good based on accomodations, staff, entertainment and eating as well. They give you a lot to choose from and you don't have a set dinner time like most other cruises do. You actually have freedom and can do what you want when you want to, it's a great experience, we went on the NCL in Hawaii that took us to all the islands as well as Cancun.. it was great and fun...
Enjoy yourself and I hope you have fun and a great time! :o)

Answer 5

I was on the Spirit out of NYC last October. My stateroom was infested with bed bugs. (I am not trying to freak you out. Most people travel with out incident )Regardless if you are cruising or traveling at hotels, be sure to check the bedding THOROUGHLY. We didn't until the second day! It was 10 days of HELL. We even brought them home. Ten days later we began getting bitten. So we had to have the house treated.
A very expensive vacation!

Here is a link to see what to look for:
http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/entfacts/struct/ef636.htm

Answer 6

I haven't been on that ship, but I have cruised with NCL.
Excellent service and accomodations. A really good demographic too. We found we weren't the youngest or oldest.

Answer 7

Just verify that your cabin is not under the jogging track- it will ruin your trip- otherwise have fun!!!!!