Seriously Sean you're killing me. I've been waiting to hear about Bermuda, then Norwegian, and now GF!
I think you know what the kids will get on their homework without really even grading.
[DISCLAIMER]After 9 trips with DCL it was HARD to not compare NCL to DCL during this trip. We’ve never been on another cruise line and went in with as open of minds as we could. It’s entirely possible this trip was some kind of “one-off” scenario but to be honest, I really believe what we experienced was business as usual for them. As it may or may not seem obvious, the following is all my opinion so take it as it is.[/DISCLAIMER]
Brace yourselves; pro9het is about to meet is word quota for 2020.
Small background:
We booked this trip back in the summertime with the intent of a quick and dirty Thanksgiving getaway on the cheap, sadly it got a little out of hand. At the time of original booking we selected a standard balcony room in the aft, surprise surprise ;-), for $2700 plus gratuities for the 3 of us. The cruise included a few perks like free open bar for the adults, 100 minutes of unlimited internet, and one free upcharge dining experience for the two adults, think Palo, but the kiddo would cost $40. The free drink package incurred a $20/day gratuity fee per adult but IMO was well worth it. So as time drew closer we noticed the fare dropping for this cruise. This was a completely foreign concept to us as DCL prices almost always increase as you near the day of departure. Over the months we were able to negotiate reduced rates with NCL and got the fare down to $2456 which included our fare, taxes, gratuity, $160 OBC, $50/port excursion credit, and a room upgrade. The upgrade came a few weeks ago when my bride noticed plenty of mini suites still available and phoned in NCL and negotiated us a huge upgrade from our 216sqft standard stateroom with veranda to the 354sqft mini suite with veranda all for $60! For comparison, our typically DCL room is approximately 268sqft. So there’s the backdrop.
Embarkation:
So Saturday rolls around and we have a smooth drive from Tifton, where we spent the night, to Port Canaveral in about 4 hours 20 minutes. As we pull in we follow the road signs directing us to Terminal 5. The lady directing traffic points us to the proper parking deck marking the last occasion we’d get information on how to embark. We park the car, follow some folks towards a terminal. There are no signs welcoming you, no signs informing you where to drop bags off or check in, and no signs even indicating you’re here for an NCL cruise. We make our way to the top floor of the terminal with bags still in tow and are greeted by an NCL agent who sees us and says right this way to pass security and check in. Ok, maybe they take our bags after security, again we only know DCL. Next we are greeted by another NCL agent prior to security who directs us to the security queue. We pass through security and are greeted by another agent who sees we still have our bags but directs us to check in. We wait in line for a few minutes, nothing too long, when we meet our check in agent. She starts checking my bride in and we finally ask “when do you take our bags?” She responds with “oh no, another one? They should have told you to take them to the porters”. The “ did you just say to me” look on my face probably intimidated her a little. Mr. NCL manager made his way over and confirmed that we need to exit through security and take our luggage down the escalators to the porters then come back through security again. Oh, but your wife can’t come with you since we’ve already checked her in. You and your daughter can manage all the luggage yourselves while your wife stays here. Embracing my inner George Costanza, I hummed my serenity now and made my way back to the parking deck where along the way each of the 3 NCL agents we passed asked me where we were going and why do we need to take all our luggage to the porters, we could just carry them along with us until our rooms were ready. The first NCL agent we meet even said, “oh, those bags aren’t so big, why even check them?” Serenity now. So we find two porters who are huddled near the lower level parking deck elevator surrounded by no signs indicating this is where you drop luggage off. If it wasn’t for the other travelers standing around them who had the schlep their gear back I would have figured these were two con men looting luggage. Luggage dropped off, we make our way back past all the NCL agents who are confused to see us again. We find our third amigo and finish the check in process. We then sit and wait another 20ish minutes for our boarding group to be called and enter the ship.
NCL: big fat ZERO when it comes to embarkation.
The room:
No complaints here. In fact, the bathroom of the mini suit was amazing!(see photos below) The room was very clean as was the balcony. We hardly ever saw our stateroom host so we missed out on building that relationship. However, when we did meet him for the first time, he knew all of our names and greeted all of us.The room stayed turned down and clean so no gripes there. I am so grateful my bride scored us an upgrade because if we were in our original room we would have been CRAMPED!
NCL: Decent enough rooms but they certainly want you out of them. There’s 2 movie channels and one sitcom channel and they all played nothing interesting.
The Ship’s appearance:
Overall, very clean, well laid out, and very easy to navigate. While there were a few rust spots here and there, things were very sharp looking. Biggest knock they get is the cigarette smoke. There is a casino around midship that is open on both ends. One of the open ends connects directly with the atrium. Mind you, on each floor the atrium was open to the floor above and below SO whenever you made it to the atrium of ANY floor you smelled smoke. It was worse during the evenings when the smoke would make its way past the atrium and down the stateroom hallways.
NCL: Very clean, but disgusting cigarette smoke smell in the populated areas. If it were not for the smoke I would say the Sun’s appearance was almost on par with the DCL ships.
Pool:
The pool is how I image the family pools on DCL are but since there adult pools on DCL I never have to deal with the families so this was a new experience for us. Overall, pleasant experience except when the live singers came on. They seemed to crank the volume up way to loud making it almost unbearable to sit through. One knock I have is the pool is saltwater, like Dead Sea level salt water. It was pretty nasty and a shock for me when I just jumped in for the first time.
NCL: Decent enough, would like it better with less salt.
Lounges:
They were good. They had fewer lounge areas for entertainment than DCL does but what they had were adequate for the purpose.
NCL: Decent enough
Dining & dining service:
Top to bottom, the food was less than mediocre and only peaking at mediocre a few times. There is no dining rotation so you can make reservations for dinner or just show up. Service was very slow each night and food was “meh”. We did do one upcharge dining experience at Moderno Churrascaria, think Fogo de Chao where they bring grilled meats to your table on a spear and carve them onto your plate. Again, service was SLOW and the food was mediocre EXCEPT the filet mignon they served might have very well been the best piece of steak I’ve ever had. No shame, I had thirds. We had to pay $40 for the kiddo to eat here since she was not included in our complimentary dining package. Mind you, Palo is also a $40 upcharge and this place doesn’t even qualify as Palo’s ugly red headed stepsister. I would never recommend this place to someone for the $40 fee. Finally, and maybe a personal preference, not having rotational dining you never get to build a relationship with the service team. That is one thing I really enjoy about DCL. I like getting to know the folks that make the magic happen and even seeing them again on future trips. We had 4 different servers this trip and barely got in two words with them because they seemed disinterested. They were far from busy and they certainly were not hustling to get orders out either.
NCL: Big flop, nothing to write home about.
Bars & Bartenders:
As bad as the dining team and food was, the beverage service team was on point. I read reviews about long waits and poor service leading up to this but I have not one complaint. These guys worked their tails off for a cruise full of open bar guests and I could not have been happier with them. Each bar offered a different twist on beverages and unique drinks. Only minor beef was their beer game was WICKED domestic. Even
@wdisney9000 would have been sad with the lack of White Claw. I seriously only had 4 total beers this trip because it was so bad. I focused on spirits and mixed drinks and was quite “happy” the entire trip.
NCL: As good or better than DCL
Entertainment and staff:
While it felt like they were trying the entertainment was weak. The cruise director, Jamie, was clearly no #tonyfromspain. She came off as disingenuous and just didn’t seem to care about her job. The assistant directors tried a lot more and gave you the impression they wanted you to have fun. Jamie simply couldn’t be bothered and was seldom seen. Another issue I had was all the games/activities ended at or before
9:00! Sure they had a DJ playing music
through midnight but there were no games, contests, or trivia after
9pm. Even DCL keeps the activities going
through midnight. I feel NCL was more concerned with getting the adults in the casino rather than entertaining them.
NCL: Mediocre
Private Island:
Great Stirrup Cay was clean, a little small, but still fun. There was hardly any wildlife to be seen but the water was perfect and the beaches were fine. Not having an adult only beach meant we slummed it with the families again and it was a little busy and noisy than I cared for it to be but we still had a good time. The tendering off the ship is a PITA. NCL needs to not cheap out and just dredge a pier in so they can dock. To compound things a bit the Norwegian Sky was there as well, so two ships worth of guests were on the island. To be fair, though, both ships probably hold as many guests as the Dream or Fantasy. Food was horrible again but the bars were killing it again. I got excited about the taco stand they had open only to be saddened by their Taco Bell level food. Nowhere near on par with Castaway Cay
NCL: Island is decent enough but small and food is terrible
Excursions:
My bride and my daughter did two of them. I’ll let my better half speak to those.
Debarkation:
Not to be outdone by the ty embarkation service, NCL one upped themselves. We happened to be up this morning as we made for the terminal at PC. It quickly became apparent that we were docking AT A DIFFERENT TERMINAL THAN WE LEFT FROM! What’s the big deal you say? Well our parking deck was now at least a quarter mile away across the port with no way to walk to it. We go topside and confirm that we are most definitely on the wrong side of the port. We eat breakfast and I head to guest services to ask. I ask if there would be a shuttle to terminal we parked at. The NCL agent looked at me funny and said “Why did you even park there when we are docking here?” Serenity now. I inform her that we were directed to park there since it was attached to the terminal we left from. She said oh no, you should have parked over here and taken a shuttle over. I reiterate that we were directed BY NCL AGENTS to park there and now want to know if they will have a shuttle. Serenity now. She says hold on. She phones up some other NCL jackleg and learns that they have several shuttles waiting for us to take us back to our parking deck. She ends her conversation with “you will take one of those shuttles like you should have before the cruise” SERENITY NOW. So head back to the room and share the wonderful tales of shuttles and terminals with my amigos. We then make for the exit of the ship. We are quickly off the boat, thankfully, and deal with the shuttle to get to the garage. Time from exiting the ship to exiting the parking garage: 40ish minutes, about 30ish minutes too long.
Final thoughts:
Poor food, poor service, and stank cigarette smoke aside, we had a decent time. The seas were calm and the weather and water were PERFECT. All of our issues are controllable by NCL but not priorities for them. Would I do another NCL trip? I don’t really know. If we came upon another open bar deal on the cheap I could see the two of us doing another one. I’ve hit on it a couple times and its weird saying it again but I really enjoy the relationships we get to build with CMs on DCL. I enjoying interacting and learning about them and seeing them again in the future. The atmosphere NCL created has does not encourage this. As stated above, this is all the opinion of a single NCL trip goer who only has DCL to compare to
As promised, mini suite bathroom pics:
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