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Disney Magic goes Fjordin'
- Thread starter jt04
- Start date
DISNEY FANTASY
Well-Known Member
Name check for my upcoming cruise.
dumboflyer
Well-Known Member
This made me sad...
We are Platinum members but chose to sail RCI for our fjord cruise. Our ship departed from Copenhagen the same day the Magic did! It was about the same price but was significantly longer and spent 4 days above the arctic circle. But, the RCI ship was awful, service was awful, food was awful, etc. Was glad for the better itinerary but said to be that close to the Magic and missed out!
We are Platinum members but chose to sail RCI for our fjord cruise. Our ship departed from Copenhagen the same day the Magic did! It was about the same price but was significantly longer and spent 4 days above the arctic circle. But, the RCI ship was awful, service was awful, food was awful, etc. Was glad for the better itinerary but said to be that close to the Magic and missed out!
ChuckElias
Well-Known Member
If you don't mind me asking, which RCI ship did you sail on? I've been RCI a couple times and while it wasn't as magical as DCL, I did enjoy the ship and (for the most part), the food.
I just got home from the Iceland sailing last night, BTW. It was pretty terrific, I have to say. But if I could've gotten another 2 or 3 nights for the same price, I might have been tempted.
dumboflyer
Well-Known Member
Glad you had a great time!
We were on the Serenade otS. We'd heard good things generally about RCI before, but this was our first RCI cruise. And last. If you want to see my full, long-winded thoughts, here's the review I threw on CC:
http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=507403
We're booked on the Fantasy (our fave) at the end of January, will be nice to be on a proper cruise ship again!
ChuckElias
Well-Known Member
I read the review. Thanks for sharing the link. I've sailed RCI twice. Once on the Explorer, and once on the Quantum. I agree wholeheartedly with your comments about the service. On the Explorer, we got very good to excellent service from our "regulars". From EVERYBODY else, we got below average to poor service. And on the Quantum's Inaugural sailing, the service was poor across the board. (I had to tell the dining room server that we were ready to order 3 TIMES!)
I really liked the Explorer, and would sail on it again, knowing what I'm getting myself into; and I would hope that the Quantum's service improved as they worked out the kinks. But overall, it is an experience below that of DCL, obviously.
dumboflyer
Well-Known Member
Interesting--good to know. We've actually had decent luck with both Norwegian and Princess. Norwegian has an amazing itinerary around the Hawaiian islands--zero sea days, RT from Honolulu and 2 days on each of the other three major islands. Really great without the 5 straight sea days (sea days are great, but 5 in a row isn't great). Princess seems like a great option for some more unusual itineraries but without the price tag of DCL. We did a Baltic one and a Panama Canal one that both were great. Looking at a British Isles for next year possibly. Maybe someday I'll give RCI another shot but for now, my budget-cruise dollars are probably going to Princess.
ChuckElias
Well-Known Member
Maybe we should start another thread for this conversation, since we're going away from the original topic, but since you and I seem to be the only ones here, maybe nobody else will mind 
The downside of that itinerary was that we had to visit a foreign port, of course, and Princess selected Ensenada, Mexico. It was a pit. I will never set foot there again. My wife felt unsafe walking from the port entrance to the town. We turned around after 10 minutes and returned to the ship.
Like you, I would have no problem sailing with Princess again, although I will do a little more research into the ship's condition next time.
The Pride of America is actually the ONLY ship that's allowed to sail this itinerary. Due to the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886, any ship that is not registered in the USA has to visit a foreign port before transporting passengers between US ports (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_Vessel_Services_Act_of_1886). And Norwegian's Pride of America is the only major cruise line ship that sails under a US flag.
My wife and I actually did the 15-day Hawaiian cruise -- with 5 straight sea days -- for our 25th anniversary a couple years ago. We sailed on the Grand Princess and had a generally very good experience. I would have preferred to spend a week in Hawaii and then do a week on the Pride of America, but my wife really wanted a LONG cruise. So we opted for the 15-day itinerary. I ended up enjoying it. It was really very relaxing, I have to say. I felt totally unplugged from life at home; which can be bad, I suppose, but we liked it a lot.
The downside of that itinerary was that we had to visit a foreign port, of course, and Princess selected Ensenada, Mexico. It was a pit. I will never set foot there again. My wife felt unsafe walking from the port entrance to the town. We turned around after 10 minutes and returned to the ship.
That Hawaiian cruise was my only experience with Princess and, as I said, I generally enjoyed it. The Grand Princess was in DESPERATE need of a dry-dock overhaul, as signs of wear and rust were absolutely everywhere. But the service was excellent; the food was (with 2 notable exceptions) very good to excellent; the food at the buffet restaurant was very very good, which was a wonderful surprise. The entertainment left a LOT to be desired, to be honest. The singers and dancers were frankly well below average and the specialty acts that they brought on-board were ok to pretty good.
Like you, I would have no problem sailing with Princess again, although I will do a little more research into the ship's condition next time.
dumboflyer
Well-Known Member
We knew that about the NCL-PoA going in, and you can kinda tell that there's a difference based on the staff. Part of sailing under a US flag and all is that the crew is almost entirely American--that is, that ship has to comply with American employment regulations. The result is a much younger staff, and many experiences with staff who did not seem to care as much as we'd experienced on other ships. Perhaps this was just coincidental, though it's possible that the pay structure and shipboard lifestyle is less attractive to "good" employees who can probably make more money and live a more "normal life" in the tourism and service industries on the Hawaiian islands.Maybe we should start another thread for this conversation, since we're going away from the original topic, but since you and I seem to be the only ones here, maybe nobody else will mind
The Pride of America is actually the ONLY ship that's allowed to sail this itinerary. Due to the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886, any ship that is not registered in the USA has to visit a foreign port before transporting passengers between US ports (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_Vessel_Services_Act_of_1886). And Norwegian's Pride of America is the only major cruise line ship that sails under a US flag.
My wife and I actually did the 15-day Hawaiian cruise -- with 5 straight sea days -- for our 25th anniversary a couple years ago. We sailed on the Grand Princess and had a generally very good experience. I would have preferred to spend a week in Hawaii and then do a week on the Pride of America, but my wife really wanted a LONG cruise. So we opted for the 15-day itinerary. I ended up enjoying it. It was really very relaxing, I have to say. I felt totally unplugged from life at home; which can be bad, I suppose, but we liked it a lot.
The downside of that itinerary was that we had to visit a foreign port, of course, and Princess selected Ensenada, Mexico. It was a pit. I will never set foot there again. My wife felt unsafe walking from the port entrance to the town. We turned around after 10 minutes and returned to the ship.
That Hawaiian cruise was my only experience with Princess and, as I said, I generally enjoyed it. The Grand Princess was in DESPERATE need of a dry-dock overhaul, as signs of wear and rust were absolutely everywhere. But the service was excellent; the food was (with 2 notable exceptions) very good to excellent; the food at the buffet restaurant was very very good, which was a wonderful surprise. The entertainment left a LOT to be desired, to be honest. The singers and dancers were frankly well below average and the specialty acts that they brought on-board were ok to pretty good.
Like you, I would have no problem sailing with Princess again, although I will do a little more research into the ship's condition next time.
I think we can justify being "on topic" if we tie this back in!
This is the classic debate in our family: DCL vs. Princess/NCL/RCI.
We picked RCI for Norway and had mixed feelings. We picked Princess for Baltic and for Panama, and were generally glad with that. We picked NCL for Hawaii and were also generally glad. I think what it's come down to for us is that we will pick DCL if we are going to the Caribbean, where we are generally there to enjoy the ship itself and we don't care as much (if at all) about the ports. If we're going for the ports, we'll generally opt away from DCL, both for the price and for the itineraries that larger fleets sometimes offer. The Baltic was a classic example. We basically ate and slept on the ship, and that was it. Better ports and less than half the price of DCL that year. But DCL is our fave and we love to go on trips just to spend time on the ships themselves.