Will We Sail With Norwegian Cruise Lines Again?
Now you are probably wondering why we are doing a post on that topic and the simple answer is to that is because it is a question that me and my wife have been struggling to answer and in a cathartic way, why not argue the point with myself in the hopes of you been able to help us come to an answer.
The problem that we have is there are lots of elements of the NCL experience that we love but there are some that we hate and whilst that is the same for every line that we sail we, the experience usually is a lot higher for the stuff that we love than the stuff we hate but with NCL, it is closer to 50/50.
It is also further complicated by the fact that so many of the issues are in the run up to the holiday itself, so by the time that we come off of the ship, much of that is out of our minds.
So, with all of that said, for the purposes of this post we will break down the things that we like and dislike about NCL and see just how we do feel about the line away from the excitement of just stepping off the ship.
If that sounds of interest to you, why not give this post a read and better yet, why not comment below with your thoughts on the line and let’s see what the consensus is on NCL.
Would We Sail With NCL Again?
To try and decide whether we should sail with NCL again we will break down our thoughts on the line to these areas; Pre-Cruise, Check-In, Entertainment, Onboard Experience, Food & Drink, Itineraries and Value
This is something that has always been an issue with us and the line and sadly it is something that has only gotten worse since we first sailed with them.
Our first major issue came when just a week out from sailing with them to Norway a few years back, I badly injured my foot and would need to be on crutches for the holiday.
Having a picked a room that was centrally located on the ship, I spoke to NCL to try and change to a room closer to a lift bank.
This would actually be a cheaper room, but they simply refused unless I paid a huge fee for *reasons*.
In fairness to the onboard staff, once onboard a change of room was offered without us asking for it but as we had already unpacked, we declined.
The second major pre-cruise issue we have had with the line was pretty much the whole process of booking our last cruise with them.
The website was broken when we tried to book, and you simply couldn’t book online. That left us having to contact the line via phone.
That would entail having to listen to nearly 25 minutes of trying to sell us things we didn’t watch before even allowing us to book the cruise and then we were only allowed to book after having to state that you either get us book the cruise or we will go elsewhere.
It was quite an embarrassing situation and it seemed obvious that the person likely got the majority of their pay from commissions on upsells.
Sadly, things wouldn’t get much better as the website wasn’t fixed before we needed to book excursions and other update which led to more phone calls, but this time we would ring their UK line instead of their American one and got much better service.
We must also much make mention of the lines less than honest advertising and offers where a sale will often cost you more than the full price cruise did a week before and their laughable ‘Free at Sea’ offer which anything but ‘Free’.
So, with all of that said, we can only give a down vote for the lines pre-cruise experience with it been one of the worst of any travel related company we have had to deal with, never mind the worst cruise line we have had to deal with.
This is a tricky one to judge as it is as much down to local agents at your port of departure as it is down to the line itself.
So far, we have sailed from 3 different ports, Seattle, Southampton and Reykjavik and each one has been smooth sailing (pun intended).
The check in process has always been well organised and we have always got from arriving at the port to onboard the ship quickly but one minor issue we do have is that unlike other lines, you cannot drop of your carry-on bags at your stateroom before they are ready for your arrival.
So for the check-in process, we can only give the line and up vote.
This is something that first attracted us to the line, as we love to go to the theatre and saw that NCL offer West End/Broadway shows onboard.
These are of course only on their bigger ships, but we have also sailed on the lines smallest ship, so I think it is fair to just the line across the board.
When we first sailed with NCL, they had a great mix of musicians playing all over the ship as well as great acts in the theatre.
Our 2nd trip saw a good range of acts in the theatre but only limited options around the ship, whilst our last trip with them saw limited options both in the theatre and around the ship.
The quality was also hit and miss in our last sailing, and they have now fallen behind other lines that we sail with, so despite still enjoying their big theatre shows, this can only be a downvote.
We do like the more laidback nature of Norwegian as we like to relax on holiday and really make the most of our time onshore, rather than having to rush back to the ship to get dressed up or for an early dining slot.
One of the things that first drew us to the line was there marketing around doing what you want, when you want- something that fits in with our style of holidaying, but we quickly found out that cruising with them just isn’t like that and continues to move further from it.
There are larger ships just have too many people on them compared to what is available so if you want to do something you either need to plan in advance and pre-book or queue.
Another big issue is the amount of things that have an upcharge or cost extra and on our last cruise, lots of the staff looked tired, overworked and worse of all dis-interested.
Despite the issues, it is still an overall good experience onboard so we are still going to upvote it, but if things continue the way that they are, that could soon turn around to a negative.
This is also something that has continued to get worse and worse to the point where it is now a big problem in our view.
On our first cruise with them, we mostly ate in the buffet, which we enjoyed, but did have a hit or miss experience in their speciality restaurants.
On our last cruise with them, we started in the buffet but aside from issues with the size of it leaving no where to sit, it also meant there was only limited options.
Lots of the food was repeated everyday and the quality was incredibly poor to the point where we just didn’t enjoy it.
What we did love was the Indulge Food Hall, which although only offering a small menu, it was all freshly prepared and tasty.
When we sail with some other lines, we love it when they mix up their menus to include dishes from the locations you are visiting onboard, but that just isn’t something Norwegian tend to do.
One big issue we have always had with the line is the lack of an included café. Some ships do have a Starbucks, which isn’t exactly our first-choice coffee shop any way, but their drinks are only included in premium drinks packages.
When you get other lines with included teas, coffees and food served in a traditional tea shop manor and NCL have been left behind.
For us, the food and drink offering on NCL must get a down vote.
This is somewhere that the line has always excelled for us and thankfully it is something that they are continuing to excel at.
They continue to have a strong offering in the main hubs of the Caribbean and the Mediterranean and also operate in other traditional cruising regions such as the Norwegian Fjords, Alaska and the Greek Isles.
For us though it is their wide range of repositioning cruises, build by the line as Extraordinary Journeys, that are port heavy itineraries to more underused locations and their offerings in places such as South America, Africa and Asia that really make them stand out again over mainstream lines.
For itineraries, we simply must give the line a well deserve upvote.
This is something that is difficult to decide on as there can be a few different ways of looking at.
Are you comparing their current value with how it was when we first sailed with them, are you comparing their value when compared to other lines or are you comparing their value with other types of holiday?
It seems unfair to compare them to previous cruisers as the cost of everything around the world has gone up vastly over the past few years and as someone living in Britain, Brexit has led to not just rising costs to rival anywhere in the world and huge inflation but also a falling currency.
It’s easier to compare them to other lines in terms of the cost of the holiday but the value of it really comes down to the individual.
There are some cruises available that are at a very reasonable cost, and we have to say that amongst the mainstream lines, we tend to find them a middle of the road line in terms of the cost and that is also where their quality sits for us- so on the face of it, they offer a good value.
Sadly, with so many upsells, add-ons and must pay extras for, many of which are to simply have the basic cruise holiday you would expect, the actual cost and value is slightly below average.
Cost wise, it still compares well to all-inclusive holidays on land, and you still get all of the added benefits of cruising, so we are going to give them an overall upvote for this one but if their costs still continue to rise and their quality slips further, this will soon change.
So, after going through all of those points it just highlights why it has been so tricky trying to decide whether Norwegian are right for us or not and whether we should keep cruising with them.
Over the 7 categories, several of them really were close as to whether they were an upvote or and downvote.
With 4 upvotes and 3 downvotes we cannot say that we will defiantly sail with them again soon or we won’t sail with them again soon, but we will be keeping an eye on them.
If they can start getting a better reputation for their land-based staff, that will really help and if they can cut out all the nickel and diming, that will really make the holiday experience better, but for now it will take the perfect itinerary and a great cost for us to sail with them.
To answer the question, will we sail with Norwegian Cruise Line again? The answer can only be…maybe.
