I have never cruised before, and I took the 8-night cruise out of New York to the Bahamas and Florida with an experienced cruiser as my companion because the travel dates on this Norwegian trip worked for our schedules and we could avoid flying to the departure point in Manhattan. I had low expectations, but Norwegian still managed to be a complete disappointment. Embarkation was pretty orderly ...
Back from an 8 day sail from NYC to FL/Bahamas. Here’s the Good, Bad, and Ugly.
For some background, this was my 23rd sail with NCL, my 24th cruise overall. The majority of my NCL’s are reviewed on here. I had a family balcony on deck 13, traveling solo.
The Good:
Service by the crew was excellent. Hearing rumblings online with the change to once a day cleaning, I found my steward ...
We went on this cruise because it was going to stop in Florida for a day and a half so My Wife could see her Sister. Well we were supposed to get in Port Canaveral by 1pm didn't get there until 10pm. So those plans got ruined. Next we went to their island in the Bahamas. We were supposed to to Bermuda from there and that got screwed over some excuse. There idea was to go to Nassau for the day. Ha! ...
We are a family of 3 (41, 39 and 7). My husband and son get bored on the all-inclusive vacations I love, so we thought we'd try the haven "ship within a ship" concept with NCL. In short, we loved it and have already booked our next trip.
The Great:
The haven facilities, staff, food and beverages were fantastic. We ate nearly every meal at the Haven restaurant and found it to be far better ...
Have sailed on NCL on 3 occasions and 2 other cruise lines as well. Had minor issues on previous cruises but nothing worth a negative review and had enjoyable experiences. This current one was terrible, from the food to thedelays and the confusion on board. You can tell the ship was way understaffed and the crew was exhausted trying to keep up with their responsibilities. But they still did their ...
11 nights sailing the Eastern Caribbean on the Norwegian Gem was my very first cruise experience. I kept my expectations low, but I was pleasantly surprised. Obviously, I have some pros and cons as a first-time cruiser so let's start with the embarkation experience from the NYC port.
Embarkation:
NCL should list the pier number for NYC embarking cruise ships in advance. When I called ...
The Ncl ship used to be good to travel in. However my recent experience (March 2023) was a total disappointment. See below some notably drastic changes we experienced before, during and after the trip to 5 ports from nyc:
1) kids ages 5 and under were in one of 4 hot pools without parent supervision
2) this ship used to have 2 hot pools on upper deck and those are now gone
3) the ...
We have been cruising for 20 years and thought we would give this ship a try
Yet again Grand Turk was cancelled about 3 months before sailing and Bermuda was replaced
We had been to most of the places on our itinerary but thought oh well let’s go !!
The ship is nice even though there are a few thousand people on there quite a few places to hide and keep yourselves to yourself
The ...
NCL is unfortunately diminishing their brand and their product, which is most evident on this particular ship. The Getaway has no show band or orchestra, the production shows are old and few and far between. The cruise director could be heard introducing theater entertainers remotely, but was rarely seen before the shows, so there was no prep for the next day's port procedures. The authentic ...
My two grandkids had winter break ( New York Metro area) and we all needed a break. We love sailing from New York ( Westside pier) as it is a half hour from our house. We picked the kids and my daughter up at nine and were in the Haven waiting area by 9:45. This itinerary had undergone multiple changes. They eliminated Norfolk ( we lost our day in Colonial Williamsburg) added and subtracted ...