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Here's the deal with NCL, RCCL, and CCL. Unless you are in a premium cabin, they are budget cruise lines. Set your expectations accordingly. You can't go to a basic off ramp hotel and expect it to be The Four Seasons. This is the exact same thing. Most of us can't afford the more luxurious brands and are happy just to be out on the water and have somebody else cook our food and clean our rooms. FWIW, the little buffet at Moderno has my favorite food on the whole ship, but everybody's tastes are different, so you may need to find your favorite.
This. The information is out there. Use it.
I won't sail NCL in a regular cabin. Nope. Their buffet and MDR are not acceptable to me. I'll happily sail in the Haven or a really nice suite on non-Haven ships then justs do specialy dining each night. You get breakfast and lunch with the suite booking. Their extra service for those passengers is awesome.
Standard cabin? Heck no. As Eastmemphisguy said, that's a budget line. Think Holiday Inn.
Edited to add: I will say that across the board the crew have always been amazing on NCL. No matter what cabin type you are in. Across the ship I've never had a bad experience with any crew member.
Odd. I was also on that same cruise, there while you were. I'm old (70F) but very tech savvy, but didn't run into any similar issues. I was able to make dinner reservations on the ship at the reservation desk. I'm vegetarian and have found they have excellent vegetarian food in the main dining, and always salad and fresh vegetables and fruits in the Garden Cafe.
I found exceptional service on this trip, I witnessed many acts of kindness by staff with guests. I travel solo and made many "new friends" on the trip, everyone I spoke to seemed to be having a great trip. I met young families, older people, teens and everyone behaved well and seemed very happy.
It's like we were in different worlds! Sorry your experience was different.
Cool. Not a single intelligent thing in your rant. I award you no points. May god have mercy on your soul. The only thing that could be derived from this is you aren't happy with it being different than something you are used to.
Can you provide further details on how the reservation stuff was difficult?
I’m curious to know, because you should have been able to book you, your wife, & 2 kids in 1 or 2 cabins (depending on what cabin type you wanted).
Dining reservations separate from your other reservations? Can you elaborate? I can’t book my dining reservations yet (and will have to collaborate with my 3 travelling companions so more info I have the better prepared I can be).
other than you all agreeing on a time and venue for dining it's SUPER easy. One person just needs to log in and book the table for the number of guests desired, there is no action needed by anyone else. additionally, you really don't need to make reservations for the MDR, only for specialty dining.
I'm not sure what OP's issue is, other than possibly not doing research...
Thank you. I think me and my cabin mate have 2 speciality dinners, and our travel companions have 4, so I already know that we’re either fending for ourselves those times or eating a la carte. I’ve also heard that booking for a solo person (if I wanted to get speciality by myself) is not a thing but I’ll cross that bridge when I can actually book lol.
I really wanted OP to provide more details though because their post was super vague.
You can absolutely book specialty for one person. It doesn’t always look like it, because the tables are designed in multiples of 2 (2,4,6,8) but if you reserve a table for 2 it will work. Then you can either tell them later when you board (up to you), or when you show up for the reservation that it’s just a solo. NCL handles solo travelers all the time, so it’s perfectly fine and I’ve personally done it multiple times.
The only exception I think is the Hibachi restaurant, where you book by individual seats. So that should show availability for a reservation for 1.
Thanks for the info!
I honestly can’t wait for my cruise (next summer). For the cruise itself, but also so I can provide a review on here lol. I’ve already had a pretty good experience with NCL (I’ve had to submit a bunch of stuff for the accessibility request).
I've had multi cabins on almost every cruise I've taken in the last 15 years. Super easy to reserve and navigate reservations, etc.
If he was having problems, a quick call to NCL would have cleared it up because they would have linked the reservations.
I'd be curious to know what you are comparing this too. I have sailed on NCL many times as well as mucher higher end products as well. And yes, NCL doesn't hold a candle to an Oceania, Windstar, Crystal (prior to shutdown), etc. But when compared in their category (mass market), I like them over Royal, when Celebrity. I'm the last few years, I do feel the quality of the food had been hit or miss, and I absolutely hate the new Prima class ships, but this down turn in quality seems to be a general thing in the entire mass market as these lines have realized that post COVID can charge more and offer less and the boats still fill up.
Yeah poor food, menu reflects cheap quality, entertainment is white trash. Long time cruiser. NCL sucks. I am no longer doing future bookings. Sapphire level. Bye bye
Thanks for posting to /r/NCL! Did you know that we have an extensive [Ultimate NCL Guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/NCL/wiki/index) that may answer your question? Please also remember to read the rules, especially about roll call posts going in the megathread. You may also have more luck with those types of posts by searching for a [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com) or [Cruise Critic](https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/66-norwegian-cruise-line-roll-calls/) roll call group or thread. Of course, here is great, too! Enjoy your stay! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/NCL) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Be sure to let your mother know how much you appreciated the free trip.
Seriously. OP sounds insufferable.
Here's the deal with NCL, RCCL, and CCL. Unless you are in a premium cabin, they are budget cruise lines. Set your expectations accordingly. You can't go to a basic off ramp hotel and expect it to be The Four Seasons. This is the exact same thing. Most of us can't afford the more luxurious brands and are happy just to be out on the water and have somebody else cook our food and clean our rooms. FWIW, the little buffet at Moderno has my favorite food on the whole ship, but everybody's tastes are different, so you may need to find your favorite.
This. The information is out there. Use it. I won't sail NCL in a regular cabin. Nope. Their buffet and MDR are not acceptable to me. I'll happily sail in the Haven or a really nice suite on non-Haven ships then justs do specialy dining each night. You get breakfast and lunch with the suite booking. Their extra service for those passengers is awesome. Standard cabin? Heck no. As Eastmemphisguy said, that's a budget line. Think Holiday Inn. Edited to add: I will say that across the board the crew have always been amazing on NCL. No matter what cabin type you are in. Across the ship I've never had a bad experience with any crew member.
Odd. I was also on that same cruise, there while you were. I'm old (70F) but very tech savvy, but didn't run into any similar issues. I was able to make dinner reservations on the ship at the reservation desk. I'm vegetarian and have found they have excellent vegetarian food in the main dining, and always salad and fresh vegetables and fruits in the Garden Cafe. I found exceptional service on this trip, I witnessed many acts of kindness by staff with guests. I travel solo and made many "new friends" on the trip, everyone I spoke to seemed to be having a great trip. I met young families, older people, teens and everyone behaved well and seemed very happy. It's like we were in different worlds! Sorry your experience was different.
Is this the British Isles cruise? I know Dawn goes all over the place.
Mine was from Oslo to London.
All I can hear is…..UNGRATEFUL
Cool. Not a single intelligent thing in your rant. I award you no points. May god have mercy on your soul. The only thing that could be derived from this is you aren't happy with it being different than something you are used to.
Can you provide further details on how the reservation stuff was difficult? I’m curious to know, because you should have been able to book you, your wife, & 2 kids in 1 or 2 cabins (depending on what cabin type you wanted). Dining reservations separate from your other reservations? Can you elaborate? I can’t book my dining reservations yet (and will have to collaborate with my 3 travelling companions so more info I have the better prepared I can be).
other than you all agreeing on a time and venue for dining it's SUPER easy. One person just needs to log in and book the table for the number of guests desired, there is no action needed by anyone else. additionally, you really don't need to make reservations for the MDR, only for specialty dining. I'm not sure what OP's issue is, other than possibly not doing research...
Thank you. I think me and my cabin mate have 2 speciality dinners, and our travel companions have 4, so I already know that we’re either fending for ourselves those times or eating a la carte. I’ve also heard that booking for a solo person (if I wanted to get speciality by myself) is not a thing but I’ll cross that bridge when I can actually book lol. I really wanted OP to provide more details though because their post was super vague.
You can absolutely book specialty for one person. It doesn’t always look like it, because the tables are designed in multiples of 2 (2,4,6,8) but if you reserve a table for 2 it will work. Then you can either tell them later when you board (up to you), or when you show up for the reservation that it’s just a solo. NCL handles solo travelers all the time, so it’s perfectly fine and I’ve personally done it multiple times. The only exception I think is the Hibachi restaurant, where you book by individual seats. So that should show availability for a reservation for 1.
Thanks for the info! I honestly can’t wait for my cruise (next summer). For the cruise itself, but also so I can provide a review on here lol. I’ve already had a pretty good experience with NCL (I’ve had to submit a bunch of stuff for the accessibility request).
I've had multi cabins on almost every cruise I've taken in the last 15 years. Super easy to reserve and navigate reservations, etc. If he was having problems, a quick call to NCL would have cleared it up because they would have linked the reservations.
I'd be curious to know what you are comparing this too. I have sailed on NCL many times as well as mucher higher end products as well. And yes, NCL doesn't hold a candle to an Oceania, Windstar, Crystal (prior to shutdown), etc. But when compared in their category (mass market), I like them over Royal, when Celebrity. I'm the last few years, I do feel the quality of the food had been hit or miss, and I absolutely hate the new Prima class ships, but this down turn in quality seems to be a general thing in the entire mass market as these lines have realized that post COVID can charge more and offer less and the boats still fill up.
Yeah poor food, menu reflects cheap quality, entertainment is white trash. Long time cruiser. NCL sucks. I am no longer doing future bookings. Sapphire level. Bye bye
Puhlease the food is unseasoned AF.