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Is there a ship you won’t sail on again?


Matt

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Royal Caribbean? Nope. I might say something like "Anthem AGAIN" but in reality I'm only sad to not try another great ship and still LOVE Anthem. (Or whatever ship I've sailed on repeatedly).

NCL however, the Gem we are good to never sail that or any of their older ships. Smaller size, weird layout, ugly decor, etc. Their newer ships have our attention, but no immediate plans to book with them.

Edited by sk8erguy1978
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18 minutes ago, Va4fam said:

Since I am sitting home instead of sailing on our 11 night cruise that was originally scheduled for RIGHT NOW, I will double down on my first statement.

Worst feeling in the world. I remember being in a virtual department meeting this past September thinking... I'm supposed to be on CoCo Cay right now. FORK ME! lol.

Edited by sk8erguy1978
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Only been on 3 ships to date with 3 different companies - Ovation for 3 B2B cruises, Azura with P&O  from Barbados and Musica with MSC as part of a package that included the Rio Carnival. Although I also did a 2 day marketing conference on P&O Oriana many years ago so could count that too I guess!

All of the ships were great in their own way, and each cruise memorable, but I would not rush back to MSC purely due to the lack of customer service shown by the 'senior' staff and the lack of care they showed when I had an issue with the drinks packages we had pre-purchased months before they changed their package names.  

Absolutely no complaints about RCI or P&O, which is why I was excited to get booked on Grandeur next Feb. Even if not as modern as Ovation, it sounds like most people on here have glowing opinions of her! 

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I've never had a ship that I wouldn't sail on again. I do have an itinerary that I wouldn't sail on just based on the time of year went.

(Southeast Coast/Bahamas out of Baltimore in January, Cold and rough seas)

Right now, though, I'd take ANY ship with ANY itinerary. It's been one full year since we've cruised and were supposed to be on our way to Miami TODAY for a 9-Night Southern Caribbean. ?

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Carnival Paradise ... they made an interesting design choice to remove the wall between the casino and the rest of the "promenade" deck ... still held their activities like trivia, etc. on said promenade deck in the cloud of smoke that drifted in every direction from the now open casino.

Would still sail Carnival just not that boat (have sailed on some of her sisters that still had the wall in place, issue not present).

 

 

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5 hours ago, jticarruthers said:

Carnival Paradise ... they made an interesting design choice to remove the wall between the casino and the rest of the "promenade" deck ... still held their activities like trivia, etc. on said promenade deck in the cloud of smoke that drifted in every direction from the now open casino.

Would still sail Carnival just not that boat (have sailed on some of her sisters that still had the wall in place, issue not present).

 

 

This ship was non smoking ship wide for many years. This must be the reason for that design.

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MSC Meraviglia and MSC Divina

I've been on both the Divina once and the Meraviglia twice on cruises out of Miami.  First and foremost the boarding process is a complete fill in the blank.... show, and we were staying in the Yacht Cub suites. They make you wait in this small dingy room and each person has to see a MSC representative.  On one cruise we actually sat in that room nearly 45 minutes while they called people who came into the room after us.  Then because you are Yacht Club they have to escort you on the ship it is the craziest thing ever and it is so frustrating .  Also when you purchase specialty dinning packages you still can not order anything on the menu.  They have a small selection you can choose from everything else on the menu cost extra on top of the dinning package.

Once onboard the design and flow of the ships makes no sense and on days when you are at sea MSC's cruise staff does not really plan many onboard activities.  I've heard I should give MSC Seaside a try because that ship was designed and built specifically for the US market and has a more American feel than the Divina or Meraviglia.

The three good things I will say about MSC is their buffet is open 21 out of 24 hours everyday, they have new shows in the main theater every night, and MSC Meraviglia has Cirque du Soleil at sea.  Let me tell you this there is not a single Royal Caribbean show that comes even close to matching the Meraviglia's Cirque du Soleil at sea and they have 2 different shows and both were hands down the best shows I've seen at sea.  The quality of those shows match what you see in Las Vegas the shows were just that good.

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1 hour ago, Dad2Cue said:

Sadly it was NCL Pride of America.  We loved everything about Hawaii.  Unfortunately, the ship was disappointing and the service wasn't so great.  I just wasn't feeling the Pride.

The Pride of America was the absolutely worse ship I have even been on!  I only went on her only to meet a friend who was going.  A mistake

I have been cruising  since the 80's and probably been on 50 cruises, and many lines.  In past 20 years I have only cruised with RC and very happy with them.

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10 hours ago, Linda R said:

The Pride of America was the absolutely worse ship I have even been on!  I only went on her only to meet a friend who was going.  A mistake

I have been cruising  since the 80's and probably been on 50 cruises, and many lines.  In past 20 years I have only cruised with RC and very happy with them.

The only reason to sail Pride of America is the itinerary.  It is absolutely incredible.  The ship...not so much.  If you go with the attitude that this is a ferry boat to go to places you can't readily sail otherwise, then you'll be OK with it.  If you go expecting great service, amenities, entertainment, etc. you'll be disappointed.  As a ship, she is below average in every department.

One piece of interesting trivia about Pride of America: She actually sank during construction!

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I'll never say never... but I'm unlikely to sail DCL again. I like Disney but I'm not a fanatic, and I was pretty pumped to try out the Fantasy. I certainly enjoyed the cruise (it's a cruise, after all)... but I didn't feel that it met or exceeded what I experienced on Royal or Princess. And given the high cost, it makes it hard to justify going back on board.

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1 hour ago, KWong said:

I'll never say never... but I'm unlikely to sail DCL again. I like Disney but I'm not a fanatic, and I was pretty pumped to try out the Fantasy. I certainly enjoyed the cruise (it's a cruise, after all)... but I didn't feel that it met or exceeded what I experienced on Royal or Princess. And given the high cost, it makes it hard to justify going back on board.

I’m a fanatic and I just want to cruise it once.  Then I will say never again to the price and have warring obsessions agin...Disney parks vs cruising.  Jane

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15 hours ago, JasonOasis said:

MSC Meraviglia has Cirque du Soleil at sea.  Let me tell you this there is not a single Royal Caribbean show that comes even close to matching the Meraviglia's Cirque du Soleil at sea and they have 2 different shows and both were hands down the best shows I've seen at sea.  The quality of those shows match what you see in Las Vegas the shows were just that good.

The Cirque du Soleil show on Norwegian Epic was fabulous. I have seen Cirque twice on land, once in Vegas, once in Houston and the show on the Epic was very intimate and awe inspiring as it is set up as a dinner theatre.

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On 1/29/2021 at 9:37 AM, mom2mybugs said:

I’m a fanatic and I just want to cruise it once.  Then I will say never again to the price and have warring obsessions agin...Disney parks vs cruising.  Jane

Don't get me wrong. They are fine ships and there are definitely some positives about them. But it definitely wasn't for me. 

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For us, any Carnival ship out of Sydney Australia. The food and service was overall very poor. The lack of security with kids running and screaming down the hallways very late at night; past 2am most nights and having quite a number of guests packing a months worth of alcohol into a seven day cruise. I like a drink, so it is not really the drinking, or even excessive alcohol, but more the type of people who sailed who had little or no respect for fellow passengers, and you felt on edge that if you say the wrong thing or accidentally bump into someone, you could end up being assaulted.  Having done a Royal cruise previously set the bar and our Carnival sailing was polar opposite. Carnival was cheaper but for us not as enjoyable as a Royal cruise and so worth the slight cost variance.    

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On 1/31/2021 at 10:47 AM, CruisingOz said:

For us, any Carnival ship out of Sydney Australia. The food and service was overall very poor. The lack of security with kids running and screaming down the hallways very late at night; past 2am most nights and having quite a number of guests packing a months worth of alcohol into a seven day cruise. I like a drink, so it is not really the drinking, or even excessive alcohol, but more the type of people who sailed who had little or no respect for fellow passengers, and you felt on edge that if you say the wrong thing or accidentally bump into someone, you could end up being assaulted.  Having done a Royal cruise previously set the bar and our Carnival sailing was polar opposite. Carnival was cheaper but for us not as enjoyable as a Royal cruise and so worth the slight cost variance.    

Our 3 x B2B out of Sydney in 2018 was on Ovation and she was amazing. The first 10 days were around New Zealand and the last 14 were to Singapore via Brisbane/Darwin/Kuala Lumpur - and both were fantastic. However, the middle part bolted into the 27 day trip was a 3 day 'taster cruise' which took us just off the coast of Australia. I think the same people from @CruisingOz's Carnival experience were on for those 3 days as it was not an enjoyable atmosphere! Finding people passed out in the elevators, people confined to cabins for being drunk and disorderly and having to tip-toe around vomit in numerous places was a little off-putting!!

With hindsight we should have got off at Sydney with some hand luggage and spent 3 days enjoying the amazing city and local beaches!! 

So for the topic of the thread, would not avoid the ship but would avoid the actual 'trip'!    

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On 1/29/2021 at 8:17 AM, KWong said:

I'll never say never... but I'm unlikely to sail DCL again. I like Disney but I'm not a fanatic, and I was pretty pumped to try out the Fantasy. I certainly enjoyed the cruise (it's a cruise, after all)... but I didn't feel that it met or exceeded what I experienced on Royal or Princess. And given the high cost, it makes it hard to justify going back on board.

I said the same thing about the Disney Dream.  We had a bad experience with the room steward.  They wanted us to leave the room so he could clean it.  The buffet staff openly complained that we sat at a table that was recently cleaned.  

Other reasons I would have agreed. There did not seem to be many activities for adults to do.  The pools were small and over run by children (Umm hello?  Disney duh dude), the buffet closed really early and I wasn't sure where to get lunch.  Also, I spent way too much time looking for a bar at times.  

However, this was my 1st cruse ever.  No clue what I was doing lol.  I wanted to drink, eat, and swim, watch a show.  I did not look at the daily news letter to see what was going on.  I disregarded it as junk.  We were traveling with our 5yr old, I could have gone to the adult only area for a little bit but I didn't.  The shows we did see where amazing and loved the pirate night.  

I had let the stuff that was negative block out the great times we did have on the sailing.  We watched movies out at the pool, enjoyed the balcony, I found the bars, and loved the time spent at Castaway Cay (especially when we went back to the ship early and the pool deck was empty).  I have since watched videos and read blogs on DCL.  Yes the price is a lot more, but I think to sail with them every so often would not be a bad thing.  I have yet to try Royal and I am so looking forward to it. Hoping we actually sail this Dec.   

 

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