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Kind of Discouraging News Re: August Sailings


Floski

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Yesterday I was out drinking some fab Charleston craft beer, when I met up with 2 ladies who work with Norwegian.  

After the "I'm loyal to Royal" and then the frowns, I told them that I was totally happy with Royal and have no desire

to cruise any other line (of course, we all agreed on Carnival).   They told me that I was missing out and that NCL was

a great line and much cheaper than RC.

When I mentioned that my next cruise was in 19 weeks, aka 01 Aug, they both agreed that "that sailing will never happen".

They both suggested I re-book, regardless which line I re-up for.   I said "why don't y'all just let me go grab a big stick and

y'all can beat me to death?".   I really need this cruise.

One of them said that she would even offer me her "friends and family" discount on NCL, so I went over last night and 

tried to peruse their sight.  It might as well have been another language, as I had no idea what I was doing.   All I know is

that I want to travel out of Port Canaveral, but there were only 5 cruises from there.   

 

What do y'all think?  If you've been on Norwegian (Escape appears to be the only PC option), do you think it's a decent

alternative?   I'm not sure what kind of discount I'll get.   I don't mind trying, but it better be awfully enticing to make me

not take a Royal ship.

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I have sailed NCL a few times and I think they are just fine.  We decided to stick with Royal until we make Pinnacle but honestly, I would go on a NCL without hesitation.  Just like Carnival...I would recommend that you stick with the newer ships, but NCL is a good cruise line, IMO.  

BTW, I hate hearing that August is a no-go.  That SUCKS !

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1 hour ago, Floski said:

Yesterday I was out drinking some fab Charleston craft beer, when I met up with 2 ladies who work with Norwegian.  

After the "I'm loyal to Royal" and then the frowns, I told them that I was totally happy with Royal and have no desire

to cruise any other line (of course, we all agreed on Carnival).   They told me that I was missing out and that NCL was

a great line and much cheaper than RC.

When I mentioned that my next cruise was in 19 weeks, aka 01 Aug, they both agreed that "that sailing will never happen".

They both suggested I re-book, regardless which line I re-up for.   I said "why don't y'all just let me go grab a big stick and

y'all can beat me to death?".   I really need this cruise.

One of them said that she would even offer me her "friends and family" discount on NCL, so I went over last night and 

tried to peruse their sight.  It might as well have been another language, as I had no idea what I was doing.   All I know is

that I want to travel out of Port Canaveral, but there were only 5 cruises from there.   

 

What do y'all think?  If you've been on Norwegian (Escape appears to be the only PC option), do you think it's a decent

alternative?   I'm not sure what kind of discount I'll get.   I don't mind trying, but it better be awfully enticing to make me

not take a Royal ship.

If you take the Oasis class out of the equation they are all the same budget cruise lines with minimal differences between the big 3. I think you might find Carnivals newer ships at least as good or better then NCL and RC. I’m somewhat loyal to Royal but wouldn’t hesitate to take an 8 day Southern Caribbean route on a newer CCL ship or a 7 day in the Haven suites on NCL. They all have good & bad attributes. 

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Thread title was about disappointment about sailing not likely to happen in August and I’m not really surprised. There may be a couple ships sailing by then from US but it will be a fraction of the industry.

 

Thread topic seemed to be RC vs NCL. I’ve sailed both and have a preference for RC but NCL is has its good features as well. The biggest drawback that I have with NCL is lack of pool and hot tub space. It is severely lacking. However, the only reason we sail NCL is because we live in Vancouver and NCL offers pacific coastal cruises (reposition) in spring and fall. Because the weather is not always the greatest we always get the thermal spa package which includes a pool and hot tub as well so that makes up for the lack elsewhere.

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I've sailed both Royal and NCL.  One thing that I have noted is that if you aren't careful, NCL will nickel and dime you to death.  My experience has also been to watch prices on excursions. I really like Royal, and have several cruises booked with Royal, but I also have a 2023 cruise booked with NCL. The itinerary for that particular trip was hard to pass up (ABC islands during Spring Break) and they had some great specials running for airfare. 

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You never know until you try.  Go with an open mind if you choose to sample.  

I've looked at Mardi Gras from PC but I haven't found anything that jumps out and says book me.

It's been nearly two decades since I've sailed NCL so I should probably give them another try at some point.  

When I have shopped them before NCL isn't any cheaper despite their fake free drink packages.  Like any booking price it all the way to end and include fees for "free" items.  

If you can score a discount like an employee rate that could change the math.

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We're "Loyal to Royal!" ?

We did several Disney cruises since we are Disney geeks, but they kept getting more and more expensive so we thought we would try Royal as we have family that have cruised with Royal and enjoyed it.  The thing that got us to switch was we were on a Disney cruise and booked another "to get the onboard deal", which was fully refundable for 30 days or something.  We went to AAA and priced a Royal cruise  for the same week, with nearly the same itinerary and learned that we could get a Junior Suite on Royal and still save over $1000!

I felt really good about the decision, since I was eating lunch one day on the Allure while staring out at the Disney ship i had originally booked across the port and knowing how much money we saved.

 

We've done balcony rooms on Disney and Royal, but we always get the cheapest room, since we would prefer to do more trips and being that there is only 2 of us, space is not an issue and we are not in the room very much.  

We also typically travel during the "off season" where pricing tends to be really good.  I work in IT and have a really flexible schedule and my wife knows her schedule (she's a nurse practitioner) three months in advance, so we do a lot of short trips and last minute deals.


We made the switch and since I love rewards programs, we will stick with Royal and then Celebrity (since they match) until something terrible happens.  

 

Same with MGM resorts, they will match your Royal status to the MGM program, so it's like triple dipping!

 

Stay Safe

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One we had a family and started family cruising, we tried both RC and NCL. Had no interest in Disney due to the outrageous costs.  No real interest in Carnival after some pre-kid cruises on it.

 

Did one on RC, liked it. Then tried NCL. Nothing wrong with it in general, just the employees just didn't seem nearly as enthused about their jobs than on RC (except for the one bartender we frequented. he was great). We've done RC ever since.

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1 hour ago, emmef said:

I've sailed both Royal and NCL.  One thing that I have noted is that if you aren't careful, NCL will nickel and dime you to death.  My experience has also been to watch prices on excursions. I really like Royal, and have several cruises booked with Royal, but I also have a 2023 cruise booked with NCL. The itinerary for that particular trip was hard to pass up (ABC islands during Spring Break) and they had some great specials running for airfare. 

100% true. All the “pick 3 free” items you get to pick as part of your cruise fare end up costing a significant amount of money in taxes and fees. 

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24 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

One we had a family and started family cruising, we tried both RC and NCL. Had no interest in Disney due to the outrageous costs.  No real interest in Carnival after some pre-kid cruises on it.

 

Did one on RC, liked it. Then tried NCL. Nothing wrong with it in general, just the employees just didn't seem nearly as enthused about their jobs than on RC (except for the one bartender we frequented. he was great). We've done RC ever since.

Think about giving CCL another try. The new ships have so many options for kids & adults. I made the mistake of associating CCL with our pre-kid days partying in college and swore it off for many years. We tried 3 of the new ships and short of an RC Oasis class option I prefer CCL. We find that the new ships with 7+ day itineraries have the same vibe as RC with even better dining options and activities. 

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Back on the original topic, it is difficult to say when sailing will start again but there is good news on the horizon that folks thought would not happen (can we say government spokesperson) in that Texas will open their COVID-19 vaccinations to all ages starting next Monday. Also we have eclipsed the number of infected folks with the number of those vaccinated. May not be true in other places but the train is gaining momentum and the light is beginning to show at the end of the tunnel. We have a cruise set for July and am hoping with sailings starting in other countries the pressure will be to open up the US as well. Be that as it may, we also have cruises booked for September, October and November of this year and January of next year to make sure that we have a reserved date if it does reopen later.

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Thank you for posting the information @ TX opening up the vaccines to all adults! I just messaged my daughter and son with the official press release from the state; I know that my daughter has been waiting patiently for her turn. Busy graduate student son hopefully will also find a time and place for his (first) jab. 

Here's a link for the news release:

https://www.dshs.texas.gov/news/releases/2021/20210323.aspx#:~:text=All adults will be eligible,in the current priority groups.

 

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