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We Learned Our Lesson - Only RCI from Now On!


whitsmom

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RCI has been our go to with only 3 exceptions:  Disney once (it was a meeting/business cruise), NCL (Getaway-Family Reunion), and NCL (Hawaii - Pride of America) just this past week.  The ONLY reason I booked the POA was due to time factor and being able to fly to and from Honolulu.

We never laid eyes on our cabin steward once!!! They would show up while we were on an excursion or while at dinner.  Once we had to ask for towels so we could shower before dinner.  We don't like My Time Dining and that is all you get on NCL.  I know RCI has my time dining also but you at least get the option to have a set time, set table, and set servers (which is why we like traditional dining).  The food was okay for the most part but the selections weren't great in our opinion.

We talked to a travel agent we met at one of the bars.  She told us that she brought 40 people on the POA and that she felt the same we did!  She and her group experienced the same issues as us and she wouldn't be doing another group cruise on that ship.  The bartender told us that some of the cabin stewards had as many as 25 cabins to clean and some only had 10!  I guess ours must have been the only of the ones that had 25 to clean. 

Thankfully, our next three cruises booked are Royal Caribbean - lesson learned! 

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This strange timing.  I just moved an NCL cruise because they would not let me use my next cruise certificate on the cruise I wanted.  I love the way they handle Solo Cruisers but after that they are lacking.  The other issue I am having with NCL is their sales people.  They keep contacting me but when I ask them to do a little work I do not hear from them.  I had one booked a TA Cruise and she had 3 things to follow up after the booking and that did not happen.  I know people will tell me use a travel agent and I do.  I just like booking the cruise and getting it setup the way I want with the cruise line then move it to a TA for issues and rebates.  Now I am like you, and I think I am going to stay with RCL and Celebrity for my cruising.  

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We sinned and strayed from Royal a few years ago when we cruised NCL on the Breakaway. Hated the cruise terminal in NYC, ship was big and beautiful but design was a little odd. Lots of traffic jams and bottlenecks. Food was excellent though. Its safe to say we haven't strayed from Royal since and do not plan to. Now we turned Diamond so its very unlikely, plus we love Port Liberty. 

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NCL has had to make a lot of cutbacks - cleaning of cabins down to one time daily, reduction in entertainment staff, menu items being switched out for cheaper items (Filet for NY Strip). The POA has had trouble since the restart. Most of their staff are Americans who did not re-up their contracts. Staffing is a huge issue on that ship. A lot of avid NCL cruisers are looking elsewhere due to cutbacks and increasing costs. 

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POA has to use mostly Americans for crew.  They seem to always struggle getting Americans to work for the wages they offer relative to the demanding hours required of cruise ship crew.

I wouldn't judge the rest of NCL based on the POA.  

POA is now the only ship that is exempt from the PVSA in Hawaii so it can have an itinerary that has only US ports of call.  No other ship in the world qualifies.  The story how the POA ended up in this position is an interesting story to say the least.   Nonetheless, while the ship is allowed to offer a cruise with only US ports, the crew has to be mostly American due to immigrations laws.

It is a one-off unique situation for the mass market cruise industry.  

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Funny you mentioned it....   I was on the phone today with my concierge for a b2b I'm doing on another line. She was amazing, so sweet. Being very personable she asked did we ever sail before? Well, 10 minutes telling her about Royal and how it was more fiscally prudent etc. etc. 

I just thought it was funny how I wanted to try a new/different ship/line and I'm telling this representative how she must try Royal!  I Crack myself up sometimes!!!

Tv Series Comedy GIF

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Curious what biggest decision of crossing over to sail another cruise line if Royal standards are there and you are happy sailing Royal because it seems those bells and whistles on the other lines doesn't make the cut in certain important factors after the fact.  Of course any cruise is better than no cruise but still ....

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32 minutes ago, SMOKEY0202 said:

Curious what biggest decision of crossing over to sail another cruise line if Royal standards are there and you are happy sailing Royal because it seems those bells and whistles on the other lines doesn't make the cut in certain important factors after the fact.  Of course any cruise is better than no cruise but still ....

Sometimes it itinerary and port location. I will do MSC because their European offers are great. 

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37 minutes ago, SMOKEY0202 said:

Curious what biggest decision of crossing over to sail another cruise line if Royal standards are there and you are happy sailing Royal because it seems those bells and whistles on the other lines doesn't make the cut in certain important factors after the fact.  Of course any cruise is better than no cruise but still ....

Itinerary and price tempted us to branch out. 

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2 hours ago, RCIfan1912 said:

We sinned and strayed from Royal a few years ago when we cruised NCL on the Breakaway. Hated the cruise terminal in NYC, ship was big and beautiful but design was a little odd. Lots of traffic jams and bottlenecks. Food was excellent though. Its safe to say we haven't strayed from Royal since and do not plan to. Now we turned Diamond so its very unlikely, plus we love Port Liberty. 

We just turned Diamond after our August cruise.

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1 hour ago, smokeybandit said:

The fact that it sank before it was even finished being built makes for a good story, too.

It sank financially and considering our US Congress backed the loan they desperately wanted to save face like only politicians can, so they waived requirements and granted special status so it could be towed overseas and completed outside of the US.

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We have a 7 night this summer on Carnival panorama out out LA for a  western Mexican cruise. We would go royal but most are shorter out of LA . Also both our kids wanted to try a different line for something different. We did carnival years ago, it was ok, but nothing special. A lot of drinking and partying, not us.

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We’ve cruised with Disney before we crossed to Royal and with each line we’ve had a cruise where we never saw our cabin steward.  Honestly, I don’t really “need” to see them.  As long as the room is taken care of, it works for us.  We’re up early and out of the room and generally don’t come back to the room until we’re getting ready for dinner.  We’ve learned to just leave a note on the bed if we need anything “different” .  
 

We’re an easy cabin.

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We are ... well Norwegian changed their levels. We were Platinum Plus with Norwegian, now i think we're well into their Sapphire tier (Royal's Diamond equivalent) with only a few points to go to reach the next level (Royals D+equivalent). But we are waning on them for several reasons, like cutbacks icw DSC hikes and now their return to a standard muster. 

Don't get me wrong. There are some things i prefer about Norwegian over Royal, which I'm hesitant to say here. But I'll try to say it delicately, i guess.  We do like the Haven experience better in that no matter your loyalty status, you're not getting Haven privileges without staying in the Haven. I know Royal tries to curb this, but the Haven is never crowded and we're never fighting over dinner reservations in the Haven, need standing reservations, etc. 

For us, we'll go by itinerary and price, but i have to say, all things being equal, we're leaning more Royal now. 

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We love Royal but do not see it as infidelity to go on other lines, we are diamond on Royal and feel their loyalty program is #1. There are three categories of lines, mega ship resorts that tend to please all ages (RCL, Carnival, NCL) premium lines (HAL, Princess, Celebrity) and then the luxury lines, plus a whole bunch I didn't mention once you venture outside of North America. We cruise for different reasons to different places, the reality for us is that we are mid 50's, literally weeks from retirement and sometimes we want to cruise with adult kids, sometimes with adult kids and grandchildren, sometimes with just grandchildren, sometimes just with other 50's and 60's couples (friends and relatives) and sometimes just us. Royal checks most boxes but not all, it's a leader in it's class, so for us it wins with groups, kids and grand kids. However we are about to start a stage in life when 6+ cruises a year is in the cards and I'd prefer some variety. RCL is limited in Europe and on the West Coast. We are also averse to timeshares, we don't want to do the same thing, eat the same food and visit the same places over and over again., but we understand there are those who do. It's quantum and oasis class ship suites can cross into the price point for the premium lines in some regions they lack the itineraries of the others. When you get to sky or star class they can be costlier or equal to  to lines that include beverages, photos, specialty dining , laundry and excursions. For the Caribbean, they are #1, for loyalty perks like diamond and up, also #1 and the cost of their GS and OS and many ships is fantastic in the areas they dominate. But tonight I was pricing out some European cruises for 2024 and there's one i like on RCL and the rest I cannot justify it based on price and what are our priorities or an itinerary that doesn't exist.  I liken it to certain airlines I like and have their credit card yet some routes they either don't have or it's not a competitive offering. So I see it as 50-70% of the time I'll go with royal, if that is a preference and not a loyalty, then that is where I am at.

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We need to branch out and give other lines a try. The familiarity of Royal and understanding the "game" make that challenging. This website doesn't exist for other lines and the ones that do are not my cup of tea. Civility respect and acceptance are hard to find in the world wide sewer.  We will retire in a couple of years and that will give us the time to try new lines and better locales as well as off peak cruising. Royal is also starting to price us out and if that continues we will need to go elsewhere. We don't cruise suites so it isn't like we can move down in category to save. 

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I used to be "Loyal to Royal", ended up branching out and trying other lines.

For me the biggest differences between the lines have more to do with the age/size of the ships than the names on the hulls.

I do prefer Royal, especially for the 3/4 night Bahamas market which they are crushing the competition in (except MSC which is priced so much lower it is hard to compare the two).

Tried a Celebrity last year because of the ports offered.

Trying Princess for Alaska, again it just fit what we wanted better than Royal's offering.

Favorite ship currently is Carnival Mardi Gras which i though compared to Oasis class in many ways.

Royal remains my #1 but not the only 1 like it used to be.

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I have been looking at NCL POA for a future cruise.  It's attractive because it is year round and hits all of the islands, but wow is it expensive (plus the airfare to get there).  Some of these comments here are giving me pause.  I am so used to royal, I would be so disappointed if I went and paid a small fortune and came away with a lot of negatives.  I am wondering if it may make more sense to do a land based Hawaiian vacation instead.  Royal's Hawaiian cruises don't work for me because of the timing (kids in school).   

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The Diamond threshold was our target before starting to look elsewhere based on itinerary.  We do not care if we hit Diamond Plus, and Pinnacle will never be a thing for us, so we are content with Diamond.  We are happy with the perks at this level.

We will certainly continue to cruise with Royal as we have no complaints and like that we know what to expect.  That being said, we have booked a northern Europe cruise with another line for the fall of 2024 because it's going to places we haven't seen Royal go. 

We still have some Royal itineraries on our bucket list....Panama Canal, Alaska, and Norway to name a few, and we will always take a "get out of the cold weather" cruise in Jan/Feb on a Royal ship.

 

 

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We are Trying NCL Encore in Jan of 24 for one cruise because of family on it and they are with a bigger group of friends(of which we also know). I will say I don't think I would book again with NCL except for POA. Their website is extremely clumsy in comparison, their "Unlimited drinks package is tiered" which I don't like. Excited to see what the ship is like and compare the experience when all is said and done. 

With everyone's experience on POA I still would like to try it, just because we don't want to go to Hawaii and sit on one Island for a week and pay to go to the other islands. At least with POA you get a full Island experience with stopping at all of them and an overnight. Not a big deal if we see the cabin steward or not, as long as we can secure extra towels from them if we see them in the hallway.

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3 hours ago, JBC said:

I have been looking at NCL POA for a future cruise.  It's attractive because it is year round and hits all of the islands, but wow is it expensive (plus the airfare to get there).  Some of these comments here are giving me pause.  I am so used to royal, I would be so disappointed if I went and paid a small fortune and came away with a lot of negatives.  I am wondering if it may make more sense to do a land based Hawaiian vacation instead.  Royal's Hawaiian cruises don't work for me because of the timing (kids in school).   

your post could not have been more apropos. We have been looking at and would love to do a Hawaiian cruise also but have school aged children which seems to rule out any of the major cruise lines (since they dont seem to cruise in the summer) besides NCL and Pride of America. So, why is it that there are no summer hawaiin cruises otherwise? repositioning issues?

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3 hours ago, Midwest Cruiser said:

We are Trying NCL Encore in Jan of 24 for one cruise because of family on it and they are with a bigger group of friends(of which we also know). I will say I don't think I would book again with NCL except for POA. Their website is extremely clumsy in comparison, their "Unlimited drinks package is tiered" which I don't like. Excited to see what the ship is like and compare the experience when all is said and done. 

With everyone's experience on POA I still would like to try it, just because we don't want to go to Hawaii and sit on one Island for a week and pay to go to the other islands. At least with POA you get a full Island experience with stopping at all of them and an overnight. Not a big deal if we see the cabin steward or not, as long as we can secure extra towels from them if we see them in the hallway.

All the ports were great and the food was good.  We never found our cabin steward at all to even get extra towels.  I always make my bed anyway, it was just the inconvenience of not getting towels in a timely manner.  We went on an excursion that was all day basically and we still had no clean towels.  Hubby walked way down the hall and finally found someone and they gave him towels.  They didn't even ask what cabin we were in.

The ship is older but still pretty. 

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3 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

Virgin seems to be struggling to get a foothold in the cruise market

Have you seen the ships..... Rooms look like a glorified college dorm room, 1 what looks to be a maybe 12'x20' pool, 1 small hot tub that you could maybe fit 12 people in.. positioned for the Caribbean. Big Big Big swing and a miss.  

Other parts of the ship maybe nice, food may be good, no kids would be nice, but the overall theme for me is a biggggg NOPE.

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The one time we did a non Royal cruise many years ago was with NCL on POA and loved it!  We went to Hawaii once on our own but much preferred the cruise.  We flew in a few days early and stayed a day over.  We got to see the same things and more plus did not have to keep packing and taking inter-island flights and changing hotels.  Also, one night we went past a lava flow and one day we went around back of Kauai to see a portion of it and we would not have seen those things unless on a cruise.

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2 hours ago, CynBeth said:

The one time we did a non Royal cruise many years ago was with NCL on POA and loved it!  We went to Hawaii once on our own but much preferred the cruise.  We flew in a few days early and stayed a day over.  We got to see the same things and more plus did not have to keep packing and taking inter-island flights and changing hotels.  Also, one night we went past a lava flow and one day we went around back of Kauai to see a portion of it and we would not have seen those things unless on a cruise.

This was exactly why I like to cruise - same room/unpack once.  No complaints with the excursions as those were all excellent.  It was just not having clean towels before 4:00-5:00 pm daily!  We were on excursions every day so we were out of our cabin for most all day so there was no excuse.  I always make my bed anyway so all I require is clean towels and empty the trash.

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19 hours ago, Midwest Cruiser said:

Have you seen the ships..... Rooms look like a glorified college dorm room, 1 what looks to be a maybe 12'x20' pool, 1 small hot tub that you could maybe fit 12 people in.. positioned for the Caribbean. Big Big Big swing and a miss.  

Other parts of the ship maybe nice, food may be good, no kids would be nice, but the overall theme for me is a biggggg NOPE.

The food on Virgin is fantastic, and nothing is considered specialty, it's all included. I loved sailing on them. They aren't for everyone, that's for sure, but in some ways they really blow everyone else away. 

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5 hours ago, CynBeth said:

The one time we did a non Royal cruise many years ago was with NCL on POA and loved it!  We went to Hawaii once on our own but much preferred the cruise.  We flew in a few days early and stayed a day over.  We got to see the same things and more plus did not have to keep packing and taking inter-island flights and changing hotels.  Also, one night we went past a lava flow and one day we went around back of Kauai to see a portion of it and we would not have seen those things unless on a cruise.

There was a lady in front of us when we were disembarking and she said that she was on the POA several years ago and it was great but she wasn't impressed this go round. 

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  • 1 year later...
On 1/31/2023 at 12:21 PM, whitsmom said:

All the ports were great and the food was good.  We never found our cabin steward at all to even get extra towels.  I always make my bed anyway, it was just the inconvenience of not getting towels in a timely manner.  We went on an excursion that was all day basically and we still had no clean towels.  Hubby walked way down the hall and finally found someone and they gave him towels.  They didn't even ask what cabin we were in.

The ship is older but still pretty. 

After our Sailing on NCL Encore, I can say with confidence that we won't be going on NCL again. Cruise was fine, ports were good, food was good(except for getting food poisoning from the MDR the night before debarkation), very small amount of activities for kids to do on the ship except for the small kids splash area and the splash academy(which they enjoyed). IMO the laser tag dedicated area was a complete waste of useful space where they could have had the sports courts. Definitely felt the smaller waves compared to Oasis class which was probably to be expected. Room was good for Ocean balcony, Kids enjoyed the bunk bed coming down from the ceiling.

 

Looking forward to our Symphony sailing in 17 days.

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We are doing a type of S2S in April with kids and grandkids.  First, DCL 7 day out of PC in adjoining family OV cabins and returning on Saturday.  Then we are driving south for a 7-day on Oasis in the Royal Loft on Sunday. I have not been on DCL since my youngest turned 12 (‘several years ago).  I am Platinum on DCL and D+ on Royal, but I have  ignored DCL since my all my kids reached tween status.  It will be interesting to see which the grandkids (1 and 3) enjoy more.   Adults will definitely prefer the Star Class experience . . .

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We’re taking my in-laws on their first RC cruise soon. It’s been kind of an issue getting them to get “excited” about doing things. It just seems like they have low expectations for Royal. They’ve done one cruise and it was on POA. I wonder if they had a bad time but didn’t know it and then just figured it was how things were normally. 

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8 hours ago, Babsy47 said:

We are doing a type of S2S in April with kids and grandkids.  First, DCL 7 day out of PC in adjoining family OV cabins and returning on Saturday.  Then we are driving south for a 7-day on Oasis in the Royal Loft on Sunday. I have not been on DCL since my youngest turned 12 (‘several years ago).  I am Platinum on DCL and D+ on Royal, but I have  ignored DCL since my all my kids reached tween status.  It will be interesting to see which the grandkids (1 and 3) enjoy more.   Adults will definitely prefer the Star Class experience . . .

We have kids 3 and 7 and I couldn't justify booking a DCL because of pricing compared to RCL. I think we would do a day at Magic Kingdom then travel to Canaveral for a RCL sailing to cover the Disney side of the experience for us. I will be interesting to hear what you think and the rest of the group thinks in comparison after the trip.

 

We love Oasis of the Seas. Have done Star on her last March. Who is your Gene? We had Letti and she was really good.

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