Why won’t I cruise with Norweigian Cruise Line (NCL) again?
My experience cruising with NCL Encore and Bliss
In August 2023, we bought a back-to-back cruise vacation. We would cruise with NCL Encore to South Caribbean in November and NCL Bliss to Central America in December. Both ships are over 169k-ton with a capacity of up to six thousand passengers, boasting about Breakaway Plus-class and NCL’s free-at-sea package. It’s also known for their adrenaline-pumping deck fun, state-of-the-art gaming, broadway-caliber theatre performances and plenty of on-board social activities.
We chose to cruise with them because their itineraries fit into our travel schedule and a back-to-back cruise arrangement. Though we are categorized as first timers with NCL, we are not first-timers in taking cruise vacations. We could tell the pros and cons as compared to other cruise lines.
Pros - Smooth Embarkation and Disembarkation
NCL allows pessengers to book an embarkation time slot which we did. On the embarkation day of our first leg of cruise, our Uber driver encountered huge traffic jam on the way to Miami cruise terminal. Several big cruise ships were docked and passengers from all sides were trying to get to their ships at the same time. For a 10-minute distance, it took our Uber driver over 45 minutes to drop us off at the NCL terminal. Despite the chaos and crowds, we were able to check-in smoothly without any waiting time. This was also the case with disembarkation. We chose to carry our own lugguge disembarking the ship. The instructions were very clear and the process was very organized.
Pros -Spacious Stateroom/Washroom
We had an inside cabin room on Encore and a balcony room on Bliss. I should say that the most impressive pros is their washroom, functional and roomy. There are plenty of shelves to put on all my cosmetics and toiletry. The shower room is big so it’s comforting to enjoy a nice shower. We usually choose our cabins in consideration of itinerary and price. For a week-long cruise with only one or two at-sea days, we tend to book an inside cabin, as we spend more time at destinations and if at sea, we participate onboard activities. In terms of room size on NCL Encore and Bliss, both the inside and balcony cabins are impressive.
Pros - Freestyle Dining
Free-syle dining means you can show up at any complimentary restaurant at any open time. You don’t have to dress up to eat at a certain time and at the same table. This is very convenient and considerate because you choose your own dining time to avoid missing a show, a comedy talk or your favourite band performance. We cruised with three other couples, a group of 8 retirees altogether. Except for a few nights, we mostly had dinner in Manhattan, one of the three formal dining rooms. The staff were always able to have a table ready for us no matter what time we showed up at the restaurant entrance. Without the requirement of formal dress code, we felt comfortable sitting at the table, chatting and laughing while and enjoying exquisite food in a casual way.
Cons - Extra Costs
Encore and Bliss are very similar in the ship size, deco design, onboard facilities, range of activities, and free-at-sea style experience, but some services and amenities are not free: You pay extra costs for
Service Charges/Gratuities
Meals in Specialty Restaurants
Alcoholic Beverages
Soft drinks and some other non-alcoholic beverages.
Spa and Salon Services
Internet
Exercise classes
Casino
Speedway, Galaxy Pavilion, Laser Tag, Exclusive lounge area
These extras are not cheap which could easily add another 4 digits per person to your bill.
Cons - Misleading Free-at-Sea Packages
I bought the seven-day South Caribbean cruise for its attractive price as I read it as an all-inclusive package. However, at the time of booking, I was told that the all-inclusives were not included in the price. So I tried to clarify with my travel agent. Here is the email thread between us:
“Hi, xxx, I still think our price of the subject cruise includes a "free at sea" package. If you take a closer look at the price advertised on your web page of fast deal 34xxx, "Inside offer include $100 cabin onboard credits PLUS the two guests in each cabin will receive ALL of the following offers: 1) unlimited open bar (service charge additional), 2) speciality dinner (one meal), 3) free wifi 300 minutes each cabin, 4) $50 shore excursion credit per cabin in each excursion booked through cruise line. As such, would you take another look into this and clarify the issue for me?”
“Hi, Mary, As per the fast deal, it states should you wish to indulge in the Unlimited Open Bar and Specialty Dining which includes 1 meal at select restaurants on board, service charges are additional which means you will need to purchase these two option.”
“Hi, xxx, Thanks for your efforts in clarifying, though it is still not clear to me. A kind suggestion is that NCL might wish to consider putting the wording like "should you wish to indulge in open bar, etc., there is a cost of ...." to avoid any confusion. " Soon after I raised the issue with them, the above promotion was removed from their website.
Is this an NCL or this cruise travel agency issue? Am I poor in comprehension, is the agent quibbling, or is NCL’s freee-at-sea package misleading?
Cons - Very Crowded Ships
Both ships are big but still, they can’t meet the capacity needs of so many passengers! Everywhere is crowded! You struggle to find a table for breakfast, line up for food, sit in the theatre at least half an hour early in order to find a seat for the show, even though some popular shows are for reservation only. Some function places have very limited seats so I can’t find a chair to sit in the atrium to enjoy a watch or music, to relax in a deck chair in the pool area, or enjoy beautiful views in a lounge chair in the Observation lounge. Good seats are always occupied, often by a book, a towel or a cap instead of by a real person. Most of the times, I carried a tray of food in the Garden Cafe trying to find a seat to sit down. When all passengers returned to the ship or tried to disembark at the same time., it was impossible to find a seat! The wait to get into an elevator was long. This was the case with Encore and worser still with Bliss. There are 16 elevators on Encore located forward, mid and aft areas. Bliss only has 12 elevators located in the forward and aft, no elevators in the mid ship. With the size of the ship, people that have cabins at the front or back need to walk a long way to reach their cabins. Also, the pressing on one elevator button wouldn’t lighten the buttons of all other elevators. I also think the swimming pool with this size of a ship is relatively small.
Cons - Public Washroom Sanitation
Public washrooms are another issue. First, there are not as many considering the number of passengers. For example, there are only two single-person washrooms each for a man and a lady outside the theatre. There was usually a waiting line outside, sometimes, ladies would have to go inside a man’s room not to miss the start of a show. Second, some public washrooms have bad smell. I noticed that the problem might come from the flushing sensor. When the sensor didn’t send a signal to flush, manual flushing was not enabled. I experienced such failed flushing, and it was quite frustrating. Or the smell might be due to infrequent cleaning. Again, the service simply couldn’t meet so many passengers’ needs. Whatever the reason, public washrooms should always be kept clean and at five-star standards.
Cons - Delayed Stateroom Cleaning
Because of the size of ships and number of passengers, I don’t expect attentive service. However, delayed or no housekeeping service is substandard. When we were not in the room, we always turned on “Make Up Room” button. But our stateroom was never cleaned in time, most often not until late afternoon, few times around noon times, and occationally, not even cleaned before bed time. So, to have our room cleaned became an everyday expectation. According to our cruise friend, he called their room attendant to clean the room, he was told there was no housekeeping service after 3 pm. I felt that our room attendant expected a tip from us to offer better service. He once hinted that the 20% gratuities we prepaid would not be shared with him. I found it hard to believe it. If only the service were better, I wouldn’t mind giving some extra tips as an appreciation.
Pros and Cons - Food
The food on Encore was a lot better than on Bliss in terms of variety and quality. We actually really wanted to dine in the specialty restaurant Tapanyaki, but after watching a Tapanyaki cooking show plus some negative comments I heard, we decided it wouldn’t be Japanese authentic. To dine in a specialty restaurant would cost you at least $75 plus any wine and gratuities (extra), so unless the food was worth the money, I wouldn’t venture it. In the second week of cruising on Bliss, I found the food quality was not there anymore, and the menu was repeated or monotonous. However, I did appreciate that there were zero sugar desserts and ice creams on both ships.
Conclusion
It’s true that you pay for what you get. We paid US$2xxx for a 7-day cruise an inside cabin, and US$3xxx for a 14-day cruise for a balcony room. These prices do not include 20% gratuities, shore excursions, and any extra costs mentioned above. So we all ended up paying a lot more! It is said that cruise prices have gone up and service has come down after the Covid pandemic, with which I couldn’t agree more. I have to mention here that shore excursions are very expensive, ranging from US$50 - US$300 per person. If you could manage sightseeing yourself, you could save lots of tour money. In our case, for 8 people travelling together, we hired a driver/guide to drive us around and explore destinations at our own pace and ease.
For all the reasons mentioned above, I don’t think I will cruise with NCL again!
My personal reviews are subjective and objective.