After five DCL cruises, we have now taken three NCL cruises and have another one booked. These included a 7 day on the Sun to Alaska, a 12 day on the Gem to Canada / New England and a 14 day on the Jade to Italy / Greece. All of these cruises were in non Haven suites (only available on the smaller ships).
We've enjoyed all of our cruises on NCL and look forward to cruising with them again. Some comparisons to DCL:
The food on NCL ranged from fine to excellent, and we love the variety offered. We do not enjoy DCL's set dining times and sharing tables model and appreciate that we don't have to deal with that on NCL. We love the casual atmosphere of NCL and find the food overall to be more to our taste than than on DCL. That being said, we certainly haven't starved on any cruise
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We've experienced great service on NCL - equivalent to DCL. We've had hiccups here and there, but have also experienced that on DCL. If I had to choose, I'd give NCL the nod, as their service is more of the friendly, professional type. I hate to say this, but at times I find DCL service to be a bit forced and cloying, to the point of making me uncomfortable. I've never experienced that on NCL.
Entertainment on NCL definitely is more adult focussed. We enjoy that, as our son is 21 and often isn't even with us when we cruise anymore. However, I would hesitate to recommend NCL smaller ships to anyone with young children, as I don't think there will be a ton for them to do outside of the kids club. Now, the larger ships do have a lot more options for kids - slides, rope courses, go karts, laser tag - depending on the ship. As a previous poster noted, NCL ships vary quite a bit from one another. Do your homework and make sure your ship has something to offer everyone in your travelling party.
NCL (and many other cruise lines) have far more options when it comes to itineraries. In my opinion, it's DCL's greatest weakness. We love cruising, but we don't cruise just to cruise. We love port days and want to sail to somewhere we actually want to see. That makes DCL a tough sell anymore. I really hope once the new ships are sailing, that will change.
We've never sailed concierge on DCL, so I can't compare that to NCL's suite life. We've enjoyed being in a suite on NCL and especially liked the private dining for suite guests at breakfast and lunch. (The smaller ships do not offer private dining for dinner.) The concierge service was nice, though we really didn't use it that often. Probably the best perk was on our last cruise which was 13 port days on a 14 day cruise. The priority disembarkation and especially tendering was a huge plus in getting off the ship. We were escorted down the crew elevators and off the ship as soon as it was cleared - a real bonus!
I think the number one thing when trying any new cruise line is to keep an open mind. It's not going to be Disney. There are no characters, Disney music playing in the halls, etc. While we did miss that on our first non
Disney cruise, we soon got over it and just enjoyed our cruise for what it was - great food, service and ports - nothing wrong with that!!