We jumped ship to NCL!! How did they do??

[cadien]

When we were on the Star, the tweens were in a conference room as well. They were also turning away the younger kids from the main club because it was spring break and they had over 1,000 kids on board. If you didn't line up with your kid half an hour before they opened, you didn't get in. I had assumed that the tweens were in a conference room then just as an overflow solution but maybe it's more common than that.

 

[Dug720]

I guess that is one benefit to DCL - they don't allow more kids than a club can accommodate so there is no not being able to participate once on board.

 

[darnheather]

Thanks for the kids club info y'all. Looks like I won't be jumping ship for the next 7 years minimum. Alaska will have to wait until I can save up or until the girls are older.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

WOW, with those savings it would cover your flights, any hotel stays, onboard expenses and excursions!




I'd be willing to drive 6 hours to Boston even just to avoid flying! Since more and more ships are docking in NYC, Brooklyn and New Jersey, and we also have Baltimore and Boston, lots of nice choices to pick from

I agree, but this is our sons graduation cruise and he really wants one more on DCL so that's what we're doing.

 

[Nhebron]

Great review. Thanks for sharing. I am in the early stages of planning a 2019 Alaska cruise, so this is very helpful.

 

[RedSox68]

I agree, but this is our sons graduation cruise and he really wants one more on DCL so that's what we're doing.

Sometimes only Disney will do [Nice graduation present, too]

 

[miztressuz]

Thanks so much for the review, we have a NCL cruisenext something or other to use and I've been thinking about doing the SUN in 2019. Our first NCL cruise was her sister ship the Sky and we enjoyed it so much. I kinda dug how small the ship was, cozy but it wasn't overcrowded. With just hubby and I the balcony rooms were just fine space wise but their suites on those ships are so tempting. We usually don't like aft, we don't like the vibrations, so we usually pick mid or forward. I like the forward penthouse layouts but with Alaska I don't think we'd use a FWD much How did the motion feel in the aft penthouse? Did you get a lot of vibrations?

Kid Stuff:
...

There was an 18-20 meet up scheduled the first night in the tapas bar. Our son was the only one that showed up and the bar tender had no clue it was even scheduled. Obviously, not a big thing on NCL (or least not on the Sun).
....

This is the big thing we don't like about NCL, their attention to detail. There have been several times something is listed in the Freestyle daily that just doesn't exist, as in many people show up and the staff is clueless something is supposed to be happening there. Or many people show up because the for-fee activity wasn't listed as an additional fee. Or it's scheduled too tight and the activities staff try to rush you through something because they have to be somewhere else in an hour and need to change clothes beforehand (that one was awesome). Or someone from the activities staff just doesn't even show up Some teams seem stretched too thin.

So we found lots of little things with the ships or the atmosphere/activities that just needed more attention to detail. (like the elevator button that was missing in the atrium elevator the entire 7 day cruise on the Dawn. Just a whole in the panel that kids stuck their fingers into and touched the wires.... I think it was floor 11, you had to remember if you wanted floor 11 to pick the other elevator in the bank or be able to walk up or down) And they really need a proofreader on those Freestyles, I wish I could hold them to the pricing mistakes we found one of the cruises But mostly we just laughed at it after you got used to it because (so far) nothing's been a make or break event. Heck, we still bought a cruise deposit so it couldn't have been that bad. However, we do consciously notice that when we're on Disney we don't make jokes, we're not pointing out failings or whatnot, Disney's not perfect but we also don't compare it to other ships. Just one day we realized, 'hey it's been 2 days and we haven't been disappointed with something' and we laughed. Which is part of the reason why we do Disney even though they're pricey and we don't care for traditional dining.

Fellow Pens Fan here originally from SW PA. It seems NCL does a better job in Alaska or maybe it is the ships. We sailed the Epic two years ago and it was our worst cruise experience ever. Embarkation was chaos (out of Miami), the bar staff was rude (especially if you only wanted a Pepsi on their drink program) and the nighttime entertainment was poor. We didn't think anything was "Freestyle" because you had to book every show if you wanted to see it because they all sold out. But we sailed NCL around Hawaii previously and they were great. So maybe the ship makes a difference.

And unfortunately for NCL that's for sure the ship makes a difference. Epic really is a love/hate. We hated it. If it had been our first NCL it would have been our last. But since we knew it wasn't like that everywhere we bought a cruise deposit and had a wonderful time on the Dawn (twice). It wasn't just the weird room and poor layout of the ship, it was the whole package - the staffing, the debarkation in Miami (also chaos, waited 2 hours to get off the ship and we were on a ship sponsored activity), we were on the ship for 17 nights and I'm pretty sure we didn't see any evening shows because even if we wanted to get tickets the mass of people just wasn't appealing. We thought maybe because we did a transatlantic there was poor staffing but reading reviews of their normal itineraries the same complaints come up. We did love how huge the balcony was and I hear the ships that came after are better but we're soured on the mega ship NCL (especially since the balcony's are smaller). We'll be back but on a mid size or small ship.

 

[RedSox68]

Fellow Pens Fan here originally from SW PA. It seems NCL does a better job in Alaska or maybe it is the ships. We sailed the Epic two years ago and it was our worst cruise experience ever. Embarkation was chaos (out of Miami), the bar staff was rude (especially if you only wanted a Pepsi on their drink program) and the nighttime entertainment was poor. We didn't think anything was "Freestyle" because you had to book every show if you wanted to see it because they all sold out. But we sailed NCL around Hawaii previously and they were great. So maybe the ship makes a difference.

Too funny about Hawaii -- I hope that means they have (finally) cleaned up that ship and crew. When we sailed around Hawaii on them, it was (to this day) the worst cruise we've ever done -- including rude staff and filthy areas.

 

[Pens Fan]

How did the motion feel in the aft penthouse? Did you get a lot of vibrations?

There was barely any motion at all most of the time. As this was the inside passage of Alaska the water was very smooth and you hardly felt any movement throughout the ship. One exception was when we came into a port. When that was happening, we not only heard vibrations, there was banging and rattling galore. I had heard reports of this in aft rooms in general so was expecting it, but also wondered if it wasn't a little over blown. Well on the Sun it was LOUD, but as it was only while pulling into port and only lasted a few minutes it wouldn't deter me from booking an aft room again. We just laughed and said that at least there was no possible way of us over sleeping on a port day! We were always up early and ready to go .

Aft rooms a terrific. The views are amazing and like you, I was leery of a forward room in Alaska. There is also something mesmerizing about that aft wake.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

So I just saw this morning that NCL is also bringing the gokarts on the top deck to the new NCL Bliss that will be out next year sailing the Caribbean in the winter and Alaska in the summer. I really need to talk my son into canceling the Wonder next year for his graduation cruise!

 

[cruiser21]

So I just saw this morning that NCL is also bringing the gokarts on the top deck to the new NCL Bliss that will be out next year sailing the Caribbean in the winter and Alaska in the summer. I really need to talk my son into canceling the Wonder next year for his graduation cruise!

The port days are shorter. Maybe you could do a B2B on the Bliss for the same price and hit the ports twice. Once you start looking at excursions your head will spin with all the stuff you want to do. I'm definitely going back to Alaska a couple more times maybe next time on the Bliss. I cannot do everything I'd like to do in one visit.

 

[mevelandry]

So I just saw this morning that NCL is also bringing the gokarts on the top deck to the new NCL Bliss that will be out next year sailing the Caribbean in the winter and Alaska in the summer. I really need to talk my son into canceling the Wonder next year for his graduation cruise!

Disney Cruise Line Who?

I've seen this too.

I wanna go on the Bliss now!

 

[Pens Fan]

I'd wait a few years on the Bliss. I was checking out all of those pictures yesterday and absolutely drooling. Then..............I checked prices. Insane! As in, Disney insane. There is a ton of buzz on that ship as it's the first of it's kind to go to Alaska and the prices have gone through the roof. I looked at the Caribbean pricing for the winter and while it was better than Alaska, it is still so much higher than anything else (well other than the Mouse) sailing down there. If you want to jump ship in Alaska I'd recommend checking out either the Pearl or the Jewel. They have better itineraries and are much, much cheaper. No cool toys though.

Hopefully in a year or two when it's no longer the new kid on the block, pricing won't be so crazy. Then we might have to try it. It looks incredible!!

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

I'd wait a few years on the Bliss. I was checking out all of those pictures yesterday and absolutely drooling. Then..............I checked prices. Insane! As in, Disney insane. There is a ton of buzz on that ship as it's the first of it's kind to go to Alaska and the prices have gone through the roof. I looked at the Caribbean pricing for the winter and while it was better than Alaska, it is still so much higher than anything else (well other than the Mouse) sailing down there. If you want to jump ship in Alaska I'd recommend checking out either the Pearl or the Jewel. They have better itineraries and are much, much cheaper. No cool toys though.

Hopefully in a year or two when it's no longer the new kid on the block, pricing won't be so crazy. Then we might have to try it. It looks incredible!!

It's still pretty dang cheap compared to DCL though. We're paying $8900 for 4 in an oceanview, 2 connecting oceanviews on Bliss is $8000, we could do 2 connecting balconies on Bliss for $9400.

 

[Pens Fan]

It's still pretty dang cheap compared to DCL though. We're paying $8900 for 4 in an oceanview, 2 connecting oceanviews on Bliss is $8000, we could do 2 connecting balconies on Bliss for $9400.

OK - I'm going to have to eat my words from my previous post! You're right!

I just went back and looked at the Bliss pricing again. Yesterday, when DH and I were checking pricing we were looking at suite prices as we wanted to see how much more it was than what we paid for our cruise on the Sun. After we picked ourselves up off of the floor, we just laughed and said maybe some other time. I just went back and checked pricing for regular, non Haven cabins and it's not that bad. I don't know what's up with their Haven pricing, but their pricing for regular cabins isn't bad at all considering it's the new, cool kid on the block.

Hmmmmm.

 

[Pens Fan]

I need to keep telling myself, "You just got home from Alaska. You have a son in college. Step away from the computer! Put away the credit card."

 

[cruiser21]

It's still pretty dang cheap compared to DCL though. We're paying $8900 for 4 in an oceanview, 2 connecting oceanviews on Bliss is $8000, we could do 2 connecting balconies on Bliss for $9400.

Amazing how much money you save on DCL sailing in the offseason. I could have gotten two oceanviews for 6600. I booked one inside for the two of us for 3k. I think a balcony in Alaska would be great. Have you priced out an inside and a balcony on the Bliss.

 

[cruiser21]

OK - I'm going to have to eat my words from my previous post! You're right!

I just went back and looked at the Bliss pricing again. Yesterday, when DH and I were checking pricing we were looking at suite prices as we wanted to see how much more it was than what we paid for our cruise on the Sun. After we picked ourselves up off of the floor, we just laughed and said maybe some other time. I just went back and checked pricing for regular, non Haven cabins and it's not that bad. I don't know what's up with their Haven pricing, but their pricing for regular cabins isn't bad at all considering it's the new, cool kid on the block.

Hmmmmm.

The price comes down in Sept. I guess I'll find out what September in Alaska is like in a couple of weeks. I've read experiencing Alaska in the Spring, Summer and Fall gives you a different experience. I've seen pictures of the Fall foliage it looks amazing, but the weather is supposed to be wetter.

 

[Pens Fan]

The price comes down in Sept. I guess I'll find out what September in Alaska is like in a couple of weeks. I've read experiencing Alaska in the Spring, Summer and Fall gives you a different experience. I've seen pictures of the Fall foliage it looks amazing, but the weather is supposed to be wetter.

Our very first trip to Alaska was late August / early Sept. It was on the cool side and did rain a little, but for the most part it didn't deter us from doing anything we wanted to. We had one change in plans as we couldn't fly to Glacier Bay as planned, but we did manage to fly over Denali which was simply incredible. The fall foliage is just beautiful. When we were up in Denali the tundra was turning this gorgeous red. It was over 20 years ago, but I can still remember how amazing it was. My husband and I were hiking in Denali one day and had a caribou follow us for the entire afternoon. He stayed probably 50 to 100 yards away, but followed along the entire time.

I guess that's why we keep going back!

 

[cruiser21]

Our very first trip to Alaska was late August / early Sept. It was on the cool side and did rain a little, but for the most part it didn't deter us from doing anything we wanted to. We had one change in plans as we couldn't fly to Glacier Bay as planned, but we did manage to fly over Denali which was simply incredible. The fall foliage is just beautiful. When we were up in Denali the tundra was turning this gorgeous red. It was over 20 years ago, but I can still remember how amazing it was. My husband and I were hiking in Denali one day and had a caribou follow us for the entire afternoon. He stayed probably 50 to 100 yards away, but followed along the entire time.

I guess that's why we keep going back!

Good to know. I'll take a little more rain to save a couple thousand dollars. I live in Arizona. I get sick of the sun. Nothing excites my family more than a rainy day, a good monsoon storm... or just a cloudy day.