gail

Just returned from a fun NCL 4-night Bahamas cruise. Went with 80 year old mother, under-21 college student dtr and her 2 friends, and 2 family members of one friend - 3 cabins. Having read CruiseCritic reviews prior to booking I was a little nervous, but just wanted some sun after New England winter.

It was fine - as long as one understands that you get what you pay for. The ship was a little older and smaller - but well maintained, very clean. Employees were helpful, polite and no different than more expensive cruises I have taken. While food was the weakest point, there was always something decent to eat. Cabins were on the small side, but perfectly fine for 2 people for 4 nights.

I think the problem some reviewers have is that they expect filet mignon at Burger King prices. Having read complaints about ship not having a specific type of tea, no lobster, charges for specialty restaurants, and not enough storage in cabins I now want to scream - what do you expect for well under $100 per day for a cruise? I also listened to a woman on the cruise ask to speak to food supervisor and then questioned why there were no ice sculptures on board (answer, politely delivered, was that they only did that on 7 night cruises now). I personally do not care about ice swans.

So for 4 days we sat in the sun, read, went ashore - including standard stop on private island, ran up a bar bill - and did not have to cook, clean, shop or worry about transportation. A lovely time, even without frills. I had made-to-order omelets or waffles for breakfast (or sometimes smoked salmon and mackerel), nice salad bar for lunch, the equivalent of mid range restaurant food for dinner. I wandered the Straw Market in Nassau, got a sun burn to show off at work on Monday, drank silly fruity drinks while watching the sun set on a ship deck. My daughter and her friends got to hang out with a group of low-life college men who they will never see again in a relatively safe setting, bought their first legal drinks (age is 18 in Bahamas and 18 on-board with parental permission) - and eat dinner with Mom and Grandma.

A nice time - certainly not perfect - but total cost was under $1000 for 7 people (not counting the bar bill, which we will not mention here).

cd

Gail, I so agree with your positive report! Last year we choose Louis Cruise Lines with Gate 1 travel for our cruise to Turkey, Athens and the Greek islands because it gave us the itinerary we wanted at a price we could afford. I can say the same thing as you have said, the room was small, but clean. The food was fine, the staff was wonderful. Because our expectations were not so great to begin with, we were pleasantly surprised and enjoyed our trip very much.

jacketwatch

I think it depends not only on your expectations but also your desires. Simply put I'd rather not go somewhere if I know my personal level of expectations will not be met regardless of how good a deal it is. Thats just me. However you make a great point about tempering your expectations relative to what you paid for something. You put it in a very nice perspective.

bonniejns

Gail,
Know you were talking about NCL's tiny (yea!) old Majesty. We LOVE that ship, been on her 3 times! Went on her 14 day repostioning cruise last November - Philly to Charleston and did see some soot but.......... I saw on cruisejunkie.com - events at sea - she had a serious problem a week ago. Just off the coast of Jacksonville FL, she 'burped' pieces of rusty metal and oily soot from its smokestack in mid aftenoon. This came down on decks 8 & 10 all over passengers, clothes, towels, chairs and chaises. The ship offered to wash all clothes for free and gave free drinks but I don't know what else or if the ship sailed this week. Anyone know any more? If you go to my message about this on cruisecritic.com you will see pictures posted by someone who answered it.

gail

I thought Majesty was RCCL (we have been on that one, too).

toadstar3

I recently went on a 9 day NCL cruise - the quality of the food was below standard compared to the 7 cruise I had taken on the same ship 2 years prior. Very bland! I did not have the deal that you referred to. Personnally I expected the same level of treatment and quality of service and food that I received two years previously, I had no expectation to a lower level of service. The ship and staff all appeared tired. (They had one more five day cruise before heading to the Mediterrian)

toadstar3

Gail
RCCC is Majesty of the Sea
NCL is Majesty much smaller.

charli

Cruise ships are trying to fill cabins with good prices in this poor economy. Something is going to give, be it food, service or whatever. Gail is so right, you can't expect gourmet food (and ice sculptures) for less than $100 a day. Sometimes you would think that these complainers are all gourmet cooks or eat at 4 and 5 star restaurants every night of their lives. I am happy to just be having a good time and not cooking, making my bed, or cleaning the bathroom for a while. Let's be realistic folks.

BudgetQueen

I agree, all cruiselines have cut back significantly, BUT for me the bottom line is the excellent value and low prices of cruises. I started sailing in 1981, and there have been many many changes. BUT cruises I paid for in the early 90's were WAY more than I am paying today. I have low expectations, and don't care. I enjoy them all and find the snobs struting onboard, wanting 1-1 service and attention embarassing.

It's a great deal that I will continue to enjoy.

Eschew

Gail, I agree 100%. If only more people will take your positive attitide ... Even the so call expensive cruises is still a bargin. Some ships will do a better job on certain areas than others.

You want one on one attention and service, start tipping on day one and hand money out to every staff you come across. You will then be really well looked after ...

jacketwatch

Actually BQ makes a good pint. Cruises have very good value. We are looking a a 7 days NE/Canada cruise and eveh with air to NYC and 1-2 days hotel there its still cheaper than 4-5 day air/hotel packages to many places I've researched including Paris, Rio, Buenos Aires, Dublin and Berlin, just to name a few. I have found cheaper rates to Montreal but that doesn't include food and entertainment.

jacketwatch

Well actually maybe she does make a good pint but of course I meant POINT! Oops.

gail

As far as tipping, one suggestion I got here years ago was to tip the cabin steward on the first day of the cruise. Since then I have always left $10-20 cash on the first AM with a note saying the cabin looks nice and including any special requests - in this case my dtr and her friends needed an extra pillow and a few more towels. For the rest of the cruise they had more towels than they could use; our cabin cleaning, etc was excellent. Might have been anyway - but for an extra few dollars a day it has always been my version of trip enjoyment insurance.

BudgetQueen

Jacketwatch,- if you are at all flexable, New England has been in an over supply the last few years. Us residents have just gone too many times. Last Sept. the entire month had $299/399 rates, I will spectulate that it will be similar again this season for late booked. You might want to consider blocking out some time, since you're adding hotel days?? If you consider 10 days, you probably would have the option of a couple different ships to watch for the price drops.

jacketwatch

Thanks BQ. However we have sort of set our minds on one particular cruise, the Triumph. I've read good reviews and heard good things from people I know who have taken her and I want to try CCL again. We've been on one CCL cruise, the so. Carib. on the Destiny and had a very nice time. As this ship leaves from NY and as I have pals there I am sort of locked on in that regard as well. Costco has a very nice price for a balcony cabin so as soon as we get the vac. time approved I'll lock it in. Thanks for the suggestion. Larry

Debi

I agree with expectations being realistic (not that there aren't bad experiences, but to the original poster's example)... While cruising is not really my first choice for a vacation (don't like boats...), I have been on 5 cruises - 1 horrible, 1 marginal, 1 awesome, 1 really good and 1 pretty good. The awesome one - Crystal, and we paid for it (worth every penny). The next cruise we took was on Princess, and for some reason, I had in my head it would be as nice as Crystal. My fault - you definitely get what you pay for, and it wasn't bad, I just had unrealistic expectations (which have been fixed now... . I see so many people that really have issues adjusting reality to expectations, because we all want the perfect experience, but it really isn't realistic. Same thing with flying - I travel alot, and I constantly hear people complain about everything to do with the flights - but no one wants to pay for added service.... I like this review, though, and think it's a really good message for everyone - be realistic about what you're buying. If you want the Crystal experience - save up the money and do that. If you want the Carnival pricing, don't think the experience will be the same (no slam on Carnival - it's got good pricing, and many people have a lovely time, but it isn't a Crystal.....). Sadly, we haven't been able to afford going back on Crystal, but some day....

Eschew

so Debi, is the Princess one the really good, pretty good, or marginal? sometimes, the price point and the value is so similar among lines that the lines are blur, esspecially on the mass amrket lines. I like to think Princess is more up scale than Carnival a (both own by the same company) and Celebrity is better than RCL (again, same owner). So the value comparison would be Celebrity to Princess and RCL to Carnival?

laurelv

We are looking at an Athens/Istanbul/Greek Islands cruise package with 3 nights in Santorini. Louis Cruise line is the provider. We have taken several cruises on the big ships, and a small ship, no frills Alaskan cruise.
Does anyone know what the formal night(s) are like on Louis? My husband is concerned with packing a suit. Last time on RCL he rented a tux thru the cruise line and that worked out well. We could do without formal nights; for this trip the ship will be like a traveling hotel.

cd

As I said on my other post, we did not do formal nights on Louis, actually, I don't even know if they offered one.

toadstar3

Charlie, Unlike Gail I did not get a less than $100 a day cruise. I had the expectation that I received the last time I went on the same ship to the Caribbean (different ports of call). I believe that you should get what you pay for. And if they advertise great food on the website you should get great food. When you order lobster at an up charge of $35 you should at least get a half of lobster tail. When they advertise pillowtop mattress on all beds you should have a pillow top mattress. They need to put their service where their mouth is at!