Norwegian Cruise Line versus Royal Caribbean: which is better?

Two of the biggest cruise lines in the industry are Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line, and it is likely that if you’ve heard of one, you have probably heard of the other.
Both these cruise lines have a lot of similarities, but they also have some key differences as well. When it comes to style, amenities, and itineraries, there can be a lot to consider when choosing which cruise line to sail with for your next vacation.
Here's how these two cruise lines compare.
Read more: cruise.blog/

[@willynorris1739]

Both great options, and any day at sea is better than my best day in the office!

[@summerqwerty9]

Definitely NCL, better food, ships seems more luxurious. Royal Caribbean looks like a theme park, and the ships are too big

[@dchenkin02]

One key point about Norwegian private island; Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas is a tender port; Royal Caribbean's Coco Cay in the Bahamas has a dock for the ship.

[@rgruenhaus]

Yes and after 5 attempts to get to enjoy that GSC the weather finally cooperated.

[@tracielang9500]

For now... heard the dock is mid construction

[@thesunnysheepguy]

One video says dock is open now. Not sure

[@bryannatividad575]

RC is overly expensive compared to NCL for what you get out of it. I see a legitimate bright theme park on RC ships, plus being overly crowded. Best food and experience I've had is on NCL. It's still fun for adults and kids, but it doesn't seem overdone. RC is definitely for the families out there with younger ones.

[@CruiseDude1]

Good job.

[@joannefrias3784]

One thing not mentioned is NCL has a much better thermal suite area.

[@badgerattoadhall]

Mainline cruise companies have more in common than they are dissimilar. That said I am a Norwegian supporter and am sapphire.

[@karenzaslow3808]

You didn't mention the water park on RCL's Coco Cay. No other cruise line has anything like it on their private island.

[@billybenson3834]

For a price

[@nessyb5155]

It's ridiculous!! A water park $$ pools... it has nothing natural anymore! Great stirrup cay looks more like an island than this Disneyland cay!

[@rgruenhaus]

​@billybenson3834 like the zip line at GSC has a cost. At least the food and drink on GSC is complementary and the drink pkg covers adult drinks there.

[@amynguyen9360]

well done !!! thank you for the comparison ... I will cruise with NCL on June 8/2024 ...

[@CruiseBlogGuide]

We're glad you found our video to be helpful! Enjoy your trip!

[@CC-nq6pm]

We just got back from our cruise with NCL Bliss.. it was terrible. But I hope you're going on a different ship.

[@amynguyen9360]

@@CC-nq6pm will be the Epic ... my first time with Norwegian

[@csmith2435]

Very nice comparison between the two! Great footage and editing as well! While I enjoy the plushness of NCL, their price point can make it difficult to stomach especially when compared to RCL. All of the newer ships are expensive but I think I can get my dollar to go further when I stay loyal to Royal. For me these days, I tend to enjoy the journey more than the destinations. In any event, these are YOLO experiences! Thanks again! Well done! 😎😎😎

[@jcspotter7322]

Royal nickel and dime for everything, your dollar ain't getting stretched any less with them

[@loganhenifin2000]

She also forgot that NCL has a private island is Belize

[@jcspotter7322]

You forgot Labadee as a private destination for Royal Caribbean

[@nessyb5155]

Worst port!!

[@loganhenifin2000]

She also forgot that NCL had a private island in Belize. It’s by far the best one of theirs

[@jcspotter7322]

@@nessyb5155 not if you don't like a crowded cruise port

[@Pinkythepinkbear]

Icon is a floating playground

[@rgruenhaus]

Must be an old video. No mention of the Vibe Beach Club.

[@valerief1231]

Thank you for all the work you did on this video, I’ve only been on one cruise, it was upon Royal Caribbean’s Adventures of the Seas, and I was so disappointed, we thought we chose a good time, end of February, before spring break. There were over 1,000 children on that particular sailing. Now I love kids, and only saw one tantrum and it was just a 2 minute protest, so nothing major. The side effect though was things like the buffet being a free for all, only went when we Embarked, and one time for lunch. The pool area was chaos, you know how kids are with screaming and running, and yelling, so the majority of adults were crammed into the adults only area, and the idea of 14 strangers in the hot tubs just didn’t do it for me. But the biggest disappointment was our room, and room steward. She seemed to genuinely hate us, and hand to God, we did nothing to deserve it. I spent my entire working life first in retail, then as a care giver for dementia patients, so I have so much empathy for others in the service industry. I tried bonding with her, asked about her family, and determined she was missing her young children. But we could not soften her up. The only thing we did do that I found out was apparently wrong, by her chewing me out was, something was terribly wrong with our bed, it was as if a wire coil mattress had been stripped of the padding. We didn’t notice until bed time since we were out of our room the majority of our first day, (my brother and his wife were down the hall) so when we went to bed around midnight we tried to just make do, that was a bad idea. In the morning I looked for our steward, as she had instructed us, if we ever needed anything, to just find her in the hall. I went out and looked while my husband was getting dressed, then he went out and looked, we couldn’t find her, so we called down to guest services and asked for a mattress topper, then we went to meet my brother & SIL for breakfast. When we came back to our room about an hour later we were met with a very angry, “did I not tell you to come find me if you needed me? I was just informed by my SUPERVISOR that you called guest services!” 😮 We’ve never cruised before, we have travelled and stayed in high end hotels, resorts etc. where the protocol was always to call the front desk or housekeeping. So she went from aloof to ticked off with us the rest of the trip, and informed us that they didn’t have any more mattress toppers. Just a footnote, my husband and I are handicapped. His is more obvious, he requires forearm crutches, and a mobility scooter. I don’t look disabled when you see me, but I’ve had numerous surgeries, and live with constant, moderate pain that can get out of hand so easily. We are lucky to be alive… My point is, I’m a little hesitant to sail with RCCL again. See, we had a cruise planned to start the same weekend hurricane Harvey hit Galveston TX, and dealing with them starting the Thursday before it hit, until after Harvey made land fall was a nightmare. Even after the port of Galveston was closed due to flooding they wouldn’t let us reschedule our trip. Then once they did officially cancel the sailing they gave us a modest future cruise credit, but we actually didn’t have any desire to use it based on how poorly they handled the situation. We eventually got over the whole thing, so fast forward all these years later. I’m very interested in learning more about Norwegian, I’d love to try some other cruise lines before I find one to be loyal to. What is everyone’s favorite cruise line?

[@teec5763]

Hi, sorry to hear of your bad experience. Maybe you could try Celebrity cruise lines? It has a more relaxing atmosphere and definitely fewer children. Also just to add, the longer the cruise, the fewer the children (on it). So I would suggest going on cruises over 7 nights.

[@G.G.T.]

princess....excellent all a rounder....some kids but mostly adults and heavy on 60+

[@billybenson3834]

None of your issues actually are RCC fault, all those things would have happened on a Carnival or NCL too. The steward lost a rating because of you going to guest services and that can affect her income and promotion possibilities. As far as cruise lines go, I've been on Carnival, NCL, RCC, along with smaller lines. Never had a bad cruise. All have good and bad points, it's all about booking the right ship at the right time. For us, no school holiday cruises, nothing shorter than 7 days, and packing patience in our bags. Short cruises can be problematic because they can become booze cruises for many. Long cruises usually have older crowds which can be less problems. We're booked on a transatlantic for 2024, these are longer cruises so fewer children, and are very often cheaper (other than flights) than a 5 day Caribbean cruise. My favorite cruises.

[@rgruenhaus]

I have been on 11 cruises with NCL and my 12th is in 3 weeks out of Galveston on the NCL PRIMA I have never been mistreated by any of the room attendants. Always very easy to work with. I give them gifts on the last day before I get off the ship.

[@rgruenhaus]

On NCL the room attendant has a phone number they can be called at when they are not easily found in the passageways.

[@nessyb5155]

NCL has a restaurant open 24 hours and buffet opened all the day!

[@camilabatista2287]

Can we eat at any time?

[@rgruenhaus]

​@@camilabatista2287Limited menu in the Local or O'Sheehan's pubs at night with a small shutdown time to get ready for the next meals.

[@rgruenhaus]

With Norwegian when a person gets to Platinum and above latitudes level they are awarded 2 Specialty dinners, but if two Platinum are in the same room only one Platinum member gets those perks. All because the bean counters decided to only allow one Platinum in a room to receive their achieved perks. 11 cruises to get to Platinum shouldn't have them stripped if they are in a room with another Platinum member!

[@chrystalhicks23]

@@camilabatista2287yes

[@nessyb5155]

@@camilabatista2287 yes anytime!

[@suereark7716]

Forget all the gimmicks. We can go to an amusement park for that. Adults normally aren’t going on the slides/rides. And the extra cost isn’t worth it

[@user-hj8fo9kh7w]

This 72 Year old male loves water slides.

[@anthonyr7208]

Both are Good but I’m team NCL…

[@dutchman7216]

Do you have any info on MSC SeaShore?

[@bellezaynaturaleza4495]

I prefer NCL, food is much better and destinations are unique.

[@davidprice-williams8603]

NCL no longer has any food that is not sit down at the restaurant. They also will not let you take it to the room. NCL app sucks and you cant group your party. NCL allows the kids to roam free till 1:00am I do like the six omelet stations on NCL Break away. Carnival NCL excursions always last three times longer than they should 1hr doing the excursions 1 hr of some local selling Soap, essential oils, Photo sessions or they feed you at a local kitchen rice and beans when the beach, bars and restaurants are one mile away. Cruise seafood is all crap frozen, the only good shrimp i ever got was from the stand on Carnival, NCL had some great asparagus, specialty dining is never worth it. Royal has the best app and feel their excursions were top notch, carnival always seems to have more pool area than others. I haven’t had a relaxing cruise in a long time. So much to do and all of them push the party atmosphere. Go for the spa rooms or NCL haven if you want relaxing if you go with any of the other crowds it is all about fun and party.

[@CC-nq6pm]

Yes!!! I totallyagreewithyou!. I just got back from our Alaskan cruise with NCL BLISS it was a mess. And a total waste of $$ especially on the excursions. Please don't buy any excursions at KETCHIKAN Alaska. And don't do the BUTCHART Garden because they take you at night and you don't get to enjoy the garden.

[@user-zt4ms4yw1y]

I went on the prima and every night we took as much food as we could carry every night before it closed and the staff were completely okay with it.

[@hkyakult]

Tks for running the comparison! Just one minor comment - “….when it comes to…” seems to be a bit too much in your narrative 😅😅

[@double_joseph327]

Have a bunch of kids? Go on Royal.

[@nelsongarcia4398]

Royal caribbean 100%