Florida/Bahamas Cruise 2025 -Thoughts on the Cruise (01/13/26)

 

It was a nice 8-day cruise.  However, I wouldn't have wanted to take it alone due to the time of year and its itinerary: Port Canaveral, the Cruise Line's Private Island, and Nassau, Bahamas.  I've done this route a couple of times before (on different cruise lines) and it is one of the most boring routes one can cruise. But RQS pined to get away and warm up for a week, and I wanted to treat her to a cruise that I offered her a couple of years ago.  So, off we went - just after New Year's Day.

Both of us feel that we have outgrown NCL for most cruises.  NCL has lowered the quality of food served in its complementary restaurants.  It has reduced the quality of its main theater shows, cutting back on its adaptations of Broadway shows such as "Six" and "Footloose."  Additionally, it has shifted some of its entertainment focus to onboard versions of "Deal or No Deal," where the audience has to pay for a card to actively participate in the game.  Every chance NCL has to squeeze money from its cruisers, it does so.  Most of each day's activities listed in the Freestyle Daily newsletter seem to promote spa services, jewelry sales, casino games and other onboard products and services which are geared to extract money from cruisers' pockets.

NCL is more of a "Hit or Miss" line these days.  In the past, I could always count on having good dinners both in the specialty restaurants and in the complimentary restaurants.  Now, in the 5 specialty dinners we had, 2 of them were excellent, 1 was very good with excessively small portions, 1 was good with large portions, and 1 was mediocre at best.  Of the complementary dinners, 1 was decent, 1 was acceptable, and 1 was terrible.  NCL's food service misses the mark almost as much as it hits the mark - something that saddens me very much.

Cutbacks in the "hotel service" area (staterooms) have also reduced the quality of the onboard experience.  Due to the ship's cabins not being serviced before 2 pm, all areas where cruisers could eat, drink, and simply wait for their cabins to be made available were occupied.  We couldn't even enjoy lunch, as there was no place for us to sit down to eat it.  As a result, I left a dish filled with food on a pillar in the buffet area (I knew someone would knock it over and make a mess), simply because I was too frustrated to keep carrying this dish around after 15 minutes.

Often, when we went through the atrium, the entertainment was so loud, that we couldn't hear each other talk.  Whether there were singers in the stage area, or a game being played there, we had to avoid it because it was either too loud or too crowded to be comfortable.  When we walked to the dining rooms towards the back of the ship, we had to plan our routes carefully to avoid most of the areas with heavy tobacco odors.

Will I cruise NCL again?  Right now, I only plan to cruise with the line for trips to Bermuda and for the 7-day cruise on the Pride of America.  My partner and I feel much more at home now on Princess and Cunard.  We'll cruise with MSC (with all of its flaws) iif they ever cruise out of NYC again and sail to destinations we'd like to visit again.  But NCL is no longer a line I can count on, and I prefer those lines on which the only surprises I experience will be good ones.  

Florida/Bahamas Cruise 2025 - Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas (01/08/26)

 

Great Stirrup Cay - NCL's private island.  The last time I was here, I declined to set foot on the island because it was a tender port.  And I did the right thing, as choppy weather was getting in the way of tenders returning people to the ship.

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We arrived at the island early in the morning.  The ship emptied out while we went to breakfast on the ship. That meant the ship was quiet and peaceful for a change, and we enjoyed it.  Breakfast was pleasant, as we didn't have to wait to be seated, nor did we have to be worried about overworked wait staff giving shoddy breakfast service.  Normally, we might not have roused ourselves out of bed until noon.  But we were hungry, and the mechanical staff had to visit our room again for a third time to fix the problem with our toilet not flushing correctly.  So, after breakfast, we killed time in the main atrium and gave staff a chance to make up our cabin, and fix the problem with the toilet without us getting in the way.

We came back to a room with a working toilet (Thank God!) and relaxed for a while before going to the buffet for a late lunch.  Again, we killed a little time, as we had an early dinner at the Hibachi restaurant. There's not much to say about this place, save that the food was tasty and plentiful.  I've seen the Hibachi show way too many times to be impressed by it, and I'm glad that we didn't get stuck eating 3 specialty meals in this place.

After dinner, it was off to the ship's theater to see a show we saw on one of our trips on this ship - the Broadway Cabaret.  Unlike the last show we saw in this theater, we enjoyed it - even though we had seen it before.   The ship's singers and musicians were at the top of their game, and we stayed to the closing number.  (We left during the number, as we both needed bio-breaks.)  And then we were done for the night. 

 

Getting ready for my next cruise.

 

The above is far from my favorite cruise itinerary.  This is a route I've sailed twice before: once with XGFJ, and once as a solo traveler. Both cruises are best forgotten, albeit for different reasons.

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When I last cruised this route (albeit to another cruise line's private island), it was the worst cruise I ever sailed on.. There is "no there there" for Port Canaveral, and the only reason that I got off the ship there was to go to the Kennedy Space Center.  (I'm surprised that the Orange Snowflake hasn't yet named it the "Trump - Kennedy Space Center".😆) 

Next is Nassau. The first time I was here, following a disappointing trip on a glass bottomed boat, XGFJ and I walked around the port area a little bit and got bored.  Since I am not into beaches, I'd get bored going here again.

And finally, there is the cruise line's private island.  Great Stirrup Cay was a disappointment when I was there, as there was no dock for the ship.  Everyone had to use tender boats to go between the island and the ship, and I didn't bother going to the island with XGFJ.  She wasn't that happy with the snorkel experience she had, as the water was churned up too much to get a clear view of the underwater life.  To make things worse, the tender boat had a hard time returning to the ship due to high winds.  (Although I've seen evidence that the new pier for this island is finally available, I still see little gain by visiting this place.)

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So, why did I choose this cruise?

It was the cheapest way I could find for RQS and I to spend a week together and to see whether I'll consider cruising on NCL again for cruises other than the Bermuda run from NYC and for the 7-night Hawaii run from Honolulu.  Many people have reported that NCL now has the feel of a cruise line that nickel-dimes too much.  My impression has been that post-pandemic cruising has a much different feel (and I'm not referring to health related changes) than the pre-pandemic cruises that made NCL a go-to cruise line for me.

Will we have been spoiled too much by Cunard and Princess to choose NCL in the future?  Who knows? But I know that there are only a limited number of cruises that NCL offers that I want to take.  Without being able to get self-service laundry onboard, I will avoid taking cruises longer than a week on this line. (The free laundry bag provided to Platinum, Sapphire, Diamond and Ambassador status is a little too small to clean most garments other than undergarments and socks.)  

I may have outgrown NCL as a go-to cruise line.  But I'm glad to know that I still have good cruises ahead of me on other lines.