In April, we cruised with Norwegian Cruise Line on the Jade. While we had previously cruised four times with Disney this was our first Norwegian cruise. You can read about the differences between the two cruise lines here.
Having cruised with Disney we were used to prebooking everything, which is what we did on our Norwegian cruise. Norwegian’s slogan is Freestyle Cruising, which you can totally do if that fits your lifestyle better.
Here are my tips for your next Norwegian Cruise:
- Book your dining reservation before boarding. You can always change your dining reservation once onboard if you need to, however, the first day on the ship, the lines were very long with people trying to book dinner at the specialty restaurants.
- Book your excursions before boarding. There were extremely long lines at the excursion desk the first several days. I would rather be relaxing or participating in onboard activities than standing in line.
- The ships serve Pepsi products, which my family is not a fan of however you can ask for Cherry Pepsi which we enjoyed a lot more
- The second evening show was less busy than the first. If the theater is near the casino like on the NCL Jade the first floor of the theater could be smokey. The higher you sit in the theater the less smokey it should be.
- Download the NCL app so that you can keep track of your stateroom charges throughout your cruise, that way you are not surprised by a charge at the end.
- If you purchase a drink before the ship leaves port you may incur a charge (tax) beyond the drink cost or in addition if you have the drink package.
- There are 20 hangers in the closet, if you need more you may want to bring them from home or ask your room steward.
- Your pool and beach towels are in the room, however, there is a window where you can get pool towels from on deck. If you do not return your towel to your room you may incur a fee.
Have you cruised with Norwegian Cruise Line? Do you have any tips to share?
