A Loyal Royal?
The Norwegian Breakaway (photo by Marge Dwyer)
I’ve been loyal to Royal for years—booking every cruise with either Royal Caribbean or Celebrity. The destinations are fabulous, the ships are beautiful, and the food is always great.
But it’s the rewards program that gets you hooked. Once you start earning points, it’s hard to think about going anywhere else because racking up those points means lots of free things. Important free things. Like free drinks and Wi-Fi, to name a few.
Sure, the deals from Princess or Carnival are tempting. But “jumping ship” to another cruise line seems so foolhardy when there are all the future freebies waiting for you.
That is until I spotted a cruise to Bermuda from Boston, my home port. No flying needed, which is a good thing with all the hullabaloo at airports these days. The price was right too. The only catch: it was with Norwegian, not Royal.
Casting my loyalty aside, I booked the cruise anyway, opting to assuage my guilt by convincing myself it was for research—what are the differences between the two lines? And more importantly, was I about to discover something better?
When you’re comparing cruise lines, it helps to look beyond just price and destination. The “best” cruise line really depends on what kind of experience you want. Here are the key areas I focused on with my research.
Ship Design and Vibe
I find that Royal Caribbean is more family-oriented whereas Celebrity is a bit more adult-oriented. I would consider Norwegian to be right in the middle with a moderate number of families. At least it seemed that way in May when we cruised, knowing that the children were still in school.
We noticed several adults-only areas on the ship. So, even on a cruise filled with families, there are still plenty of quiet spaces where you can relax and enjoy a more peaceful atmosphere. I did notice more single travelers on Norwegian than I’ve seen on other cruise lines, which may be due in part to Norwegian’s “solo” cabin options.
The one thing that stood out to me with Norwegian was the “freestyle” approach to cruising. You could dress however you liked. We saw everything from women in elegant sequined gowns to others in shorts and t-shirts. There were several complimentary dining options, and you could eat wherever and whenever you wanted — no reservations required.
With Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, there is an “anytime” dining option for those who want to take advantage of the “freestyle” kind of approach. Plus, they offer two different set dining times in the main dining room as well. So kind of the best of both worlds.
Food and Dining Experience
Both Royal Caribbean and Norwegian have a complimentary buffet; though, they are set up a little differently.
With Royal, once you enter the main room, there are many stations (carving, bread, pizza, grill, salad, dessert, etc.) along the perimeter and in the center of the room with the ability to walk to both sides of the ship from that area. Because of that, you could see water on both sides of the ship and the buffet area seemed quite open and light-filled.
The buffet on Norwegian was set up with the food stations forming a large rectangle in the center of the room. The downside was that you couldn’t easily see what was available on the other side without circling all the way around it. The layout felt a bit dark and closed off, with limited sightlines across the space or out to both sides of the ship.
Norwegian did not have one large central dining room where most passengers gathered each evening. Instead, there were several complimentary restaurants to choose from. Like all restaurants, they get busy at certain times and you are left waiting for a table, as reservations aren’t accepted.
While many people enjoy that flexibility, I found that I missed the structure and familiarity of a traditional dining room experience.
On Royal, unless you chose a specialty restaurant, dinner felt like part of the rhythm of the cruise. You had an assigned dining time, an assigned table, and the same servers throughout the voyage. I missed walking into dinner knowing exactly where I would be seated instead of waiting for a table to open up.
I also missed the relationships that naturally develop with the dining staff over the course of a cruise. You often learn about their home countries, their families, and what life is like working onboard. And because they see you every evening, they quickly remember your preferences — from your favorite bread basket to dietary restrictions and allergies.
The food in the complimentary dining rooms and the buffet on Norwegian was okay; nothing special at all, which made eating in the specialty restaurants a necessity. By comparison, when we’ve sailed with Royal or Celebrity, those specialty dining options came at an additional cost—and honestly, we never felt the need to splurge since the main dining room food was already so good.
Drink Packages
The other major difference between the two lines was with their drink package. On Royal, when you purchase a drink package, it includes alcoholic beverages, as well as unlimited bottles of water and Starbuck’s coffee, including lattes and cappuccinos. Not so with Norwegian. If you want water, you have to purchase bottles separately. And Starbucks is not included – and at $7.15 for a grande latte, that adds up!
The price of drink packages varies widely depending on when you purchase them. With Norwegian, the basic drink package is part of the “free at sea” promotion; though, there was a charge of $199 per person on the folio. This represents the gratuity and service charge, so I guess it’s not totally free. With Celebrity and Royal, most people wait for the 35-40% off sale before sailing.
Cabin and Comfort
The first thing I noticed when entering our stateroom on Norwegian was how small it appeared. The rooms are very narrow to the point that both of us couldn’t walk past the bed at the same time. Even the balcony was tiny in comparison to Royal. We had to turn our chairs a bit in order to not have our knees touch the glass railing – and we are short!
The bed was comfortable on Norwegian and unlike Royal, you can ask your attendant to bring a coffee pot to your stateroom so that you can have coffee before showering and going about your day – a perk I really appreciated. That is not an option with Royal.
Norwegian really stands out as the industry leader when it comes to solo cabins. That might not seem like a big deal at first—but when we cruised with my mom for her 80th birthday, it would have been such a great option for her to have her own space without paying the hefty single supplement for her full size cabin. I love that there is this option on Norwegian. Plus, there’s a special solo traveler relaxation room that comes with complimentary non-alcoholic drinks and snacks.
Entertainment and Activities
Royal Caribbean wows with entertainment choices—from broadway musicals, ice skating shows, and high divers into pools to zip lines, wave simulators, and constant activity everywhere all the time. It’s almost if the ship is the vacation and the destinations are more of an afterthought. Think spring break meets Disney. Celebrity was a bit more scaled down. There were still shows but they seemed a bit more refined in a way. Good shows, live music, and comedians but less glitz.
In contrast, Norwegian’s entertainment is mostly game shows with passenger participation. We did see two wonderful shows with the cruise line’s main singers; one with 70’s and 80’s music and the other a tribute to Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album. Very talented performers.
The main source of entertainment on Norwegian appeared to be their casino, which occupied two floors in the center of the ship in an open-air style.
We did find time to bowl and to play darts on Norwegian, which was a lot of fun.
Service and Staff Experience
On Norwegian, the service style is intentionally relaxed and informal. The overall vibe is designed around “freestyle cruising.” Service tends to feel easygoing and practical—like staff are there to help you enjoy the experience on your terms, without much structure or ceremony layered on top.
On Celebrity, the service level is more consistently refined. Staff seem to anticipate needs. It leans into a more premium hospitality model where staff often remember preferences and provide more personalized touches. The tone is a little more elevated, with a stronger sense of “we’ll take care of the details” approach.
That said, our cabin steward was phenomenal on Norwegian, and he was really the only crew member who we consistently saw or got to know.
So did I find something better? Or will I stay loyal to Royal?
There were so many things to like about Norwegian, and I can see the appeal for those who want to be “free” from any structure at all. We met really nice people on the ship. When polled about their cruise line preference, most said that they enjoyed the freestyle spirit of Norwegian – and many of them said that they had racked up too many points to switch anyway.
As a first-time cruiser with Norwegian, it will take some time for me to accumulate enough points to qualify for the freebies. And I’m so close to being a Diamond member on Royal that it doesn’t make sense for me to jump ship now. I guess that’s where they get you.
One of the complimentary dining rooms, called Taste.