Originally Posted: 06/15/26
(Courtesy of SS United States Conservancy)
If I had been able to do so when it sailed, I'd have tried to make a transatlantic crossing on the SS United States. This ship held the Blue Riband for the fastest transatlantic crossing, from an age where fast crossings of the Atlantic Ocean were the norm for transatlantic travel. Sadly, there is little market demand today for this kind of ship. I am glad to have been able to sail on Cunard's Queen Mary 2, the last Ocean Liner in active service. And this got me thinking: What do I think of the cruise lines I've sailed on recently?
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Over the past year or so, I have sailed on the following cruise lines:
- MSC
- Princess (twice)
- NCL
- Cunard
- Virgin Voyages
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MSC:
Originally, I had misgivings about taking a cruise on the MSC Meraviglia, given all the bad reviews I have read about this ship. My first cruise on the Meraviglia made me one of the people who would never recommend this ship to anyone. Yet, after a second cruise on this ship (suggested by my partner), I recommend this ship with caveats:
- Dinner service for most cruisers is at fixed times. It took me a while to get used to eating on a fixed schedule, but my waiters got to know me and my preferences and anticipated my selections. This would likely not happen with "any time" dining as I've experienced on NCL.
- Food quality in the main dining rooms is middling, and leaves something to be desired. Nothing I ate there could be labeled: "Knock Your Socks Off." But everything was flavorful, especially if one had European tastes.
- Buffet offerings tend to be bland, and the buffet's layout tends to result in crowding in the passageways. However, one will find one of the best pizzas at sea on MSC ships.
- Entertainment in the ship's theater is adequate, but not long enough for a truly enjoyable show. Most shows are 30 minutes long, and leave the audience wanting more. Contrast this with the shows on other lines, which usually last 45-60 minutes, and MSC comes out lacking in this area.
- Shore Excursions sold by MSC are reasonably priced, albeit with frills cut out of their offerings. When I compared two Bermuda shore excursions that went to the Crystal Caves, MSC's excursion cost 65% of that NCL charged for a similar excursion. However, NCL also included a second stop on its excursion that wasn't in MSC's excursion. So, one has to examine what one gets from an MSC excursion before buying it from MSC.
- MSC's ships are modern and glitzy. They are a feast for the eyes. However, the glitz can be a problem for visually impaired people due to the amount of highly reflective surfaces on the ship.
- I found no dedicated quiet areas on the Meraviglia. This may not be a problem for younger adults who like to party. However, this can be a problem for older adults who enjoy a more sedate environment in which to relax and have a drink.
- Cabin space is mostly adequate for two people. However the cabin layout in many cases is not ideal. For example, if sailing in a Solo cabin (which I've done in the past), the cabin layout is sub optimal for most passengers.
- MSC's customer service (by many accounts) leaves much to be desired. I have not had to have any problems addressed by the line. However, one gets what one pays for, and this line relies on phone calls instead of written information.
In conclusion, MSC is a "Value Oriented" line which can provide predictable service for a good price. Other than its pizza, its food is equivalent to that one would get at a midrange restaurant. Much of what it provides is "no frills". But what it does provide is good value for money spent. Sadly, it no longer sails out of New York City, as of April 2026. But if you are near one of its American home ports, I'd sail with MSC if I wanted a quick "getaway" cruise.
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Princess:
My first cruise ever was on a Princess ship during the Summer of 1997. It would be unfair of me to rate this cruise line based on that cruise. Luckily, I have taken several more cruises in the past few years on which to form my opinions.
When I first started sailing again with a cruise partner, the first cruise I sailed on was a Princess cruise on a standard New England and Eastern Canada route. Since then, I have taken other cruises with Princess, including ones to the Norwegian Fjords, Alaska's Inside Passage, and the California Coast. For each of these cruises, I chose the Princess Premier fare package, as it is truly all-inclusive.
Unlike MSC, I never had any concerns about sailing with Princess. For the most part, this line strikes a perfect balance between price and what is delivered. Although Princess is not as premium a line as Cunard, it is a step above NCL in many ways.
- Cabin service (at the time I started writing this entry) is still performed twice on each day:
- Day service: Making up beds, replacing towels, etc.
- Turndown service: Preparing the room for bedtime. - Most ships have a dedicated Steakhouse (Crown Grill) and an Italian restaurant (Sabbatini's). In addition, they usually have dedicated casual dining restaurants, and a pop-up restaurant (Crab Shack) that reuses space occupied by another restaurant for lunch or dinner depending on ship size. Food service may start off slow. Yet, this can work out to a diner's advantage, as there never is a rush to move diners out so that new diners can be seated at the tables. Food quality at these restaurants is excellent, though it may not be at the same level as luxury lines not covered by this post.
- Food quality in the main dining rooms is very good, and portions are plentiful. The only time one will get charged for an extra main is on "surf and turf" night, where a nominal fee is charged for an extra "surf and turf" dish.
- Princess' entertainment is hit and miss. One day, a cruiser might get a second rate rock singer. The next night, one might get a first rate show from the ship's music and dance performers.
- Princess offers 2 "All-Inclusive" fares: Plus and Premier. For a few dollars more than the "Standard" fare, they include: drink and soda packages; wi-fi/internet packages; specialty/casual dining packages (premier only); and gratuities. Although Princess recommends the Plus fare package to people, I feel that the Premier fare package provides the greatest value for dollar spent.
- The ships in Princess' fleet are well maintained, and do not belie their age in obvious ways. Cabin space is well designed, and there is more than enough storage space for two people sharing a cabin.
- Princess offers one of the best Alaska cruise routes available. When we sailed last summer, our cruise spent a full day in Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan; as well as sailing through Glacier Bay. This is a rarity among cruise routes, as many of them (including those from Princess) will make only half-day stops in some Alaskan ports, as well as skipping Glacier Bay for another Glacier area.
This is the cruise line I've sailed on most often in the past 15 years. Although NCL has ships sailing the world over, most of their routes leave a little to be desired.
- When one could sail deep into the Norwegian Fjords, they did not have routes that reached Flam, a town whose railway is one of Europe's most scenic trips.
- Unlike Princess's California routes, NCL only offers sailings to the "Mexican Riviera". I feel that NCL should consider 7-day cruises which touch a Mexican port, but whose route sails mostly along the California coast with a single stop in Ensenada Mexico to satisfy US legal requirements.
- Most of NCL's Alaska cruises make at least 1 port stop which lasts only 1/2 day. Cruises stopping at Victoria, BC will often only make 3-hour night time port stops only to satisfy a US law that requires foreign flagged ships to make port at 1 foreign port before returning to the US.
- Due to NCL's development of their Ward Cove pier (Ketchikan), people getting off the ship to visit Ketchikan will need to take a shuttle bus from Ward Cove to Ketchikan, a 15+ minute trip.
- NCL has an advantage over other cruise lines with its Hawaiian sailings, as it has a monopoly on the 7-day cruise market for cruises which start and end in Honolulu due to its ownership of the single US flagged cruise ship, the Pride of America.
Unfortunately, NCL seems to be delivering less value for dollars spent these days. For example, after cruise lines had their post-pandemic reopening, NCL cut back to once per day room service. This didn't bother me as much as their decision to stop licensing Broadway shows for the ship's theater, and to reduce the quality of food served in their main dining rooms.
When I see NCL's "Free at Sea" promotion, I feel that NCL is trying to make people think that "free" offerings are really free. If the specialty dining and drink packages were really free, NCL wouldn't be making their guests pay "Gratuities" for each selected package. Couple this with a measly 150 minutes of Wi-Fi and overpriced shore excursions, and it's hard to feel comfortable with this line's pricing policy. If I buy an "All-Inclusive" package, I want one like Princess' Plus or Premier fare packages, where I get unlimited streaming Wi-Fi, unlimited soft and adult drinks (premier fare only, plus package is a combined 15 soft and adult beverages per day), with included "gratuities". However, if one purchases the full Free at Sea and the Free at Sea Plus package, then the combination becomes more of an "All-Inclusive" package, as drinks, internet (1 device), and gratuities are all included.
This is not to imply that NCL is a bad cruise line. Of all the mainstream cruise lines (excepting maybe, Virgin Voyages), it has some of the best specialty restaurants at sea, and more of them on each ship. Their ships are well maintained, though one can see some wear and tear on their older ships. Like Princess and Holland America, some NCL Alaska cruises go to Glacier Bay, a "must visit" place recommended by many people who have visited this national park. NCL has the best Hawaii presence with its 11-day cruisetour that allows the cruiser to take a 3-day tour of Oahu island, followed by a 7-night cruise with 4 port stops on each of 3 islands: Maui (overnight stay - 1 port) , Hawaii (2 ports, Hilo and Kona), and Kauai (overnight stay - 1 port).
Cunard:
If there are two words that define this cruise line, they would be: Casual Elegance. Cunard has the last purpose-built Ocean Liner in service, the Queen Mary 2, that has regular service on the Transatlantic route. The QM2 is both a living museum and a relatively modern ship. The QM2 inherits the elegance which defined traditional Atlantic crossings and uses that elegance to make the ship seem as special as she is.
Cunard has only 4 ships: Queen Anne, Queen Elisabeth, Queen Victoria, and the Queen Mary 2. All try to be models of perfection, and the staff on the Queen Mary 2 comes close to being so for voyages on this ship. In doing a fair review of my sailing on the Queen Mary 2, I had to focus on Cunard's imperfections instead of what they get right - too many things are done too well to list all the things they get right.
Most of the problems I encountered with Cunard focus on a cruiser's technological user experience. They include:
- A wonky website which forces a person to look up their booking number offline, so that they can log on to the website and: (1) Check in for the cruise, and (2) Purchase upgrades (internet package, drink package, shore excursions, etc.) for the cruise.
- The lack of a fully functional App which one can download pre-cruise to interact with the cruise line for both pre-cruise functions (check in, purchasing upgrades, etc.) and for on-cruise functions (dining reservations, checking account balances, chat between passengers, etc.).
- We purchased 2 internet packages (one for me and one for my partner). Yet, staff at the purser's desk originally said we only had one package, and had to share it. Several days into the cruise, my partner found the confirmation we had purchased 2 packages, and we were told that we didn't have to share anymore. Cunard promptly refunded us the money for the unused half of one package we were originally told we couldn't use.
- Once I could log on to my own account, I found that the location being sent to my cell phone (when at sea) was either Tromso, Norway or Southampton, United Kingdom. This caused pictures I took onboard with my cell phone to have both bad time and location stamps.
Virgin:
This cruise line has a vibe that is completely different from all of the other cruise lines. As my cruise partner put it, the Virgin vibe is Industrial Beachcomber Chic. As I see things, Virgin has rethought what a cruise experience should be and has targeted its product for the 30-50 year old (child free) demographic. No children are allowed onboard the ship, resulting in a more mellow, adult vibe.
When I say that Virgin is a party cruise line, I don't mean that it is an alcoholic party line. Neither my partner nor I saw the usual group of people getting it on with their 9 am drinks. This must be related to the fact that there is no unlimited drink package on Virgin. Instead, one can buy drink credits at a discount before the cruise and spend them while on the ship. Another thing of note: the Casino area on the Valiant Lady was pleasantly free of tobacco smoke. Since we are not gamblers, we didn't bother to investigate things further.
Unfortunately, Virgin focuses on the use of high-tech in virtually all customer interfaces. This can be a problem when its app doesn't want to recognize photos it takes of one's driver's license and passport. (I had to resubmit my photos just before our cruise, as Virgin's AI couldn't process what I had captured for them several weeks beforehand. Additionally, its app is not the most user friendly of apps, as we couldn't make brunch reservations without assistance from ship personnel.
The high point of any Virgin cruise should be the food. If one looks at each of the ship's complimentary restaurants that require reservations as the equivalent of specialty restaurants on other cruise lines, one will not be disappointed by the comparison. Each of the restaurants served excellent food, often with a unique twist on a cuisine. The Galley replaces a traditional buffet, something I'd like to see more cruise lines emulate. Cruisers do not touch food, nor do they serve their own food portions. Instead, waiter service is available to order food from many stations and deliver it to one's table. This is much more hygienic than a typical buffet, and it eliminates the crowds that usually appear near popular food stations.
The one important thing that bothered us was the lack of communication between ship's crew and ship passengers. On disembarkation day, no one communicated to cruisers why disembarkation was being delayed. A queue formed that extended from mid-ship to one end of the ship and doubled back on itself. No one knew why the line wasn't moving, nor was any effort made by ship's crew to make people more comfortable. Eventually, the line started to move and we were barely able to catch our ferry on time.
If one prefers informality and enjoys sailing on a line geared for the young at heart, Virgin is the cruise line for you. Service may not be as formal and as structured as Cunard. But it is there, and noticeable from the little things the crew does for cruisers. It is great value for the money, and it is pleasantly child-free!
