Why Should You Choose Norwegian Cruise Lines?

You want to leave alarm clocks and structure behind when you go on vacation.

You want to eat at different restaurants each evening, like at a land resort, even if it costs a bit more.

You live for great entertainment.

You never want to get out of your casual clothes.

And, depending on your ideal vacation parameters, one or more of the following may apply:

1. You want to cruise around the Hawaiian Islands roundtrip from Honolulu.

2. You are single and want special accommodations and lounge area just for those traveling solo who like to mingle with like souls.

3. You demand one of the largest suites at sea featuring truly outstanding amenities, including a butler to handle everything from unpacking your suitcase to serving you hors d'oeuvres in the evening to making priority arrangements for boarding, dinner reservations, tender tickets and more.

4. You're traveling with your kids, whether you want to squeeze into a small room to save money or luxuriate in a Haven with a private pool area.

Norwegian has always been a highly innovative cruise line, essentially inventing destination cruising in the Caribbean from Miami, among other breakthroughs.  Around the turn of the millennium, NCL's aging fleet and declining perceived value among increasing competition forced it to re-invent itself, and the result was "Freestyle Cruising," with fixed dining times, dress codes and other perceived structural limitations of traditional cruising tossed aside.

Over the next decade,  they replaced the entire fleet with new ships as they implemented their freestyle plan with mixed results, eventually improving efficiency throughout the line, erasing memories of shoddy ships and poor service.

With their newest ships, Norwegian Cruise Lines introduced full-blown Broadway plays and Las Vegas showroom headliners like the Blue Man Group, upping their entertainment game and once again challenging the rest of the industry. There's also lots of fun stuff like huge water slides and two story Wii Wall for the kids.

Freestyle also means lots of alternative dining venues, some of which are included at no additional charge.  This allows you to dine in exactly the atmosphere enjoying whatever you might crave on any given evening at a modest surcharge.

Unfortunately for NCL, many other cruise lines copied parts of their freestyle programs, including open dining as a choice, somewhat diluting their unique marketing proposition, but Norwegian nonetheless has earned consideration by prospective travelers when their itineraries approximate those desired.

This is especially true for Hawaii, one of the great tropical destinations in the world.  NCL Pride of America gives guests the opportunity to visit all four major islands, sailing from Oahu with overnights in Maui and Kauai as well as a port day in both Hilo and Kona on the big island of Hawaii. 

The ship itself lives up to its name, themed on the best of the United States to make it a great choice for vacationers from the rest of the world as well as for Americans.  If you don't want to include a few days of Transpacific crossing, Pride of America is the only way to cruise the islands of Hawaii, made possible because it is U.S. flagged with a U.S. crew.  Higher labor costs of the mandatory U.S. crew for a ship without foreign ports leads to this cruise costing more than many other trips on similar ships, but as Pride of America sells out week after week, many people obviously believe the itinerary to be well worth it.

Lest I be misunderstood, Norwegian also cruises to lots of other destinations including the Caribbean, Bermuda, Europe, Alaska, Mexico and Canada/New England.

If you're single, you will enjoy the Studio life, with a smaller room and special singles-only lounge area available on some ships.  Based on the warm welcome this breakthrough has received, expect a lot of imitators.

And if you want to enjoy all of the choices of a large ship but want to be treated like royalty, the Suite life on NCL is for you.

I used to be reluctant to recommend NCL, but a lot has changed over the last decade. For you, Norwegian Cruise Lines might now be the perfect choice. I'll be happy to help you figure that out.

Better service leads to better trips!

P.S. For those of you in the Los Angeles area, you should be excited to have Norwegian Star returning to the West Coast for Mexican Riviera cruises starting at the end of this month.