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I share the 7 things you need to know about Norwegian Cruise Line. The things that make Norwegian Cruise Line different or unique to other cruise lines, and what they offer cruise passengers. The 7 things Norwegian Cruise Lines does that you need to know including looking at their on-board cruise experience, facilities, cabin options, which Norwegian Cruise Line best suited for and more
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00:00 Start
01:17 Freestyle Cruising
03:50 Solo Travel
04:57 Ship-In-Ship Haven
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0:00
i'm gary bembridge and i want to talk
0:01
about seven things that i think
0:03
norwegian cruise line does better
0:05
or at least different to the other
0:06
cruise line it competes with
0:09
norwegian cruise line is the third
0:11
largest cruise line in the world
0:13
based on the number of passengers it
0:15
operates in the valley for money
0:17
cruising category so its big competitors
0:19
are carnival cruise line royal caribbean
0:21
cruise line
0:22
and msc cruises those are the big global
0:24
competitors regionally of course there
0:26
is other competitors in the uk i guess
0:27
probably lines like marella for example
0:29
also compete with
0:31
norwegian cruise line at the time of
0:33
recording they had 17
0:35
ships in service and they range from
0:38
sort of smallish to medium-sized ships
0:40
to large ships
0:41
they range for example in size from the
0:44
norwegian sun which has 1
0:46
936 passengers to norwegian escape
0:49
which has 4266 passengers those were
0:52
based on double occupancy so they can
0:54
actually carry
0:55
more passengers than that when they have
0:57
kids for example sharing cabins
0:59
they're also the only major
1:02
international cruise line
1:03
that has a ship that is actually flagged
1:05
in the united states
1:06
and that's the pride of america which is
1:08
based in hawaii and sales
1:10
itineraries around hawaii and the
1:12
hawaiian islands
1:14
so let's take a look at what i think
1:15
they do better or certainly differently
1:17
first of all
1:18
freestyle cruising norwegian cruise line
1:20
invented the concept of
1:21
freestyle cruising and what they mean by
1:24
that
1:24
is they've built an enormous amount of
1:26
choice so there's
1:27
multiple dining venues loads of bars
1:30
loads of entertainment venues a wide
1:32
range of entertainment
1:34
and pretty relaxed informal service and
1:36
also
1:37
dress code so it's a very informal
1:39
freestyle kind of you
1:41
cater and do what you want to do with
1:43
lots and lots of choices you can pick
1:44
and choose what you want to do
1:46
so let's look at what that actually
1:47
means from a practical perspective
1:49
well from a dining perspective they have
1:51
huge
1:52
amount of choice built into your fare
1:55
you will have
1:56
some dining included so you'll have the
1:57
main dining room option
1:59
with multiple dining times as per usual
2:01
you'll have a buffet dining
2:03
option and there will normally be one
2:05
other sort of more specialty restaurant
2:06
which is included within the fair so for
2:08
example on my most recent norwegian
2:11
cruise line cruise which is on the
2:12
encore it was actually the local so that
2:14
was
2:14
included within the fair but the range
2:17
of specialty dinner especially dining
2:18
does have an extra charge
2:20
is huge so the encore which as i
2:22
mentioned was my last cruise there was
2:23
12 different specialty dining options
2:25
but
2:26
across the fleet there are almost 20
2:28
different
2:29
dining combinations that you can choose
2:31
from they all do have a charge and the
2:33
charge
2:34
varies based on the specific restaurant
2:36
you could have an american diner
2:37
brazilian steakhouse a french restaurant
2:40
an italian restaurant three japanese
2:42
restaurants you could have a teriyaki
2:44
a sushi and a kind of fusion restaurant
2:47
mexican
2:47
seafood so as you can see pretty much
2:50
international cuisine
2:51
with a wide range not all of those will
2:53
be on every single ship but there will
2:54
be a lot of choice
2:55
they also often have different treat
2:57
venues so you might have things like
3:00
cocos which is fantastic milkshakes and
3:04
chocolates dolce gelato which of course
3:06
is gelato
3:07
and the bake shop which is a partnership
3:09
with the very famous celebrity baker
3:12
on some of the ships you also have which
3:13
is one of my big favorites you have a
3:15
fully operational starbucks on the ships
3:18
and again depending on the size of the
3:19
ship
3:19
there could be up to 22 different bars
3:23
lounges or entertainment venues the
3:26
dress code itself is pretty relaxed
3:27
you'll find right across the ship they
3:29
don't have a formal set
3:30
dress codes even on their sort of dress
3:32
up nights they call it kind of dress up
3:33
if you want to
3:34
when you go to dinner and some of the
3:36
smarter especially restaurants they do
3:38
ask you to dress more smart casual but
3:40
it's very
3:40
relaxed so if you're looking for a
3:41
relaxed cruising with a huge amount of
3:44
choice you definitely that's one of the
3:45
things that i would say
3:46
norwegian does better than anybody else
3:49
the other thing that norwegian cruise
3:50
line does really well is cater for
3:52
different passenger types and the first
3:53
one that i
3:54
really want to pull out is solo cruising
3:56
if you're a solo cruiser
3:58
you'll know that that can be really
3:59
expensive to cruise on many cruise lines
4:01
because they charge up to double
4:03
for an occupancy of a cabin norwegian
4:05
have really
4:06
gone really hard and aggressively to
4:09
cater for solo travelers and they've
4:10
created
4:11
on at the moment six of their ships the
4:14
studios for solo travelers this is a
4:16
great little
4:17
key card controlled area they have only
4:20
solar cabins there's a
4:21
lounge which will have some
4:22
complementary snacks and breakfast
4:25
during the day a great chance to meet
4:27
with other solo travelers
4:28
and but you can only go into that area
4:30
if you have the key card so it also
4:32
adds a sort of layer of extra security
4:34
for people traveling solo
4:37
the only downside of those is there are
4:39
all inside cabins and they are pretty
4:40
small so if you want a balcony
4:42
this is not going to be for you but they
4:43
really do make sure they cater for solo
4:45
travelers
4:46
really really well and i think this is a
4:47
really really great concept
4:49
you'll find the studios for solar
4:50
travelers on the escape the bliss the
4:52
breakaway
4:53
the getaway the epic and also on the
4:55
pride of america
4:57
one of the things that i think norwegian
4:59
cruise line does
5:00
phenomenally well probably the best of
5:03
all of the cruise lines is their premium
5:05
ship with inner ships a lot of cruise
5:06
lines have created those ship within a
5:07
ship concept where they put
5:09
their premium suites norwegian does it
5:11
phenomenally well i think they do it
5:13
the best and they have what's known as
5:15
the haven
5:16
so in the haven you have all of the
5:18
beautiful
5:19
suites which can be multiple bedroom but
5:22
also in here you have a concierge
5:24
you also have a dedicated haven lounge
5:27
and bar
5:28
you also have the haven restaurant so
5:29
all the sweet guests eat in there
5:31
and you have a beautiful pool deck area
5:33
with your own swimming pool
5:35
and hot tubs it's a very premium
5:39
prestige
5:40
beautiful beautiful creation and you
5:41
also have butler service i do think they
5:43
have really got the ship within a ship
5:44
concept down
5:45
the absolute best across all of the
5:47
cruise lines the other thing that
5:49
norwegian cruise line does different to
5:50
other cruise lines is they've really
5:52
focused
5:52
on sort of what i call branded or named
5:54
entertainment so you'll find across
5:57
all of their ships they will normally
5:58
have a big full-on
6:00
broadway west end production so it's not
6:03
a review-type show like many other
6:04
cruise lines it's the full on production
6:07
show
6:07
so you'll find on some ships they'll
6:10
have shows like priscilla queen of the
6:11
desert
6:12
they'll have kinky boots they've had
6:14
jersey boys
6:15
so you'll find big full-on broadway
6:18
production shows with often the cast
6:20
which have come
6:20
from either broadway or the west end on
6:22
those shows also on norwegian ships in
6:25
the past i've seen the blue man group
6:26
also more recently they've got burn the
6:28
floor which is that big well-known
6:30
dance show that is on around the world
6:33
it's kind of against like a sort of a
6:34
franchise
6:35
and even across the ship they'll have
6:37
other themed entertainments like in the
6:38
cavern club
6:39
they've got like a beatles tribute band
6:42
and on other ships they've also got
6:44
kind of a dining theater concept where
6:46
they've got a partnership with cirque du
6:48
soleil
6:48
and that's called cirque dreams so
6:50
definitely they've gone
6:52
for well-known big high-profile
6:55
shows on their ships and this is
6:57
something very unique to norwegian
7:00
the next area that i think they do
7:01
extremely well and you could argue
7:04
it may not be as different as some of
7:05
the other points is their resort
7:07
features but they are pushing the boat
7:08
out on these if you excuse the pun
7:10
so on their bigger ships they started to
7:12
build in more resort features so for
7:14
example on encore
7:15
they had a full-on go-kart track which
7:18
you could go racing around on go-karts
7:20
they had a massive big
7:22
laser tag section at the back of the
7:24
ship
7:26
but also within the ship they have a big
7:28
arcade center where you can do
7:31
3d 4d games and even they had more
7:33
traditional arcades
7:35
so they are building in lots and lots of
7:37
resorts they have water parks
7:39
water slides and just fantastic resort
7:41
features
7:42
the kids clubs are also pretty
7:44
phenomenal they have guppies for the
7:46
very young ones
7:46
they have splash academy for the mid
7:49
aged ones and then they have the
7:50
entourage teen club which is a really
7:52
funky fabulous sort of place
7:54
so although other cruise lines do the
7:57
resort features phenomenally well
7:58
like royal caribbean for example i do
8:00
think that what norwegian is doing is a
8:02
little bit different
8:03
and they really do it extremely well to
8:05
get many of those resort features you
8:07
need to go
8:07
on some of the bigger ships the other
8:10
thing that i think they do a little bit
8:11
differently but certainly do
8:12
really really well are their caribbean
8:15
private islands
8:16
so many of the cruise lines now have
8:18
private islands in the caribbean
8:20
norwegian city at the time of recording
8:22
has two of them
8:23
the one which they've had for the
8:24
longest which is great stirrup key
8:27
and also the newest one which i think is
8:29
really fantastic
8:30
which is harvest key so great stirrup is
8:34
in the bahamas area
8:35
and harvest is in the belize area
8:38
harvest key is a fantastic resort it's
8:41
very pristine
8:42
you can have zip lining very premium
8:45
bungalows we can go and hang out there's
8:47
scuba and snorkeling
8:49
and it is just a beautiful beautiful
8:51
island i think they do the private lands
8:53
phenomenally well
8:55
the other thing which i think norwegian
8:57
do differently
8:58
and i think is very exciting is they are
9:00
making
9:01
the ability to make your cruise more and
9:03
more all-inclusive
9:05
so those are totally all-inclusive fare
9:07
they are offering various different
9:09
packages and they have different names
9:10
i've seen over the times but at the
9:12
moment they're calling themselves
9:14
recording the free etsy packages and
9:17
what you do is you pay
9:18
a extra charge per person for the whole
9:21
cruise
9:22
and they bundle together number of their
9:23
packages so you get a beverage package
9:25
included you get some special dining
9:27
package included
9:28
you get a wi-fi package included and you
9:30
get an excursions package
9:32
included which includes basically some
9:34
credits towards the cost
9:35
of excursions now you can traditionally
9:37
buy those packages separately but
9:39
pretty much every single norwegian
9:40
cruise that i've looked at has
9:42
had the ability to tag on those free
9:45
etsy packages so you know when you book
9:47
you've got your fare and you've bundled
9:49
together all those extra costs so it
9:51
helps you
9:52
manage the total cost of your cruise i
9:54
hope you found that helpful i have loads
9:56
more videos
9:57
packed full of tips and advice about all
9:59
things cruising so why don't you watch
10:01
another one of those right now
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