Two of the biggest names in the cruise line industry are Royal Caribbean International and Norwegian Cruise Line.
These two cruise lines have a lot of similarities, but they also have a lot of differences that prospective guests should consider.
I recently was able to put these differences to the test after I sailed with Norwegian Cruise Line for the first time last summer, and I cruised with Royal Caribbean for the first time just a couple weeks ago, this past January.
Come along with me as I explore my favorite things about my previous sailings with Royal Caribbean International, and how some of them compare to my experiences with Norwegian Cruise Line.
#1 - Perfect Day at Coco Cay
I recently visited Royal Caribbean International’s private island, Perfect Day at Coco Cay for the fist time in January with the Royal Caribbean’s ship - Liberty of the Seas.
On the morning of our visit I headed to breakfast at Windjammer’s, the ships main buffet venue, and immediately I was impressed by the expansiveness of the views in front of me. The views of Coco Cay from the back of the ship were impressive, and I became even more excited about what the day was going to bring.
Along with the staff from Cruise Blog, I was able to experience the exclusive Beach Club area of Coco Cay. This beautiful private area of the island featured an environment of relaxed luxury. In this region of Perfect Day at Coco Cay guests can find a beautiful outdoor restaurant, over the water cabanas, infinity pool, bar, and a stunning white sand beach with turquoise water making waves in the surf.
Upon disembarking from the ship, guests are greeted by bright colors and fun music as they walk onto the island. A big perk of Perfect Day at Coco Cay, is that all Royal Caribbean ships can dock directly up to the private island.
Currently, all Norwegian Cruise Line ships must use tender boats in order to ferry passengers over to their private island - Great Stirrup Cay.
After crossing the bridge over to the island, guests to Perfect Day at Coco Cay are greeted by lively signs pointing in every direction beckoning guests to fun, entertainment, relaxation, and the opportunity to make memories during a Perfect Day.
As I made my way over to the Beach Club I noticed copious amounts of beach access with complimentary loungers, pool areas complete with swim-up bars, and a huge aqua park featuring large water slides capable of providing limitless thrills.
Royal Caribbean’s private island has everything that the entire family could desire for a Perfect Day in the Caribbean.
Last August, I greatly enjoyed my time spent on Great Stirrup Cay, Norwegian Cruise Line’s private island. I did notice however, that at this time, the amount of activities for guests on this island seemed rather limited when compared to Perfect Day at Coco Cay. I was happy to find that all of the lounge chairs on the beach were complimentary to guests, and there were venues for live music, and several bar areas right on the beach for guests to enjoy at Great Stirrup Cay.
Both of these private islands have food locations ashore, and plenty of beach space for guests to enjoy the unique beauty of these Caribbean islands. These cruise line-owned islands are sure to offer a great day in the Bahamas for its passengers. Both of these islands offer a beach resort-like experience to its guests.
Perfect Day at Coco Cay has a plethora of activities for adults, children, and passengers of every age, making it my current top choice of the cruise line private islands I have visited so far.
#2 - Main Dining Room Food
Royal Caribbean does a great job at providing an expansive amount of diverse foods for every taste to its passengers.
Recently Royal Caribbean changed the menus they feature in the main dining room. These menus have replaced the tried-and-true menus that guests have loved for years, and it will be interesting to see how these new menus perform amongst passengers in the years to come.
I appreciate how Royal Caribbean seems to put real effort into each of their appetizers, entrees, and desserts. While everyone has their own personal tastes, and will enjoy certain dishes more than others, I can confidently say that every guest of Royal Caribbean is sure to find something onboard that they enjoy.
I very much enjoyed the food served onboard my Norwegian Cruise Line sailing. However, I felt like some of the entrees lacked flare, such as some of the pasta dishes. For the most part I enjoyed every meal I had onboard with Norwegian Cruise Line.
With Royal Caribbean I felt like I could expect a certain level of excellence when it came to their dishes, such as their classic appetizers. One of my personal favorite dishes on my last cruise sailing with Royal Caribbean was the French Onion Soup appetizer, this soup came as a generous portion and was very tasty.
#3 - Onboard Activities
Royal Caribbean is known for having the largest cruise ships in the world. And with their size, comes a never-ending amount of activities for its guests to explore onboard.
The amount of onboard activities on Royal Caribbean ships is staggering. Even some of Royal Caribbean’s oldest ships have unique forms of onboard entertainment - such as rock climbing walls, sports courts, ice skating, escape rooms, and so much more.
Guests will find themselves desiring more than just one Sea Day while onboard, in order to explore everything their Royal Caribbean ship has to offer.
#4 - Unique Entertainment
Royal Caribbean has some of the most unique entertainment at sea that I have seen yet. For example, many Royal Caribbean ships feature ice skating shows or water acrobat theater shows.
Along with more classic forms of entertainment such as comedians, live music, and Broadway-style theatrical performances, these unique forms of entertainment means that there is more than enough different forms of entertainment on offer to suite any passenger.
On my first sailing with Royal Caribbean, I watched the ice show onboard and was thoroughly impressed with the cast’s talent, skill, and determination to deliver a thrilling and entertaining show to the onlooking guests.
I would highly recommend attending at least a couple of the shows put on by Royal Caribbean onboard their ships. Attending these shows is completely complimentary to all passengers onboard sailing with Royal Caribbean.
These shows being included in the price of guests’ cruise fare is a big plus. This means that if passengers really enjoyed a performance, they could have the opportunity to see these shows more than once onboard their sailing.
Additionally, Royal Caribbean does not require or even recommend that passengers make reservations prior to attending a show. Currently, Norwegian Cruise Line does recommend that guests make reservations for even the complimentary entertainment. This can put pressure on guest ahead of their sailing.
#5 - Nightlife
When I sailed with Norwegian Cruise Line last August, I noticed that it seemed like most of the ship had quieted down around 10pm. This did not seem to be the case onboard the two sailings I recently had with Royal Caribbean in January.
There were scheduled activities, entertainment, and nightlife going on until about 1am each night of the sailing on Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas.
For example, guests could attend a live music performance at one of the many bars and lounges, or they could visit one of the spaces hosting events such as silent disco for adults or night club music and dancing.
There is nightlife options for nearly every personal taste. If you are someone who likes to dance the night away, there are plenty of options each evening of the cruise voyage. Or if you are someone who enjoys listening to live singing and piano playing, there are also options for passengers to appreciate this type of entertainment as well at the bars and lounges onboard.
There are many themed lounges and bars onboard Royal Caribbean ships. Such as the tropical themed tiki bar - Bamboo Room. Or the pub-styled bar - English Pub. Or the old nautical, ship themed bar and lounge - Schooner Bar. Guests can enjoy unique drinks and cocktails at each of these venues.
#6 - Royal Promenade
Something rather unique to Royal Caribbean ships is the Royal Promenade onboard nearly all Royal Caribbean vessels.
This area of the ship is located at the heart of the vessel, and features many of the ships’ bars, lounges, shops, and is close to the theater and other main areas of the ship. This region of the ship makes for a great central meeting location for families and friends.
This area of the ship functions as the ‘atrium’ that can be found onboard many other cruise ships, except this area offers its guests so much more. More than just a large central staircase, this zone of the ship functions as the “downtown” of sorts on the ship.
#7 - Pools, Waterslides and Learning to Surf
Royal Caribbean ships offer not just relaxation for its guests, but also thrills. Many of Royal Caribbean’s ships, including even some of the oldest, feature at least a couple water slides onboard for guests to enjoy.
One of the most unique forms of aqua activities and entertainment that I’ve seen onboard a cruise ship is the FlowRider. This popular attraction can be found on many of Royal Caribbean’s vessels.
This activity allows guests to try their ability at both boogie-boarding, knee boarding, and surfing. Trying out this activity is complimentary to all guests. Guests are asked to try out boogie-boarding first before they attempt surfing on the FlowRider.
Guests can also sign up for paid lessons on the FlowRider. These lessons give guests one-on-one tutoring from crew members who are skilled in the various techniques when it comes to learning how to surf on a cruise ship.
One of our staff members here at Cruise Blog recently tried out this activity. Read her in-depth article here detailing her experience taking lessons and learning to surf on a cruise ship on Royal Caribbean’s FlowRider!
#8 - Adult Only Areas
One of my favorite things about Royal Caribbean versus Norwegian Cruise Line is the adult-only areas of the ship.
The ‘Solarium’ is the name of the adult-only area onboard all Royal Caribbean ships. This region of the ship usually features at least one pool, hot tub, and bar. Along with many lounge chairs for guests to relax and unwind.
This area of the ship is usually quiet with limited music. Meaning that adult passengers can take some time to escape the hustle-and-bustle of the rest of the ship.
The Solarium onboard Royal Caribbean ships is restricted to passengers 16 years and older. Access to this area of the ship is complimentary to all guests who meet the age requirement.
On Norwegian Cruise Line ships, most if not all of the adults-only areas require an extra cost. This means that in order for adult passengers to enjoy some peace and quiet onboard, they may be required to pay an additional fee on top of their cruise fare.
#9 - Complimentary Onboard Activities
I appreciate that many of the activities onboard Royal Caribbean ships are complimentary.
Something that can be common to find onboard Norwegian Cruise Line ships, is that many of the popular activities come with an additional cost on top of guests’ cruise fare.
For example, Norwegian Cruise Line is well-known for its race tracks at sea. These speedways often times span over multiple decks and allow guests to travel at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour around a turning and weaving race track on a go cart-like car!
As you can imagine, this unique experience is advertised quite heavily by Norwegian Cruise Line and is a popular attraction amongst guests who travel with the cruise line. Currently this attraction costs about $10 U.S. dollars, for 8 laps around the track. While this might not seem expensive, it is still an additional cost that guests will need to consider if they want to enjoy this attraction at sea.
Additionally, many Norwegian Cruise Line ships feature laser tag onboard, this activity will also incur a fee of $10 U.S. dollars for guests to participate in two games.
I appreciate that some of the unique experiences such as the FlowRider onboard Royal Caribbean allow guests to participate and make memories for free while onboard.
#10 - Unique Stateroom Types
(Fellow Cruise Blog writer, Allie, during her stay at the Ben and Jerry's Suite onboard Liberty of the Seas)
Something interesting about Royal Caribbean ships, is that many of them have unique styles of staterooms.
Norwegian Cruise Line has some great and unique room types as well, such as their solo-cruiser cabins designed especially for guests traveling alone.
Royal Caribbean has some uniquely themed rooms such as the Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Suite located on Liberty of the Seas. Or interior Promenade View Staterooms located on many Royal Caribbean ships.
These rooms while defined as interior staterooms, do have a window that allows guests to take in the view of the Promenade. These rooms also have two couches, one by the window, and another one for guests to spread out in, offering plenty of room for passengers to spread out and relax.
On some of Royal Caribbean International’s newest ships, such as the Oasis Class vessels, there are staterooms that give guests a look out onto the ships’ Central Park. This is an area similar to the Promenade, but it is open-air, outside venue, and gives guests access to some natural light through their window, while simultaneously being an interior-facing stateroom.
Conclusion
One of the wonderful things about cruising is that there is a cruise line out there for every person’s taste and budget, that fits exactly what nearly every prospective passenger is looking for.
As two of the biggest names in the cruise line industry, Royal Caribbean International and Norwegian Cruise Line compete on nearly every front. These two cruise lines have a lot of similarities, but also some big differences.
Guests are sure to enjoy both of these cruise lines, but should take into account the differences before booking their next cruise vacation. These are just some of my personal thoughts and observations, but I hope that they help you plan your next adventure on the high seas!
Hayley Phillips
Hayley Phillips is a military spouse currently living in Florida and loves all things travel and travel planning.
