Why We Stopped Being Loyal to One Cruise Line

By Joey, Seabound Journeys7 min read← All articles

For nearly a decade, our family was almost exclusively loyal to Norwegian Cruise Line.

It wasn't because we thought they were perfect.

It was because they were perfect for us.

When you're raising a growing family, value matters. Back when we started sailing regularly, Norwegian offered great pricing, plenty of included amenities, and one feature that was hard to find elsewhere: Kids Sail Free.

For our family, that made a real difference.

One cruise became two. Two became four. Before long, our next eight cruises were all with Norwegian.

We weren't avoiding other cruise lines. We simply had no reason to look elsewhere.

When you find something that works, you stick with it.

Looking back, I'm glad something eventually pushed us out of that comfort zone. Because it completely changed the way we travel.

How we got there

My wife and I took our honeymoon cruise aboard Royal Caribbean's Enchantment of the Seas in 2003. Over the next several years we sailed a few different cruise lines, but cruising didn't become a regular part of our lives until we started having children.

When our oldest daughter was born, we discovered Disney Cruise Line. At the time, Disney was one of the few cruise lines offering nursery care for babies, and that made family cruising possible for us. We loved those vacations.

But we also discovered something else. Traveling with a growing family gets expensive.

That's what eventually led us to Norwegian.

For years, Norwegian delivered exactly what we were looking for. Great family vacations at a price point we could justify. We made incredible memories onboard. We celebrated milestones. We visited destinations we'll never forget.

Over time, Norwegian earned our loyalty.

Booking The Haven

Which is why booking The Haven felt like a milestone.

After years of sailing standard cabins, my wife and I finally decided to treat ourselves. The Haven is Norwegian's ship-within-a-ship experience, complete with a private restaurant, concierge service, priority embarkation, exclusive lounges, and upgraded accommodations.

Everything we'd heard suggested this was going to be something special.

Unfortunately, the experience never quite lived up to what we had imagined.

We arrived at the port early, excited to take advantage of priority embarkation. After checking in, we were escorted to a waiting area because the suite lounge wasn't ready yet.

At first, that didn't seem like a big deal.

Then the hours started passing.

Eventually we learned that the previous sailing had been a charter cruise and disembarkation had been significantly delayed. I don't blame the crew for that. Sometimes circumstances are simply outside anyone's control.

What frustrated me was the uncertainty. Nobody seemed to have answers. Guests were left guessing. We finally boarded around 2:30 in the afternoon. The Haven restaurant was overwhelmed, lunch stretched into more than two hours, and when we finally reached our suite parts of it still hadn't been cleaned.

On a three-day cruise, it felt like we had lost a significant portion of the vacation before it ever began.

A few weeks later, the response arrived.

I remember reading it twice. Waiting to feel better.

I didn't.

The letter was professional. Polite. Everything you'd expect.

But when I finished reading it, I realized nothing had really changed.

That's when I understood what had bothered me so much.

For years, I had believed loyalty was supposed to mean something when things went wrong. Not special treatment. Not free cruises. Just the feeling that a long relationship mattered. I broke down what each program actually gives you here — the mechanics, not the feelings.

When you've sailed with the same company for years, it's easy to start feeling like you're more than just a booking number. You recommend them to friends. You defend them when people complain. You choose them again and again, even when there are other options.

Somewhere along the way, I had started treating Norwegian like a relationship.

They were treating me like a customer.

And to be fair, that's exactly what I was.

Looking back now, I realize that cruise lines aren't relationships. They're businesses.

The memories we create on their ships are personal to us, but to the company we're one of thousands of guests sailing that year.

It took me a long time to separate my disappointment with that experience from the years of great vacations we'd already enjoyed.

At the time, though, I wasn't there yet. We ended up canceling two future Norwegian sailings.

The cruise we couldn't cancel

The only cruise we kept was an eleven-night sailing aboard the NCL Pearl. It was already paid for, already scheduled, and canceling it simply didn't make sense.

So we went. And honestly, my expectations couldn't have been lower.

Then, before we even boarded, we received notice that the itinerary was changing. St. Thomas — one of our favorite ports — was being removed. Puerto Plata was being removed too. In their place were two ports we had never heard of.

At that point, it felt like one more disappointment piled onto another.

Then everything changed.

An anniversary we never could have planned

What we didn't know was that one of those replacement ports was about to make cruise history.

On January 4th, we arrived in Cabo Rojo, becoming passengers on the first cruise ship ever to visit the Dominican Republic's newest cruise port.

When we arrived, it felt less like a normal port day and more like a celebration.

Government officials lined the pier. Media crews were everywhere. Commemorative gifts were being handed out. There was an energy and excitement in the air that you simply can't manufacture. The president of the Dominican Republic was there to welcome the ship.

Then I realized something.

January 4th wasn't just the day we visited Cabo Rojo.

It was our anniversary.

Twenty-one years earlier, my wife and I had sailed away on our honeymoon cruise. Twenty-one years later, completely by accident, we found ourselves standing at a brand-new port welcoming its first cruise ship in history.

We never could have planned that.

A few days later we visited Isla Catalina, an undeveloped stretch of Dominican coastline with white sand, crystal-clear water, and almost no development. It felt like discovering a hidden corner of the Caribbean.

The itinerary change we had been so frustrated about ended up creating two of the most memorable port experiences we've ever had.

Remembering why we loved it in the first place

And somewhere during those eleven nights, something else happened. We remembered why we had loved Norwegian in the first place.

The crew was fantastic. The atmosphere felt familiar. The ship wasn't perfect, but it didn't need to be.

We found ourselves enjoying the vacation far more than we expected.

Not because the disappointment from The Haven had disappeared. But because one disappointing experience couldn't erase years of great memories.

The irony is that the cruise line I was frustrated with also gave us one of our most memorable vacations.

Had The Haven gone perfectly, we probably would have continued booking Norwegian almost exclusively.

Instead, we branched out. We sailed Royal Caribbean again. We discovered Celebrity. We experienced MSC Yacht Club.

We learned that every cruise line does some things exceptionally well and every cruise line has areas where it falls short.

Most importantly, we realized there wasn't one right answer.

What loyalty actually means now

Today, I'm not loyal to Norwegian. I'm not loyal to Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, MSC, or Disney either.

I'm loyal to finding the right vacation.

Sometimes that's Norwegian. Sometimes it isn't.

The goal isn't loyalty to a brand. The goal is creating memories with the people you're traveling with.

Everything else is just the vehicle that gets you there.

And sometimes the experience that pushes you out of your comfort zone becomes the reason you discover something even better.