Felicia Slattery
In recent years, my husband and I have discovered the joy of cruising. We now average two cruises a year.
To determine our preferred cruise line, we took similar cruises on Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line to compare the food, service, entertainment, and other amenities that matter to us.
In April 2023, we sailed on Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas for 10 nights from Galveston, Texas. Nine months later, in January 2024, we cruised on the Norwegian Breakaway for seven nights from New Orleans.
Both cruises to the Western Caribbean visited the same three ports: Cozumel, Costa Maya, and Roatan Island, with multiple sea days.
For us, there was a clear winner. Here is my cruise-to-cruise comparison.
Felicia Slattery
As a plant-based eater, I appreciated the vegan options in the main dining room and at the expansive buffet on Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas.
We were also delighted with the themes of each evening's meals, such as Caribbean, seafood, and French nights, and found the food delicious.
For my husband's birthday, we splurged on specialty dining at Giovanni's Table and were treated like royalty in the intimate venue with an Italian-inspired menu.
Felicia Slattery
In my opinion, the Norwegian Breakaway's included dining options were less impressive with fewer tasty vegan options. However, we enjoyed dining at its speciality restaurant Moderno.
The upscale, lively Brazilian steakhouse had an epic salad bar overflowing with options such as briny olives, specialty salads, mushrooms, beans, and more. My husband also loved its plentiful skewers of various meats.
Although both lines offered comparable daily entertainment, Norwegian really excelled with its evening shows.
Its onboard Broadway production of the musical "Six" was a standout. It featured an all-female cast and orchestra in a fabulous performance.
The nighttime entertainment we experienced on the Royal Caribbean ship felt professional and high-quality — its parade of flags with dozens of crew members celebrating their countries was especially cool. However, we didn't get to see a big-name act or Broadway-level performance.
Felicia Slattery
Being a personal trainer, my husband enjoys using the fitness center when we cruise.
Debuting in 2001, Radiance of the Seas is one of the older ships in Royal Caribbean's fleet — but with ample windows and panoramic views, its fitness center felt modern enough and enjoyable to use.
It was also laid out in a way that made moving around the facility and using the free weights and machines easy.
On the Norwegian Breakaway, which debuted in 2013, the fitness center was broken up into separate rooms, which made it feel more cramped.
The area for fitness classes usually had the lights off during our visits, which made the whole space seem dark. We found fewer weightlifting options and cardio machines as well.
Felicia Slattery
Both cruise lines have their own apps. We became great at navigating Royal Caribbean's to check in early, book dining reservations, and find activities to do on board.
For us, Norwegian's app felt clunkier and more challenging to use.
After a few days, we gave up on its app entirely. Fortunately, Norwegian provided paper copies of a daily itinerary each evening, so we used that to plan our onboard activities instead.
Felicia Slattery
We were shocked to find our experience with service to be so dramatically different between the two cruise lines.
On every Royal Caribbean cruise we've been on, including this one, our cabin attendants have introduced themselves on embarkation day, provided a business card, and greeted us warmly whenever we crossed paths.
On this Norwegian sailing, we didn't know who our cabin attendant was until the fifth day when they delivered extra towels.
In general, we felt the crew on Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas paid much better attention to detail than the crew on the Norwegian Breakaway.
For example, in Royal Caribbean's main dining room, staff scraped the crumbs off the table between courses. Small touches like this make a huge impact.
We also found crew members we encountered on Royal Caribbean cruises — servers, entertainment staff, cabin stewards — to be more friendly and open to engaging with and conversing with guests.
Norwegian crew members we encountered were professional and nice but didn't seem particularly interested in chatting or connecting with us.
It may have just been our experience — and this probably isn't a big deal to many travelers — but we wondered if this is just a difference between the cruise lines when it comes to culture and staff expectations.
In the end, although both cruise lines offered enjoyable experiences, Royal Caribbean's attention to detail, superior service, and overall atmosphere made it our clear winner.
We plan to book with the line more frequently and build loyalty there as we continue our cruising adventures.
