macdon9876

Thanks all for the comments and tips! I've always enjoyed these boards for the commentary. For a bit of perspective about the air: - This was a family trip with thirteen total in our party, and was booked by a single member of our party. NCL Air was selected for the cost savings (you don't say - get what you pay for!). I agree with several who have mentioned it - travelling on our own, we always book direct with the airlines, or maybe with an agent we trust who will help if things go sideways. - Of the thirteen, the other nine had no problems with their air, aside from a delayed flight coming home. (We were all flying to/from the same home airport.) Our family of four were the "lucky" ones - we always had a different itinerary home than the rest, and it changed a number of times in the span of a month (I said five times, but my wife says it was actually six times). - When I say "change" I don't just mean time changes. These were wholesale changes to the entire flights - carriers, connection cities, departure times/days, etc. In total I remember being booked variously on Frontier, Air Canada, WestJet, JetBlue and Air Transat (the last two carriers ended up getting us home - connecting through Punta Cana of all places - after a short puddle-jump flight from San Juan aboard a mostly empty JetBlue plane - that was a genuinely pleasant experience, and my first time on JetBlue... but they destroyed one of our bags!). This last flight was confirmed at around 9pm on the night before disembarkation, but even in the morning my wife couldn't check-in as it said her reservation didn't exist! (JetBlue fixed this error.) - In the end, I think I can roll with quite a lot, but what got under our skin the most was the attitude of NCL staff we dealt with. One person was by far the worst (a shoreside employee at NCL Air), but at every step of the way indifference was the best we experienced, and rudeness and hostility were often present. How dare we ask how we should expect to fly home to Nova Scotia from San Juan after several changes, which had been happening since before we left Halifax? 🙂 - As mentioned, I was particularly disappointed with Guest Services. While they weren't able to actively change the situation, they could have taken a much better approach with us as worried customers. There was no support or compassion about the situation at all, until the very end (the morning of disembarkation) when one GS employee spoke to us with a smile and kindness, which was such a pleasant change. Had this been our experience throughout, there is a good chance we would have looked at another cruise and chalked this up to an awful air department at NCL. (Agreed with another poster - I've read similar about Royal's air as well.) Derek, I didn't find the hidden sun deck (or even deck 19) - darn!! I'd say next time, but no... mking8288, we did not participate in the M&G, but I still have the dailies - can't remember if they listed officers or not. I remember that RC usually included a sheet with the officers. Daniel was the CD. Interesting comment re: hours of work, though they seemed to be going morning until late evening in our corridor. Interestingly, ours was the only deck not opened on time on the first day - it took about another 30-45 minutes for them to finish our hallway cabins after they made the all-call that cabins were open. Perhaps they were short-staffed? In any event, agree - at least two or three times I just asked our steward for fresh towels and told her not to bother with the room. We keep a tidy cabin regardless.

We just returned from our fifth cruise, and our first on NCL aboard the Epic (sail date March 12th). I have a feeling that Epic was not the best ship introduction to NCL, but using Cruise Air sealed the deal for this being the worst cruise experience we've had... I usually do an in-depth review but we returned and went straight back to work during a busy time of our year, so a lengthy review may come later. For now, some highlights and opinions: The Good - We loved the itinerary (Southern Caribbean). We visited Aruba, Curacao, Grenada, St Lucia, and St Kitts (this last port was a return visit for us). We didn't get off the ship in Grenada but the other ports were wonderful, with the exception of St Lucia. Don't get me wrong - it is a stunningly beautiful island - but the port was extremely jammed with two ships, and the aggressive driving during our van tour gave several in our party motion sickness. - The staterooms have an entry in each category (Good, Bad, Ugly). What I loved about the cabin included: the clever storage in various places around the room, especially the drawers tucked under the sofa and the headboard storage pockets and lights; the shower was a nice size; the lighting was nicely designed and practical; the balcony seemed larger than average (but that might be my imagination). - The buffet, we found, had tasty, fresh, hot, and well-presented food, and we didn't find it overly difficult to navigate except on the busiest days (perhaps the worst day was the morning of disembarkation, but I've found that to be true on all five cruises we've taken). The options didn't change much throughout the cruise, however. - Getting on and off the ship was about as easy as we've experienced - lines moved fast and security was a breeze. - Our fellow passengers were amazing! We found it to be a very friendly ship, little in the way of impatience, rudeness, cutting lines, etc. It was also a well-balanced cruise in our view: lots of families, a smattering of teens and college kids, with couples and seniors mixed in. We had been worried about college kids overwhelming the cruise (our last cruise in March was aboard Indy - a five-day out of Fort Lauderdale - and it was a party ship). Not the case this time. - The staff were mostly friendly, with the notable exception of Guest Services. Our steward was friendly enough but not as personable as stewards on past cruises. This may be due to the apparent recent change to their workload. The lifeguards were particularly great with our kids during their evening swims. - The pools and waterslides were well-enjoyed by the kids in our group, though all said that the bowl slide was easy to get stuck in with the tubes. - The music offerings were great! The pool-side cover band was excellent, and we enjoyed the Elton John tribute trio (quirky but fun, though the first show is better). - The "Free at Sea" offerings were pretty good overall, especially the photos - we were very pleased. The Bad - The staterooms seemed SMALL! My gosh, it's hard to believe that balcony cabins could get tighter than we experienced on past ships, and perhaps by the numbers they're about the same (not sure, haven't checked), but it was a small room to get around in. - The beds were so short that my wife, who is 5' 4" tall, says that her feel dangled off the end. I'm nearly 6' tall, but I tend to bend my knees when I sleep so not as much of an issue, but still... - The ship, I found, is difficult to navigate. For the life of me I couldn't figure out how to access deck 5 without going through the casino from our cabin! Lots of dead ends and odd design choices. I was disappointed in the promenade deck, a favourite of mine when we cruise. The Epic's promenade is blocked by emergency life boats and only goes along the sides of the ship, not around the bow or stern. - The pools seemed to be small given the number of passengers; however, they were not busy at night which was a nice time for our kids to swim. - Likewise, we found the popular shows to be very hard to get into (e.g. Howl at the Moon was always jam-packed). - On past cruises (except Indy on Spring Break) we were always able to find a quiet bar. Not so on Epic, except for Spice H20 in the evening - but it was a smoking area so not a great place for us non-smokers to hang out. The bar staff there were great! - The smoking area at the pool is oddly located, right next to the area where parents sit to supervise their kids in the pool. - There weren't enough places for the kids to get smoothies. - We found O'Sheehan's to be "meh" for the one supper we had there, but we didn't get breakfast there. - We tend to disconnect during our cruises (intentionally). However, when we connected to Wifi every few days to message family at home, it was quite poor. We were using the free 250 minute Wifi promo. Very slow and unreliable. The Ugly - Yes, the bathroom situation is stupid. If you don't know, Google it. Very impractical and such an odd, odd design choice. Having your cabin entryway convert to your bathroom just doesn't work well. - Cruise Air, and by extension for poor immediate support, Guest Relations on the ship. Much has been written about Cruise Air. It was, without a doubt, the worst travel and customer service experience we've ever had, and this was the reason our party of thirteen family members did not book another cruise with NCL. Without going into lengthy detail, I will say that if you're considering booking air travel with NCL - DON'T!! Any cost savings won't be worth it if things go wrong. Our return air travel changed FIVE TIMES, including THREE TIMES in the last two days while on the ship (we discovered on day 5 that we had no flights home - this was not communicated to us in any way). It caused enormous stress and took hours of our time to resolve. I eventually dealt with a member of Guest Services who was somewhat helpful, and I also realize that their ability to provide immediate support or resolution is limited or impossible (their shoreside staff in Miami apparently need to do it all), but they could have taken a better and more supportive tone and approach with clearly distraught customers. Repeated requests to speak with a supervisor/management were denied. - Our impression is that the reported staff cutbacks, especially with the room stewards, was noticeable and very uncomfortable. Our steward often had not attended our cabin by 4 or 5pm when we returned from port. To be clear, this is not a criticism of the steward - she worked all day on the two days we stayed on the ship (sea day and Grenada). To conclude, we're sad and disappointed. Norwegian was a line I was really looking forward to trying, and the vibe from fellow passengers was so nice that I wanted to return. However, the ship design, the service, and especially the lack of caring or support with the air bookings made it very unlikely that we'll book an NCL cruise anytime soon.

We're taking a southern cruise from San Juan next month aboard Epic (first time on NCL). We're getting very excited for our first cruise since 2018! We're travelling with extended family, and the group decided to use NCL's air program (which I've since read was probably a mistake, and our experience so far has been concerning - our return flight has changed three times so far). Our flights down (the day before the cruise) are decent and our extended family is all together on the way down. However, our family of four's flights home are separate from the others, and we don't fly until close to midnight on disembarkation day. (It will be a LONG night and day of travel - we're scheduled to land at our home airport at around 4pm the following day.) This is with an 11- and 13-year-old, so not too young thankfully. I'd hate to do this with kids any younger! We've considered various options for disembarkation day: trying to find a whole-day tour; renting a car; finding a hotel day pass; etc. If anyone has experience in this type of situation I'd love to hear opinions. The biggest problem is our luggage - we don't want to haul that around all day. Another option we're considering is finding a hotel in San Juan, close to or on a beach, which offers early check-in. We'd then at least have a "home base" for the day, and we could use the hotel room, enjoy the beach and wander a bit, eat supper, and then be able to shower and maybe take a snooze in the early evening before heading to SJU late evening to check in for the flight. Thanks for any suggestions and tips! We've been to San Juan several times but only as a port of call, so not very familiar with the city, beaches, hotels, etc.

Thanks all for the comments. Lots to consider. During our spring break cruise on Indy a few years ago, my wife and I made the most of it and enjoyed ourselves, but also decided that we would likely avoid March cruises in the future. This one is being considered only because our school March Break is the most convenient time for everyone in our party. However, with a bunch of cousins (kids) in the mix, our worry is that the college kids would take over the pools and rec areas, etc. That was certainly what happened on Indy… the pools were packed solid with the students. I appreciate the replies!

Several years ago my wife and I took a 5-day cruise from Florida in the middle of March. In Canada this is the typical timeframe for public school spring breaks, but not university breaks. We didn’t realize that mid-March IS high season for American college spring breaks. We had a good cruise but the ship was definitely overrun with college kids. We are now looking at a southern cruise from San Juan, during that same mid-March school break period in 2023. This would be a 7-day cruise. It would be a family cruise with our own kids and extended family. Can anyone comment on how heavy the college spring break crowd is on ships from San Juan? We’re looking at Norwegian Epic if that matters. Thanks for any comments!