SailorSam42

I like Carnival more than NCL. Customer service and MDR food are better on Carnival as well as overall cabin size.

 

Seems like more folks dress on elegant nights on Carnival.

 

I have been on NCL's Star and 2 of Carnival's Spirit class ships. I prefer Spirit class more than Star. Much more.

 

My favorites in this order.

 

Carnival

Royal Caribbean

Celebrity

Holland America

NCL

 

Enjoyed them all though. Still Carnival and Royal win out for me. Almost a tie. Food in the MDR seems a touch better on Carnival, so that's the tie-breaker.

 

Happy sailing.

I would totally agree with you. I've only cruised with three lines and my favourites would be:

Royal Caribbean

Carnival

NCL

And, just like you, I'd say you couldn't really see a lot of difference between Royal Caribbean and Carnival but a huge difference between NCL and the other two.

You fill out a form at the end of your trip and email it in. They then refund your money. Adds a step to the process but you still arrive at the same place.

Well good luck with that. NCL entirely ignored my correspondence and reminders for two and half months!

Whatever they choose to call it, to me it's just a backdoor way of collecting more money without telling you upfront, then making silly excuses for doing it. We travelled Norwegian once but, since have become regulars on Princess and love it. They have optional 'tipping', 'service charge', or whatever, as it should be. Anyway, I have searched this website and I an unable to locate current information about NCLs policies. Is it mandatory or optional? We are considering a NCL cruise this December because it's a last minute thing and Princess has nothing interesting available. This could be a deciding factor. Thanks.

First of all, what you say is entirely reasonable and correct. In most areas of the world a "tip" is about a reward for excellent services above and beyond the call of duty. But in the USA it has become something else when staff are paid subsistence wages and need the "tip" just to survive... but that doesn't mean that they don't need to deliver excellent service to earn it.

In European countries where we have a "living minimum wage" (in the UK this is currently being phased in to £9 ($13.75) per hour which is £18,700 per annum grossed up (or $28,750 pa)... then a tip is just what it says - a reward for excellence and not a part of basic salary. There is no tipping culture in the UK or other countries such as Switzerland where all staff are reasonably paid. In the USA the minimum wage is only $7.25 per hour so there is a tipping culture (to effectively subsidise employers from paying their staff a reasonable wage). These employees need their tips to survive.

So expect the USA view to be at odds with the European view on gratuities.

You'll get a lot of posts (that you can take a view on whether they are genuine or not) that will seek to vilify you for taking away employees "hard earned wages" but if NCL adopted the European model and paid their staff a decent wage then a "tip" would mean just what it is... a reward for excellence of service above and beyond what is expected.

Of course, that is not the case on all cruise lines (not singling out NCL here) where staff are generally recruited from third-world countries and are generally very poorly paid.

So is NCL wrong for paying buttons? Not really as all cruise lines are doing essentially the same.

And is a "tip" a reward or a god given right no matter how bad or surly the service is. Well there's no reasonable argument there for anybody other than somebody with their "corporate hat on" (and we all know who they are)!

It would have been proper to file a complaint with guest services the night before debarkation when you first noticed the damage...even before discussing it with your room steward.

 

Without a documented incident, NCL really has no way to determine if the damage occurred before or after you departed the vessel.

I buy a huge amount of things from Amazon. The reason I do that is their quite remarkably excellent customer service. I even pay a little more sometimes just to buy from them directly (rather than using a marketplace vendor or other supplier). If anything goes wrong they fall over themselves to keep you a happy customer and give you the benefit of the doubt in everything. If you don't like something for no good reason they'll not only take it back with good grace but even arrange collection (free) and pay you before they even receive the item. That's an example of an excellent customer-focused company. I'm sure most people on CC have also had direct experience of outstanding customer service form a supplier and then (like me) never considered using any other supplier in the future. I don't agree with everything Amazon do of course, but everybody can learn from their customer service ethos.

If NCL had the Amazon ethos the room steward would have profusely apologized and put things right there and then - with an instant reduction from the bill for the agreed value of the damaged goods. Then they might have gone even further and offered some future cruise discount coupons, or maybe a free NCL T-shirt, as a token of their disappointment that they had caused a problem. They might then have followed up a week later to apologize once again, confirm that the customer was happy with the their remedy and to assure the customer that measures had been taken to ensure that the problem couldn't occur again, and to confirm that the customer will be happy to cruise with NCL again in the future.

If NCL had the Amazon ethos why would you ever want cruise with anybody else ever again.... you'd even pay a little more to cruise with them... but of course they don't!

I know that excellent customer service "above and beyond" pays dividends in the long term even though it may be a little more expensive in the short term. NCL should wake up and realize that without happy customers they don't have a business at all.

Fight this until the end. That's piss poor customer service.

 

 

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Unfortunately my experience with NCL is that they habitually ignore all complaints hoping that you will "go away" if they ignore you for long enough. As previously stated don't play this game for too long, it will only get you down, go straight for a charge back for breach of contract if they continue to ignore you.

I don't think it is temporary. This was our experience with both MDRs last summer and the food on the buffet was terrible.

When you consider the business model being operated, these things become completely understandable. The Berlitz "Complete Guide to Cruising" states: "How can cruise lines offer such low rates? Only because they hope you'll spend plenty on board". Obviously there would be no incentive to pay extra to eat in the speciality restaurants if the food was excellent in the "free to dine" venues. The bigger the difference in quality between the free and "extra charge" venues, the more profit the cruise line will make so clearly they want the differential to be as big as is reasonably possible. Hope I am not stating the obvious!

Hi guys need your help. I've had some trouble with post cruise guest relations for NCL. Does anyone know who I can contact that is above guest relations?

 

Thanks in advance!

If you are in the UK then NCL is a member of the ABTA and must conform to their code of conduct. This means that they must give you a full reply within 28 days of your contacting them. If they do not do this you can complain to the ABTA and NCL will be fined £400 for each violation. This may not help with the problem but will be very satisfying!

Also be aware that if they do not respond in a timely fashion your card company will issue a chargeback (in other words you'll get your money back). Ignoring customer complaints in this day and age isn't something a corporation is any longer able to do with impunity.

trying to avoid paying the Service Charge on the grounds of 'don't wanta' wouldn't pass as a fraudulent charge.

Discretionary means at the discretion of the customer and not at the discretion of NCL. Any card company would remove the charge for that reason alone.

As an aside, I also don't believe that there is a significant number of people that would remove the service charge for frivolous reasons. There are a few exceptions of course but, in the main, my experience in business has shown me that most people are decent and honest.

Re: Originally Posted by canadianeh934 View Post

Most credit card will not over turn a charge unless it is in the last 45 days.

This is entirely mis-information. In the UK (at least) American Express. MasterCard and Visa will overturn any charge occurring in the last six months if found to be fraudulent.

NCL is going to refund them but that wait time is going to be murderous on some people. Let's be honest - its NCL, its takes them 4-6 weeks at the end of a trip to refund back via check, refundable OBC....Yeah, 2 weeks processing form / claim, what's the actual time in seeing the money back via credit card or a check? Now, that's a good question!

 

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I complained to NCL and despite many follow-ups couldn't get any response at all from them for two and a half months. I wouldn't have any confidence in their desire to process a refund either and the time you might waste chasing them could be more valuable than any refund you might get. So it may be that you should really regard the DSC (Discretionary Service Charge) as a CSC (Compulsory Service Charge).

It is reasonable to assume that there were a significant number of customers who exercised their discretionary right as they were unhappy with NCL's service in order to need this change in policy. To my knowledge (and do correct me if I am wrong), every other cruise line is still confident that their service is so good that few passengers will exercise their discretionary right to refuse to pay a gratuity.

This is sad. [emoji30] I'm beginning to think its a conspiracy by the cruise lines. "Let's make our food so bad that people who actually like good tasting food will be forced to buy a dinner package" Honestly, had I known, I would have chosen the UDP over the UBP. I drank at most maybe 2 drinks a day, my DH probably 2 beers a day. We could've lived without the alcohol to be honest, we're really not drinkers. But I figured who needs the UDP with all that free food!?! Me apparently!! lol

 

I'll know better next time. It's very sad though...I recall cruise food from the past with great fondness. Some things really SHOULD stay the same.

When you consider the business model being operated, these things become completely understandable. The Berlitz "Complete Guide to Cruising" states: "How can cruise lines offer such low rates? Only because they hope you'll spend plenty on board". Obviously there would be no incentive to pay extra to eat in the speciality restaurants if the food was excellent in the "free to dine" venues. The bigger the difference in quality between the free and "extra charge" venues, the more profit the cruise line will make so clearly they want the differential to be as big as is reasonably possible. Hope I am not stating the obvious!

Now that many people have gotten UBP, how is the actual drink service? Enough roaming wait staff in lounges and theaters? in MDR do we order from regular servers or is there a bar server?

 

I've read some reviews that say getting a drink is impossible. I've read some saying no problem at all. Not sure what is fact or fiction.

I cruised on the NCL Epic in May of this year. On one occasion, I was quite annoyed when trying to get a drink at the bar in the pool area (only a soft drink as I had purchased the soda package). There were insufficient bar staff for the crowds trying to get served but that wasn't the main cause of my annoyance. I finally got to the bar and the lady there took my order but when I showed her my card (alerting her that I didn't have to pay or tip) she started asking other customers for their orders and seemed to be trying to serve six or seven customers at the same time. I'm not sure that there is some sort of discrimination in favour of those that pay (and hence tip) and those that have a package, but I got the clear impression that this was what was happening. I had some words with the barmaid involved and was then served. Perhaps it is a good idea to keep your pass hidden until you've actually received your drink!

I plan to leave the waitstaff out of it altogether. We will order what we want to eat, and let them charge whatever they think they are supposed to. Save all the charge slips, and get an appointment with the restaurant manager at the end of the cruise to ask for the extra charges to be taken off. No "hollering" required, hopefully.

Even easier. Make sure you use a CREDIT CARD and not a CHARGE CARD. If you cannot obtain satisfaction on board, contact your credit card company when you get home with a copy of the terms and conditions and request a chargeback of the amount you are disputing. They will charge back NCL and you'll have the added satisfaction of knowing that NCL have had a chargeback fee (up to $50) for messing you about. In the UK there is the consumer credit act that means that card companies have to refund you by law for things they charged for but didn't deliver. Unsure if there is a parallel USA law but I do know that all card companies will quickly and courteously charge back if you can show that T&C have been breached and that you've lost money as a result.

But others before you were saying remoting in was not possible on the ship. Are you disagreeing regarding the amount of bandwidth/speed necessary to remote in?

Yes I am disagreeing.

Microsoft did a whitepaper on this in 2008. They tested with desktop themes turned off and 16-bit color depth (as well as screen resolution it would be good idea to also do this on the host machine). For typing and scrolling they suggested a bandwidth of 2.13 Kb/s was needed while a browsing session with Internet Explorer would typically consume 5.59 Kb/s (if done using remote desktop).

While this won't help your situation, it might help others. I get so much work and personal email that I would waste so much time and or data to go through looking for the important ones after days offline. I'm considering setting up a new web based email just for this trip for my coworkers to email re: work emergencies. Then I could just check that email daily and it should only take me a few minutes. I won't be able to remote in and actually do the work but I can point them to someone who can or type in the language for them to cut and paste into a letter and sign for me, etc.

While webmail will use massively less bandwidth than a POP3 solution you still have a problem with attachments. If somebody sends you a spreadsheet, for example, that you really need to read, the bandwidth needed to open it will be enormous compared to the bandwidth needed to open and view it on your own computer back at home accessed via a remote control utility such as remote desktop (included in Windows).

We have a cruise booked with NCL for May and I keep reading about internet on cruise ships being bad and/or really slow. It is imperative that we have internet, and good internet, on our cruise. If there really is no such thing, then I think I will have to cancel.

 

I know that a lot of people will tell me to unplug and that I am on vacation....but unfortunately some people don't have that luxury.

 

So am I out of luck here?

You absolutely should not rely upon being able to access the Internet (via on-board systems) on any cruise ship. You can, however, maximize the chance that it might work sometimes by getting your IT boys to set up a computer at the office and then use remote desktop to access it. This reduces bandwidth to the tiny amount needed to only change the screen pixels that alter on the host machine. To reduce this even further you can reduce the screen resolution on the host machine to the absolute minimum you need.

If you buy a Microsoft Surface or similar it is small enough to take ashore and nearly all coffee shops these days have excellent WiFi. If you plan your cruise around connecting to the Internet only when ashore you'll have far less stress and anxiety than trying to use a dysfunctional on-ship network and save a lot of money into the bargain.

Ship networks don't have to be like this. It is quite possible for the cruise lines to purchase as much satellite bandwidth as they want to and to offer guaranteed bandwidth to their customers. Instead they seem to buy a tiny amount of bandwidth and then share it amongst thousands of users giving a useless connection to everybody. I'd applaud a cruise line who would sell guaranteed bandwidth connections, even if expensive. It would only have to be one or two Mb/s. I don't know of any cruise operator that is currently doing this but it would open up the cruise market to a huge number of users that simply must stay connected.

As others have pointed out. If money is not an object, something like an Iridium Satellite phone will give you 2.4Kb/s. Even though this is super-slow it might provide a solution in combination with Remote Desktop or similar used in the way described above. Provided you don't attempt to watch video, upload or download files, or do any printing, 2.4 Kb/s should be adequate for remote access (although you'll probably still see the screen re-painting at times).