dans0202

Sign up for go carts and laser tag we’re in the social.  Get there as quick as possible. Granted I was there during a prime week for kids but there seems to be limited spaces.

This was my 8th Christmas cruise with NCL.  Not my last but I did not purchase a cruise next certificate as i may want to try something new as getting less for more money is taking a toll.

Highlights 

Ship is big,nice looking and clean.

The morning and afternoon staff in all the restaurants are great, hard working and eager to please.

As an experiment NCL is slightly changing the lunch menu the dining rooms each day which is a nice change.

Laser tag and the go carts were fun and something new.  Only negative is 3 of the 20 guns failed to work during our session and there is no senior staff around to deal with issues.  I feel the recreation staff unlike many other staff are left to flounder without management support and deal with technical problems and angry guests.

A few of the speciality restaurants offer some fantastic dishes and all were positive experience with good to great food and service.

Check in was a breeze in the platinum line at 1130.  Only 1 person ahead of us.

Choir of man is fantastic, kinky boots was good.

Found some great bartenders from past cruises that continue to excel at what they do.

Manager at Q (a new BBQ restaurant) is as fantastic.  He worked to get my daughter a vegan meal from another restaurant when others were not nearly as accommodating.  

The Q restaurant was surprisingly good considering much of the food is pre made prior to the cruise.  Also good entertainment starting around 930.  The choir of man performer actually took the stage for a set.

Some low lights 

They continue to require our group of 21 to eat at 9pm or later.  The minute we sit down there is a feeling that they are closing the restaurant with tables being cleared, moved around and remade for breakfast.  One night we were initially told it was too late to serve coffee with desert and the bar one night was closed before dessert was even served.  2 nights it took 1 hour to get a glass of wine.  I understand the staff is tired after a long day.  They turn on the lights each night to tell us to leave.  I wish they could find a way to seat us earlier.  In the end this is the deal breaker that may result in me trying another line in the future.

The registration process for the laser tag and go carts needs revision and soon or somebody will flip out 30 minutes into the cruise.  Thanks to other comments I read, I ran to the registration for these activities.  I then waited 30 minutes staring at 11:40.  I then spent 45 minutes trying to sign up a group of 21 for go carts, laser tag and a comedy show.  There are 8 people taking reservations.  By 12:45 they were telling people go carts and laser tag were sold out for the week.  The issue I have  with registration was that if you are booking for more then 2 people each pair is reserved one at a time.  What then happens after the first 2 are booked is that one of the other reservationists takes the spots the other 2 in your fore-some were trying to book.  Then you have to cancel the original booking and start again with another time slot.  This resulted in a lot of frustration.  Watching the person trying to help us type with 1 figure was killing me.  Ended up having to split up our group as he could not book people fast enough.

The nicest thing I can say about the wine by the glass is that it stinks.  The only thing worse then the quality is the price. NCL took their $8 a bottle house wine and made it $17 a glass.  2 dollars above the $15 UBP limit.  One night after waiting 1 hour for wine with dinner the supervisor comes over and apologies.  Says she will bring me a glass of something good.  It arrived after desert.  I saw the bottle and noticed it was the $8 a glass cheapest glass.  Definitely not the good stuff.  At the end of the day the staff is tired and no longer eager to please especially in the main dining room.

I was forewarned about the deck chairs so I was not caught off guard.  The sun deck has been removed and converted to paid seating.   Finding a deck chair was no harder this year then past.  You still need to be out by 730 to get a few chairs together.  The difference is that to make up for the lack of space the chairs are on top of each other and crammed any where possible.  It is hard to more around decks 16 and 17 at the best of times with every square inch occupied.  The small tables that created a bit of room between chairs have been removed leaving no gaps in long rows of chairs.  Saw people climbing on chairs to try and get out of their row.  I suspect there will be some slips and falls.  At the end of the day once people have moved the chairs around you often find yourself boxed in having to climb on chairs to escape.  Not the end of the world but something to be aware of.

Best pieces of advice

Run on board and book all activities.

Drag a chair from the outdoor seating area of the Mexican restaurant on deck 8 to the back of deck 8 and sit and enjoy and watch the ships wake in relative peace and quiet.

Go to the main dining room for lunch more then once given the changing menu.

Finally- plan, plan, plan.  If you arrived uninformed you will be disappointed as things book up quickly.

I can try and answer any questions

are you able to provide the phone number.  I cant find it in your link.

Thanks

Dan

Is the current price $279 pp

Thank you

We have been running around Florida looking for distilled water but can only find 1 gallon jugs.  Not very practical to carry on and hold until we get our room at 1:30.  We are going to buy smaller bottles of purified water and hope NCL permits it on.  Wish I had know about the ability to get distilled from the ship.  I assume it needs to be ordered in advance.  Thanks again 

Thank you for all your useful information and efforts.  You have saved me a lot of time. 

We are traveling on the Encore this weekend with my son who needs a CPAP machine.

You made a comment about power and CPAP machines.  You said to bring a 12ft and 6ft non-surge power cord.

Why 2 cords?

We also travel with purified water which I understand is exempt from NCLs rules.  Should I expect a hassle when I board?

Thank you.

I do agree with the bring your own and will do that in the future.

I sail in a few days and picked the free drinks.  My mistake which I will not make in the future.

I feel the need to whine about wine
I think the purpose of these boards is to educate, learn and exchange information.  I hope my comments don't result in insults.

I have been on 10 plus NCL cruises just for some background
I know and accept that NCL is and has been known for nickle and diming people.  Get them in cheap and then slowly take more.  I am all for making money and free competition.  I spend lots of money and just hope to get what I perceive as value for it.

All that said I am for some reason very bothered by NCLs wine by the glass and price list.  Year after year they reduce the list of wines covered by the beverage package and raise prices,  This year they took their $8 bottle of house wine (my best guess based on research I have done) and made it $17 a glass.  At 5 glasses a bottle that is $85 a bottle and a multipler of over 10.  A typical resturant has a multipler of 3 to 4 on a low end bottle and 2.5 to 3 on a high end bottle.  A 10 multiplier is insane IMO.

So what's a customer to do when they feel they are being fleeced.

Here are the options I came up with.  Fell free to add to list and critque.

1) accept the situation, pay a few bucks for average at best wine and perhaps vent to others about it.
2) be angry and do not order the wine
3) order even cheaper wine, hate it, not drink it and contribute to global waste
4) complain to NCL management and have your comments fall on deaf ears
5) complain to NCL front line staff but have them not follow up with management for fear of reprisal by management
6) order the average at best wine, pay $2 a glass, go to front desk and reduce your daily tips accordingly.  Tell staff if they want a fair wages (which everybody is entitled to) to tell management  to stop screwing customers and then people will not screw them in return.

Not sure I have the willingness to take option 6 but wish I did as this is the only way I see NCL getting the message as I am not prepared to be the never again with NCL person over $2.
 

I feel the need to whine about wine
I think the purpose of these boards is to educate, learn and exchange information.  I hope my comments don't result in insults.

I have been on 10 plus NCL cruises just for some background
I know and accept that NCL is and has been known for nickle and diming people.  Get them in cheap and then slowly take more.  I am all for making money and free competition.  I spend lots of money and just hope to get what I perceive as value for it.

All that said I am for some reason very bothered by NCLs wine by the glass and price list.  Year after year they reduce the list of wines covered by the beverage package and raise prices,  This year they took their $8 bottle of house wine (my best guess based on research I have done) and made it $17 a glass.  At 5 glasses a bottle that is $85 a bottle and a multipler of over 10.  A typical resturant has a multipler of 3 to 4 on a low end bottle and 2.5 to 3 on a high end bottle.  A 10 multiplier is insane IMO.

So what's a customer to do when they feel they are being fleeced.

Here are the options I came up with.  Fell free to add to list and critque.

1) accept the situation, pay a few bucks for average at best wine and perhaps vent to others about it.
2) be angry and do not order the wine
3) order even cheaper wine, hate it, not drink it and contribute to global waste
4) complain to NCL management and have your comments fall on deaf ears
5) complain to NCL front line staff but have them not follow up with management for fear of reprisal by management
6) order the average at best wine, pay $2 a glass, go to front desk and reduce your daily tips accordingly.  Tell staff if they want a fair wages (which everybody is entitled to) to tell management  to stop screwing customers and then people will not screw them in return.

Not sure I have the willingness to take option 6 but wish I did as this is the only way I see NCL getting the message as I am not prepared to be the never again with NCL person over $2.
 

I have been trying to find where to buy a 7 day spa pass in advance of my Encore cruise in 10 days but it appears they are not available.  I can not determine if they just don't sell passes for Encore in advance or they are sold out.  Does anybody have any additional insight?  Thanks

I am on the Encore next month with a group and trying to pick which restaurants to book.  We have 3 free dinners in the speciality restaurants.  They all look great but I am trying to understand what is included and what is extra.  I have tried to read some posts and search the internet but things just seem to change so fast and the NCL website seems to be unclear on up charges.

Can anybody please verify which speciality restaurants are included in the 3 dinners and which restaurants or meals have up charges.

Also if somebody has a platinum coupon for a free speciality dinning restaurant (say Cagney's) how does this meal differ from if they used 1 of their 3 free dinners

Thanks
Dan

I was looking at a cruise out of LA.

We have done the Christmas cruise out of Florida 7 years in a row and would like to find something different that time of year.

Given the lack of competition and how new the Joy is I was surprised to see the pricing was around $300 less pp vs a cruise out of Miami.

Any idea why the pricing is what it is?

How are the seas on a cruise out of LA to Mexico compared to the Caribbean?

Thanks

Does NCL have an office of the president customer service department similar to other companies.

I am continually frustrated by department after department operating as if they are a separate company with not interaction or responsibility take between departments.

After problems in the past with group bookings we received the email - make sure you tell us when you are coming back so we can provide a welcome back amenity.

Now we can't even get a department to note we are returning guests and we are on to our third group sales person in 5 months.

While I know venting will get me nowhere, thought I would try one last time.

Guest relations seems unwilling to even respond to our emails.

T - 11 days.

This being a platinum member does not appear to be worth very much in the customer service area.

Thanks for listening

I am fortunate to have been on many cruises, all of which have been Caribbean or Alaska.

I am looking at a few cruises European cruises for my family next summer (July).

Kids will be 19 and 16 years old, also fortunate to have been on many cruises all of which have been the new mega ships.

I am looking at 3 options. The Getaway to the Baltic, the Star to Greece and the Jade to Italy/Greece. We have been on the Getaway multiple times but to Europe I don’t want to let the ship influence my choice too much (that said we really do like the specialty restaurants on the Getaway).

I am not looking to blow the bank on excursions but I am also not a huge fan of the heat or just sitting at the beach. Based on my research to date in July I assume Greece is going to be unbearably hot but that in the Baltic I am going to pay a lot more for excursions.

Just looking for some opinions on traveling to Europe with teens, how hot Greece really is and thoughts on the cost of must do excursions.

Thanks

Dan

I have done the Epic 3 times at Christmas and the Getaway 2 times the same week. Don't think I would do the Epic again for the simple reason that I found traveling out of Port Canaveral to be a disaster. The Getaway is a much nicaer ship in my opinion and I love the waterfront on deck 8.

Have used the app several times over the last few years. The cost on the Getaway was 14.99 last week. The app had significant connection issues for many users (perhaps there were too many users). Guest services ended up refunding the cost to many people on the last day. In prior years the app worked much better for me and I would try it again but at 14.99 pp it is starting to get expensive for a family of 4.

Can anybody confrim if the dueling pianos will be on the Bliss. Thanks

Yes i was refering to the wine despensing machines. They had several nice wines from california. All were below $15 a glass but there was a big sign saying they are not part of the beverage package. I wonder if the wines due not turn over quickly is the quality compormised. The idea of having popular wines on board available by the glass but not part of the package was offensive and bothersome to me. I wish I had not noticed them as I find the other red wines by the glass to be IMO crap. Were I to travel on NCL again I would consider skipping the UBP and paying the $20 to bring my own wine on board.

My comment about the water was that one small bottle for 2 platnium members to share was about the cheapest thing I can imagine doing to 2 valued customers. Better IMO to give them nothing.

I guess I got 1 bottle as my son has no status with NCL due to his age. In the old days when they gave us chocolates at night I guess we were lucky to get two when we were only entitled to one. I feel like I got a bonus 10 cent promo in the past.

Cruisin Harvey explain the situatuon about the UBP I was discussing. When a family of 4 travels with NCL and has 2 kids, they need to put 1 adult and 1 kid in each room. Apparently NCLs current software does not allow a parent to pre authorize their 20 year old to drink beer or wine even if they are willing to pay the service fees. The 20 year old needs to take the soda package (the can not even have cranberry juice from the bar or virgin frozen drinks) and then when on board pay for the beer and wine package. It did not impact me but sounds like another money grab.

My family has travelled with NCL many times. In fact this was the first time we cruised as platinum level cruisers.

We enjoy cruising and have been on NCL for a Christmas cruise 6 of the last 7 years.

This was our second time on the Getaway. It is a nice ship, well designed and built and it has stood up well over the three years since we were last on it.

The platinum level perks are nice but some of them are actually in my opinion insulting. They give each platinum room (not person) a single bottle of water. That by my calculations is costing NCL upwards of 15 cents a cruise. Why one bottle for 2 people for 7 days. Who thinks this stuff up and are they actually paid a salary. In my opinion give a room with two people 2 whole small bottles of water or blow the bank, spend a hole two dollars and give these customers you say you value so much a small case of 12 waters for the week.

I have to stress that I had fun even thought I was in the Getaway for the second time so the entertainment was a repeat for us.

In advance of the cruise I spent 3 months working with and then arguing with the groups department and the special events department. Special events insisted we dine at 9pm given our numbers but the groups department at the time of booking said our request to eat at 8pm was reasonable and they would assist with making that happen. After we made our final payment the groups department came back with it’s not something we can assist you with, you must deal with special events. In the end the two departments insisted neither had authority over the other and there was nobody to talk with who had authority over both departments. Moral of that story was get everything in writing from the sales department before you pay. In the end the special events department passed the buck to the Getaway on board staff but they would not allow us to talk with them in advance of the cruise. Once on board we were told the restaurants were fully booked for earlier times and we had to stick with 9pm. I was aggregated but accepted the late time as the kids are old enough to wait to eat later. What really upset me in the end is that at 11pm they tried to kick us out of the restaurant as the staff wanted to retire for the evening. Due to the understandable difficulty in serving 20 people one night we were just served our desert and they turned the lights out and said we had to leave. Of course there was nobody around of any authority to assist and it was simply another spoiled meal. The next day I did say something to the restaurant manager who instantly apologized and magically was able to move the next dinner to 30 minutes earlier.

Again overall we had a good time but I think maybe it’s time to try another cruise line to determine if NCL is falling behind its competition or the industry is simply adjusting and my expectations are out of whack.

I know NCL is a public company and therefore must show improvement each quarter and year or risk the stock getting hammered and management bonuses being cut. I say this because I fully accept the annual price increases exceeding inflation but what upsets me are the cutbacks in service and product on top of the price increases.

Our room steward was pretty honest when he said given the number of rooms NCL assigned him coupled with the late dinner times that his guests had that he might not make it to every room each night. We made every effort to leave our cabin each night to increase our chance of our room being cleaned (he missed most peoples rooms at least once or only did part of each room on some nights). You could see he was rushing. One time he cleaned our room, removed every towel and face cloth but forget to replace them leaving us with nothing, not a single towel. It also took 3 days of asking to get the safe in one of our rooms open as it was locked from the previous cruise but I think that was a language issue we were having with him. We did not complain to guest services as he was trying and we did not want to see him in trouble. Ultimately this was a management issue not a staff issue.

The use of English remains a struggle in some areas. I am always baffled by the choice to put a staff member that is weak with the English language at the guest services desk. It results in guests that are already frustrated getting even more aggravated. Perhaps this is intentional.

Other cutbacks have been well documented and while some may be petty they are noticeable.

No more chocolates at night time for latitude guests.

No more Tomahawk steak in Cagney’s

.

At La Cucina they shorted the menu and took away items like the chicken parm but did not add any alternatives.

The menu at Shanghai has been cut in half. They removed the meat dishes and made it just a noodle dish restaurant.

Many bars have had their selection of liquor reduced. Ask for a martini in most bars and they say they can only make a regular, cosmo or lemon drop. I was not able to get a bartender to even consider another option.

The internal communication app was not operating properly most of the week. NCL which had just raised the price again to $15 per person ended up refunding the cost to anybody that complained.

There were some good arguments I over heard regarding the beverage package and those guests between 18 and 20. Apparently if you are 18 and a parent signs a form you can drink wine and beer. However if you selected the beverage package it does not cover wine and beer for somebody 18 to 20. You must repurchase the package at a cost of almost $700. Not surprisingly that did not sit well with some people. NCLs response was that was the way the computer system is, sorry.

My final beef has to do with the wine selection by the glass. NCL placed a cap on the price they will cover per drink, fine. My question is how on a cruise traveling out of the US (one of NCLs larger markets) and not offer a glass of cab wine from the Napa Valley region, widely regarded as a premier wine region. They even partnered with a wine producer from the region. Are they trying to force you to buy bottles even after you have the beverage package and paid the service fee on the package? I was even more upset to see that in the buffet of all places the offer several Napa area glasses of wine, each below the $15 threshold however these wines are not part of the beverage package. Why go out of your way to offended people. How much money can they be making off wine in the buffet that they need to be so offensive?

I could go on and on but needless to say the cuts and the way customers are being treated are noticeable to your returning customers which you repeatedly tell are so important. I have no problem with change but current management is only cutting and that is disappointing. I truly believe current management is flying without a net. They are focused on higher profits quarter over quarter for the sake of thief bonuses and job security. I question the amount of testing done on planned changes they perform or the amount of market research they do in advance of a policy or service change. Why in 10 years of traveling with NCL have I never seen a customer survey.

I am not going to be one of those people that say never again. I did purchase a cruise next deposit but I can easily find somebody to transfer it to. What I will say is that I want to see for myself if the grass is greener elsewhere.

When I got home I was shocked to see next years pricing for a similar cruise. NCL has priced their cruises around $300 more per person over Royals Oasis class cruises over Christmas 2018. Having taken both cruises there is no comparison especially on entertainment and service and I suspect Royal will soon bump its prices once they reach a certain occupancy level or NCL will look to find some additional incentives to sell some cabins. There is no way I am paying more for the Getaway or Bliss vs. Allure or Harmony. Also with Royal having another Oasis class ship in Florida and the Escape moving up to New York there are a lot of extra cabins to fill each week. It will be an interesting year to see what happens with pricing. In my opinion this is a pretty bold move by NCL management.

I plan to pass these comments on to management with a simple challenge. Respond with more than we are sorry about your concerns or we will take your comments under advisement. I am pretty sure they will not be read and reacted to. I think current management may be even more eregant then I am believed to be and do not want to hear the opinions of its customers. I doubt NCL will miss me and who knows I may be back.

Thanks for reading. If you have any Getaway questions please let me know. I will try to answer them.

I booked last year throught group sales but was not overly impressed with the person I worked with. Not sure if it is permitted to ask for a recommendation here but if allowed can somebody give me the contact information of somebody you would recommend. Thank you

Having just returned from the Getaway I thought I would check the Bliss pricing for next Christmas. Talk about sticker shock. NCL for both the Bliss and Getaway are asking about 300 more pp than the Alure or the Harmony. Normally it's the other way around. It looks like Royal is running a special right now. I know prices rarely come down but I am going to wait and see what happens. I assume NCL has done some research to estimate the market but with Royal running 3 Oasis class ships in the Carribean next December and NCL adding another Breakaway plus ship as well that is a lot a extra cabins to fill. It will be interesting to see where pricing goes over the next few months. Would like to hear other peoples opinions on where the market goes from here.

Just back from the Getaway,

Have purchased the app on the Epic, Escape and Getaway prior to this year,

APP worked well in the past.

Was charged 14.99 PP but thr app barely worked.

On the last day NCL reversd the charges for each of my family of 4.

Many others had the charges reversd as well as the app was barely working last week.

Can anybody suggest a course of action to assist with a customer service problem that has been ongoing for almost 3 months?

At issue is that a booking was made with the group sales department on the promise that certain dining reservations would be made. The special events department however is unwilling to provide what was committed to by group sales. Each department has been quite adamant that they do not answer to the other department. I therefore asked which department ultimately oversees the two departments but have been told there is nobody for me to talk with.

Last year when I booked through a third party the things we are having issues with were dealt with in minutes. This year we are at almost 3 months and over 20 emails and 20 phone calls. We were quite specific when booking that we were looking for certain things that group sales said would not be a problem. The last 3 months have sucked the fun out of this vacation and I truly wish I never booked this group with NCL. At this point I would honestly be willing to cancel the cruise but I am not in a position to cancel the booking as I simply don’t have the authority to do that plus over 20 people have booked flights and hotels around this planned cruise. I am amazed at the lack of customer service and the fact that NCL does not care one bit about 20+ passengers at the platinum and gold latitude level. I have learned a lot during this booking, how NCL departments work in complete isolation, commitments mean very little and being a platinum level group organizer means next to nothing.

I feel like two kids are fighting and there is no parent to oversee them. I can’t believe NCL is truly this dysfunctional. Can anybody refer me to a department that has authority over these two departments.

Thank you