Vacation23

I went to 5 o'clock one time!! This was my experience.... I walked up to the bar and had a seat and sat there waiting for my turn for about 10 minutes. A lady came up behind me as I was waiting and we started talking. We talked for about another 10 minutes (I'm still waiting). We are discussing how the bartenders are arguing who is going to serve which customer. The lady now takes the open chair besides me. The bartender then ask both of us what we want. I say frozen margarettia and she says a beer. The bartender gave the lady her beer and off she went and I was still waiting for my drink. When I confronted the bartender he said I'm not making your drink he is and of course that bartender said no she's not on my side of the bar!!! Is that good customer service to you? I will say if you are just after beer then your experience shouldn't be bad, they love those customers. However, if your after a frozen drink FORGET IT!! NOBODY wants to make those, which is not good for someone like me that does not like beer. You be the judge. Maybe by the time you get there they will have decided who serves who!!!

I too was on this cruise and agree with a lot of the post. I will say this is the first time we have cruised with NCL. The other 7 cruises were with Carnival or RC so needless to say I was disappointed. I had high hopes for NCL. Besides the terrible bar service we thought guest services was AWFUL. First encounter was with my daughter's sail card. Kids under 18 have the corner of their card cut off to represent they are under 18. The lady didn't pay any attention and cut it so high that she cut off the muster station!! Then the first morning we get a letter under our door stating that they had no credit card on file for us. What was so interesting our 80+ year old lady that checked us in ran our credit card 10 times. We counted!!! Obviously she didn't know what she was doing. That evening I waited in line to ask them why my sail card had UBP-UBP on it because everyone else had just UBP. An employee said you need to ask because you might have some other offer that you don't know you have. I waited in line to be told that it was a TYPO! I said what? He said yes that's a TYPO! If that's not good enough a couple days later I went to have a print out of my account because people were talking about how duplicate charges were being put on their accounts. Guest services pulled up 4 different accounts since we had 4 people in our cabin, which I thought was different. We had an onboard credit that had not been applied but we had outstanding charges. Are you are ready for the answer he gave me? He said the on board credit can only be applied to the first person on the reservation. Since the first person had not charged anything nothing was applied which left us owing for the other 3 people in the cabin. I said oh NO that's not how it goes. We argued and argued and he would not combine the accounts. The other encounter with guest services was with getting change. Each time you would go up and ask to break a bill their response would be let me go ask. You never knew if they would come back and say yes or no. One time I went to one rep and my friend went to another. She went first and her rep said no then mine said yes. We both had a $100.00 bill we wanted to break!! In my book this isn't great customer service.

What we did learn from a waiter. He took a liking to my daughter so we were able to get information out of him. Ha Ha He did confirm that there were several new crew members that had stepped on ship with us, however he said what was the bigger issue was how many existing crew members had never been to Caribbean nor dealt with many people. My daughter asked was there many people on the Baltic cruises and he said OH NO THIS IS HUGE!! She then asked what were their ages. He stopped and looked at us and said all Grandparents/Retirees no families and no kids. He said they don't drink much and go to bed early! That information tells the story!! He said never go on the first cruise out.... It's too crazy especially when it comes from a totally different region and clientele. I will say that for the most part the workers were working their butts off and I did feel sorry for some of them. From now on before I book a cruise I will see where the ship has been before I book my cruise!!!

We were just here. The first thing I will say is this place is HEAVEN!!! We ended up doing the $98.00 package, which included the food and 2 drinks plus the guided snorkeling tour over the coral reef. When i arrived I was only going to do the $55.00 package, but changed my mind after talking with the owner. If your going to do anything extra DO THE SNORKELING! It is unbelievable. It is worth every penny. We even had a lady on our boat say she had been a lot of places in the world snorkeling including Greece and this was the best by far! If we had more time we would have paid to go again!!! In regards to the food. It was ok. The one thing that I noticed was these plates are already prepared and pretty much ready for you when you order which was nice because the place is so beautiful you don't want to wait around for your food you want to enjoy the island!! My daughter however ordered a hot dog and fries and that took FOREVER to get. This is not a place you can go to and then go back to the boat and eat and then go back to the island. From the Coxen Hole port it was about a 15-20 minute drive. I will say when you get off the ship and you are trying to find Dave & Larry that can be a little overwhelming, however we found out right away if you just say we are looking for Dave & Larry everyone knows them and they just keep pointing you in their direction. The day we were there we lucked out because we were the only ship in port and the island only had 40 people on it that day. Talk about feeling like you were on a private island!! I hope this information helps.

Can someone that has went on the snorkeling trip at LFK tell me more about it? How long do you get to snorkel? Is it a very long boat ride out to where you snorkel? Is there a place to rest/sit on the boat if you do not want to snorkel (grandparents just wanting to watch their grandkids)? Any information or tips would greatly be appreciated. Thank you.

We are wanting to know where can we go safely to shop. We are spending the day at Mr. Sancho's but would like to do some shopping before getting back on the ship. Are there any shopping areas around there or do we need to go somewhere else for shopping? Also, is there anything that Cozumel is known for that we need to look for and purchase? Any recommendations/tips on shopping in Cozumel would be appreciated.

We are wanting to know where can we go safely to shop. We are taking a tour to the ruins with Native Choice, but after that we would like to go shopping. I am guessing when you get off the boat there are shops that you walk through to get to the island. Is that the case? If so, are those items from the locals or is it all from the cruise line? Also, is there anything that Costa Maya is known for that we need to look for and purchase? Any recommendations/tips on shopping in Costa Maya would be appreciated.

We are wanting to know where can we go safely to shop. We have reservations at LFK for the day, but would like to come back a little early to do some shopping. I am guessing when you get off the boat there are some shops that you walk through to get to the island. Is that the case? If so, is those items from the locals or is it all cruise line base items? Also, is there anything that Roatan is known for that we need to look for and purchase? Any recommendations/tips on shopping in Roatan would be appreciated. Thanks!

Can anyone tell me if there is a convenient store in walking distance of the Port of Tampa? We would like to pick up some water and soda before boarding and was wondering if there was anything close. We will be taking a taxi from the airport to the port.

Has anyone used Uber instead of a taxi to get to a port? If so, was it any cheaper? We are flying into Tampa and going to Port Tampa.

Can someone tell me the difference in the $55.00 package vs the $88.00 package? I'm reading comments on this board that people say don't do the $88.00 package do the $55.00. Why is that? With the $55.00 package do you get to use non-motorized equipment and snorkeling equipment? If someone that has recently been there can give me some information on this I would greatly appreciate it!

I did call TA and she first stated I could upgrade for an very small fee so I said let's do it. Then she called back and said the new Norwegian agent said no they could not do that. I told her she needs to call again and get a different agent and get me the upgrade like she stated she could get. I knew when she said "If you see an additional charge on your credit card that means I got you an upgrade" that I was in trouble and she was done with me. I have now called Norwegian and that rep said yes I could get an upgrade, however he could not do it my TA had to obtain it. Of course the Norwegian rep can not make any calls out to TA's. I now can NOT get my TA to answer her phone or return my calls.

I just found out that the cruise I am going on next month has dropped in price. I did not book with Norwegian I booked with an outside agency. Does Norwegian honor that price drop? Will they refund the difference or give me an on board credit. If this has happened to you can you tell me what they did to honor the new lower price? Thank You.

We are going on the Star in a couple weeks to Roatan, Costa Maya, and Cozumel. I have read all the reviews on each port. My question is out of these 3 ports, which one has the clearest water to snorkel and has the best beach? Everyone says each port is great, but I want to hear how you would rate them (i.e. #1, #2, #3). I might only have one day to enjoy the beach/snorkeling so I want to make sure I do it at the best place. I don't want to end up at a beach that has seaweed/seagrass. If you could rank these islands in your order I would greatly appreciate. Any personal comments on them would greatly be appreciated. Thank You!

I am looking on the website and noticed that some of these rooms are 40 more sq ft larger than the other Oceanview rooms. Has anyone been in these rooms? Is the extra square footage worth it? We will have 4 people in the room. I would also like to know can you see out of the porthole or the picture window? Or is it just very thick scratch glass that your looking through? We have never sailed on Norwegian before so we don't know what to expect. If you could tell me what you have experienced I would greatly appreciate it!

In October we will be leaving out of Tampa with NCL. I was wondering what ways have you used to get from Tampa airport to the port. NCL does offer the transfers, but I was wondering what other options there are and for what price. There are 4 females traveling together. Our flight gets in at 9:00am and the ship doesn't start boarding until 1:00. Is there anything to do around the port or a place to sit and wait? One last question. :) When we get back from the cruise we plan to stay overnight in the Tampa area. Any recommendations on where to stay that is safe? We are thinking about getting a rental car for that day so it does NOT have to be close to the port. If you could tell me what you recommend or NOT recommend due to your past experiences on the above matters I would greatly appreciate!

We will be sailing on NCL.

In October we will be going to Roatan, Costa May, and Cozumel. I am wanting to save cost by planning our own excursions vs buying the excursions from the cruise line. I have 2 teenagers that will be going. We like spending time in the water and at the beaches. The girls would also like to do a dolphin encounter. Can anyone give me advise on where the best island/place is to do each of these items. Is there anything else that we should see or do while we are at these islands? We do have past experience in doing our own excursions, just not on these islands. I might add that this is an all girls trip so I am also concerned about our safety. Any comments on what to do or not do would greatly be appreciated!