NCL Wind Review

[Umbarger]

The reviews section is not posting my review fast enough so I thought I better post it here for future Wind cruisers.

 

Norwegian Wind December 15-25, 2004

 

In my opinion there is no such thing as a bad cruise. So, this was not a bad cruise, however, it could have been better. The ship is in surprisingly good condition considering it’s age. I went on this cruise with my disabled mother 67 and my 74-year-old mother-in-law.

 

Cabin: I booked a category CC cabin in a handicapped room since my mother is disabled. It was a very nice large room. My cabin did not have regular beds but consisted of two cots and a fold out love seat. The mattresses were very thin around 2 inches. We managed but we were so glad to get back to a hotel and sleep on a real mattress.

 

Embarkation: was horrible. I got my mom in a wheelchair with a staff member to help. We went to the latitudes line. We were second in line. Got to the agent and it took 45 minutes to check in. We had already registered on the NCL website. This embarkation agent was so slow. She didn't know what she was doing. The agent beside us checked in at least 7 couples while we were still waiting on this woman. He was so quick checking people in. 5 minutes top. We waited and waited and waited. She often left us standing while she went elsewhere to do things. I asked if there was something wrong with our reservation. She said "no". She never offered us an explaination of what the problem was and why it was taking so long. Finally she was done and we were on our way to our cabin. All staff very ‘friendly’ saying “Aloha” The waiter helping my mom in her wheelchair had no idea where our cabin was. He kept asking co-workers, who didn’t know either. He took us to the wrong cabin. However, I knew where are cabin was (from looking on the deck plans before I left) so I led the staff member to our cabin. Our key cards wouldn't open our door. Staff member tried several times too but to no avail. He told me to go down to Deck 7 reception to find out what the problem was. I left my party on Deck 9 to wait and went to deck 7 to find reception. Reception said the keys were not encoded right thanks to our embarkation clerk. Back up to deck 9 and my cabin. The first two keys I tried didn't work again but the third one did. Finally in our room with a beautiful large picture window. On this 10 day cruise each of our key cards quite working 3 times. It was so inconvenient to constantly go to the reception desk because we couldn't get in our cabin. And then reception staff would say to me “what did you do to it?”

 

We rented a car on each island and travel and toured around. We saved so much money doing this instead of NCL excursions. I was a little nervous driving but there was no problems driving on the different islands. But BEWARE leave plenty of time to get back to the rental companies to get back to the ship in time. We encountered many traffic jams on each island and the stop and go traffic had us biting our nails wondering if we were going to get back to the ship in time.

 

Fanning Island: Before I left I read about the many problems about getting to Fanning Island. Engine troubles, and medical emergencies. There is always an excuse. We got to Fanning and saw it in the distance. It was raining. The captain announced that we would wait around to see if the weather would clear up. However, we left after waiting for only 15 minutes. We left right after the tender got back from Fanning to get the ships paper work signed so they wouldn't get fined due to the Jones Act. Why couldn't we have waited half a day or even an hour and a half to see if the rain would clear up? We had no where else to go? The captain didn't even try!!! We were very disappointed, as Fanning was the reason we took this cruise. Other pax were very disappointed as well. We thought.... okay...we would get to Kauai early and maybe spend two days, Great!! Wrong!! Captain announced there was no place for us to go so we spent 5 days at sea. Then we were promised to get to Kauai at 7:30am but didn't dock until 8:30am. Why were we an hour late when we had three days to get there? When you are at sea for 5 days every port minute is precious. A few days later NCL put a letter under our cabin door saying they were “so pleased” they could offer us a $10 refund (port taxes) for missing Fanning Island, what a slap in the face. I have come to the conclusion that NCL must not want to go to Fanning Island for some reason. They miss it whenever they get the chance. Since they miss Fanning so often they should plan an alternate place to go so passengers are not stuck at sea for 5 days.

 

The sea days were very rough in many people’s opinion, but not in my opinion. Reception was handing out seasick pills like candy. Thankfully we don't get seasick at all but I spoke to many people who were stuck in their cabins for 5 days ...sick. What a way to spend a vacation. The ship did have plenty to do on sea days. Lei making, Hawaiian lectures, art auctions, bingo, palm weaving, temp tattoos, name that tune, trivia games etc. etc. They charged for Yoga, which I thought, was cheap of them. I already paid thousands of dollars and they cant give you a free Yoga class???

 

Staff was surface friendly but it was not genuine. It was so fake. I got so sick of the insincerity. I disliked being called madam all the time. Maam wouldn't be so bad, but Madam was too formal. On previous cruises with traditional dining I have been called by my first name. What a treat that would have been!

 

Entertainment: We love getting entertained and we were most of the time. We were always at the stardust lounge 45 minutes early in order to get a good seat. The Jean Ryan Company was good. The Matangi dancers were great. Comedian Chris Alpine was soooooooo funny. He was the BEST!!! Comedy duo of Alfred and Seymour were terrible. Just hip hop/break dancing with some very bad jokes thrown in. They were awful. The poor juggler (cant remember his name) was having a very bad night. Poor guy couldn't juggle much anything right (after trying several times) but he was funny and entertaining.

 

Food: I enjoyed the food. Some days and nights were better than others were, but it was all good. I didn't enjoy the Italian restaurant, however, my companions thought it was fine. We dined there twice. The Four Seasons was open till nine. The Terraces was open till Midnight. We usually dined at the Terraces. We did not go to the Bistro. Service was very slow at all times. But the waiters and bus boys were always rushing around like mad. It usually took 1 1/2 to two hours to eat. We never had to wait to be seated in any of the restaurants. We just showed up and were seated right away. We just ate one lunch at the buffet. It was good but it was just too crowded to even move never mind sit. The chocolate buffet is a total waste of time and overrated. It was just a traffic jam. 1000 people showing up to see chocolate. It was just too crowded.

 

I booked directly with NCL and was promised a $50 on board credit. Before I left I read from several people to double check your on board credit as NCL says you get one but the ship doesn't know anything about it. I called NCL several times and triple-checked about my on board credit. I was always assured .....“Yes you have a $50 on board credit“. Well, guess what........ When I got on board and asked about it I was told they didn't know anything about an on board credit. I was told I was not due an on board credit. The ship e-mailed the NCL main office but NCL main office also said “no on board credit” I was supposed to get the on board credit since I had cruised with NCL before. I still don't know what happened, I just think NCL is cheap and will save $50 anywhere it can. What a horrible way to treat repeat customers.

 

I have made several cruises: 1 Princess, 3 Carnival and 2 NCL. No such thing as a bad cruise but NCL could have made it so much better. This was NCL’s last chance and they failed. I will be running not walking back to Carnival.

[helpme]

Whoa! now I'm getting worried about our trip. But would you mind just answering a few questions for me. Was there a place where you could dance and have a coctail before dinner, kind of a romantic moment. Or was there any music in any of the bars you can enjoy before dinner.

[Umbarger]

Please dont worry about your cruise. I still had a good time and you will too. For a drink there is Dazzles disco but the nicest place is the observation lounge at the very front of the ship on Deck 12. Lots of windows with a beautiful view. Again, you will have a good time...... remember you are on vacaton!!! Linda

[helpme]

Did they play music either piano or a singer but not the disco kind and were appetisers available, the reason I'm asking this is we loved to do this kind of thing before dinner and the couple we are going with are ballroom dancers.

[Umbarger]

Ah........ballroom dancing..............yes yes yes. The stardust lounge, an hour before the first show starts the NCL Wind band plays and they have a dance floor and alot of couples danced and they were wonderful. You can also get a drink. We always went to the shows early(to get a good seat) and watched all the couples dance and listened to the band. Since I went with my Mom and Mother in law I had no one to dance with and besides I cant dance to save my life anyway. Alot of couples ballroom danced on our sailing and I was in awe of their talent. Youre going to have a blast. Linda

[spleen93]

Thanks for posting, Umbarger!!

 

Masaki

[helpme]

Thanks umbarger for the response it was very good of you. Well we are going with an open mind and are determined to enjoy its going to be our 30th wedding anniversary and my 50th birthday while we are sailing so I have to enjoy-enjoy-enjoy

[Jim and Robin Lincoln]

Thanks for the review. We (13 of us) are going on the 11 day on June 11th. We are getting really excited now less than 6 months. Helpme when are you and your dancing friends going?

 

Robin

[pengu1n]

Robin

We (husband, 19 year old son, & I) will also be on the 6/11th cruise! Is it too soon to start counting days?

Karen

[Jim and Robin Lincoln]

Hi Karen,

Never too early to count, heck I started counting with over 365 days!! :) In our group of 13 will be 2 young ladies who will have just graduated from High School, now tell your son to stop smiling!!! My husband and I are flying over on June 8th and doing Oahu for 3 1/2 days first. Are you guys doing a pre/post? Have you been to Hawaii before? I lived there years and years ago (my father was in the A.F.) when the only hotel on the beach was The Royal Hawaiian. It's changed alot but I can't wait!!!!! Talk to ya soon.

[pengu1n]

Hi Karen,

In our group of 13 will be 2 young ladies who will have just graduated from High School, now tell your son to stop smiling!!!

Ricky was thrilled to hear - :p !!! (That's his grin!) Of course, he's hoping to hook up with others his age & not have to hang out with us! We also are arriving early, on the 7th & staying in the Marriott Waikiki Beach. Apparently that's where the cruise pre/post is, but we booked on our own. I've been to Hawaii twice, my son & husband once. We went on an American Hawaii cruise in 1996 & loved it. We're also looking forward to the sea days. Most people seem so disappointed to waste the time going to Fanning & often not even going ashore, but I love the idea of just cruising around in the ocean.

 

There's a roll call with 2 others on the same cruise:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=118651

[helpme]

Jim and Robin we are going for the March 19th sailing so I'll be able to answer questions when we get back.

[Umbarger]

They finally posted my review :-) Linda

[spleen93]

Linda - one month's not too bad. :D

 

Spleen

[jimc_usa]

Just wanted all future NCL Wind passengers to know that my wife and I had a fabulous time on the Wind.

We ate at the buffet every morning and I gorged myself on very fresh smoked salmon. Of course the buffet got real busy, but we ate breakfast early and lunch late. The barb-b-que on the open deck in the evening was also fabulous.

 

It is unfortunate when things go wrong and I sympathize with you Umbarger, but the great time we had far out weighed any problems, including the slight smell of diesel when docking!!

[Umbarger]

So Glad you had a good time. We also had a wonderful time despite some disapointments. You just have to go with the flow. Linda