What is the worst Cruise line that you have sailed on

[grizzlybearlover]

NCL was horrible. The food was awful, the employees rude and creepy--like the other guy, wouldn't sail with NCL if it was free. Worst week of my life. YOu name it, it was awful. No pool towels, cabin boys creeping in the room, the hot tubs covered at 6---from A to Z, NCL was terrible

[newfarmers]

we must have been lucky with our four cruises so far.

 

Celebrity Infinity, HAL Rotterdam, RCI Legend of the Seas and NCL Norwegian Sun.

 

All great, great, great.

 

We don't go expecting food to be Heston Blumenthal standard, or West End or Broadway standard shows in the showroom. A meal might be disappointing but big deal, niether of us was every going to starve.

 

We know staff get paid peanuts to work like slaves (and sadly be treated like them by some passengers) so if someone doesn't smile at either of us because they've just been called into service another 10 rooms after already cleaning their own rooms, or to work in a bar at 10pm when they've been working since 6am, we feel sorry, not angry.

 

like I said, just lucky maybe, but then we're very much glass half full people

 

possibly our planned Sun Princess cruise in 2013 will be our hoodoo but I don't imagine so

[AirStang7]

Long time lurker, first time poster - just signed up.

 

A few random thoughts...

I don't believe in a bad cruise. I think occasionally things will happen, usually an oversight or even a mechanical issue with a ship. I suppose that could be the best way of judging a company by how they react to that situation. The whole point of the industry is to serve people and make them happy. Food on a ship is plentiful. If you don't like something, look around. I'm sure you can find something you'll like.

[tynes1der]

Only been on 2 cruises

 

- loved Saga despite the price. Only spent extra on excursions in 3 ports - the rest had free shuttle buses and were quite walk able on your own. The (optional) bars have UK prices and no extra service charge.

 

- Grand Princess was not our style despite the price and was run down just before the recent refit. Princess aim seems to be to part you from as much money as possible especially over priced shuttle buses ans 15% on bar purchases..

[tynes1der]

No matter how you say it, there are people here that will defend certain cruise lines as though they are their children - even to the point of posting under a newly made up screen name to support themselves. ;)

 

I totally agree - this happens on Trip Advisor too.

 

People just need to recognise that we are all individuals and have different expectations.

 

We tried a cruise line that drew favourable comments by and large and found it not to our taste (the ship was large brash and American and we had been on a small intimate British ship before). We commented with our personal views showing why it did not suit us, but of course some members could not see that because they were so defensive about the cruise line they really loved.

[Tocruise2]

By and Far the Worst cruise ever for us was aboard the Celebrity Galaxy when it sailed out of Baltimore.... We were robbed by a crew member ( we caught him in the cabin and he denied being there when he was questioned) We were told not to speak of the incident with anyone, "or else" by the staff in particular the hotel director who was the investigating officer. Luckily this experience did not deter us from cruising with other lines and have been many many more pleasurable cruises... but NEVER again on Celebrity... it was a nightmare!

[Tanafei]

Without a doubt Cunard last Christmas/New Year Canary Island trip. First, possitive great ship Victoria, but the food and service were appalling. Food cold and late being served every time. Even the Corporate Chef admitted a problem. Service was just as bad - non existent. Officers taking up seating in bar area where passengers had to walk around to find somewhere to order a pre dinner drink. Crew seating in Theatre where passengers had to stand for a one off Pantomime performance. Afternoon tea is great if you like having a sewerage semell with it. Nearly everyone was fed up with the food and service, but obviously did not take time to write a complaint.

 

It just got better as the non existant service culture extended to UK Head Office and Corporate Office. We had booked part of a world cruise, paid a £2,500 deposit, but did not want to spend 57 days at sea with bad service and food so wrote to the heads of the two above offices asking if we could transfer the deposit to another Cunard Cruse to regain confidence in the Company. No we had to book to the same level of expense in one year. This would have meant 4x14 day cruises in one year and all that at a premium as Cunard does not come cheap. It took us 6 months of chasing them as they thought initially our letters did not a reply, but after all this we had to lose our deposit and will not sail with them again. We do cruise on 5* ships, but have had much better on 4.5* ships

 

What a missed opportunity for good customer service with no financial loss to them as they have some very good itineraries. We will not use Cunard again and speaking to several people on our Transatlantic crossing to Boston with RCCL in September neither will other people who came over on QM2.

[Karlie1]

In last 12 months we have sailed out Miami on Carnival Valor, Norwegian Spirit out New Orleans. WE had basically same Ports: Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Roatan , Belize and Coasta Maya. Valor a little bigger but everything was about the same, food, entertainment, staff etc. I liked the Valor because I won a little at the Casino:), nothing on Spirit.:mad:

[printingchick]

Like others have said, I've enjoyed ALL my cruises. I've only sailed on two lines, Carnival and Royal Caribbean.

 

I find this thread VERY interesting, specifically comments of those who have sailed many more lines than I have. It's interesting that so many posters have identified NCL as their least favorite, which makes me glad I've never booked with that line. My travel agent once said that she gets more complaints from her HAL cruise customers than those cruising on other lines, so I've tended to avoid HAL as well.

 

Someone noted that there are so many cruise lines precisely because we all have different expectations. I like the "FUN" aspects of CCL, but prefer the step-up in sophistication and service provided by RCL. I also like more of the activities on RCL, which are often aimed at a more sports-minded passenger. I was sometimes bored on Carnival during sea days. Not so on RCL.

 

Like another poster, I might try more lines if I had a bigger budget to work with. When your funds and vacation time are severely limited, it seems safer to go with a known commodity. I toyed with the idea of booking Celebrity for my next cruise, preferring the itinerary to the comparable one offered by RCL. But I just don't think I'd enjoy the low-key atmosphere as much and I don't want to take the chance. My finances are in BAD shape (had to cancel my 2012 cruise), so I want to be CERTAIN to MAXIMIZE my enjoyment of the next cruise I can afford to take!

[CujoK]

My wife took a cruise on the Pride of America and sailed around the Hawaiian Islands. It was by far the WORST cruise we have ever been on. I don't have all day to go into all the problems but suffice it to say they stopped us from getting off the ship because we hadn't spent all of the ship board credits they had given us to try and make up for all the problems.:mad: We will never cruise NCL again. EVER!!

 

J

[preschool teacher]

NCL was my least favorite,,,,,,but i still had a great time.....all 14 have been super cruises......i just love cruising...

[Guest LoveMyBoxer]

By NO MEANS am I an NCL cheerleader and have said in the past that I don't care for them. There is however, one area that they do very well above and beyond the other standard cruise lines out there. If you are in a suite, you are truly spoiled. Having learned our lesson, when we do sail them, we do sail in a suite. You are spoiled from the minute you arrive at the pier and a butler takes your carry on and escorts you to your cabin. Aside from that, not much else is memorable with them.

[ljk76]

Well, it did eventually sink...on it's way to the scrapheap in Asia, the American Hawaiian Constitution did depart. Our carpet was soaking wet, I thought I was seasick and we hadn't left the dock, but the worst by FAR was the American crew. Not exactly service oriented. Godmother princess Grace would not have approved. But Hawaii was beautiful and we have a special appreciation for the hard working international crews we have encountered everywhere else over the years.

[BOOKBUG]

Louis Cristal. This year. Cramped, dirty cabins. Mediocre food. Poor service.

[Abear2]

The worse ship I have been on was the Carnival Triumph !!! I am not a fan of Carnival !

[grand isle joe]

......N.C.L. just lost two more "fans" today in Boston......:eek:.....N.C.L. still is HORRIBLE IMHO......:eek:

[Grumpy100]

THE WORST CRUISE WAS "COSTA MAGICA".

We went to Norway, it was the most beautiful place we have ever been to, ship was very nice but the food was the worst ever. Then don't even get me started on the rude crowd from Europe. Sorry Europeans but they are the pushiest, rudest people you will ever meet. Everything in 5 languages.

Costa definitely sucks.

We have been on NCL, Carnival, Costa, Celebrity, Princess and by far the worst was COSTA.................

We like NCL and we really liked our cruise around the Hawaiian Islands with the american crew. It was great.

[Deckhandoug]

I decided to take a break from preparing my end-of-the-month books and have some fun with this topic, so I took the time to count every person's pick of the worst (I know, I must have too much time on my hands!!:D)

 

What I found was fascinating. And that you have a point that I'm glad you made about NCL getting quite a few votes. What was very interesting was that NCE and Carnival ended up with almost a tie - CAR = 35; NCL = 33. As I counted, one would take the lead, then the other rallied and took back the lead, which changed over a dozen times. I would say that both are equally disliked.

 

I haven't been on either one, but for some reason Carnival seems to have a larger presence - that must be why I thought Carnival to be the undisputed winner. I guess you might have been partially correct about my bias against Carnival.

 

For those of you who might be interested, here are the totals as the worst cruise lines based on the answers on this thread:

 

CARNIVAL = 35

NCL = 33

ROYAL CARIBBEAN = 11

MSC = 6

HAL = 5

CELEBRITY = 1

DISNEY = 1

PRINCESS = 1

 

Other lines were mentioned, but these I didn't consider to be the mass market lines most of us cruise on, so they weren't counted. Besides, none not listed here totaled more than two votes each.

 

You can look at it this way too:

 

Carnival has 23 ships

Royal Caribbean has 22

NCl has 12

 

Based on number of ships & passengers and complaints, out of the big three NCL is the worst.

 

On the smaller lines, since nobody here hardly sails on it, MSC is the worst.

 

Non scientific of course, just another observation:)

[kennicott]

You can look at it this way too:

 

 

Based on number of ships & passengers and complaints, out of the big three NCL is the worst.

 

On the smaller lines, since nobody here hardly sails on it, MSC is the worst.

 

Non scientific of course, just another observation:)

 

That's remarkable since it doesn't jive with Berlitz at all. Particulary your comment regarding MSC. And from our experiences Berlitz ratings are pretty accurate. Most of these outfits we haven't cruised on though, as we only do Princess, HAL and Regent. (around the world twice.) Regent is small and high end so it isn't considered one of the top 11, so it is out of the rankings.

 

Here are Berlitz ratings, considering every feature of service and cuisine: 1. Cunard 2. Celebrity 3.MSC 4.Princess 5.HAL 6. P&O 7.NCL 8.Star 9.Costa 10.Carnival 11.RCI

[Deckhandoug]

That's remarkable since it doesn't jive with Berlitz at all. Particulary your comment regarding MSC. And from our experiences Berlitz ratings are pretty accurate. Most of these outfits we haven't cruised on though, as we only do Princess, HAL and Regent. (around the world twice.) Regent is small and high end so it isn't considered one of the top 11, so it is out of the rankings.

 

Here are Berlitz ratings, considering every feature of service and cuisine: 1. Cunard 2. Celebrity 3.MSC 4.Princess 5.HAL 6. P&O 7.NCL 8.Star 9.Costa 10.Carnival 11.RCI

 

Only remarkable in the fact that Berlitz ratings don't correspond anything at all to our own cruise critics "Cruisers choice poll" that reflects the findings found in this thread, especially MSC which is rated lowest in all categories.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberpoll_all.cfm?rating=Overall&sort=Highest

 

My experiences have been just like the other members of CC and I rate the ships almost exactly as they do, Berlitz appears inaccurate compared to the cruisers on CC and this thread, which, of course, is the subject.

[boogs]

You can look at it this way too:

 

Carnival has 23 ships

Royal Caribbean has 22

NCl has 12

 

Based on number of ships & passengers and complaints, out of the big three NCL is the worst.

 

On the smaller lines, since nobody here hardly sails on it, MSC is the worst.

 

Non scientific of course, just another observation:)

 

And also a huge difference between Carnival and Royal Caribbean, with almost the same number of ships.

[Deckhandoug]

And also a huge difference between Carnival and Royal Caribbean, with almost the same number of ships.

 

Yes, I saw that too, looks like a lot of people in this thread had a bad cruise with Carnival at some point.

 

We've never had any problems on CCL but from what I understand they had some severe issues before we started cruising with food quality especially.

[mr green]

That's remarkable since it doesn't jive with Berlitz at all. Particulary your comment regarding MSC. And from our experiences Berlitz ratings are pretty accurate. Most of these outfits we haven't cruised on though, as we only do Princess, HAL and Regent. (around the world twice.) Regent is small and high end so it isn't considered one of the top 11, so it is out of the rankings.

 

Here are Berlitz ratings, considering every feature of service and cuisine: 1. Cunard 2. Celebrity 3.MSC 4.Princess 5.HAL 6. P&O 7.NCL 8.Star 9.Costa 10.Carnival 11.RCI

 

I have little faith in Berlitz ratings. If they are still handled by D Ward, at times he has strange ideas, such as giving a better rating if the china, and silverware is of good quality, as if that makes or breaks a cruise.

I based one of our cruises on his say so, [Mercury], and have regretted it ever since.

 

john

[Grandma Jean]

My vote for worst ship is Pride of America. Have cruised Princess, HAL. Celebrity, Royal Carribbean. Happy with all. Pride of America is a beautiful, clean ship. Room was great, butler was great, Concierge awful. My problem was food and dining rooms. Also wait staff in main dinning room. Too busy talking to others to see if we were done with each course. If you did not have a reservation, you were turned away from main dinning room even if it was only half full. We actually witnessed this while having dinner there. Still, best ship for Hawaii and would do it again but would have meals off the ship.

[navybankerteacher]

My vote for worst ship is Pride of America. Have cruised Princess, HAL. Celebrity, Royal Carribbean. Happy with all. Pride of America is a beautiful, clean ship. Room was great, butler was great, Concierge awful. My problem was food and dining rooms. Also wait staff in main dinning room. Too busy talking to others to see if we were done with each course. If you did not have a reservation, you were turned away from main dinning room even if it was only half full. We actually witnessed this while having dinner there. Still, best ship for Hawaii and would do it again but would have meals off the ship.

 

I cannot help asking: how, exactly, do you have your "...meals off the ship."? If that can be done, I might try NCL again.