Disgusting experience!!!!!

[TITISSA]

My heart goes out to the OP. I also missed the boat once because of volcanic ashes. We always fly the day before but DH, who is a lawyer, had a trial and couldn't leave. It took us (family of 4) 3 days to meet up with the ship. It was President's week and we couldn't find any flights. A lot of passengers missed embarkation on the first day, especially those coming from Europe. It was kind of funny to see passengers embarking in every port...

[Destinite]

Were you expecting them to do something else? :confused:

 

Maybe address that there is a problem and their future cruisers need to be informed of the situation. At the very least I expected some empathy with an upgrade or other perk for our next voyage - but that is not going to happen now. We are through with NCL.

[my_crib_too]

NCL does have transatlantic Baltic cruises which include Russia.

 

http://www2.ncl.com/itinerary?N=0&Nu=p_Key&key=SUN22PCVPDLAMSCPHWARTLLLEDHELSTOCPH&TB_iframe=true&width=934&height=526&name=itinerary_map

 

Maybe poster had a "Mini Suite" and just called it a Jr. Suite?

 

Other than that, I'd agree with your other points.

 

Howard

 

Wow, what a cruise... I don't keep an eye on cruises of this length and didn't know NCL did this either. Thank you for posting the link!!! Maybe when I retire. :)

 

bruce...

[cliffd64]

Maybe address that there is a problem and their future cruisers need to be informed of the situation. At the very least I expected some empathy with an upgrade or other perk for our next voyage - but that is not going to happen now. We are through with NCL.

 

So let me get this correct:

 

Traffic leading to the port caused you a two hour delay in arrival at the port... So instead of arriving at 11:00, you arrived after 1:00 ...

 

You were able to get on the cruise... Just a little bit later than you had expected.. In other words, everything that was contracted by you from NCL was delivered...

 

You complained later to NCL, who has no control over traffic near the port, nor scheduling of the port embarkations, and they forwarded your issue to Port Authority, who DOES have some oversight into these things...

 

Somehow through all of this, you still expected NCL to compensate you for having to wait two hours in local traffic with some sort of perk or upgrade for a future cruise?

 

WOW .... Your sense of entitlement is quite amazing. Good luck on your cruising on other lines... NCL's gain is the other line's loss....

[sparks1093]

Maybe address that there is a problem and their future cruisers need to be informed of the situation. At the very least I expected some empathy with an upgrade or other perk for our next voyage - but that is not going to happen now. We are through with NCL.

 

You received from NCL exactly what you would have received from any other cruise line, so does that mean you are through with cruising?:confused:

[che5904]

Maybe address that there is a problem and their future cruisers need to be informed of the situation. At the very least I expected some empathy with an upgrade or other perk for our next voyage - but that is not going to happen now. We are through with NCL.

 

Wow

[mickeysgal]

My heart goes out to the OP. I also missed the boat once because of volcanic ashes. We always fly the day before but DH, who is a lawyer, had a trial and couldn't leave. It took us (family of 4) 3 days to meet up with the ship. It was President's week and we couldn't find any flights. A lot of passengers missed embarkation on the first day, especially those coming from Europe. It was kind of funny to see passengers embarking in every port...

 

Thats awful. Glad you were able to catch up with the ship.

 

The difference here is that you didn't lay all the blame on NCL and you didn't sue (or at least you didn't say that you did) even given your husband is a lawyer. Imagine that.

[mickeysgal]

Maybe address that there is a problem and their future cruisers need to be informed of the situation. At the very least I expected some empathy with an upgrade or other perk for our next voyage - but that is not going to happen now. We are through with NCL.

 

You don't know that they didn't. Perhaps they are trying to address it with the Port Authority and City of N.O. Obviously there is a traffic issue there.

 

But you wanted a perk? For getting stuck in port traffic which ultimately didn't affect you getting on the ship.

 

This can't be real...

[my_crib_too]

Maybe address that there is a problem and their future cruisers need to be informed of the situation. At the very least I expected some empathy with an upgrade or other perk for our next voyage - but that is not going to happen now. We are through with NCL.

 

Overall, after my initial complaints the staff bent over backwards to make our trip enjoyable and they succeeded. We are already looking at the Star for next Dec out of NOLA.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=31659010#post31659010

 

 

What happened to change your opinion? On this previous thread of yours, you are going to give NOLA and NCL another try?

[luddite]

Maybe address that there is a problem and their future cruisers need to be informed of the situation. At the very least I expected some empathy with an upgrade or other perk for our next voyage - but that is not going to happen now. We are through with NCL.

 

Wow. Simply amazing.

[che5904]

Wow. Simply amazing.

 

:D :D Glad to see I wasn't the only one that was lost for words ;)

 

But it got me thinking. Darn my last cruise was from the port of LA, which truly isn't in LA but a long way from it, and I think that NCL should have warned me that and since they didn't I should have complained and maybe on my next cruise they could offer me an upgrade from a balcony to a GV.;) :D

[janetz]

One would think the TA knows what is going on in New Orleans at this time and could have forwarned...

[Destinite]

Wow. Simply amazing.

 

There were other issues too which were directly accountable by NCL:

1. The pics on their website of our suite depicted a much larger balcony with full lounge chairs, our balcony only had two small chairs and that was all there was room for.

2. Second City was advertised as being on board entertainment and still was after the cruise- however, there was no Second City at all because their contract had expired.

3. We looked forward to the wine dinner with the chef, also cancelled.

4. Food was the worst we've ever had on any cruise, including 3 previous cruises with NCL.

 

I thought my complaints were warranted and still do. Again, we are through with NCL. Cheer on! :)

[mpk218]

:D :D Glad to see I wasn't the only one that was lost for words ;)

 

But it got me thinking. Darn my last cruise was from the port of LA, which truly isn't in LA but a long way from it, and I think that NCL should have warned me that and since they didn't I should have complained and maybe on my next cruise they could offer me an upgrade from a balcony to a GV.;) :D

 

 

I too was at a loss , started to write a response twice and canceled . These are the types that go into any and every situation Looking for a beef just so they can squeeeeze a little juice from their victim.. ;)

 

To much ?

[Zeno]

Maybe address that there is a problem and their future cruisers need to be informed of the situation. At the very least I expected some empathy with an upgrade or other perk for our next voyage - but that is not going to happen now. We are through with NCL.

 

Wow - as others have said what an unbelievable sense of entitlement!

[peg013]

There were other issues too which were directly accountable by NCL:

1. The pics on their website of our suite depicted a much larger balcony with full lounge chairs, our balcony only had two small chairs and that was all there was room for.

2. Second City was advertised as being on board entertainment and still was after the cruise- however, there was no Second City at all because their contract had expired.

3. We looked forward to the wine dinner with the chef, also cancelled.

4. Food was the worst we've ever had on any cruise, including 3 previous cruises with NCL.

 

I thought my complaints were warranted and still do. Again, we are through with NCL. Cheer on! :)

 

So why not hang out on one of the other cruiseline boards so you learn the ins and outs before you are disappointed again. After all, you said you are done with NCL, you know the cheerleaders will "correct" your obvious misinformation so why waste you time here?:confused:

[Destinite]

I too was at a loss , started to write a response twice and canceled . These are the types that go into any and every situation Looking for a beef just so they can squeeeeze a little juice from their victim.. ;)

 

To much ?

 

I promise you I was not looking for beefs. I was looking forward to a great cruise and was disappointed. NCL requested feedback and they received my honest opinion. Look above to see the other shortcomings of the cruise. I am not a cheapy looking for juice...

 

...I hope you enjoy your future NCL cruises. Really.

[dwjoe]

Traffic issues at ports must come up for other lines too. Might want to check how they handle these issues before singling out NCL.

 

A good TA should advise their clients about port traffic history. Not doing so, however, does not seem like a legal basis to sue.

 

It seems like the party with the greatest ability to address this is the port of new orleans (so it makes sense that NCL forwarded OP's complaint there). If cruisers have frequent difficulty getting to the port, it's in the port's interest to be as transparent as possible about that. Maybe by providing an easily-googlable port traffic conditions report.

[newmexicoNita]

One would think the TA knows what is going on in New Orleans at this time and could have forwarned...

 

i agree, but in this case, unless the TA was in the NOLA area he/she might not know the situation either. The OP lives in Mississippi which has several small celebrations themselves. I would think they would have known there could be mass confusion. The fact the parades were doubled up added the problem. This isn't something even a TA would necessarily know. The whole thing was a mess, obviously most people made it to the ship, so the responsibility does fall on the cruisers.This isn't saying I don't feel very sorry for them, I sure do and I would be heartbroken if it were me, but I don't think anyone can blame the city, the cruise line or even the TA.

[Destinite]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=31659010#post31659010

 

 

What happened to change your opinion? On this previous thread of yours, you are going to give NOLA and NCL another try?

 

 

That was before I received their responce to my feedback. I then decided I would take my biz elsewhere.

[newmexicoNita]

There were other issues too which were directly accountable by NCL:

1. The pics on their website of our suite depicted a much larger balcony with full lounge chairs, our balcony only had two small chairs and that was all there was room for.

2. Second City was advertised as being on board entertainment and still was after the cruise- however, there was no Second City at all because their contract had expired.

3. We looked forward to the wine dinner with the chef, also cancelled.

4. Food was the worst we've ever had on any cruise, including 3 previous cruises with NCL.

 

I thought my complaints were warranted and still do. Again, we are through with NCL. Cheer on! :)

 

Everyone has his own reasons for being unhappy, some of yours are justified, especially the Second City complaint. Food is subjective, we know and as for the pics not being exactly whay you thought, sorry, that is advertising. Just like the pics of all those beautiful people on the ship, they look like models and guess what, they are. The pics of the food also ins't quite the way it appears when you get it. This is the same on all ships, all resorts, etc. I understand your disappointment with the wine dinner. The same thing happened to friends on Princess: the dinner was cancelled due to lack of support. Is that what happened in your case?

 

I hope you do find another cruise line that is more to your liking, not any line is right for everyone.

[ColinIllinois]

It took me all of about 60 seconds to Google "Port of New Orleans", click on the "Citizen Resources" link and then click on the link to "French Quarter".

 

On that page they have a section entitled "Upcoming French Quarter Events".

 

http://www.portno.com/pno_pages/citizen_waterfront_access.htm

[PaperSniper4]

My husband, brother and i just came back on 2/19 from trying to get aboard the norwegian spirit in new orleans. The ship left without us because it was absolutely impossible, if driving, to find an access road that would take you down to the dock. Every road was blocked because of freaking mardi gras, and the norwegian cruise line knows this and didn't let anyone know of an alternate route to get to the ship. We were stuck, and i mean stuck, in traffic for over 5 hours in new orleans while we tried to get to the ship, and we simply could not get there. The ship left without a lot of passengers who had the same experience. Ncl and our travel agency, ***********, do not accept any responsibility for this mess and won't compensate us for the loss of the trip. Ncl provides driving directions to the terminal. They already accept the responsibility for telling you how to get there. Now they say they have no responsibility for these driving direction. We say they do. We say they could have emailed every one of us on this cruise some new directions, given what happens on mardi gras (we didn't know about it because we don't live in n.o.). We are going to sue them in small claims court. We hope every one of the passengers who missed this boat does the same. We will prevail in small claims court--the directions that did not work are printed on ncl letterhead, which proves that they expected us to use these directions. If they did not work, ncl should have let us know how to get to the ship.

 

We are latitudes members who have cruised on ncl many times, without incident. I cannot find the words to express my anger and frustration with this cruise line now. They are real pikers in my opinion, and i am considering not setting foot on another of their ships. I will also write to the better business bureau in my area and complain about this service issue.

 

Hope you had non-NCL travel insurance. Hopefully you will be covered and get compensation. Remember you are due compensation for some items even if you have no insurance. For instance, we missed a cruise this summer due to Irene, and were reimbursed for taxes, tours and airport transfers we did not use.

 

Also, we took the Spirit from NOLA on 29 January, and even though we checked our paperwork and called NCL, we went to the wrong terminal. We SHOULD have gone to the Julia street terninal, but went first to the Erato Street terminal as our paperwork and a phone call directed. That only caused us a delay or maybe 15 minutes, but understanding the streets in that area, I can only imagine what you faced! Sorry you had such a rotten experience. I think I'd continue up the chain of command speaking to people at NCL......at the very least they need to advise passengers about Mardi Gras, not everyone knows, or cares, when it is.

[jakenashleysmom]

I guess I am still confused as to why you feel the word "disgusting" is appropriate.....upsetting, unfair, bad business, maddening but disgusting? I don't get it.:confused:

[jaja]

I guess I am still confused as to why you feel the word "disgusting" is appropriate.....upsetting, unfair, bad business, maddening but disgusting? I don't get it.:confused:

 

I was going to ask the same thing :D