Why I will NEVER sail NCL again, and will stick with Celebrity

[NewSalt]

LOL, I share your gift of sarcasm. I thought of replying to him that it's a bit difficult to take him seriously when he types words like "bidness" and "dat" and comes across as an adolescent with half a brain cell . . .but I refrained.

 

 

 

I admire your restraint. I was so tempted to ask him what school he attends; the admission standards must be. . .interesting?

[irishayes]

Oville, which port did the Eclipse leave from?

 

And yes, we fell victim to the uber cheap mentality. Lesson learned.

 

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[boogs]

I admire your restraint. I was so tempted to ask him what school he attends; the admission standards must be. . .interesting?

 

Home schooled? :D

[Oville]

Oville, which port did the Eclipse leave from?

 

And yes, we fell victim to the uber cheap mentality. Lesson learned.

 

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Ha, ha, and quite a lesson it was.

 

We sailed out of Miami on the Eclipse but next year it is doing a 14 day route. Take a look at the Contellation for next March. It's doing 4/5 day cruises and I'll be shocked if it is anything like our Pearl cruise. It too will sail out of Miami.

[irishayes]

Ok now I'm really jealous...

 

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[cms204]

As a recent college grad, I can tell you that these college students are not the future leaders of the country, but the future unemployment collectors.

[VillaHappy]

We sailed that exact same week (3/3 through 3/10) on Disney Magic. No spring break crowds on that ship...BUT...when we were in Grand Caymen on 3/7, Seven Mile Beach was PACKED with them. And the bartenders were complaining how rude many of the college aged crowd was...

[alj1208]

This is why we will stick with Celebrity-- the only cruise line we have ever sailed with. We were on Eclipse during Spring Break last March, and the Spring Breakers (college students) on our ship were traveling with their folks, for the most part. Very civilized. At the ports of call, we were disgusted to see all the college kids from other ships doing jello shots and drinking from funnels. Yuck. We were so glad to not have those people on our ship! For the record, we have a young child, but we didn't want that lower end Spring Break travel experience. We were so pleased with our decision.

[dirtgirl]

While not as bad as the week of March 4th, I was on the Feb. 26th cruise on the Pearl. I can relate to some of the issues!

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1589248

[FrankinPA]

As a recent college grad, I can tell you that these college students are not the future leaders of the country, but the future unemployment collectors.

 

Exactly right. It seems a lot of these stupid kids will end up with police records which means they will not be able to get a job with a major company. Maybe they can work for their parents who did such a marvelous job in raising them and teaching them how to interact with others. Maybe they can be TSA agents.

[lysolqn]

You do need to be 21 and as a survivor of one these cruises rest assured they were college seniors, not high school.

 

This spring break behavior is nothing new, MTV has been airing outrageous break behavior since the 90s. Once kids are out of college and facing the real world I'm sure they settled down and become responsible adults.

 

It was the high school reference that made me wonder.

[Chunky2219]

My recommendation - cruise with Cunard, outside school holidays and preferably for long durations.

 

We did 23 days with them and never saw anyone on board who looked younger than 30. The bars were nicely quiet at night, I guess most folks were either ballroom dancing or tucked up early in bed. :)

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[rothjer]

It's a shame to see that someone judges a cruise vacation based on THEIR choice to sail at a bad time of the year. I go out of my way to ensure theres no spring breaks, march breaks, graduation season parties etc going on and book around these dates as much as possible.

 

It's nobodies fault but their own to book travel during these inevitable events.

 

When we sailed on NCL, a few days after new years, there wasent a teen, tween, child or baby in sight! I would say it was even more of a subdued cruise that what we experienced on X numerous times.

 

Its a shame that their vacation was ruined, however, ce la vie, spend some time researching and figure our whats the best times of year to travel, this doesnt just apply to the cruising industry.

[irishayes]

We had no choice. That us out daughter's spring break week, thus the only week we could go.

 

And I think it is valid that NCL nit only allowed this behavior, but encouraged it by negotiating unlimited drink packages for the college students.

 

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[irishayes]

Sorry for the typos. Blame it on my phone.

 

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[boogs]

It's a shame to see that someone judges a cruise vacation based on THEIR choice to sail at a bad time of the year. I go out of my way to ensure theres no spring breaks, march breaks, graduation season parties etc going on and book around these dates as much as possible.

 

It's nobodies fault but their own to book travel during these inevitable events.

 

When we sailed on NCL, a few days after new years, there wasent a teen, tween, child or baby in sight! I would say it was even more of a subdued cruise that what we experienced on X numerous times.

 

Its a shame that their vacation was ruined, however, ce la vie, spend some time researching and figure our whats the best times of year to travel, this doesnt just apply to the cruising industry.

 

Regardless of the time of year, or whatever event is going on, there is absolutely no excuse for people to act in such abhorrent behavior. To put the blame on the OP is in essence giving approval for bad behavior. The blame is on NCL for not managing the situation so that everyone on board could enjoy themselves, not only the spring break partiers. It is quite clear that the extra revenue from increased alcohol sales was the primary goal for NCL. It certainly wasn't to make the cruise a good experience for everyone else if they weren't spending as much money.

[CathyCruises]

Regardless of the time of year, or whatever event is going on, there is absolutely no excuse for people to act in such abhorrent behavior. To put the blame on the OP is in essence giving approval for bad behavior. The blame is on NCL for not managing the situation so that everyone on board could enjoy themselves, not only the spring break partiers.

 

I agree 100%. Since Easter isn't for another month, and that's the traditional time for spring break, I would also have assumed that the week in question would have been fine to travel. What is a person supposed to do? Contact every university in the US and ask when their spring break is? The blame rests solely on the perpetrators and the cruiselines.

[rothjer]

Regardless of the time of year, or whatever event is going on, there is absolutely no excuse for people to act in such abhorrent behavior. To put the blame on the OP is in essence giving approval for bad behavior. The blame is on NCL for not managing the situation so that everyone on board could enjoy themselves, not only the spring break partiers. It is quite clear that the extra revenue from increased alcohol sales was the primary goal for NCL. It certainly wasn't to make the cruise a good experience for everyone else if they weren't spending as much money.

 

 

I meant no offence to OP, and OP DID mention that she was taking the cruise on her daughters spring break, so it was during a holiday break of some sort.

 

I believe in avoidance as much as possible, of both children and young adults, as a preference of when I like to cruise, thankfully I have the flexibility of choosing more off times to travel.

 

I am not looking to place blame on anyone, but if you know its spring break, maybe think twice before booking a vacation that time of year. Any good travel agent would have knowledge of the "general " dates of school holidays, and usually would tell their clients of such.

 

Do as you please, sure cruiselines are supposed to enforce many rules, unfortuantly, from my experiences, the value of profitability, especially in the cruise industry where it is measure on a cruise by cruise basis, usually trumps some of the rules. Same goes for dresscode, etc.

 

I personally would rather avoid the situation , than sit around and complain about it after the fact, and simply put, I doubt anything will happen on NCL's end to rectify the situation, Knowing all of this, id rather just take a cruise some other time of year. I totally get the frustration, I am sure that the OP paid more than usual for this cruise as it was over a holiday period. But this sort of situation is very common.

 

Its a shame, because we cruised NC during the winter a few years ago, and were really impressed by what we first considered to be a big step down from X.

[rothjer]

I agree 100%. Since Easter isn't for another month, and that's the traditional time for spring break, I would also have assumed that the week in question would have been fine to travel. What is a person supposed to do? Contact every university in the US and ask when their spring break is? The blame rests solely on the perpetrators and the cruiselines.

 

MOST US schools take spring break in the middle to end of February.

 

I agree that the cruiseline is at fault, however, how many similar stories like this one have people heard? This is not a first by any means.

[boogs]

I believe in avoidance as much as possible, of both children and young adults, as a preference of when I like to cruise, thankfully I have the flexibility of choosing more off times to travel.........I personally would rather avoid the situation , than sit around and complain about it after the fact, and simply put, I doubt anything will happen on NCL's end to rectify the situation, Knowing all of this, id rather just take a cruise some other time of year. I totally get the frustration, I am sure that the OP paid more than usual for this cruise as it was over a holiday period. But this sort of situation is very common.

 

Its a shame, because we cruised NC during the winter a few years ago, and were really impressed by what we first considered to be a big step down from X.

 

What the shame is here is that for someone to have a better chance of a good cruise experience, one has to consider when boorish behavior will be present, and allowed and not managed, as well as the itinerary, the cruise line, or the ship. I stand my my statement earlier - a responsible cruise line will manage their cruises so EVERYONE will have a good time, not just the ones spending lot's of money on alcohol.

[rothjer]

What the shame is here is that for someone to have a better chance of a good cruise experience, one has to consider when boorish behavior will be present, and allowed and not managed, as well as the itinerary, the cruise line, or the ship. I stand my my statement earlier - a responsible cruise line will manage their cruises so EVERYONE will have a good time, not just the ones spending lot's of money on alcohol.

 

 

Your right it is a shame, but its a lesson learned. It's not so unheard of for people to consider what dates and cruiseline to travel with. I do not wish to argue with you in regards to the liabilty on NCL's part, which I do agree, something should have been done.

 

I know for a LOT of people, NCL, RCC, and Carnival especially would be a big RED FLAG for cruising on spring break. Maybe X would have been a better option ?

[Dizney]

Home schooled? :D

 

More like "street schooled"!

 

 

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[Dizney]

MOST US schools take spring break in the middle to end of February.

 

I agree that the cruiseline is at fault, however, how many similar stories like this one have people heard? This is not a first by any means.

 

Not true. Most use March.

 

 

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[rothjer]

Not true. Most use March.

 

 

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My apologies, I mixed up the two, Canadian Universities are mid Feb, US schools are mostly March, sorry !

[Tiggertastic]

We've sailed many times with NCL and never had any issues - we haven't sailed spring break and don't sail in any school breaks either anymore.

 

Bad timing and hopefully NCL dealt with them