NCL - Great Customer Service Stories

[$hip$hape]

So, the title of the thread is "NCL-Great Customer Service Stories"

If you don't have any that's fine, but why post?

For that matter why even read this board?

I normally don't read the Carnival board even though I have cruised with them, because I prefer Norwegian.

I will never understand people who waste their time and everyone else's posting on threads that they obviously have no connection with, just to make a Negative Nancy point.

 

On the Breakaway, at dinner one evening, we were “kidding” with our waiter about complaints.

I told him in a deadpan voice, that the ice water was colder on Princess ships.

He took my water glass away and presented me with another. “This is special Princess ice water I was saving just for you”.

How's that for service (and a sense of humor) !

[SteveH2508]

On the Breakaway, at dinner one evening, we were “kidding” with our waiter about complaints.

I told him in a deadpan voice, that the ice water was colder on Princess ships.

He took my water glass away and presented me with another. “This is special Princess ice water I was saving just for you”.

How's that for service (and a sense of humor) !

 

So they had a princess on board who 'produced':eek: the water especially for you?

 

What anticipation, what service...:rolleyes:

Edited October 26, 2013 by SteveH2508

[sinclaj]

We took our first NCL cruise in 2005. We made a lot of rookie mistakes. We flew in the same day. Our Air Canada flight was cancelled (after we left home, but by the time we arrived at the airport). We were put on another flight, but, alas, our luggage was not. Upon arrival at Vancouver we made another mistake. We should have waited at the airport for later flights to arrive and see if our bags came, but we took the advice of the Air Canada baggage person who said they would send them to the ship. None of this had anything to do with NCL.

 

So we got on the ship and made another mistake in not making an issue of not having our luggage until after the muster drill, when it was too late for the NCL people to help us find out if the luggage was en route or not.

 

However, NCL made it the best they could for us. Even though they had no blame, they gave us toiletry kits, NCL t-shirts, $200.00 credit at their gift shop and let us use their satellite phone to call once each day to check on our luggage. (A word to the wise -- unless you're a size 10 or less, do not plan to buy clothes at the gift shop). I wish I could remember the name of the sweet woman at the customer service desk. She was so sympathetic and helpful.

 

Anyway, after a very sad start to our Alaskan cruise -- yes -- Alaska -- and I was in sandals, capris pants and didn't have the sense God gave a goose to pack a good carryon (oh I pack a good carryon now), at our first stop in Ketchican, my husband spotted someone unloading our luggage from the back of a van (the large tartan ribbons gave it away), and we were all set. We had our jeans and sneakers and jackets. Life was good.

 

We have since cruised 9 more times and have two more booked. NCL is the line for us. We also fly in at least a day ahead.:)

[N747KT]

I was in the Ncl pearl in 2008 and the Ncl Epic in 2011. There was a bar waiter named Rodney who waited on me on the pearl. The service was extraordinary perfect. He would save a table got me and my wife, he always brought us little extras like popcorn, small souvenirs like bottle openers, vendors etc. Rodney was the best!

Then in 2011 on epic, I was sitting at a table by the wave bar, when l get a tap on the shoulder, as I turn too look to see who it was, It was Rodney, he said miss Linda , Mr Mike, welcome

To the Epic! Wow, he actually remembered us by name two years later! Now that's Ncl service!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

[rhinomike]

I have to say that I disagree completely. The timing is perfect because if there were only threads titled like "NCL - HORRIBLE customer service" etc on the first page, it'd give out completely wrong picture to a newcomer here on CC.

 

The fact is that only a very small minority of customers have any major problems with their cruise but they are a lot more vocal than the ones that are happy after getting the normal, great experience with NCL. It's the same with most other websites too, very few happy people will take the time to wrote positive reviews but most of those that feel that they've been wronged in someway will blast their anger everywhere they can think of.

 

I feel for rhinomike for their problems with the reservation but while there have been mistakes from NCL's part, not getting calls returned by one person does not make NCL's customer service in whole "horrible" in my books - especially since it was a mistake of one specific supervisor, not multiple people there. People do mistakes and NCL has proven to usually make things right once the mistakes are spotted - there are exceptions of course, but with these prices and volume, I truly think that NCL delivers great value even if things sometimes go wrong.

 

 

I think you are right with my bad experience and the one supervisor. The new supervisor assigned to me has already called me back twice in one day. Seems far, far better than the original supervisor.

 

Hopefully in a few days I will have a good story to post on this thread. :)

[B6ConMe]

I think you are right with my bad experience and the one supervisor. The new supervisor assigned to me has already called me back twice in one day. Seems far, far better than the original supervisor.

 

Hopefully in a few days I will have a good story to post on this thread. :)

 

Fingers crossed :D

[BlueJai]

I love this idea of sharing the good! I know bad things happen and CC provides the forum to share and for others to learn from both positive and negative experiences. There are so many experiences we have had with NCL, both on board and at the port.

 

A couple of years ago on the Pearl, my mother received a call just as we were getting ready to go to dinner. She, my sister and my niece were in a mid ship balcony cabin. The person asked if she would be willing to change rooms - they had a need for a balcony cabin. My Mom was open to it and couldn't believe when they were given a Penthouse. Not only were they upgraded, but their cabin steward arrived with a cart and basically moved them up to the new room. Outstanding service!

 

Last year, My Mom and sister were travelling for my Mom's 80th birthday. We had been on the ship a month prior and last minute DH supported me going again to surprise my Mom. I traveled separately and was supposed to get to the ship first but due to circumstances, I arrived and they were literally walking across the street in front of the cab I was in. Trying to hide behind signs in the terminal I guess I looked a little suspicious because one of the staff members came and asked if they could help. I explained I was just waiting for family members to get checked in so they wouldn't see me. She took me by my arm and took me to the Suite check in area. How nice was that.

 

Same trip, talking to some new friends and staff members at guest services and one of the fellows behind the counter joined into our conversation. When he learned it was my Mom's 80th, he went into the back and brought out a certificate for a bottle of wine for her. How lovely!

 

Last year as we were embarking, the first person I see is a bar server that we had me last year - biggest hug ever and a wonderful welcome back. When my family traveled later in the year I sent some pictures that I had taken of some of the crew that we met. They found him and when he got the picture he was so pleased (it was him talking to his new wife while on shore one day - his smile lit up the camera as he spoke to her). When my sister found him and gave him the picture he was so pleased - and when he went on break an hour later he actually phoned me from the ship to say thanks!

 

I think I went off track a bit but I just can't say enough about the treatment that we have received while on board. I agree that those posts with bad news seem to get more interest than the good stuff.

[Medtech2]

On the Breakaway, at dinner one evening, we were “kidding” with our waiter about complaints.

I told him in a deadpan voice, that the ice water was colder on Princess ships.

He took my water glass away and presented me with another. “This is special Princess ice water I was saving just for you”.

How's that for service (and a sense of humor) !

Good one!

[cruiser01]

On our first NCL cruise (and 1st cruise) we waited over 2.5 hours for a table for 4 in the MDR, after originally being told 15 minutes. We never asked for anything but after finally being seated the manger came over to apologize and brought us a bottle of wine.

 

Small thing at little to no cost to NCL but meant a lot to us.

 

Obviously thugs happen, but it's how they choose to handle the situation that matters.

[perkydebrajean]

My daughter and I stayed in a suite for our first cruise since it was a special occaision for the both of us. Our tv wasn't working and I thought maybe I had pushed the wrong button on the remote (I've been known to do that a time or two at home). I asked the butler how to turn the tv on and he told me that he thought the tv might not be working and said he would check into it. Less than 10 minutes later the concierge called and apologized for it and told my daughter and I to pick any restaurant on the ship and they would cover our meal and a bottle of wine. Then turned out they also credited us the cost of the behind the scenes tour that we had already paid for.

 

I didn't expect anything from NCL regarding the tv. Didn't really bother me or not if it worked. I just thought maybe I had hit the wrong button on the remote. They ended up having it fixed less than 48 hours after the cruise started though.

[ksimpso3]

I have sailed 5 times on NCL(and next one in Nov) and twice on Carnival. I have never met anyone on NCL that wasn't pleasant or professional. My last Carnival cruise this past July, our room steward never introduced himself to us and when we asked him (one of the three times or so we actually saw him) if we could have another lounger for our balcony (we had an aft wrap that had a few chairs and only one lounger), we were told "no". Several nights while waiting for dinner, we sat at the atrium bar to have a drink. One bartender was extremely unpleasant. She never smiled, never said a word to us (or anyone else at the bar for that matter), and seemed to be having some personal issues with the other bartender. It was uncomfortable at first but then we made a joke of it, calling her the "ice princess". The bartenders in the Blue Iguana and Red Frog were excellent though, but I never felt welcomed on the Glory like I have on every NCL cruise I have taken. We will stick with NCL. Why mess with a good thing??;)

[nlsoftly]

Oh! What a fun sharing! Bad things do happen, but so many good things happen too.

 

Our PCC has moved heaven and earth for us several times. At one point a suite we really wanted was sold out when we booked. A few days before the cruise, one suddenly appeared online and with a very hefty price drop. We called and our PCC got us changed and practically danced with joy for us. A few cruises we booked through him (when online booking would have been marginally less) just because we want to keep him in business.

 

Stewards have happily filled special requests over and over.

 

Concierge - wow - two of them (on three cruises) learned our patterns and found us every morning just to see how things were going. Three times we mentioned we had not planned to take an excursion but had changed our minds ("I will see to it you are on the excursion") or were regretting not renting a car ("What size? It will be waiting for you.") Great customer service and extra income for NCL/provider - what is not to like?

 

My favorite was on our last cruise. We had dinner in Le Bistro but skipped dessert. An hour later we noticed the dessert offering at Cagneys looked really good. So, was asked if we could have dessert without paying another surcharge. Oh, and could we have it in the lovely (and empty) Concierge Lounge across from Cagneys? Of course we could! They brought us sweets and coffee and wine, and gave us a magical last night experience. (Followed, of course, by generous tips and glowing 'Hero' cards.)

 

I am looking forward to similar magic when we cruise with NCL again....and when we cruise with other lines as well (love cruising).

[canaro99]

Just a quick note in this age of nothing but poor customer service, bad attitudes, and resulting complaints to express my gratitude in the superb customer service from Mary Kephart in resolving my problem.

 

We booked a B2B in April as part of a group in time to take advantage of the the double points for Latitude Rewards. When vacations 2 go (private message me if you need more info) was fired as the group agent, they cancelled our reservations without notifying us. The reservations were re-booked with the new agent and were informed we were out of luck (2nd year in a row for this!).

 

All inquiries by our new agent with NCL resulted in a "gee, that's too bad, but tough luck" response from NCL staff. I decided to take matters into my own hands and wrote to Ken Sheehan, CEO (and several other senior management types) about this response and the poor attitude. The very next morning (today) I received a call from Mary who resolved the issue with professionalism and a great attitude.

 

Thank you, Mary and NCL!

 

The only difference between companies is how they treat their customers.

Edited December 11, 2013 by canaro99
Correct errors and typos.

[hpecorari]

Just a quick note in this age of nothing but poor customer service, bad attitudes, and resulting complaints to express my gratitude in the superb customer service from Mary Kephart in resolving my problem.

 

We booked a B2B in April as part of a group in time to take advantage of the the double points for Latitude Rewards. When vacations 2 go (private message me if you need more info) was fired as the group agent, they cancelled our reservations without notifying us. The reservations were re-booked with the new agent and were informed we were out of luck (2nd year in a row for this!).

 

All inquiries by our new agent with NCL resulted in a "gee, that's too bad, but tough luck" response from NCL staff. I decided to take matters into my own hands and wrote to Ken Sheehan, CEO (and several other senior management types) about this response and the poor attitude. The very next morning (today) I received a call from Mary who resolved the issue with professionalism and a great attitude.

 

Thank you, Mary and NCL!

 

The only difference between companies is how they treat their customers.

 

 

That was *really* nice of them......considering you didn't book directly with them.

 

Harriet

[SeaShark]

Wish I had one to post.

 

Karma.

[che5904]

Sorry I can't add anything to this thread. Since I have no wonderful stories to share. I've had very little to do with the customer service desk on the ship, which I guess is a good thing, since it means I haven't had any issues ;)

I also haven't any wonderful stories regarding any crew on the ship, since nothing outstanding has happened to make any stand out above the rest. But any staff I did deal with helped make my vacation wonderful and that I'm happy about.

But I wanted to say this is a nice thread to read. Well most of it anyway. There always have to be a few:rolleyes: Edited December 11, 2013 by che5904

[sjbdtz]

[quote name='SeaShark']Karma.[/QUOTE]

LOL! Best response of the thread.


.

[SteveH2508]

[quote] Originally Posted by [B]Love my butler[/B] [URL="http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=40447258#post40447258"][IMG]http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/images/buttons/viewpost.gif[/IMG][/URL]
[I]Wish I had one to post.[/I]
[/quote][quote name='SeaShark']Karma.[/quote]

[quote name='sjbdtz']LOL! Best response of the thread.


.[/quote]

Agreed - vinegar and honey springs to mind.

[Twelvevman]

Not a major one, but on our last cruise on the Dawn I noticed a screw in my glasses had worked loose. I did not have a micro screwdriver with me. I checked with the sales clerk in the jewelry store and they did not have one but was able to contact someone in maintenance that did. They brought it to the store and I was able to tighten up the screw. Needless to say I now have a screwdriver with extra screws in my toiletry bag.

[bingo3]

Been on 5 cruises, this will be first on NCL. Never had any problems on any of those nor even visited a guest relations desk except to change some debarkation tags. :)
debbie

[tiggerfan616]

We've had quite a few great customer service stories with NCL I would say one on every cruise so I will just pick one

We did the 4 day on the Sky and after a full day in port I decided I wanted Italian for dinner so we went to La Cucuina. My son decided to have one of those nights and wasn't going to eat. When our waiter came to take our order I told him he decided he wasn't eating but if he could bring me a plate I knew when the pizza came he would want some.
About 10 mins later he came back with a pizza with pepperoni in the shape of a smiley face for him, needless to say he did eat that night.

[Love my butler]

[quote name='SeaShark']Karma.[/quote]

You dug up a necro thread to try and insult me? Wow, you are slipping. As a high level cheerleader you can do much better.

[SeaShark]

[quote name='Love my butler']You dug up a necro thread to try and insult me? Wow, you are slipping. As a high level cheerleader you can do much better.[/QUOTE]

If anything is slipping, it is your ability to comprehend what you have read.

I replied to this thread a mere 3 minutes after the poster before me did. I would hardly think responding to a thread whose last update time is only 3 minutes old qualifies as "digging up a necro thread".

So...if you're going to condemn me for responding to a thread 3 minutes after the previous poster, what does that say for you to respond nearly 3 1/2 HOURS after your previous poster? Surely, as a high level hater you can do much better.



That aside, it is rather interesting that you consider Karma, which is nothing more complex than cause and effect ([B]your[/B] actions lead to [B]your[/B] results), to be an insult.

If anything, you are insulting yourself. You have admitted that you don't even have one single good experience to report. Anyone reading these boards has to ask: "If a person doesn't even have one good experience, how intelligent are they if they continue to be involved...in any way...with the source of their bad experiences?"

[IluvZ]

We have had some amazing customer service from many NCL staff members, it seems hard to narrow down the stories but I'll try to keep it short.

Ralph, the Housekeeping director of the Spirit (or was). We met Ralph at a meet and greet on our first Spirit trip and when he found out how much we had learned about the Spirit, he spent the whole event sharing stories with us about the ship. He told us how to find the lion cages, what it was like traveling with those lions and much more. We had the pleasure of sailing the Spirit again, and he immediately remembered us and took time to make time for us every time he saw us.

Benjamin was one of our cabin Stewart when we sailed the Pearl. He was great, and very good with out then 3 year old DS. We ended up having him (and the same great Butler Denny) a few years later and Benji remembered us. He took special animal request every day from our DS and even got help from a number of other crew members to try and make the Zebra. Last cruise on the Spirit, Benji is again on the ship but on the other side of our hallway. He is so upset that we aren't on his side, he comes to visit us each day, and provides extra animals to our DS. He even makes a better Zebra because he said he had been practicing since we had him two years previously (honestly, the zebra did look more like an aardvark the first time). He was so amazing, we gave him a special tip and another hero card that sailing. That was suppose to be Benji's last tour and I hope he gets back home to spend his days with his grand kids but I still hope we'll see him in March when we are back in the Spirit.

NCL has the best staff!

[Rhea58]

I have sailed the GEM 3x w/o any major complaints.

The one time the music was way too loud the front desk tried to fix
it by sending me ear plugs, chocolate-covered strawberries the next day
& an offer to move me to another cabin but the deck was way lower than mine
so did not accept. No problem w/music after that.

The crew on the Gem from the HD on down takes great pride in
being friendly and accommodating.