Just off the NCL Star May never sail NCL again

[bonvoyagie]

This truly sounds like the cruise from hell. It almost sounds like they knew about the azipod issues prior to the TA and just did the following cruise as a shill. Perhaps they thought people would opt out of the cruise and miscalculated the booze. maybe a new F&B director - It really makes no difference the cruise experience was ruined for lots of people.

 

As for the reports of the bartenders serving only the good looking girls - I can believe it - even back in 03 my just under drinking age daughter was consistently offered real drinks - "let me put some rum in that Coke".

 

While I have not experienced this kind of service from NCL (and I hope I never do) but this is really the time to get vocal and let them know that the behavior of the crew was unacceptable.

[bitsey66]

This is scaring me. We will be on the Star in 2 weeks. They better get it together!

 

 

I'll be on it in 5 days and hoping they got it together

[jpcdds6]

Time for FDR to do an "Undercover Boss" episode.

[Dawniepoo]

We just got off the star also and believe me the staff made you feel like you were a nuisance to place an order, one runner actually only went to young girls, I told my wife I cant believe this, we actually watched him go girls to girl as I kept yelling for him that I was thirsty. Never again!

I saw this happen as well. Because I wasn't a hot 22 year old I was ignored frequently.

 

As for the rest of the experiences regarding this sailing, I have to say it is all true in my experience. The service was the worst I have ever experienced. Still, we had a great time on the worst ship. A bad day on a cruise is better than any day at work ;). The food was above average in the dining room, and our room attendant was good too! As far as sailing NCL in future, nope, not gonna happen.

[KevInPitt]

Our part of the Star Story

 

Let me just list the issues we had on Star last week

 

Pool bar didnt open until almost 1pm on boarding day ( last monday)

No drink mixes margarita etc until almost 5 pm

2 bars open after life boat drill on pool deck VERY VERY VERY long lines

No service people for drink orders

No service people to clean pool area

Suit cases didnt make it to cabin until 830 pm we checked in at 1100 am

 

Day 2

No Grey Goose vodka

No Strawberry daiquiri mix

No Coors light beer

Talked to beverage manager DEAF EARS

At Cagney steak house server could not understand plain English

 

Day 3

 

Returned to ship after day on shore Room was same way we left it early no clean towels NO NOTHING

Pool bar closed at 800pm Told to go to another bar for drinks

LONG WAITING LINES AT POOL BAR

 

Day 4

 

Spoke to head Hotel director on ship about service and drink issues DEAF EARS

Pool bar started to close at 745pm went to bar to get wife a Margarita was told by bartender "Ive already put mixes away You have to go to another bar"

Still no servers or cleaning people on pool deck

VERY LONG LINES AT POOL BAR

 

Day 5

 

BLAH BLAH SOS DD

How can you be charged for bottled water when you pay for Ultimate Premium beverage package???

 

This was our 1st and LAST cruise on NCL. NCL need to take lesson from Royal how to run a cruise line as far as passenger service. You NEVER hear servers talking in their native language in Royal EVERYTHING is in english. This cruise totally sucked The wear and condition of carpet in public areas was terrible. Lastly even the piano player was 2nd rate missing notes and words.

 

BEWARE

 

Aside from two reasonable service shortcomings (the late luggage and untendered cabin), much of your complaint is about the availability and quick access to either a bar or a server to bring you booze.

 

*yawn*

[Atennelle]

This was our first NCL cruise. I had always heard great things about them and had high expectations. While I still had a great time, it was definitely not up to the level I was expecting. Service was slow in general and the information about my special diet was confusing and sometimes incorrect. They needed a lot more staff and the ones that were there were overworked. They never stopped, but couldn't keep up with the number of passengers on board. We ordered items at dinner that were never received more than once. One of our dinners took 1.5 hours from the time we ordered until we were served. At a meal in the specialty restaurant, Moderno, we didn't even get water until we had been seated 15+ minutes.

 

We stayed in suite 12516 and our butler, Made, was fantastic! As was our cabin steward Melchor. If it wasn't for them, the cruise would not have been nearly as nice of an experience!

 

The entertainment and cruise director/staff were great! I agree that the seats could have been more comfortable in the Stardust theater, though.

 

Overall, we had a great time but I did feel let down from what I was expecting from a Norwegian cruise!

Edited October 28, 2015 by Atennelle

[newmexicoNita]

We were on this cruise too. We will not be sailing NCL again. They did everything in their power to NOT serve cocktails on this cruise. The beverage package is a joke.

 

Sorry you had a problem with the drink package: we just got off the Jewel and with the exception of the pool bar before sailing and the casino bar we never waited even 3 or 3 minutes for drinks. Of course if drinking is the reason one cruises I am sure there are other lines that might be better.

 

I would add, some of the problems were, most likely related to the first cruise after repo from Europe. This can be a nightmere for the crew and there may be new rules on serving liquor or charging Fl taxes before leaving Fl. waters. I do not know this for sure, but I do know this is the case in Texas.

 

If the drink problem continued throughout the week, that is too bad, a slight wait is one thing, a long wait for a drink everyday is another.

Edited October 28, 2015 by newmexicoNita

[dexddd]

That is if my husband has his say we wont be coming back.

We did the Getaway last month. Had a great time Enjoyed everything.

 

Jumped on the chance to get an aft cabin and a taste of the "suite life". It was anything but sweet from start to finish!

 

As you begin to read through this you may feel I am being a bit picky. As these things began to transpire we only found them a bit irritating and not what we expected, however as the issues just kept building I decided to TRY to keep track of them.

 

It began with the propulsion issue. That actually didnt bother us. What bothered us was getting to the pier where the passengers had actually been disembarked the day before and finding a line of passengers waiting to get in that was so long it wrapped around the building. There was no side line for suite passengers. After standing in this line for about 20 minutes and it still not moving I went back to the front of the line and asked if there was another line for Priority Embarkation. He said usually there is but today we are only making a line for handicapped passengers. After waiting for almost 45 minutes they began letting us in. Once finally inside they did have priority lines. However the line again was not moving. Once we got to check in they apologized and said since this was the first day back from overseas they have lots of new employees and also they are having glitches with the system. We stood at the desk over 25 minutes and they were never able to key in our credit card despite having over 8 employees at one time looking at the terminal. We are still smiling at this point and saying its ok and we understand...really we did.

 

Now off to begin the "suite life" We were led to a small area for suite passengers. There was a buffet table set up with a table cloth and nothing on it. Did we really need anything? Probably not but I actually would have appreciated just a bottle of water but that was not available nor possible as they said they could give us nothing as the health inspectors were still aboard....sigh...We stayed in this room until almost noon.

 

Then came our lunch at Cagneys.........To be continued......

 

I see you mention you were 8 aft. Did you have any issues with noise from Spinnaker - that is a common complaint for those rooms?

[gpb11]

If the drink problem continued throughout the week, that is too bad, a slight wait is one thing, a long wait for a drink everyday is another.

 

In my experience (I was on this cruise) things improved after the first couple of days, though management was still pretty hamfisted in aspects.

 

After the Daytona Spring Break bar mob-scene at Topsiders the first two days they instituted a queue using the portable barriers and they also had the poolside servers picking up orders or handling the card-swipe/receipts from the people next-in-line. The poolside service also improved through the week but remained rather scarce and not at all the level I've seen elsewhere. They also brought out one of those beer carts to handle those who just wanted a beer on one day.

 

It also seemed the demand slacked off fair bit after the first two days as well, so that may be part of it. Sort of a kid-with-a-new-toy situation where demand was really high the first days then people settled more into their stride.

 

What remained annoying was the odd changes in policies. One day they were serving up beers with a free blue bottle opener key fob (not even branded). Another day they had the beer cart I mentioned. Most days they'd let you do two drinks on one card (mine read "UBP-UBP"), then inexplicably it changed to one per card, but you could bring your companion's card with you and get two drinks.

 

IMHO there was definitely an issue with understaffing and possibly undertraining/new-hires getting into their groove. Management seemed very new to this as well. Stuff would be unavailable in the last part of a day then available again the next day (maybe they had to take mixers out of frozen storage?).

 

Now in fairness I'll also note that we never went to any of the upgrade restaurants, so I don't know how service or lines were there. The one time we went to Ginza we waited about five minutes for a table, and every time we went to Aqua, Versailles, or OSheehans we were seated within a couple of minutes.

 

Overall, our experience wasn't as good as we'd expected from friends reports of NCL, but we still enjoyed our cruise. We'll consider NCL again, though in the future we'll avoid the first itinerary after a repositioning.

[NLH Arizona]

 

 

 

Most days they'd let you do two drinks on one card (mine read "UBP-UBP"), then inexplicably it changed to one per card, but you could bring your companion's card with you and get two drinks.

 

Wonder if this change was because they noticed folks sharing their UBP with those that didn't have one.

[gpb11]

Wonder if this change was because they noticed folks sharing their UBP with those that didn't have one.

 

Tough to say. I know some had just "UBP" on their cards, possibly those who were traveling with a minor as the 2nd PAX in their cabin. In my case I was either saving myself a 2nd trip or getting one for my wife.

 

Also a note about the times to be seated I mentioned - we were a party of two, so we likely were more easy to seat as walk-ups than those in a larger party. We also have cruised enough that we tend not to go at peak times (though we did go to dinner immediately after the 7:30 show a couple times).

 

We did see long lines at the Future-Cruise desk and at Guest Services sometimes as we'd walk by, and little to no lines at the same spots other times. We visited the GS desk twice and on both occasions there were only one or two people ahead of us. First was shortly after embarkation to get holes punched in our cards, the second was on the afternoon of the last day to ask a question about OBC.

 

FYI about irons and ironing boards -- I'd asked my steward about it and he said he'd be able to get one for me to borrow, so I arranged a day/time with him. When I met him at my cabin at that time he apologized and informed me that I had to call Guest Services to request them. To my pleasant surprise, when I called GS offered to bring them right away and in five minutes I had both. Took care of ironing a couple dress shirts and called GS to come pick them up from outside my cabin. Apart from my stewards confusion about the process it was smoothly handled.

[jewliana]

I see you mention you were 8 aft. Did you have any issues with noise from Spinnaker - that is a common complaint for those rooms?

 

We loved our room and had absolutely no issue with the little bit of background hum we heard from the Spinnaker. I was very relieved thinking it might be irritating and hard to go to sleep but it was not at all bad. I would not hesitate to book these beautiful aft cabins on 8 :-)

[newmexicoNita]

In my experience (I was on this cruise) things improved after the first couple of days, though management was still pretty hamfisted in aspects.

 

After the Daytona Spring Break bar mob-scene at Topsiders the first two days they instituted a queue using the portable barriers and they also had the poolside servers picking up orders or handling the card-swipe/receipts from the people next-in-line. The poolside service also improved through the week but remained rather scarce and not at all the level I've seen elsewhere. They also brought out one of those beer carts to handle those who just wanted a beer on one day.

 

It also seemed the demand slacked off fair bit after the first two days as well, so that may be part of it. Sort of a kid-with-a-new-toy situation where demand was really high the first days then people settled more into their stride.

 

What remained annoying was the odd changes in policies. One day they were serving up beers with a free blue bottle opener key fob (not even branded). Another day they had the beer cart I mentioned. Most days they'd let you do two drinks on one card (mine read "UBP-UBP"), then inexplicably it changed to one per card, but you could bring your companion's card with you and get two drinks.

 

IMHO there was definitely an issue with understaffing and possibly undertraining/new-hires getting into their groove. Management seemed very new to this as well. Stuff would be unavailable in the last part of a day then available again the next day (maybe they had to take mixers out of frozen storage?).

 

Now in fairness I'll also note that we never went to any of the upgrade restaurants, so I don't know how service or lines were there. The one time we went to Ginza we waited about five minutes for a table, and every time we went to Aqua, Versailles, or OSheehans we were seated within a couple of minutes.

 

Overall, our experience wasn't as good as we'd expected from friends reports of NCL, but we still enjoyed our cruise. We'll consider NCL again, though in the future we'll avoid the first itinerary after a repositioning.

 

We had a similar experience, but really, other than the pool bar the first day we had no real concerns. Believe me, we were able to drink our money's worth considering it was a promo with no additioal charges. Even if we had purhased the package we would not have compained, but we dont drink quite enough to justify purchasing one. Yes, the service did improve for us as well as the week went on. In fact our favorite bar tender was by the pool and one in the Java bar. We also had the experience you are talking about: they only wanted to see one card and the suddenly a day or so before the end of the cruise they wanted both cards.

 

You are right about not booking right after a repo; this goes for right after dry dock as well. The worse service we ever had on a ship was the week after dry dock. It was on the Spirit about 7 years ago. In fact it was our worst NCL cruise; not bad, but certainly had some challenges. I think the itinerary and the embarkation port sometimes makes a difference. If for no other reason, the demographics of the passengers.

Edited October 28, 2015 by newmexicoNita

[Doughboy139]

We stayed in suite 12516 and our butler, Made, was fantastic! As was our cabin steward Melchor. If it wasn't for them, the cruise would not have been nearly as nice of an experience.

 

My mom and I were on the cruise before you - the transatlantic from Dover England to Tampa - Our butler was Made and our steward was Mel - both of them were more than excellent and the best we have ever had in our 13 cruises with NCL. Thank you Made and Mel from Peter and Miss Carol (his Mom) We were in suite 12512.:)

[gpb11]

Believe me, we were able to drink our money's worth considering it was a promo with no additioal charges.

Ha, yes, we've never purchased a package before, this cruise with UBP was an experiment to see how much we'd use it.

 

So we kept every bar receipt. Every one. The pile is a bit daunting.

 

I just keep telling myself it looks bigger than it really is due to the folded / crumbled paper making it look so thick... :eek:

 

Still putting off going through it to tally up the numbers... :D

 

.

Edited October 28, 2015 by gpb11

[cliffd64]

Ha, yes, we've never purchased a package before, this cruise with UBP was an experiment to see how much we'd use it.

 

So we kept every bar receipt. Every one. The pile is a bit daunting.

 

I just keep telling myself it looks bigger than it really is due to the folded / crumbled paper making it look so thick... :eek:

 

Still putting off going through it to tally up the numbers... :D

 

.

 

I plan to do the same... We don't plan to overdo it by any means, but we do plan to check to see if we save anything or not against the price of the package. I'll probably write down the amounts on the receipts daily in my little journal so as not to be shocked by the pile of receipts :)

[mafig]

Who was the concierge on this cruise?

Edited October 28, 2015 by mafig

[Ron_L]

Ha, yes, we've never purchased a package before, this cruise with UBP was an experiment to see how much we'd use it.

 

So we kept every bar receipt. Every one. The pile is a bit daunting.

 

I just keep telling myself it looks bigger than it really is due to the folded / crumbled paper making it look so thick... :eek:

 

Still putting off going through it to tally up the numbers... :D

 

.

 

Shortly after carnival introduced their drink package we were on an 8-day cruise on the Breeze and kept track of our drink expenses to see how it compared to the drink package. It turned out that we actually saved $100 by not buying the package.

 

But, we had the drink package as a promo on a Celebrity cruise and enjoyed the freedom of being able to try anything without feeling obligated to finish it if we didn't like it. So, we have the UBP on our upcoming Start cruise :-D

[samiam0403]

Yes, I should have said the first sailing out of Tampa for the 2013 Season

 

We sailed on the Dawn not long after you - things did not improve in that time. We arrived to the port at 11:00am, and then waited in line - outside in the sun and heat - for over 2 hours. No one provided water, or any timeline for when the terminal would open. People were passing out in line, and still the people inside the terminal just stared at us. By the time we got on the ship, we couldn't get our standard lunch at Cagney's - they had already closed and did not extend the hours for the delayed embarkation. On debarkation day, we were escorted to the front of the line by the concierge, and then waited another hour plus while the Tampa port employees/customs personnel took their break (all at the same time) and halted all debarkation. We were told by ship's crew that Tampa officials were angry at NCL for allowing folks to board the ship in Mexico (they were selling vacations that started and ended in Cozumel to folks from overseas). We were caught in the middle of a battle of wills between the port employees/customs personnel and NCL for embarkation and debarkation - and it was miserable. I swore then and there to never sail out of Tampa again. Doesn't appear anything's changed.

[Cruiser42]

We'll be sailing on the Star in a year. I know a lot can change in a year, especially with NCL, but these reviews leave me with two thoughts about my cruise.

 

First, the positive. After being a bit disappointed that 16+ day cruises don't get Freestyle Choice, I'm now glad the UDP/UBP aren't included. Perhaps fewer lines, better service and a staff less overwhelmed.

 

And the negative, we're on one of a series of repositioning cruises, so these issues could apply. The Star will make multiple one-time cruises after sailing the Baltic for the summer. My leg is from Istanbul to Dubai, and then it sails on to Asia.

 

Does anyone have an idea of when/if the staff will change?

 

I believe you have time to switch to a different ship/itinerary - which I would def do if I could - however, we sail in 7 days. This is not good and I am fearful! I have a relative who will be joining us (first time on a 7-day cruise) who is not patient and not quiet about bad service. I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this.........

Other than this, NCL is our favorite line, and this wont make me change that. The Star is older than we normally sail, but typically the crew makes up for it. Hopefully they are feeling better, and have some help! Understaffing is never good - for the consumer or the workers.

 

I'll let you know how it goes!

[Laszlo]

We sailed on the Dawn not long after you - things did not improve in that time. We arrived to the port at 11:00am, and then waited in line - outside in the sun and heat - for over 2 hours. No one provided water, or any timeline for when the terminal would open. People were passing out in line, and still the people inside the terminal just stared at us. By the time we got on the ship, we couldn't get our standard lunch at Cagney's - they had already closed and did not extend the hours for the delayed embarkation. On debarkation day, we were escorted to the front of the line by the concierge, and then waited another hour plus while the Tampa port employees/customs personnel took their break (all at the same time) and halted all debarkation. We were told by ship's crew that Tampa officials were angry at NCL for allowing folks to board the ship in Mexico (they were selling vacations that started and ended in Cozumel to folks from overseas). We were caught in the middle of a battle of wills between the port employees/customs personnel and NCL for embarkation and debarkation - and it was miserable. I swore then and there to never sail out of Tampa again. Doesn't appear anything's changed.

 

 

We sailed the Sun out of Tampa 2/15 no issues at all getting on or off

[Vacation23]

I too was on this cruise and agree with a lot of the post. I will say this is the first time we have cruised with NCL. The other 7 cruises were with Carnival or RC so needless to say I was disappointed. I had high hopes for NCL. Besides the terrible bar service we thought guest services was AWFUL. First encounter was with my daughter's sail card. Kids under 18 have the corner of their card cut off to represent they are under 18. The lady didn't pay any attention and cut it so high that she cut off the muster station!! Then the first morning we get a letter under our door stating that they had no credit card on file for us. What was so interesting our 80+ year old lady that checked us in ran our credit card 10 times. We counted!!! Obviously she didn't know what she was doing. That evening I waited in line to ask them why my sail card had UBP-UBP on it because everyone else had just UBP. An employee said you need to ask because you might have some other offer that you don't know you have. I waited in line to be told that it was a TYPO! I said what? He said yes that's a TYPO! If that's not good enough a couple days later I went to have a print out of my account because people were talking about how duplicate charges were being put on their accounts. Guest services pulled up 4 different accounts since we had 4 people in our cabin, which I thought was different. We had an onboard credit that had not been applied but we had outstanding charges. Are you are ready for the answer he gave me? He said the on board credit can only be applied to the first person on the reservation. Since the first person had not charged anything nothing was applied which left us owing for the other 3 people in the cabin. I said oh NO that's not how it goes. We argued and argued and he would not combine the accounts. The other encounter with guest services was with getting change. Each time you would go up and ask to break a bill their response would be let me go ask. You never knew if they would come back and say yes or no. One time I went to one rep and my friend went to another. She went first and her rep said no then mine said yes. We both had a $100.00 bill we wanted to break!! In my book this isn't great customer service.

 

What we did learn from a waiter. He took a liking to my daughter so we were able to get information out of him. Ha Ha He did confirm that there were several new crew members that had stepped on ship with us, however he said what was the bigger issue was how many existing crew members had never been to Caribbean nor dealt with many people. My daughter asked was there many people on the Baltic cruises and he said OH NO THIS IS HUGE!! She then asked what were their ages. He stopped and looked at us and said all Grandparents/Retirees no families and no kids. He said they don't drink much and go to bed early! That information tells the story!! He said never go on the first cruise out.... It's too crazy especially when it comes from a totally different region and clientele. I will say that for the most part the workers were working their butts off and I did feel sorry for some of them. From now on before I book a cruise I will see where the ship has been before I book my cruise!!!

[coffeeaddiction12345]

We just got off the star yesterday, and we're done with NCL for the time being too.

 

45+ minutes in line for 1 drink is insane. I couldn't believe it. Every excursion, elevator ride, time at dinner all anyone talked about to each other was the horrible service. Rude bartenders (mostly), rude waiters (mostly). Shout out to Horlicks in O'Sheehan's bar who we named our vacation hero for the prompt, friendly bar service. He really impressed us and was happy to recommend drinks and actually seemed to care about quick service.

 

We couldn't believe how rude the servers were at some of the restaurants for basic questions, and seemed almost bothered to have to be serving us. We had a wonderful experience with Samuel in Teppenyaki/ Noodles as our server though. We tipped him $15! He was a really fabulous, personable guy. Sadly, he seemed to be one of the only ones.

 

We were in the elevator with the cruise director and every single person on the elevator was complaining to him about the terrible, terrible service.

 

I've only ever sailed NCL but it's clear after our star experience how I need to change ships. I'll sail NCL sometime in the future, but not for a long time.

Edited November 3, 2015 by coffeeaddiction12345

[vinnytman]

Nope! We don't have the UBP so getting drinks will be a non issue. We plan to eat most meals in the villa, so long lines should not be an issue. We expect the butler to be amazing and I'm sure he will be. If not, we will chat with him about our needs and get it fixed. If that doesn't work we will talk with the cocierege. In other words, we will be the squeaky wheel. We are not super demanding but we will definitely speak up if we need to.

 

 

 

I'm sorry the guests of last week's sailings had to deal with such poor service! Their complaints are valid and I'd be upset too.

 

 

 

OP thanks for posting the good too along with all of the details. That helps a lot!

 

 

I hope you have Clint as your butler... If you do, he won't let you lift a finger. We got reprimanded by him for trying to clean up dishes after we were done having dinner in the garden villa. I'm sure they will take real good care if you!

[tjt87]

We sailed on the Dawn not long after you - things did not improve in that time. We arrived to the port at 11:00am, and then waited in line - outside in the sun and heat - for over 2 hours. No one provided water, or any timeline for when the terminal would open. People were passing out in line, and still the people inside the terminal just stared at us. By the time we got on the ship, we couldn't get our standard lunch at Cagney's - they had already closed and did not extend the hours for the delayed embarkation. On debarkation day, we were escorted to the front of the line by the concierge, and then waited another hour plus while the Tampa port employees/customs personnel took their break (all at the same time) and halted all debarkation. We were told by ship's crew that Tampa officials were angry at NCL for allowing folks to board the ship in Mexico (they were selling vacations that started and ended in Cozumel to folks from overseas). We were caught in the middle of a battle of wills between the port employees/customs personnel and NCL for embarkation and debarkation - and it was miserable. I swore then and there to never sail out of Tampa again. Doesn't appear anything's changed.

 

I don't doubt you were told that but that's strange as they have been doing that for at least two years to my knowledge, as we did it in 2013,

 

Actually you could book Tampa round trip, Cozumel round trip, Tampa to Cozumel or Cozumel to Tampa with a stay at both ends.

 

Why choose now to kick off?