Norwegian Sky 12/4/15

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Just had to mention that I was on the Sky this past weekend out of Miami, and what I experienced was disgraceful and NCL should be ashamed of how it handled much of it. Without getting into a ton of detail yet (I will be writing a nice long detailed review of this half cruise and my friend that I cruised with has contacted NCL already about the problems she had with everything from the issues on embarkation day to not trying to rectify errors with our reservations), just know that although they may not have been in complete control of the situation on Friday, that they did absolutely nothing to comfort the pax that they were herding into warehouses for 7 hours nor communicate with us. They did very little to try to make it right once we were back on the ship, and many people were very turned off to even going on the cruise after a while and got off, requesting money back for the vacation they were missing out on. Never seen anything like what we saw on this cruise, and another thing. I saw that the ship has missed Great Stirrup Cay a few times in the recent weeks, including this one, and perhaps if the conditions are unreliable for tendering much of the time, stop advertising this as a scheduled stop and at the least, give people a credit or something for missing a port. And too bad the thread about the horrible situation on Friday seems to not be there now. It had a lot of good observations from those who were there, and although some of the stuff may have been rumors that were ultimately proven to not be totally true, only those of us who experienced that should be able to speak out about how we were treated and were feeling on the day that our fun vacation should have been starting. Again, I will get into much more detail about the entire weekend later on, but I just had to say something about it now as the memory is still fresh in my mind and I am still a little bit upset about it.

[coaster]

Good to hear from those that were onboard. Strange a topic which many of us followed due to it's dramatic events with few details released from NCL and authorities is now gone. It seems like nobody wants to share the specifics of what happened Friday. Looking forward to your future post.

Edited December 9, 2015 by coaster

[travelingdiva]

Hi, I was there and I don't post often, but I am compelled to respond on this topic. I am a frequent cruiser, this was my 3rd one this year. Been on other lines, but this was my first cruise ever with Norwegian. I must say it will most likely be the only one. It was like they had never planned or rehearsed a business contingency plan for this type is issue. This was a birthday cruise for myself and even if I were to remove the fiasco of day one from my memory, it was still a not so good experience. The only saving grace in my opinion was our Butler and Room Attendant. What else was wrong...everywhere we went to eat, the food temperature at best was lukewarm. There was used diapers on the swim deck floor, used condom on the floor in the elevator area, the waitress in Cagneys was very rude to another table, I could go on but I won't. We did meet some folks in the Airport on the way home who were also on this cruise and they shared that they had just taken this same ship/itinerary in April and what a difference and decline between the 2 cruises. I could not believe that I actually recieved a customer service survey the same day I got home. I met several people who had never cruised before and this was their first experience and that's a shame.

Edited December 9, 2015 by travelingdiva

[rentals1]

Hi.

i was also on the ship, it was a birthday present for my sister, i totally agree, the complete lack on interest on behalf of the cruise is unbelievable. i wrote a letter to corporate headquarters, i hope it might get me a better response that an email.i saw one news news story about it and they down played it so much that it sounded like we were in that freezing hole for 10 minutes. unless i get a full refund i to will be removing them from my list of cruise lines and will tell everyone that I ever hear talking about taking a cruise to stay away from them completely.

Mi

[ColinIllinois]

Hi.

i was also on the ship, it was a birthday present for my sister, i totally agree, the complete lack on interest on behalf of the cruise is unbelievable. i wrote a letter to corporate headquarters, i hope it might get me a better response that an email.i saw one news news story about it and they down played it so much that it sounded like we were in that freezing hole for 10 minutes. unless i get a full refund i to will be removing them from my list of cruise lines and will tell everyone that I ever hear talking about taking a cruise to stay away from them completely.

Mi

 

 

Might as well go ahead and remove them from your list of cruise lines then because there is zero chance of you getting a full refund.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Good to hear from those that were onboard. Strange a topic which many of us followed due to it's dramatic events with few details released from NCL and authorities is now gone. It seems like nobody wants to share the specifics of what happened Friday. Looking forward to your future post.

 

Yeah, I am not going to let this just fade away like it never happened even if some people are fine with that. What I experienced on and off that ship is unacceptable and disgraceful. This was my second time on NCL and in fairness, the Jewel to Alaska last May was not a bad cruise at all, it was pretty good. But in my 18 cruises over four different lines, this was the absolute worst.

 

I was following the thread on here about the situation but once we were in the "dungeon" as we called it (I called it lockup), I couldn't get cell service and since there were only two outlets that I saw, charging your devices was nearly impossible. It was ugly. I saw the thread continuing on Monday when I got back but I was busy trying to find a way home that I was not able to chime in then but I surely am going to now.

 

I feel worst for the wedding party that had their event destroyed, and those with children and the elderly. They gave out a few cases of water and cheese sandwiches and a few plates of lousy cookies, whoopdee doo. Who wants to drink more water when there are literally two toilets for close to a thousand people and the line was an hour long to get to them? I will get more into that later, believe me.

 

Like I said, it was not totally NCL's fault that this happened but they dropped the ball in how they handled the situation. No information, wild rumors and speculation rampant, every time somebody saw police or even coast guard walk through the dungeon, we wondered what was going on. Really scary situation. Unhealthy, unsanitary, and horrible customer service. No real apology when we got back on, almost like it was business as usual and nothing at all happened. Wowweeee, we got free drinks for an hour after the official muster was over at 11PM, and free specialty restaurants which had waiting lines wrapping halfway around the ship. We were barely into our buffet dinner that we waited half an hour for when they yelled that everyone had to go to muster right THEN. I had some words for those people who interrupted everyone's much-needed dinners.

 

One measly $50 per cabin credit, no apology, nothing. Awful. You do not treat people like that and expect them to forget it quickly. Especially seasoned cruisers like me and my one friend who came along with me. But the repercussions from this disgrace will hurt them for a while and all because they didn't want to try to make this right for those who were inconvenienced.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Hi, I was there and I don't post often, but I am compelled to respond on this topic. I am a frequent cruiser, this was my 3rd one this year. Been on other lines, but this was my first cruise ever with Norwegian. I must say it will most likely be the only one. It was like they had never planned or rehearsed a business contingency plan for this type is issue. This was a birthday cruise for myself and even if I were to remove the fiasco of day one from my memory, it was still a not so good experience. The only saving grace in my opinion was our Butler and Room Attendant. What else was wrong...everywhere we went to eat, the food temperature at best was lukewarm. There was used diapers on the swim deck floor, used condom on the floor in the elevator area, the waitress in Cagneys was very rude to another table, I could go on but I won't. We did meet some folks in the Airport on the way home who were also on this cruise and they shared that they had just taken this same ship/itinerary in April and what a difference and decline between the 2 cruises. I could not believe that I actually recieved a customer service survey the same day I got home. I met several people who had never cruised before and this was their first experience and that's a shame.

 

This was my 4th overall this year, second on NCL (and probably last) and so I am a very seasoned cruiser and traveler as well. I know that situations like this rarely happen (didn't meet a crew member who had been through anything like this before) and how can you prepare for something like this but still. I actually thought the evacuation went as calmly as possible but no information was given (even though we knew something was up when there were tons of cops walking around on the pool deck for an hour before they called us to muster) and that was the horrible part. Then just put people into lockup for 7 hours with no resources, no communication, etc, awful. Whoever the person who came to the door to scream that people would get fined if they were seen smoking really needs to work on their tone, that was horrible and she was met with quite a round of boos, curse words and angry stares. But that is how it mostly went. I will say the police captain or whoever he was who kept coming up to the door to speak did as good a job as he could considering the situation but he was probably overwhelmed as well by the whole thing. I heard that NCL management was on the scene, I didn't see them and even if they were there, they had no interest in talking to their customers at all.

 

I will say the service in the MDR the one night we went was OK, not great and our room steward was decent but didn't do anything out of the ordinary. The bar staff did really hook people up with strong drinks all weekend and that was a good thing. They did their jobs pretty well and that is all I can say about that. We never made it to Cagney's (will explain at some point lol) and I thought the food throughout the ship was OK but not as good as what I got on the Jewel. I thought the ship was decently clean, I didn't see anything like condoms or anything like that laying around like you say you did but the whole experience just left a real bad taste in my mouth.

 

My friend said she contacted NCL yesterday and they will not even discuss how to rectify everything they screwed up over the phone, you have to write to them to get anywhere with them. What a way to go by them, huh? Make it as hard as possible to get anything resolved. We really thought about getting off the ship on Friday night but we figured we were all together and would make the best of it that we could. Many people just gave up and demanded their money back and just got off the ship asap on Friday, a total shame for people who had been looking forward to this for a long time.

[JinxyB]

FlyingCruiserNJ, what was the issue that kept everyone locked in a warehouse? I think I read they were looking for a suspect involved in a murder? I look forward to reading your account of these events.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Hi.

i was also on the ship, it was a birthday present for my sister, i totally agree, the complete lack on interest on behalf of the cruise is unbelievable. i wrote a letter to corporate headquarters, i hope it might get me a better response that an email.i saw one news news story about it and they down played it so much that it sounded like we were in that freezing hole for 10 minutes. unless i get a full refund i to will be removing them from my list of cruise lines and will tell everyone that I ever hear talking about taking a cruise to stay away from them completely.

Mi

 

I am so sorry that your celebration was so messed up by this whole thing. For us, it was just an end of the year long weekend but I still was appalled by how much they screwed it up and didn't do anything to fix it.

 

I will be writing to corporate as well as my friend who was on board with us said calling will get you nowhere. Just make sure you have everything documented so they don't try to call you a liar when you bring up stuff that was wrong and what you want done to rectify it.

 

I had heard that CBS was trying to skype or facetime with people who were in the dungeon but since there was no cell service down there, uh huh, that was not possible. A few people with wireless hotspots were able to get a little bit of info and were able to text family and friends. But with the lack of power there, many peoples' phones and devices ran out of power after a while anyway. Of course NCL will downplay this, bad press is bad for a company and the less people know about it, the better for them. But this is 2015, almost 2016, free exchange of information is there for people and this won't just go away that easily for them.

 

Honestly, even if they gave me a full refund I would be reluctant to cruise on them again if this is how they handle issues that arise. And thank God that this happened in Miami and not in a foreign port or some other place that had even less resources and first responders at the scene. There are too many other lines to cruise on to potentially go through this debacle again in the future. And before anyone calls me a complainer, I am one who has never had a "bad" cruise, yes, some better than others, and am generally happy at what I get on any line and any ship but this was just disgraceful.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Might as well go ahead and remove them from your list of cruise lines then because there is zero chance of you getting a full refund.

 

I guess that is a blunt way to look at it but probably not untrue. I saw a few people demand their money back right then and there on Friday when we were finally let back on, I don't know if they got it or not. I heard that they told pax who wanted refunds to call someone else at NCL to talk to later on. But I agree about not giving refunds. They are going to do everything they can do to try to minimize the damage done to their reputation and brand and I am not really sure that going about it this way is the correct way to do that. But time will tell.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

FlyingCruiserNJ, what was the issue that kept everyone locked in a warehouse? I think I read they were looking for a suspect involved in a murder? I look forward to reading your account of these events.

 

Well, the problem was that they told us nothing at all. Just that they were doing secondary security sweeps and then secondary sweeps to those, and this went on for 7 hours. When we were herded off the ship, we were told nothing. The rumors going around were that there were murder suspects who had run onto the ship thru a crew door, then that someone ran through the terminal onto the ship without a valid card, we had no idea what was true and what was not. We never really did find out, I mean we got the official story but I never saw them do all of this because a pax who had already been thru security and checkin had a card that did not properly scan at the boarding door. We may never find out honestly, but the way NCL handled it made it much worse than it had to be for everyone. I will get to the detailed review once I get all my photos organized and have a chance to put all my thoughts together, hopefully tonight or in the next few days. I really do want to get started on it sooner rather than later while it is still fresh in my mind. People do need to know about this from people who were actually there.

[RuthlessBoss]

With the result of the event coming out with a non exciting ending, people are upset.

 

If the end result had been prevention of a criminal attack, people would be here saying "thank you NCL, it was worth it".

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

With the result of the event coming out with a non exciting ending, people are upset.

 

If the end result had been prevention of a criminal attack, people would be here saying "thank you NCL, it was worth it".

 

Well, it is easy for people to tell others how they should feel when those people were not there, did not go through the ordeal, and were not left in the dark so to speak in miserable conditions for hours on end. I get that the police didn't want to give us a play by play but some kind of communication would have been good. People are not stupid and we were beginning to figure out what was going on after a while on our own anyway. Based on what they officially said, this was a major overraction and miscommunication on their part to something that they caused by themselves by not properly scanning everyone's cards at the door and then letting a person get away. They screwed up, period, and the aftermath of how they are treating their customers who went through this is even worse.

[kosweeps]

I'm interested in hearing your story. Thank you for sharing.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I'm beginning to feel you are becoming a pot stirrer who won't let go.:mad:

 

Like I said numerous times before, I have never felt the need to complain about a cruise experience and I have cruised many times on numerous lines, for almost ten years. It was a horrible situation, made worse by a tone deal NCL who wanted it to just go away and for people to forget that it happened so they wouldn't have to deal with it later. Like I also said before, sometimes them trying to make it go away is worse in the long run than actually confronting what happened, what their role in it was, and to listen to their customers concerns and make it right. You know, if they did that, I would be commending them for their quick recovery but that is not how it went down at all. Even if you are a NCL fan who thinks they can do no wrong, in this case they did. I am sorry if that rubs some who think NCL is never wrong the wrong way but it is just what it is. I am not happy with what happened and I will speak out about it.

[anonmom]

I'm beginning to feel you are becoming a pot stirrer who won't let go.:mad:

 

I don't think this is fair to OP or anyone else who went through this ordeal and wants some sort of resolution. I read a lot of complaining on this board, and when it is someone who is going on and on about how slow drink service was on a certain cruise, or how they are never going to cruise NCL again because of the room service fee, I just roll my eyes and move on. People on here can get pretty riled up about some annoying but ultimately unimportant issues.

 

This isn't the case here. These people were supposed to be heading out on a fun long weekend cruise and they ended up being kept basically in police custody, in uncomfortable and unsanitary conditions for SEVEN HOURS. And it looks like the problem might have been as simple as an NCL or Port of Miami employee failing to swipe someone's ship card when they boarded.

 

If this happened to me, I would definitely be asking for a full refund. I'm not saying I would get it, because I know how corporations are, but I would ask for it, and if I didn't get it, I would definitely be posting on these boards, talking to the media, calling my credit card company to try to get a chargeback, calling the better business bureau, etc.

[RuthlessBoss]

I don't think this is fair to OP or anyone else who went through this ordeal and wants some sort of resolution. I read a lot of complaining on this board, and when it is someone who is going on and on about how slow drink service was on a certain cruise, or how they are never going to cruise NCL again because of the room service fee, I just roll my eyes and move on. People on here can get pretty riled up about some annoying but ultimately unimportant issues.

 

This isn't the case here. These people were supposed to be heading out on a fun long weekend cruise and they ended up being kept basically in police custody, in uncomfortable and unsanitary conditions for SEVEN HOURS. And it looks like the problem might have been as simple as an NCL or Port of Miami employee failing to swipe someone's ship card when they boarded.

 

If this happened to me, I would definitely be asking for a full refund. I'm not saying I would get it, because I know how corporations are, but I would ask for it, and if I didn't get it, I would definitely be posting on these boards, talking to the media, calling my credit card company to try to get a chargeback, calling the better business bureau, etc.

 

You kind of missed my point of my post. It was more that the poster was understandably upset, but coming here and posting over and over isn't going to solve any problem that really needs to be settled with NCL. Once he gets a response, he continues on.

[fin]

"I don't think this is fair to OP or anyone else who went through this ordeal"

 

I totally agree with you, and so I reported the post as a probable personal attack.

 

I would hope the one who posted it had the decency to delete it or apologize, but the mods here seem really happy to make entire multi page threads vanish, so likely they will do the right thing if the poster doesn't.

[Capitan Obvious]

I'm beginning to feel you are becoming a pot stirrer who won't let go.:mad:

 

I do see your point, but I think pot stirrer might not have been the most descriptive term.

 

A tantrum, a temper tantrum or a hissy fit is an emotional outburst, usually associated with children or those in emotional distress, that is typically characterized by stubbornness, crying, screaming, defiance, angry ranting, a resistance to attempts at pacification and, in some cases, even hitting. Physical control may be lost; the person may be unable to remain still; and even if the "goal" of the person is met, he or she may not be calmed. A tantrum may be expressed in a tirade: a protracted, angry, or violent speech.

[Aquahound]

Just had to mention that I was on the Sky this past weekend out of Miami...

 

Welcome back. You and the other 2 people on this thread who were there make about 6 or 7 total now who have reported first-hand experience, not a single one of which was favorable to NCL. The other thread was deleted and should this thread also spiral into mess of people insulting you like it already is starting to do, I believe your fellow CC passengers are chatting on your roll call. Sorry you had to go through this.

[kinesiologynerd]

I'm not trying to get personal, I'm honestly curious.

 

What is your end game? Other than more frequent updates, what else did you expect NCL to do? I doubt they, or any cruise line, practices an "evacuate the entire ship" drill. They're not going to refund your money. They just aren't, and they shouldn't. So what then?

 

Also this is maybe a little personal: an experienced cruiser should know that tender ports are at the mercy of the seas, and December in the Bahamas isn't the best.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I don't think this is fair to OP or anyone else who went through this ordeal and wants some sort of resolution. I read a lot of complaining on this board, and when it is someone who is going on and on about how slow drink service was on a certain cruise, or how they are never going to cruise NCL again because of the room service fee, I just roll my eyes and move on. People on here can get pretty riled up about some annoying but ultimately unimportant issues.

 

This isn't the case here. These people were supposed to be heading out on a fun long weekend cruise and they ended up being kept basically in police custody, in uncomfortable and unsanitary conditions for SEVEN HOURS. And it looks like the problem might have been as simple as an NCL or Port of Miami employee failing to swipe someone's ship card when they boarded.

 

If this happened to me, I would definitely be asking for a full refund. I'm not saying I would get it, because I know how corporations are, but I would ask for it, and if I didn't get it, I would definitely be posting on these boards, talking to the media, calling my credit card company to try to get a chargeback, calling the better business bureau, etc.

 

The thing that burns me is that NCL just seemed to want to ignore what happened and did not want to listen to the concerns of its customers about the situation that we went through. If you are interested in how I view cruising and even NCL cruising before this particular one, look at some of the reviews that I have posted right here on CC. What we are taking issue with is not petty, it is significant and it really messed up our entire cruise. And NCL did very little to smooth things over with their pax, even though the authorities were in control of much of what happened. Great customer service companies at the very least, apologize for bad experiences, even if they were not at fault, it helps with goodwill and that can keep customers loyal for life. But from what I am hearing from friends who I have told about what happened, this seems to be par for the course for NCL customer relations.

 

It was unsafe, unsanitary, and inhumane to keep people in the conditions they kept us in for so long and with no communications or anything. I don't even want my money back. I didn't spend a fortune on the cruise, I can afford to cruise a few times a year without worry, I more or less want people to know what really happened during this awful situation. NCL wants to keep it quiet so their horrible performance isn't widely known. My friend tried to call NCL on Tuesday, they refused to talk about it and said she had to email her concerns. She emailed them today, they said up to 15 days until is is resolved. Come on, that is ridiculous. We will see what ends up finally coming of all this soon enough. If they finally do own up and at least acknowledge to us that they screwed up, that might be enough. Again, I am not expecting my money back or even any future cruise credit but I feel at this point that I am not a valued customer and I have never, ever felt that way about any cruise line which says quite a lot.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

You kind of missed my point of my post. It was more that the poster was understandably upset, but coming here and posting over and over isn't going to solve any problem that really needs to be settled with NCL. Once he gets a response, he continues on.

 

I came here because this site is called cruise critic. It means that you critique cruise lines, ships, etc, and discuss issues with the product and situations that happen on cruises. My main issue is that NCL is trying their best to keep people from really understanding how badly they handled this debacle last Friday, and if people who actually went through it give firsthand experience of it and the aftermath, they won't be able to. I am not a complainer, I am very easygoing when it comes to cruising and expect very little and am usually more than satisfied by what I receive from my vacations. Obviously people are interested in hearing about this situation, based on earlier discussions, and people ask every day about firsthand experiences that cruisers have with this very ship when making decisions on whether or not to book it. Based on how they have handled our inquiries into getting some resolution for what happened so far, they are not giving me any reason to not still be upset. Like I said to another poster here, I don't want or expect my money back or anything as it's not a fortune either way but I do want people to know how NCL handles major vacation interruptions and that this could potentially happen to them in some form or another in the future. That is all.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

"I don't think this is fair to OP or anyone else who went through this ordeal"

 

I totally agree with you, and so I reported the post as a probable personal attack.

 

I would hope the one who posted it had the decency to delete it or apologize, but the mods here seem really happy to make entire multi page threads vanish, so likely they will do the right thing if the poster doesn't.

 

I don't want anyone to not have the freedom to disagree with other posters though but I do see where you are coming from here. I don't like to complain about a vacation as usually cruises give me a great value for my money but this was just a major cluster on the part of NCL, the port (whose employees seem to handle everything from checkin to the card scanning at the door which other lines self-handle but that's for another discussion) and NCL's "customer service" department. If you were not there for what happened there and want to tell us how we should react or feel, that is just not something that I agree with. It wasn't like sitting through a 2-hour maintenance delay on an airplane flight or something. It was sudden, we were kept in the dark from what was happening in bad conditions, and after all this, the company wanted nothing to do with making things right with its customers. I can deal with people who disagree with me as this is a discussion forum but yeah, I appreciate how you folks feel about this conversation.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Welcome back. You and the other 2 people on this thread who were there make about 6 or 7 total now who have reported first-hand experience, not a single one of which was favorable to NCL. The other thread was deleted and should this thread also spiral into mess of people insulting you like it already is starting to do, I believe your fellow CC passengers are chatting on your roll call. Sorry you had to go through this.

 

It would be hard to have a positive view of what happened, when you look back at it all. Now, we did the best we could to have a good time on the rest of the cruise once it actually started but more stuff happened with our particular booking that compounded the issues that we had with the embarkation day madness and I will talk about that when I finally get to writing my trip review. I did look at the roll call and it seemed to never really get that active at any point but I will again check it out to see if anyone is talking about their experiences. It would be a shame if this got cut also because forums like this one exist to allow people to discuss cruising with each other, and plenty of people are interested in this topic. I will definitely cruise again in the future as it is my favorite way to vacation but just not sure I want to go near Norwegian again for a long time at least after all of this. And that says everything doesn't it?