Thinking about Alaska with NCL? Don't do it.

[mbisson]

I will add that my experiences have made me more curious and, therefore, more interested in the China/American relationship in business.

 

Oh, I'm so confused

 

-Monte

[Host CMLA]

Actually, no, I do not care to explain the changes, but thank you for asking your questions.

Why make a statement about changes you've seen but when asked for more information you won't say anything? Seems to defeat the purpose of a message board. What would happen if everyone posted new threads but no one ever asked questions or asked for more information? Anyway...

[KeystoneCruiser]

Glacier Bay was the reason we booked NCL. We didn't miss it because of a natural event that would put us in harms way. We missed it because our ship wasn't operating correctly (something I would hope they would remedy quickly or catch before we left). We had invited others to share our experience and they were disappointed too, as were the other passengers.

I ususally try to find the good in things/people, however, I've sailed with Carnival and Princess, and by comparison in food, service, cabin layout and children's programs those other lines win hands down. I do acknowledge NCL for quick check in and good entertainment.

 

 

NCL did catch the problem and fix it quickly. Only one Star cruise missed Glacier Bay last year due to this problem. Who knows when the problem was noticed. You need to read the threads about the many problems with the Dream and its Alaskan problems last year, dropping Sitka from all of its cruises from July on. In fact the Dream was not fixed until only recently. The Star is now suffering from a problem that has caused it to re-align her itineraries and switch ports until they can fix it. It needs a dry dock to repair and several cruises in March have been cancelled on her to make the repair. Would you rather have had NCL completely cancel your cruise for that week instead of doing the best that they were legally allowed to do??

 

My daughter, who was on the Star with us last July, has loved the Kids Club on all three NCL ships and four NCL cruises that we have been on. (have done the Star twice). I will admit however that many pre-teens and young teens did not go to Kids Club. Instead they were the ones running in the hallways knocking people over and telling people they could use the elevators because they were using them for tag. I'm sorry but I have to defend NCL's policy of anyone underage having to be signed in and out of Kids Club. It is an issue of safety and is a good policy. I don't care how mature a kid is, they are still a MINOR and cannot legally take responsibility for themselves. It is just another example of trying to treat children as something they are not, adults.

 

Also, how many times are you going to promote Carnival and Prinicess in your comments. You almost sound like a spokesman for them! My parents have sailed many lines including HAL, RCL, Carnival and NCL and swear that Carnival is the worst cruise line out there. They compared to an out of control, undisciplined party and swear never to cruise that line again.

[Happy ks]

I was allowing NCL time to respond to my correspondences. They did not address the concerns to my satisfaction. Now that it's time to start booking Alaskan cruises, I thought I'd share my opinion. I've sailed on two other cruise lines multiple times (Carnival and Princess) and enjoyed them very much. Our families did have fun spending time together, but I don't feel NCL compares with the other lines. I chose to share our circumstances in the hope that others would not have to repeat our experience.

 

You really have to allow a whole bunch more time for a response. My experience has been at least 2 months for a postcard telling you they received your letter and another 3-4 months for a computer generated letter of apology, sometimes with a coupon with a nominal percentage amount off your next booking. That is all you should expect and that is what all cruiselines do, not just NCL. Hopefully, you sent your letter registered, return receipt requested, or it may have found it's way into a round file.

 

This is typical customer service at all cruise lines and it is shameful, it should be changed. But, if you hang around any of the cruiseline boards here for a while, that is what you always read about. Sometimes I read here how people wonder if the cruiselines read these boards (I think they do to some extent) and it would be lovely if they improved the customer service department, for both before and after the cruise.

 

We all have our favorites, many of us choose to not cruise certain cruise lines, for a variety of reasons. My DH and I have resolved we will try as many lines as we can before our time is up!

 

I'd like to know exactly what you are expecting NCL to do to resolve your disappointment. I'm sure many people on this thread are wondering the same thing, too.

 

I do hope your cruise travels in the future are more to your liking,

[JerseyMom]

Why make a statement about changes you've seen but when asked for more information you won't say anything? Seems to defeat the purpose of a message board. What would happen if everyone posted new threads but no one ever asked questions or asked for more information? Anyway...

 

Exactly what I was thinking. I was just asking because I fail to see (and maybe I'm missing something) how changes in the Lattitudes program would change the demeanor of the staff. I was just interested (as I always am) in other people's perceptions. I realize that their experience and mine may not be the same and I respect that. I have no idea what Fleet's talking about so I will just discount the post since he chooses to make statements without explaining what that means.

[Zeno]

Exactly what I was thinking. I was just asking because I fail to see (and maybe I'm missing something) how changes in the Lattitudes program would change the demeanor of the staff. I was just interested (as I always am) in other people's perceptions. I realize that their experience and mine may not be the same and I respect that. I have no idea what Fleet's talking about so I will just discount the post since he chooses to make statements without explaining what that means.

 

I am like Cecilia and Jerseymom - I discount posts without specifics - particularly when the person is asked for specifics and for some strange reason does not give any. Fleet's perception maybe interesting but without specifics it is meaningless.

[SailAways]

Actually, no, I do not care to explain the changes, but thank you for asking your questions. Most of my observations are intuitive....... .

 

Oh, a crystal ball - that surely explains it all!

 

This should answer your inquiries, Cecilia, JerseyMom, Zeno - and mine too! :rolleyes:

[JerseyMom]

Actually, no, I do not care to explain the changes, but thank you for asking your questions. Most of my observations are intuitive....... .

 

Oh, a crystal ball - that surely explains it all!

 

This should answer your inquiries, Cecilia, JerseyMom, Zeno - and mine too! :rolleyes:

 

Oh, o.k. Thanks, SailAways. Being psychically challenged myself, I couldn't imagine.

 

In defense of the OP, at least she explained what it was about her cruise that ruined it for her. I read it and nothing that she complains about would be a deterent for me. For my upcoming Alaska cruise on the NCL Star, if we happen to miss Glacier Bay I will be disappointed but it won't ruin the vacation for me - even if we have pea soup fog for the entire week and can't actually see any of Alaska, I still intend to enjoy myself. After all, a bad day cruising beats a good day at work anytime.

[Checkmate1955]

If you are thinking about booking an Alaskan cruise with NCL, think again. Our family was very disappointed with their service, food, children's programs, rooms and mechanical dependability. My biggest complaint was missing Glacier Bay and being re-routed to Sitka. This was why we made the choice to use NCL instead of Carnival or Princess (which we enjoyed on past cruises). The captain apologized for some mechanical difficulty which was causing the ship to leak something that would pollute the environment, so we couldn't enter the bay to see any glaciers. The food was inferior to Carnival and Princess (less choice for normal fair like chicken and fish). My twelve year old son hated the kid's program where we had to sign him in and out. It was not age appropriate for him. My daughter was sick on board. The room arrangement was ridiculous. One bunk bed and a pull out so that there were three beds side by side with no walk ways. And the staff walked around without smiles. Maybe because the passengers were so grouchy about missing Glacier Bay...They did give us an on-board credit (which you could spend in the gift shop), but did nothing else when I wrote to their customer service representative and C.E.O. two times. I would recommend that you don't cruise with NCL.:(

You have made your position clear to me... I can understand your feelings and support you in your comments... Good luck on future cruises... I too would have been disapointed to miss a destination on my cruise that I had looked forwarded to seeing... You are lucky that ncl did not try to charge you extra for Sitka:) ... Take care and live your life as you please... It is your life, your money and your cruise experience...

[mbisson]

I missed the part where anyone said they wouldn't be disappointed in missing Glacier Bay. Having visited there a couple times I know I would. I think what most are saying, is that when someone says "my sailing missed a port that I wanted to see so don't sail that cruise line" is not really a fair statement. After all, ships will sometimes miss a port due to mechanical reasons. If you eliminate all cruise lines that this happens to, you'll never cruise (and for some people, that may not be a bad thing)

 

-Monte

[SailAways]

[quote name=JerseyMom

In defense of the OP' date=' at least she explained what it was about her cruise that ruined it for her........ if we happen to miss Glacier Bay I will be disappointed but it won't ruin the vacation for me - even if we have pea soup fog for the entire week and can't actually see any of Alaska, I still intend to enjoy myself. After all, a bad day cruising beats a good day at work anytime.[/quote]

 

To try to help get the point across that many posters here have been trying to do, if you do miss Glacier Bay, hopefully you would not come back to this board to issue a "warning" that cruisers should avoid NCL Alaska cruises.

 

This is too dramatic a statement for having missed a port. The other complaints seem to have grown from the initial disappointment - and snowballed.

 

I too am sorry that the OP did not enjoy the cruise. But, let's be realistic about just how long the list of complaints can go without seeming to be taken a bit too far.

[Retired not Expired]

To give an example of what some of us have been saying, I went over to the Princess board. I went to it because the OP and a couple of others used it as an example of how bad NCL is on this point. I quickly found a post and could do so on every board.

 

This post had to do with a Med cruise on the Grand Princess that due to mechanical problems missed four ports. Here are what some of the paragraphs in that post discussed:

1. Did not get enough compensation

2. Food was sub par

3. Service was terrible

4. Customer relations is bad

5. Upkeep of the (boat)(their word) was bad

6. Never use Princess again

 

Below is one of the answers to that post from another member. Does any of this sound familiar?

 

Many become upset when they miss ports, especially ones they are looking so forward to. But as said, the passenger contract covers it all. Except for the port charges paid, Princess really is under no obligation to refund anything else.

 

Sad but true! It is all in the passenger contract!

 

Let me give you a quick story of what we encountered. Many years ago we visited a port and always wanted to return. We finally choose a B2B cruise (12 days each way) so we could be sure that we would get to visit this certain port again. We even went as far as emailing the island as we knew they had been having problems with their tender pier and we were told all was fine and they were anticipating our arrival. Princess also assured us that it would be on the itinerary. Well, you guessed it. Both ways they skipped that port because they said they didn't like the way they had repaired the tender pier. This meant instead of visiting the one port we were really looking forward to we had 5 sea days in a row TWICE. Our compensation from Princess ended up being $6 per person for the refunded port charges.

 

This happens all of the time.

[hotspur]

This happens all of the time.

Whoever wrote the original script could make a fortune suing for plagiarism.

[kalamari]

On any cruise someone is bound to whine about something.

 

What I never understand is, why someone uses an isolated bad experience to basically try to convince everyone else not to do it. If they had a bad experience, what's the point of trying to convince everyone else that they are going to have a bad experience? It's sorta like the momos that believed the world was going to end with Y2k and then stockpiled supplies and put fear into everyone else.

 

Many years ago I heard a statement that "flexibility is the key to having success" and I think it is applicable in travel. If someone spent so much time whining about one issue, then they might miss some other cool opportunity.

 

Menina

[JerseyMom]

.... if you do miss Glacier Bay, hopefully you would not come back to this board to issue a "warning" that cruisers should avoid NCL Alaska cruises.

 

This is too dramatic a statement for having missed a port. The other complaints seem to have grown from the initial disappointment - and snowballed....

 

You do make a good point. It is just wrong to say "I hated XYZ Cruise Lines and therefore, you will too." I also agree with Kalamari - I doubt that there has ever been a cruise that didn't have at least a few people who were unhappy with it.

 

About 15 years ago I went on a business retreat to a resort that had won numerous culinary awards. One of the women in the group complained that the food was "inedible". So much so, she said, that she even lost weight that week. Everyone else raved about the food. Just goes to show you can't please everyone.

[greenie]

Oh, I'm so confused

 

-Monte

 

LOL! Yer killin' me here! I thought the same thing: "HUH??"

:D

[kalamari]

She may have needed to lose weight too I bet.

 

The sad thing is we always hear more about the "whiners". One thing I always like while waiting for crew to disembark is hearing the comments of first time passengers who seem to know how to assess a situation fairly..my observation is that they tend to be so appreciative, so thoughtful, and very complimentary, and overall just plain appreciative that THEY were the ones that didn't have to cook, do the beds, etc.

 

I think I know now why my sweetheart always says that the passengers are getting worse. His belief is that when travel used to be an "event" it was more special. I think he's right. I can remember as a child that it used to be a big thing to take a plane, we'd dress up, etc. Now it's like passengers get offended on cruises if they can't wear jeans, etc. I wish some people would just suck it up and be thankful for the opportunity to even travel.

 

Now he says for some taking a cruise isn't any different than taking the city bus!

 

You do make a good point. It is just wrong to say "I hated XYZ Cruise Lines and therefore, you will too." I also agree with Kalamari - I doubt that there has ever been a cruise that didn't have at least a few people who were unhappy with it.

 

About 15 years ago I went on a business retreat to a resort that had won numerous culinary awards. One of the women in the group complained that the food was "inedible". So much so, she said, that she even lost weight that week. Everyone else raved about the food. Just goes to show you can't please everyone.