My LAST NCL Cruise!

[dvrdude]

Just got off the Dec 9th-17th on the Spirit. What a mistake--the getting on board part, not the getting off. This was the first time I was actually ready for the cruise to be over before it was over. Maybe DW and I spoiled ouselves from the beginning (all previous cruises on HAL), but this cruise was the WORST! The ship is showing its age and NCL apparently isn't too concerned about it. The carpet is literally coming apart at the seams in several locations, and I suppose this will get fixed after a PAX trips on the up-turned edges and bashes their melon into a bulkhead, but apparently not before.

The food was IMHO, mediocre at best for those of us who opted not to be nickle and dimed for the "real" restaurants. The staff, with a few exceptions, ranged in attitude from cold fish to downright surly. Especially if you didn't let them brow-beat you into purchasing all the drinks they were PUSHING, and I do mean pushing. I almost got into verbal fisticuffs with a young drink slinger because I only wanted one beer, not a bucket. I thought I knew that all I wanted at the time was one beer, but she spent the next 5 minutes, or so, trying to explain to me that I really wanted a bucket of 6. Sheesh! :mad:

 

The beds (a la Rob and Laura Petrie) in our state room were, I believe rejects from Gitmo. My back spasms even now thinking about them.

 

I could drone on and on, but feel I should commence donning my asbestos speedo.:D

[nlt46]

Sorry you had a bad time. I hope your next cruise on Holland will be better. Nancy

[scopewest]

What cabin were you in?

[Serial Mom]

We sailed on the Spirit 12/2-12/9 and loved it. Did not encounter any of the problems you mentioned. Crew was great and always friendly, polite and helpful. Cabin was lovely and always spotless. We found the Spirit to be in very good to excellent repair and noticed little wear and tear. Not once did anyone "push" us for drinks or anthing else. It did not matter what we requested the word "no" was never mentioned and no question was ever too trival. The beer "helmets" were explained to us and we simply declined and no problem. Overall we liked the food and soon found what dining options were best for us.

 

Right now I'm trying to find a date that works for our family and hope to book another Spirit cruise in late 2008 or early 2009.

 

Sorry your cruise was a disappointment.

[dvrdude]

We were in 5061. Felt like we were in steerage. I wouldn't have been too suprised to find a bag with paint chipping hammers under the bed. Guess you get what you pay for. We went on the cheap this time in anticipation of an Alaska cruise this Spring. On HAL, of course!

[ron46936]

We have cruised HAL twice and NCL many times including the Spirit. Our experience on the Spirit FAR surpassed those on the HAL cruises in almost every respect. I did like the orange juice on HAL.

 

I am not saying I'll not go on HAL again if they are as cheap as in the past but our friends who cruised have cruised on both won't consider HAL.

[GROOVERS]

I hope you always booked aft (stern) staterooms, that way we can book the stern more often, one less booking, get my jest?:p

 

Have fun on your next one!:D :D :D

[booklady26]

As I've said on postings before, don't expect a HAL or Celebrity experience on NCL or Carnival.

 

Of course, you can't compare service or food quality between HAL and NCL. HAL is much more superior. It's not that NCL is bad, it's just not as good as as HAL. Maybe I've never had an outstanding meal in NCL's dining rooms, but I've never had a bad either.

 

But, HAL is also much more sedate and passengers tend to be older. I don't think their entertianment is as good. And their pool and deck areas are smaller than I would prefer.

 

And, they don't have all the choice of restaurants that NCL has. I just love being able to dine in a different venue every night as if I were vacationing on land. Even if you don't want to be "nickled and dimed" you have the choice of Italian and Latin for free on most NCL ships, as well as the main dining rooms. If you forked over the $10-$25 for any of the alternative restaurants, you'd get an excellent meal. Let's face it OP, isn't the food in the Pinnacle Grill far superior to the main dining rooms on HAL ships?

 

When people knock the service on any cruise ship (or hotel, resort, restaurant, etc), I have to ask myself, what is their attitude. You will get what you give. Just because people are in service positions, doesn't mean they have to put up with rude demanding guests. A smile and a hello will go a long way.

 

I think the OP went into this cruise with preset notions of what he thought it should be like and was sorely disappointed. As an experienced cruiser, when I'm looking at a ship or a cruise line that I haven't sailed before, I do my homework and try to evaluate all the plusses and minuses to determine if the cruise will be right for me. After having taken 40 cruises, I can say that I have enjoyed everyone of them and have never been disappointed.

[smeyer418]

As I've said on postings before, don't expect a HAL or Celebrity experience on NCL or Carnival.

 

Of course, you can't compare service or food quality between HAL and NCL. HAL is much more superior. It's not that NCL is bad, it's just not as good as as HAL. Maybe I've never had an outstanding meal in NCL's dining rooms, but I've never had a bad either.

 

But, HAL is also much more sedate and passengers tend to be older. I don't think their entertianment is as good. And their pool and deck areas are smaller than I would prefer.

 

And, they don't have all the choice of restaurants that NCL has. I just love being able to dine in a different venue every night as if I were vacationing on land. Even if you don't want to be "nickled and dimed" you have the choice of Italian and Latin for free on most NCL ships, as well as the main dining rooms. If you forked over the $10-$25 for any of the alternative restaurants, you'd get an excellent meal. Let's face it OP, isn't the food in the Pinnacle Grill far superior to the main dining rooms on HAL ships?

 

When people knock the service on any cruise ship (or hotel, resort, restaurant, etc), I have to ask myself, what is their attitude. You will get what you give. Just because people are in service positions, doesn't mean they have to put up with rude demanding guests. A smile and a hello will go a long way.

 

I think the OP went into this cruise with preset notions of what he thought it should be like and was sorely disappointed. As an experienced cruiser, when I'm looking at a ship or a cruise line that I haven't sailed before, I do my homework and try to evaluate all the plusses and minuses to determine if the cruise will be right for me. After having taken 40 cruises, I can say that I have enjoyed everyone of them and have never been disappointed.

nice post. I was trying to think of a way to express what you did about attitude and you did it better than I could. I was thinking that if someone spent 5 minutes trying to sell me a bucket of beer(which I would need half the cruise to drink), that I would be laughing about their wasting their time on me to try to convince me it was a bargain when they probably could have sold 5 buckets in the same time. and if she was cute I would appreciate her spending the 5 minutes with me anyway...(yes I know a sexist remark).....

[heelfan94]

We've had an inordinate number of disgruntled passengers lately. I'm waiting for everyone to decide (really) to never cruise NCL again so the prices will start falling. ;)

[tommy]

dvrdude,You should know better than to criticise ncl on this forum.Dont exspect Holland service or food quality on a ncl cruise,you get what you pay for.

[212cruiser]

Just got off the Dec 9th-17th on the Spirit. What a mistake--the getting on board part, not the getting off. This was the first time I was actually ready for the cruise to be over before it was over. Maybe DW and I spoiled ouselves from the beginning (all previous cruises on HAL), but this cruise was the WORST! The ship is showing its age and NCL apparently isn't too concerned about it. The carpet is literally coming apart at the seams in several locations, and I suppose this will get fixed after a PAX trips on the up-turned edges and bashes their melon into a bulkhead, but apparently not before.

 

The food was IMHO, mediocre at best for those of us who opted not to be nickle and dimed for the "real" restaurants. The staff, with a few exceptions, ranged in attitude from cold fish to downright surly. Especially if you didn't let them brow-beat you into purchasing all the drinks they were PUSHING, and I do mean pushing. I almost got into verbal fisticuffs with a young drink slinger because I only wanted one beer, not a bucket. I thought I knew that all I wanted at the time was one beer, but she spent the next 5 minutes, or so, trying to explain to me that I really wanted a bucket of 6. Sheesh! :mad:

 

The beds (a la Rob and Laura Petrie) in our state room were, I believe rejects from Gitmo. My back spasms even now thinking about them.

 

I could drone on and on, but feel I should commence donning my asbestos speedo.:D

 

 

I'm sorry you didn't feel you received a value for your vacation dollar. I am more relieved you will not be on our next NCL cruise from how you have described your interpersonal skills (or lack of same). A bad cruise is a miserable experience. We've had our own, none on NCL, so I appreciate a candid review. However, I become concerned about reviews when the reviewer is not in control of their own emotions, such as your beer story described.

BTW, how much did you pay per person?

[dvrdude]

As I've said on postings before, don't expect a HAL or Celebrity experience on NCL or Carnival.

 

Of course, you can't compare service or food quality between HAL and NCL. HAL is much more superior. It's not that NCL is bad, it's just not as good as as HAL. Maybe I've never had an outstanding meal in NCL's dining rooms, but I've never had a bad either.

 

But, HAL is also much more sedate and passengers tend to be older. I don't think their entertianment is as good. And their pool and deck areas are smaller than I would prefer.

 

And, they don't have all the choice of restaurants that NCL has. I just love being able to dine in a different venue every night as if I were vacationing on land. Even if you don't want to be "nickled and dimed" you have the choice of Italian and Latin for free on most NCL ships, as well as the main dining rooms. If you forked over the $10-$25 for any of the alternative restaurants, you'd get an excellent meal. Let's face it OP, isn't the food in the Pinnacle Grill far superior to the main dining rooms on HAL ships?

 

When people knock the service on any cruise ship (or hotel, resort, restaurant, etc), I have to ask myself, what is their attitude. You will get what you give. Just because people are in service positions, doesn't mean they have to put up with rude demanding guests. A smile and a hello will go a long way.

 

I think the OP went into this cruise with preset notions of what he thought it should be like and was sorely disappointed. As an experienced cruiser, when I'm looking at a ship or a cruise line that I haven't sailed before, I do my homework and try to evaluate all the plusses and minuses to determine if the cruise will be right for me. After having taken 40 cruises, I can say that I have enjoyed everyone of them and have never been disappointed.

 

OK. I'll admit the Pinnacle is superior to the dining room fare on HAL, but here's the deal from my perspective. My DW and I don't fit into what most would think of the "typical" HAL cruiser. We're both barely 40, don't particularly care to get dressed up to eat, and to tell the truth, eat at the Lido more often than not. That's our version of "Freestyle". We eat when we want to anyway on HAL and get better quality and variety IMO, in the bargain.

 

Who said I was rude, or demanding?:confused: That's rather presumptuous of you. I happen to be a genuinely nice fellow. Easy to get along with, etc. Just ask my Mother.:D I don't look down on people in a service position, but if a person is taking out frustrations not caused by me on me, well, I do have a problem with that.

[Toyz711]

i was on ther 12/2 to 12/9 cruise of the spirit. i was never bothered by any of the drink staff...a simple shake of my head and they were gone. i had expect my not drinking to be a problem, but the wait staff was more then polite about it.

we never met or saw our room stewards and the service they gave was the exact same as the ones we have met/talked to...excellent. we realized that talking to and getting personal has no bearing on the quality of our cruise. our needs were met and our few extra things were done (we left notes). i loved not having the carts in the hallways.

hope your next cruise on HAL is enjoyable, but we will stick with NCL..thanx anyway.

[smeyer418]

OK. I'll admit the Pinnacle is superior to the dining room fare on HAL, but here's the deal from my perspective. My DW and I don't fit into what most would think of the "typical" HAL cruiser. We're both barely 40, don't particularly care to get dressed up to eat, and to tell the truth, eat at the Lido more often than not. That's our version of "Freestyle". We eat when we want to anyway on HAL and get better quality and variety IMO, in the bargain.

 

Who said I was rude, or demanding?:confused: That's rather presumptuous of you. I happen to be a genuinely nice fellow. Easy to get along with, etc. Just ask my Mother.:D I don't look down on people in a service position, but if a person is taking out frustrations not caused by me on me, well, I do have a problem with that.

 

 

Maybe she was trying to pick you up :)....I didn't presume to think what you are like but most of the time attitudes is what attitude does. This isn't always true but it does set the tone. I didn't say anything about you right to like HAL better. You are entitled to. Of all the NCL ships I have sailed on I like the Spirit the least. But that is because I found the beds too hard and smaller than the other ships(it may have all been in my head). Enjoy HAL...I'll stick here for now but I don't rule out a trip on HAL someday....perhaps...maybe...not.

[fin]

OK.

 

Who said I was rude, or demanding?:confused: That's rather presumptuous of you. I happen to be a genuinely nice fellow. Easy to get along with, etc. Just ask my Mother.:D I don't look down on people in a service position, but if a person is taking out frustrations not caused by me on me, well, I do have a problem with that.

 

I think perhaps people make the assumption that a passenger who has an isolated incident with crew has encountered an unusual situation which could have any number of possible genisisis [made up word I guess].

 

The further assumption is that a passenger who describes ongoing and widespread problems with crew attitude throughout a cruise is, in fact, describing an attitude problem of a different nature.

[NorthernNeighbour]

dvrdude,You should know better than to criticise ncl on this forum.Dont exspect Holland service or food quality on a ncl cruise,you get what you pay for.

 

I've been on both HAL and NCL and while the food on HAL was better -- it does NOT mean the food we had on NCL was bad. Everything is relative.

 

While we found the food in the 'reservations only' French restaurant on HAL a little better than NCL, we found the waiter on NCL better than on HAL.

 

The entertainment on NCL is definitely superior to HAL.

 

As the lady said elsewhere in these postings, they each have their strengths. We plan to sail both lines again -- it is the itinerary and number of days at sea (we like more rather than less) that determines what cruises we go on, not so much which cruise line.

[dvrdude]

I think perhaps people make the assumption that a passenger who has an isolated incident with crew has encountered an unusual situation which could have any number of possible genisisis [made up word I guess].

 

The further assumption is that a passenger who describes ongoing and widespread problems with crew attitude throughout a cruise is, in fact, describing an attitude problem of a different nature.

 

You know what they say about assuming.:p

[GaryWT]

Sorry to hear you did not like your cruise. We will be sailing the Spirit in August for our 1st NCL cruise, hopefully it will fit our needs. i know that the setup of the rooms is different and that we could not get conneting rooms because the max was 5 for the 2 rooms.

 

I can say that I will not let the rugs or walls make or break the cruise for us and feel that the food will be fine as we are not 5 star restaurant types but like the good old mom and pop type restaurants so just plain old steak and potatos is fine with me.

[dispachcops]

If it would have taken you half a week to drink it, it still would have saved you money, and you could have put the other beers in the fridge to drink later. That is if you are a beer drinker... I am not. I just said no to every offer to booze, a polite shake of the head or a "no thanks" or an upturned hand like a stop sign.... is all it takes to get them to go on their merry way. They are there to make a buck, dont take offense for them to try to sell something. If you don't want to take part, just shake your head and walk on...

[dvrdude]

If it would have taken you half a week to drink it, it still would have saved you money, and you could have put the other beers in the fridge to drink later. That is if you are a beer drinker... I am not. I just said no to every offer to booze, a polite shake of the head or a "no thanks" or an upturned hand like a stop sign.... is all it takes to get them to go on their merry way. They are there to make a buck, dont take offense for them to try to sell something. If you don't want to take part, just shake your head and walk on...

 

We didn't have a fridge. I did, however already have a helmet with a few on ice left in it back in the cabin. I was just free-styling @ the bier garden and just wanted a single ('cause I was too lazy to walk to the cabin) to tide me over 'til I was ready to return to the room. That's my point and what I don't get. I did politely decline her offer several times with the above mentioned methods of declination. I know how to say "No, thank you" and did. That was the end for my part. For her part, once she got it, She acted as if it were really putting her out to sell me a single.

[Mark]

For many years I took both Royal Caribbean and Norwegian cruises and always considered the two companies to be very very similar in almost all ways including the Norwegian Staff Officers and Captains...THEN STAR CRUISES BOUGHT NCL and it was never the same and I have switched over to Royal Caribbean with an occasional Carnival cruise thrown in for diversity. I was sorry to see the old NCL go just as I was sorry to see the old SS Norway go...it will never be the same...:cool:

[Len3]

Sorry that you were disappointed. We've recently cruised with HAL and RCCL. I can certainly say that HAL can wait for at least another 10 years before we're even close to the right age group. As for RCCL - never again. We're very happy with what NCL has produced for us. Freestyle cruising makes everything so much easier, especially with a port intensive itinerary.

[bethcollins]

We have cruised both HAL and NCL and find the lines to be quite at opposite ends of the spectrum. That being said, we loved our cruises on both. HAL staterooms are my favorite out of any of the mainstream lines while NCL cabins IMO leave something to be desired. If you went in with the expectation of a similar experience I could see where you would be frustrated. Not anything wrong with either line, just very different in many ways.

[tomk3212]

First off, let's give the OP (DVRDUDE) a LOT of credit for replying. How many "trolls" have we seen post a highly negative review and we NEVER hear from them again. Way to go 'Dude! :D

 

OK, now we've been on the Spirit three times (although not in the past year). We REALLY like her. A lot! So we'll toss in our two cents:

 

Beds: we've been in inside cabins on Decks 5 & 8. YES, the beds are a tad small (LOVE the Rob & Laura analogy, btw!! ;) ). If you had done some homework, 'Dude (no criticism intended, btw!) you'd have learned that the Spirit was "inherited" from Orient Lines and was intended for an Asian clientele. 'Dude, I HAVE a bad back...and if MY back can "survive" three cruises on the Spirit...well I think you're exaggerating a bit. I can state that if the beds on the Gem (the newest NCL ship - which we just sailed on) are a 10 then the beds on the Spirit are a 7.5.

 

Food: Sooooooooooooo subjective. Having never been on a HAL cruise we can't compare. That said, we're not picky. We've NEVER had a bad meal in Windows or any of the restaurants on the Spirit. Raffles (the Buffet) could use a makeover but we found the food quite good.

 

Service: never had a problem. Again, though, our last cruise on the Spirit was over a year ago so maybe the crew has changed.

 

Upkeep: we didn't notice any frayed carpets. After three cruises on the Spirit I think we'd have noticed. Again, though, not in the past year.

 

Sorry you had a bad time. I believe that perhaps a newer NCL ship might be better for you. So give it another try! Also, kudos for replying!!

 

And as my Grandpappy used to tell me; if you toss stones at folks then you should expect boulders tossed back at you! :eek: