In response to your message NEWMEXICONITA:
I am not a novice cruiser myself and I am only stating fact. The comment about a crew meeting was in response to an earlier post that a cruise after mine was nicer. I can tell you from being there, that on the last night of the cruise, there were lines literally down the halls of people waiting to "Adjust" their auto-tips downward. Many were removing every cent. That had to have been a wake up call to someone.
You cannot argue FOR faded, run down accommodations. Look at the other posts backing me up. I never commented on other NCL ships as I have never (nor do I plan to at this point) been on others. This was my first encounter with NCL and the experience has dissuaded me from taking their line again. Let me clear up a few things.
Canceled shore excursion: I arrived at othe meeting place onboard the ship 20 minutes before disembarking for the excursion. The crew have walkie talkies and talk to the other parts of the ship. It was clear that other parts of the ship knew, Just not ours. We were even told as we were leaving the ship "There might be a problem with your excursion but we'll know when we get on land".. I am not sour about a cancelled excursion. Hell, on RCCL, we had to skip Jamaica altogether because of rough seas and It was still the best cruise ever.
The kids program on this ship didnt even have full time staff. They kept getting reassigned to other duties. I dont think you realize how small this ship was compared to the newer conventional fleet. And how do you explain away a game room with more than half the games inoperable. It sounds to me like you are simply willing to put up with the bad stuff.
As for dinner. On every other cruise we have been on, You would finish one course and the next was right there. Here there could be 10 minutes between courses. That adds quite a bit of time. It didnt help even when we said we were pressed for time.
And if you dont have a problem with flicking old food off the plates you get at the buffet and wiping the insides of coffee mugs before using them then you are a very tolerant person. Let me set you straight. I Would never complain about a single instance of dirty dishes. I am talking day after day. Read the other posts.
And last but not least the cake. Ok, I would have been perfectly happy with a late cake. But 1) it took 4 calls to the front desk to get it 2) it said freaking HAPPY BIRTHDAY not BON VOYAGE!!. And the worst part is not the cake, its that for the last 2 months AFTER THE CRUISE I tried to get in touch with customer service to remedy the problem. They have never called me back.
NewMexicoNita, I cannot vouch for other ships in NCL and I am sure many of them are just fine. But when a ship and service stand out this badly, something is wrong. And when the company show no interest in wanting to resolve passenger problems then thats not a company I will be spending my money with.
