C
CapnDave
Guest
Hi, everyone,
I just returned from a cruise on NCL's Majesty, which departed 12/23 from Charleston, SC and returned on 12/30. This was my 3rd cruise, and by far the least enjoyable. I've got a couple of questions that I could use some guidance on from the more experienced cruisers out there...
First, the good stuff:
--Kids Korner program was great. The age divisions worked really well, I thought, and the staff seemed to truly enjoy their work. The kids had a great time when they were participating in the program.
--Caribbean Plus band by the pool was amazing. The singer did a great job of bringing the crowd into the show, and they played a lot more than just the "standard reggae fare". I really enjoyed the time we spent watching them up on deck.
Now, the bad stuff:
--Frestyle dining. Dinners all week long took a minimum of 2 hours, and were often closer to 3. With 5 kids, this made for quite an ordeal. There was no reason things should have taken this long, as dirty dishes were left on the table for extended times, and there were loooooong lapses between courses. I have to attribute these issues to the staff trying to deal with several diners at various phases of dinner, and it just beign too much to cope with. Is this an issue on all NCL freestyle cruises, or is it more because the older Majesty ship wasn't designed to handle this type of service?
--Grand Cayman. The stop in Georgetown was cancelled because waves made operating the tender boats too unsafe. This was not NCL's fault, the city cancelled all cruise operations, and 6 or 7 ships were turned away. NCL did graciously refund the $14.67 per person port charge. This was the 2nd cruise that I've been on that was supposed to stop in Grand Cayman, but didn't. Guess I'm just not supposed to go there.
--The ship died. On the last day of the cruise, she just went dead in the water for about an hour. No engines, no electricity, nothing. Now, that in and of itself isn't necessarily horrible, but when things came back online, they weren't able to get all the generators going. Because of that, they couldn't run all the ship's systems at full power, and one of the systems to take a big hit was the A/C. Temperatures in the staterooms climbed well into the 80's that day. People were sleeping in the hallways and on the decks to try to get comfortable, creating what I consider to be a safety hazard. As compensation, the ship graciously offered free beer, wine, and soda at dinner. Yay. Oh, and they put some extra water stations out on a few of the decks.
--A security issue. The couple in the stateroom next to ours had a marital spat on the last night of the cruise. She wanted him out of the stateroom. Now, that's all fine, people have issues, but I have a big problem with the way the ship's security handled things. They stood by in the hallway while the couple screamed at each other in front of not only their own child, but all the passengers who were waiting in the hallway because their staterooms were unbearable. How hard would it have been to take them someplace private to hash things out? Furthermore, why couldn't they at least think of the child involved, and hand him over to the kids' staff while things were going in the dumper? Suggesting these solutions to the ship's staff was ignored.
A phone call to NCL's customer service department yesterday told me that NCL will be offering all passengers 20% off of their next cruise to compensate for the inconvenience. I think this is a pretty pathetic response, considering all we had to put up with. Am I off base in this opinion? Also, I'm not really inclined to cruise with NCL again, so this compensation is essentially worthless to me. I tried to explain to the rep that I spoke with that NCL would need to do better to get me back, but my argument fell on deaf ears. I think I would probably need some sort of onboard credit before I'd be willing to cruise NCL again. A lot of the stuff that went wrong was probably due to the particular ship/itinerary I was on, so I could be talked into giving them another chance, but they need to give me a reason to do so. My biggest issue is that the NCL management doesn't seem to be interested in turning me into a satisfied customer. Is this impression accurate, or am I just taking things too seriously because I'm a tad miffed right now?
Also, I was cruising with my family, a group of 12 people all told, so by not taking care of me, they're losing business from 3 family groups, not just one couple. I would think that would make them a little more concerned, but apparently not.
I would love to hear any comments or suggestions from the folks out there.
Thanks!
--Dave
I just returned from a cruise on NCL's Majesty, which departed 12/23 from Charleston, SC and returned on 12/30. This was my 3rd cruise, and by far the least enjoyable. I've got a couple of questions that I could use some guidance on from the more experienced cruisers out there...
First, the good stuff:
--Kids Korner program was great. The age divisions worked really well, I thought, and the staff seemed to truly enjoy their work. The kids had a great time when they were participating in the program.
--Caribbean Plus band by the pool was amazing. The singer did a great job of bringing the crowd into the show, and they played a lot more than just the "standard reggae fare". I really enjoyed the time we spent watching them up on deck.
Now, the bad stuff:
--Frestyle dining. Dinners all week long took a minimum of 2 hours, and were often closer to 3. With 5 kids, this made for quite an ordeal. There was no reason things should have taken this long, as dirty dishes were left on the table for extended times, and there were loooooong lapses between courses. I have to attribute these issues to the staff trying to deal with several diners at various phases of dinner, and it just beign too much to cope with. Is this an issue on all NCL freestyle cruises, or is it more because the older Majesty ship wasn't designed to handle this type of service?
--Grand Cayman. The stop in Georgetown was cancelled because waves made operating the tender boats too unsafe. This was not NCL's fault, the city cancelled all cruise operations, and 6 or 7 ships were turned away. NCL did graciously refund the $14.67 per person port charge. This was the 2nd cruise that I've been on that was supposed to stop in Grand Cayman, but didn't. Guess I'm just not supposed to go there.
--The ship died. On the last day of the cruise, she just went dead in the water for about an hour. No engines, no electricity, nothing. Now, that in and of itself isn't necessarily horrible, but when things came back online, they weren't able to get all the generators going. Because of that, they couldn't run all the ship's systems at full power, and one of the systems to take a big hit was the A/C. Temperatures in the staterooms climbed well into the 80's that day. People were sleeping in the hallways and on the decks to try to get comfortable, creating what I consider to be a safety hazard. As compensation, the ship graciously offered free beer, wine, and soda at dinner. Yay. Oh, and they put some extra water stations out on a few of the decks.
--A security issue. The couple in the stateroom next to ours had a marital spat on the last night of the cruise. She wanted him out of the stateroom. Now, that's all fine, people have issues, but I have a big problem with the way the ship's security handled things. They stood by in the hallway while the couple screamed at each other in front of not only their own child, but all the passengers who were waiting in the hallway because their staterooms were unbearable. How hard would it have been to take them someplace private to hash things out? Furthermore, why couldn't they at least think of the child involved, and hand him over to the kids' staff while things were going in the dumper? Suggesting these solutions to the ship's staff was ignored.
A phone call to NCL's customer service department yesterday told me that NCL will be offering all passengers 20% off of their next cruise to compensate for the inconvenience. I think this is a pretty pathetic response, considering all we had to put up with. Am I off base in this opinion? Also, I'm not really inclined to cruise with NCL again, so this compensation is essentially worthless to me. I tried to explain to the rep that I spoke with that NCL would need to do better to get me back, but my argument fell on deaf ears. I think I would probably need some sort of onboard credit before I'd be willing to cruise NCL again. A lot of the stuff that went wrong was probably due to the particular ship/itinerary I was on, so I could be talked into giving them another chance, but they need to give me a reason to do so. My biggest issue is that the NCL management doesn't seem to be interested in turning me into a satisfied customer. Is this impression accurate, or am I just taking things too seriously because I'm a tad miffed right now?
Also, I was cruising with my family, a group of 12 people all told, so by not taking care of me, they're losing business from 3 family groups, not just one couple. I would think that would make them a little more concerned, but apparently not.
I would love to hear any comments or suggestions from the folks out there.
Thanks!
--Dave
