Norwegian Wind concerns

  • Thread starter Floridian1stTimer
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Floridian1stTimer

Guest
Hello,

My wife and I are looking to take our first cruise this February. We have the week of Valentine's Day off which is making it difficult to find a cruise within our price range.

But just today I found a deal for a 7-day caribbean cruise on the Norwegian Wind for a significantly lower price than any other cruiseline (as in 400 dollars cheaper per person)! I've read quite a few negative reviews of the Wind. Complaints of sewage smells, poor service and organization, sub-par food, etc...Is this the reason for the low price? Has anyone sailed her recently? What was your experience like?

We love the ports (Grand Cayman, Honduras, Belize, Mexico), it's the ship itself that has us concerned. A little backgroung on us, we're a recently married couple in our mid- to late- twenties looking for a fun, active cuise experience.

Any info is greatly appreciated.

Dan
 
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TravelGirl

Guest
Hi,

We booked our vacation for the same week also...not realizing that it was Valentines day weekend. So we decided on taking a cheaper cruise on Norwegian Wind - the ports sound amazing. We are a younger active couple too (30 & 31) - hopefully there'll be more like us on the ship that week.

I have looked at quite a few reviews and they seem to be mixed. However, the newer reviews (in the last couple months) seem pretty good. I figure that you get what you pay for, so we are going to take it all with a grain of salt... I'm sure we can have fun anywhere we go. As long as the ship doesn't break down and we don't get sick, how can you loose?!

Anyways - here's a site with some more recent reviews:

http://www.mytravelco.com/travel/cruises/content.jsp?path=/reviews/shipReview.asp

Oh - also - if you two are into Scuba diving, this cruise is supposed to be one of the best for dive sites at each of the ports.

Enjoy your vacation, Dan - on whichever ship you sail! If it's the wind, maybe we'll see you on board...

;-)


Tina
 
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Cruisinpat

Guest
We just returned from the NCL Wind this past weekend. We experienced everything that Dan mentions in the original post and more. This was our 12th cruise (4th on NCL) and it was the worst cruise we've been on. Service, food, attitudes were awful. My husband and I always turn lemons into lemonade so we still had a great time but, I have to say, we will probably never cruise NCL again. The one bright spot with the service was our cabin steward. She was absolutely wonderful. The icing on the cake came when we arrived back in Miami. We drove to the port and parked. When we arrived back we docked in a different area. This meant that everyone had to take a bus back to the lot. After waiting for the bus the driver was to take us to the lot (Lot #2). He told us that he was not allowed on the lot and so he pulled next to a curb and told everyone that we needed to get off the bus - with all of our luggage. We were in the middle of a grass plot. Can you imagine, a bus full of people being dumped on the side of the road AFTER paying $82 to park for the week!
Anyway, it's true, you get what you pay for so don't expect much! We have been on a couple other budget cruises and have had good experiences. I believe that the automatic tipping is part of the problem with the service. And when my 2 kids (in their 20s) went to the reception desk to remove their tips they were made to feel guilty. They had to wait until Wedesday before NCL would remove the charge.
If you have any specific questions just email me and I will answer as best as I can.
Happy cruising! ... Pat
 
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KSols

Guest
My wife and I sailed on the Wind over New Years and had a great time. I booked the cruise because of the time it was sailing (automatic vacation time) and the ports. I was also skeptical with other reviews and decided there are very picky people that you won’t make happy, and people that go with the flow.
We had an outside stateroom deck 6 towards the front. Not the best, but when you book 3 months before departure, you take it. We were below the jogging track and up by the anchors. At 7am you heard jogging and loud mechanical noises. Right here you have 2 options, let it ruin your day, or look at your partner and laugh…what can you do?
Being up front we had a quite a bit of motion at night…but again, it’s a boat!
First the negatives. Breakfast lines were crowded. If you do the buffet hit the pizzeria by the pool bar, same stuff as upstairs but no wait or lines. Days that the ship was not in port were crowded. We like reading, relaxing and laying in the sun, so we grabbed chairs and did that, knowing and accepting that we wouldn’t get the perfect chairs all to ourselves. Now the positives. We loved the Freestyle dining. Just like going out at home, but with less wait. A couple nights we had to wait 20 min. so we sat in the lounge with drinks until they called us. We are used to waiting longer at nice restaurants at home! Good food. Not great but, good food. We had a ship sponsored tour in Grand Cayman (the sailing yacht) we took the tender in, was told the yacht would not stop and snorkel (water too cloudy) but the yacht was still sailing. We inquired about getting our money back, we were told we could, so we shopped some and got back on a very empty ship. Very nice! We did the beach snorkel in Honduras (fun) skipped Belize (didn’t want the ship tour and got in to late on Coral Breeze) turned out good because most tours were 5-6 hours and it rained off and on. Cozumel was a trip. I tried to do something that everyone else was not. I searched all the message boards and found some talking about Club Dzul Ha. Got a taxi there and it was a dump! Decided to cut our losses and get another taxi to the beach sponsored by the boat. Another joke. In my mind I was going to a place like the Corona commercials! This was not. My suggestion is to do some research about Cozumel.
The bottom line is this. We were in the sun, the weather was in the 80’s and it was late Dec./early Jan. If you find something wrong with that…you’re reaching!
 
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Skysmama

Guest
We just got back from a cruise on Norwegian Wind on the 17th. My husband and I are in our early 30's and this was our first cruise. We had a GREAT time. The food was okay . As far as the service in the restaurants, I would say 2 out of the 7 nights, the waiter was not very friendly. The rest of the nights, the service was great. We did have to wait for dinner a few nights at the main dining room (about 10-20 minutes), but most of the time we ate at the Italian restaurant which took reservations. We are late diners anyways, so around 8:00, there wasn't too much of a crowd. The thing we loved is the freestyle cruising. Going to dinner when we wanted, not having to dress up and not having to worry about tipping.
Of course, our main reason for going was the ports - especially Belize and Roatan. We did the Dolphin Encounter in Roatan and Shark Ray Alley snorkeling/town sightseeing in Belize. Had a great time at both - especially Belize. The snorkeling in Belize was an all day trip and it did rain off and on, but the snorkeling was great and the water was so warm, we didn't care.
We look at it like this - we had a pretty amazing time for the price we paid.
 
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newmexicoNita

Guest
cruisinpat, it is too bad you had such an unpleasant experience, but a good attitude does help a bit. We have had wonderful cruises on NCL thank God, but some other lines not always. Yet we too make the best out of a bad situation. I don't think I totally understand what happened with the parking and bus situation? I would be more than a bit upset if I had to go with all my luggage into the parking area cause the bus dumped me! I will say one thing, if you have had 3 good NCL experiences and 1 bad it sounds a bit strong to say you will never cruise them again. We have crusied 2 lines with really bad experiences. One we would do again as we have had 2 less than possitive experiences out of 2. The other 1 out of 2. That one we would try a second time if the price was right. Good luck and happy cruising whatever you decide to do.

Nita
 
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Cruisinpat

Guest
Nita - I'll try to explain the bus situation a little better. When we arrived back to the port the ship pulled into a different terminal thus requiring bus service to the parking lot. After waiting for the bus (not a long wait) and loading our luggage we thought we were going to be taken to the parking lot much like at an airport where the driver would make several stops. We were wrong. We were on the side road next to the parking lot and the driver stopped and said that he could not take us into the parking lot, that buses weren't allowed inside the lot. This surprised and upset everyone on the bus. Anyway, he opened the door and got off the bus. Those riding the bus followed. He unloaded all of the luggage and left us all standing there. I don't know if this is a port rule or if the driver didn't want to go into the parking lot. I have to believe that there is some kind of a rule about this as I can't understand why a driver would drop us outside the lot. And not just outside but on a grassy plot of grass so that rolling the luggage was not an easy task. My husband, along with others, walked to the lot and returned with the car. Don't get me wrong, it's not like we were a mile away or anything, it's that it was a very dangerous situation and one that just added the icing to the cake.
The comment about not going on another NCL cruise comes from the frustration that I experienced. Maybe, if the price was right and the ship was new, I would try NCL again. At this time I choose to spend my cruising $$s on the cruiselines that I enjoy more than NCL and to experience some of the lines that I haven't sailed yet. NCL will always hold a special spot in my heart as our first cruise was with NCL.
Happy Cruising!
Pat
 
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