SheehanDJ

I've cruised with Ncl for the last 7 years but I am thinking of changing to another line. My last Ncl cruise was ok overall but something was missing.

 

Any thoughts?

What was missing was that little bit of anxiety and wonder.

You are a pro at NCL, you know what to expect on their ships even ones you have never been on.

We were the same until this past May except going from RCCL to NCL. We always enjoy our cruises, but even going on ships we had never been on, ultimately it was still a RCCL ship. They did things the RCCL way. If you had asked me before the Empress fiasco if I would ever jump ship (sorry, couldn't help it) to another cruise line I would have immediately said no. Why should we, RCCL meets and exceeds all our needs, it is home.

Then the Empress thing left us with booked flights and time off work 10 days before vacation. Our choice was either have a staycation or go on the Getaway as it matched up to days and the price. Getaway it was.

Now, we enjoy both cruise lines and are looking at others too. In 9 days we will be back on RCCL for a southern, and next September will be on the Escape.

People will say the food, service, etc are better or worse on either cruise line dependent upon where their loyalties lie. The fact is, just looking at food and service, they are the same. The food, probably literally the same as more than likely all the cruise lines are getting their food from the same vendor. The service, on both cruise lines you will find both good and bad servers.

Bottom line, it really comes down to RCCL and NCL just do some things differently and it is really a personal thing on how much it bothers you. We HATED the pool on Getaway, but would give anything to have H2O available on the Adventure here in a few more days. Why in the world wouldn't RCCL have fish on the carpet swimming toward the front of the ship, this should be a no brainer. Why in the world wouldn't NCL have the days of the week on the carpet in the elevators, again no brainer.

Now we come to dining. NCL is all about a different venue every night. RCL only has one venue (excluding specialty restaurants). We found going to a different venue every night kind of cool, however, we missed not having the same table mates and server every night. We missed having cruise ship dinner friends along with the cruise ship bar friends. We missed sitting down and have our favorite pre-appetizers either waiting or quickly delivered by our waiter who knew we were going to order them. I think going from RCCL to NCL was a bit easier than it would be going from NCL to RCCL dinner wise. Keep an open mind though, and all will be well.

Book another cruise line, if you enjoy cruising you will have a great time. You will miss somethings NCL does, and you will wish NCL would adopt some of the things the different line you go on does.

I work field service, I've had parts delayed because of weather, it isn't my fault but I take responsibility for it. As should RCCL in this situation no matter whose "fault" it is. The problem is, the exact discussion about it happening in this thread is probably the exact discussion happening at RCCL. Everyone looking where to assign the blame and no one looking to resolve the problem.

That takes care of the supplies issue the OP asked nothing about.

To the OP, on topic. I would call and complain exactly the way you opened this thread, "Hey, we had a great time on this cruise, but we did spend a lot of money on your beverage packages. For whatever reason you guys ran out of what we were drinking, and to be honest, felt a bit ripped off over it, you not providing what you promised and all."

Then ask for $50-$100 future cruise credit or OBC on an already booked cruise.

NCL never seems to have different sales. RCCL has two they cycle thru the buy one get one half off and the 30% off sales, they adjust prices between them so you end up paying the same, but at least you get to look at different graphics on the web site. :D

Of course they will, the Chief Executive Officer reports to the Executive and the CEO of the holding company is a part of that.

 

There must be a reason for the change, so I hope it's a good one. Time will tell.

Their stock tanked, so they did some internal moves, and will watch the price. If it goes up, crisis over, if it continues down then they may actually make some moves and people may loose their jobs.

We got off the Anthem yesterday and got our bill on the cabin door as we left. Last night we got a revised bill by email with additional charges on it. They were for the mini bar which we had emptied the first day so we could put our own soda & water in to chill.

 

Is there s specific number to call?

You emptied it or asked the steward to empty it?

Because if you asked the steward to do it and got charged for only like a missing soda or two, I'd be worrying about the room steward. If they emptied it and tried to charge you for everything in the fridge, that would be semi understandable as the steward simply forgot to mark it as emptied, but just getting charged for a few items is a bit suspicious.

I sure hope you are a NON SMOKER...... for your health if nothing else...

I never said I was a NON SMOKER (why do you keep shouting this word?)

OK, while I don't personally agree, this was darn funny. Great post.

 

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Thank you for recognizing the post for what it was. I sat and stared at it for way to long before hitting the button. A lot of folks take things way to seriously on these boards, frankly I'm shocked someone didn't read it and assume I was serious.

 

Please ask Michael Bayley when RCCL plans to ban SMOKING in the Casino. Could you please let us know if Mr Bayley enters the Casino and how much SMOKING was going on and how many were activity playing or just SMOKING. Could you point out the non playing smokers in the Casino using the Casino for a smoking room.

As soon as Mr. Bayley and I get done SMOKING while not gambling I'll ask him....

He said it was only something he would discuss with you in person. Damn, troykahack, you missed your shot to push your personal agenda.

I, however, just about have him convinced to change policy about not being able to smoke on balconies. If I can get that pushed thru, I'm going for the home run and having them completely swap policies. There will be small designated non-smoking areas, in order to leave them you MUST light a cigarette. Fingers crossed, troykahack, fingers crossed...my personal agenda pushing is proceeding as planed.

We usually book cruises about 12 months out for the same reasons everyone mentioned above.

 

We, however, struggle to find the best time to book the air flight... We always seem to purchase when most expensive (3-6 months) and, unfortunately, they don't adjust the price down after the purchase like the cruiselines.

 

 

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We do the exact same.

I start getting nervous if we don't have a flight at least 3 months in advance, but it seems every time I pull the trigger and book one prices really drop. I don't think I'm capable of waiting until 1 month pre-cruise though. I'd hate to be stuck driving.

I have sailed on three cruise lines and enjoyed them all. I am happy with NCL because they encourage solo travelers and I love the freestyle, casual attitude.

 

The thing that bothers me, and would turn me away if I encountered it personally, is the way many posters report being rudely treated by shoreside customer service. Their "it is our company and we can change what we want" attitude is horribly offputting to me. It is contradictory to the always pleasant, friendly and helpful service I have found on the ships.

 

At this point there have been so many changes since I booked that I just look at as an adventure and roll with it.

We were loyal to Royal, until this exact thing happened to us with the Empress of the Seas fiasco they screwed over their customer's with. We didn't abandon Royal we just abandoned loyalty to any cruise line. The blinders were taken off as it were.

We haven't experienced this with NCL, yet, but we know full well if we keep going on their cruises, that it will. It's happened to others, so it is just a matter of time.

All that being said, we enjoy cruising, we leave on the Adventure of the Seas in a few more days (RCCL), and have the Escape booked for 2017 (NCL). If we try to squeeze another cruise in the spring/summer of 2017 it will be based off where we want to go/what we want to do not what any particular cruise line is offering. The same holds true for our fall 2018 cruise.

If you can than absolutely.

My wife and I got married on the Sovereign of the Seas, we couldn't get married at sea but an officiant boarded and married us. Then we went on a cruise with the wedding party.

At the time RCCL assigned you a type of wedding planner, you'd pick the package you wanted and they would make it happen. No idea how they do it now.

Doing it actually at sea would reduce the stress greatly, as you aren't scrambling with boarding and what not.

Reading them, we are pretty much like everyone else.

• Pina Colada from the closest bar.
  
• Slow wander around ship heading generally towards buffet
  
• Lunch in buffet
  
• Go up as high as possible, then wander towards cabin
  
• Unpack carry-on, check out cruise planner, make special requests from steward
  
• Explore the ship until muster
  
• Muster
  
• Sail away, usually the deck above the pool on the rail
  
• Once we hit internation waters we head toward casino for "free cruise" bet. ($50 on 17, $50 on second twelve)
  
• Back to cabin to unpack/change for dinner
  

I am considering a last-minute NCL cruise (like, maybe next weekend). This will be my first time on a traditional cruise line. I have lots of questions, but most of them are quick, factual questions. So, I’m combining them into one post. If you can answer even one of the questions, please do so. Thanks in advance for your help!

 

Is it a problem to use a travel agent for a last-minute cruise? Is the reservation more likely to get messed up with a TA than if made directly with the cruise line? No problem, but this close to the cruise you probably won't get any perks from your TA as by now they most likely have given back their room blocks

 

The cruises I am considering leave from Miami. Does NCL have a ticket office at the port there, similar to the airline ticket counters at airports? (I won't try to book on the day of departure, but it would be good to speak to someone in person if I show up and there's a problem with my reservation.)

Not that I've seen or heard of. Once you have a confirmation number you are good to go.

 

I have heard there are porters at the Miami cruise port to help with luggage. If a taxi drops me off at the cruise port, are porters available very close to the drop-off point, similar to the “curbside skycaps” at an airport? Hmm, they are across the street or over a parking island and then across the street. You may be able to flag one over to your cab or tip the cabby extra and he/she may help you with your bags. The porters will want a tip too once they get a hold of them.

 

I’m considering a cruise that doesn’t embark until 7 pm. How early can I board? Generally boarding starts around 11ish, with a question further down you wanted immediate access to your room though and that generally doesn't happen until 1ish.

 

While flying to the port, I need to bring a CPAP and some other fragile things in my carry-on. If my room isn’t ready when I get to the ship, do I have to drag the carry-on with me to the buffet and everywhere else? Or, is there any place to store things (say, similar to a coat check room)? There may be, but I've never checked. Just board after 1pm and rooms will be open when you arrive.

 

I’ve heard both that a power strip will be essential (Dear Husband and I both use CPAP machines), and that power strips are forbidden. So, should I put the power strip in my carry on so it doesn’t get confiscated? (OK, maybe this one is an opinion, not factual, question!) Yes,and a make sure it is a power strip only with no surge protection. It is the surge protection that makes them a bit unsafe using ships power.

 

Does the ship keep track of how many meals you eat? I’m a vegetarian, and my DH is a steak-and-potatoes guy. If we go to, say, the steakhouse, there may only be a salad or something else very light I can eat. Can I later go to the buffet that evening if I’m still hungry, or order room service? Or will that be denied because I’ve already eaten dinner? Does NCL even keep track of who is eating in the MDR or buffet? And, is there a limit to the amount of times you can order room service, or the amount of items you can request in one order? (I know about the $7.95 charge for each room service delivery.) In theory for every meal you could visit every restaurant one after the other, then go back to your room and order room service.

 

I’m confused by some specialty restaurants that are listed as “a la carte” in the list of restaurants but also say on their menu that they have a cover charge (and list few or no prices for individual items other than drinks.) Is there a cover charge *and* an “a la carte” fee for everything you order? Or is the cover charge all you pay for most dinners, with an extra “a la carte” item only for lobster and a few other high-end items? Some are free, some have a cover and are a la carte for high-end items, some are 100% a la carte.

 

How do you contact other people on the ship – say, a friend who is staying on another deck, or a family member who is off getting a snack while you are in the room? Are there phones in the staterooms that can be used to phone other stateroom? What about when you are not in a stateroom – is there a way to use a cell phone to contact someone in another part of the ship, without a huge charge? Or, are you basically unable to communicate with the rest of your party when you are walking around the ship? State room phones can be used cabin to cabin for free, cabin to cell phone to incredibly high price. Cell phones can be used for huge charge, or download iConcierge app and you can text for a reasonable charge. Check your cell phone carrier also, AT&T has a plan for Royal Caribbean but not for NCL. Other carriers may have a plan for NCL ships.

 

My flight home will leave FLL in the afternoon. I've heard there are "post-shore" excursions one can take, rather than just sitting at the airport. Are these only offered by the cruise lines, or are there third-party suppliers who charge less? Anywhere I can find out more about this?I assume yes there are third party suppliers. I have never done this though as we generally stay a day after in a hotel when we cruise.

 

By the way, hello, all! This is my first post on Cruise Critic.

Hopefully those answer your questions

This is kind of a generic response, but is on topic.

Why you SHOULD involve your CC company or Bank if using Debit Card if you are having an issue with a refund:

Reading posts, a lot of folks were directing you to social media to help shame NCL into processing your refund. They will act faster with bad press, etc. While this may be true, it really isn't hurting NCL. It may for the very short term, but long term it will just end up a minor blip on the radar buried beneath 1000's of reviews of what a wonderful time people had on an NCL cruise.

Now imagine if NCL could no longer accept MasterCard because MasterCard doesn't want to deal with them anymore. That's a long term hit, that's a potential company destroying hit. Will it ever happen? No. But, if there are a lot of complaints about refunds and MasterCard has to get involved to help settle them, then MasterCard is going to start charging NCL more to processes transactions to offset the costs.

What NCL is doing by issuing checks is a bit shady, not illegal, but shady. Reading what is happening to OP and others, NCL is waiting to refund until they have the option of refunding in cash instead of back to the CC used. Why do this? Because refunding back to the card also generates a transaction fee with the card issuer. However, issuing that check is in effect giving you a cash advance on your CC for free. Your CC company won't be happy with that.

So why is the refund taking so long? Because the average person doesn't understand how money works anymore. We assume there is someone looking at a refund, approving it, writing a check, and signing it. Those people don't exist, they have been replaced by computer's long ago. Your refund can happen as quickly as you paid for something, we as consumer's accept the 3-5 business days answer as acceptable though.

Why? Next time you end a cruise go up to customer service and tell them you will be happy to settle your bill in 3-5 business days. Next time you fill your car with gas, just leave pay for it within 3-5 business days. Companies won't accept that from us the consumer's why do we accept it from them? Because we believe there is somebody somewhere approving and writing checks.

The fact is, you are never going to get it quicker that 3-5 business days, but at day 3 you need to escalate your complaint and take it to your bank or CC company.

Specifically to this problem, OP, sue them in small claims court. It will cost you a very small fee up front, ask for that fee, your original $3,000 and an additional $1,000 for your trouble. They will call you then and settle immediately because it will cost them more to find and hire a local attorney that knows nothing about the case. Depending upon your state and it's rules about small claims court they may have to actually fly a company rep out.

Zika's in Miami, you don't need to go to the Caribbean to be exposed so I don't think it will have any effect on pricing.

That's a Southwest thing, you won't find that on the other major airlines.

Sure they will, if your flight drops by $100 they will reduce the fare by that much, then charge you a $200 rebooking fee.

I hate airlines, they need to start reading their history to find out what happens to companies that act this way when they are the only game in town. Technology is going to catch them eventually and they will end up just like railroads.

If I order it, $1 per drink

If they see me with out one and bring me one in case I want it, $1 and I will find them the last day for an end of week bonus of $10

Room steward $2 per day, $10-$30 depending upon service the last day (average is usually $20)

The waiter gets twice as much as the assistant waiter. The dollar amount on this varies widely as to us anyway an enjoyable dinner can really have a big impact on the cruise. There is nothing the wait staff can do about the quality of the food, but if you are on the late seating they will know what the early seating complained about and steer you away from it. Walking into the MDR and finding a shrimp cocktail waiting for you is a nice touch, having a plate brought out of some other main course to share, those types of things.

Technically they are right, the card doesn't work on CoCo Cay, at least it didn't the last time I was there they had no scanners, everything was done by hand. I would suspect that they are referring to the souvenir glasses. Everything except a can of beer comes in some type of souvenir glass on the island unless you specifically ask for it not to, and those they charge for.

I've never experienced anything like this, I've never cruised in a suite, I have a hard enough time justifying the extra money for a balcony so we never get those either. We only sleep in our rooms.

I have moved cabins though via my choice. Friends ended up coming with us and there were no cabins where we were but a bunch where they were. So we called the TA and they got us moved into the same catagory one deck up and on the other side of the ship. Painless right?

Not so much.

We always get cupcakes delivered to the room on the first day, pre-book them, $14. Yummy. That was moved by the TA also along with the OBC

First day cupcakes no showed, went to guest services, no record of cupcakes for room we were in, showed them paper work for the cupcakes that we paid for, it listed the old room number obviously. We explained the situation showed them more paper work with the room switch. At this point we figured we might want to check on OBC too, yeah, it was missing too. The OBC got taken care of as we were standing there and we left with a promise that cupcakes would be in our room that evening or tomorrow morning.

We stopped at guest services every day trying to find our wayward cupcakes, we never did, it was only $14 so we wrote it off as a loss and hoped whomever got our old cabin enjoyed the cupcakes.

Cupcakes are nothing like the potential benefits you are giving up, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least if you ended up spending a lot of time at guest services, and what fun is that? It really didn't effect us, we would only stop if there was no line, and made a bit of a game out of it.

It sound like something "special" will be happening to get you all the perks by switching to a different suite type, Miami I'm sure will promise you it will be no issue, but there may very well be no way to make those promises come true.

OK, You have a vast number of e-mail addresses. You have sent the 30% deal repeatedly. Is it not time to re-configure the offerings to attract new folks instead of rehashing what has become a very tired promo?

 

No problem with them re-sending it, but I would love to know (never will, it is highly confidential corporate information) what percentage they anticipate to participate out of the total number of emails sent.

 

No complaints, just curious.

That's the bad thing about e-mail, it costs nothing to send. If no one books via a direct e-mail link there is no incentive not to send it again.

Back in the day of mass mailings there would be research, what was the percentage of people who replied vs the number sent out. Then do a color change, font change, wording change and look at the percentage again. Once the "perfect" design was found then mail would go to everyone. 1,000's of people would be employed by it directly, 100's indirectly.

Now, a cron job is ran on some computer somewhere and when the date ticks over millions of emails go out. It costs Royal fractions of a computer cycle, who cares if anyone replies or if it generates any income.

BBC - Baileys, Banana, Pina Colada mix.

Bring a banana with you from the buffet and have them use half of it instead of the banana mix, the flavor and texture is so much better.

Never been on a cruise with them, but have been on a cruise with some sort of musical or choir group. They were younger kids, college maybe high school, and although there wasn't any organized entertainment from them it was quite common to find them performing either on their own (singing as a group) or becoming part of the piano bar or some other smaller venue show.

It was a bit surreal at times, like you had been transported into a musical in real life. So based off that, I would say you will most likely stumble across some impromptu performances.

The main differences you will see is how things are done. Somethings NCL does better than RCL, others RCL does better than NCL, still others they really do the same.

They both are mass market cruise lines and you will have a good time on either. Make your decision based on ship features and destinations as both companies pretty much offer the same product.

We got married on board the Sovereign, the only formal wear we brought was her wedding dress and my rented tux. Luckily only a 3 day cruise, and the entire family was with, so everyone just got back in wedding clothes and we did more pictures.

Four words:

Empress of the Seas

You aren't getting crap and they don't give a crap.