jeffjeffjeffjeff

2 minutes ago, Kmkub said:

I guess I misunderstood. You said this is going to be your first NCL cruise. 

 

Have a great cruise! We just got off the Jade, yesterday. I'll be writing my review in the next couple of days. It's a mixed review.

Started the thread before the cruise when NCL was still feeding me wrong information about the change. 

The cruise is now over and I came back to this because some posters were asking me to find more information. 

It is no secret that the people that answer the phones at NCL are detached from the ship board operations. 

5 minutes ago, Kmkub said:

I'm sorry you are disappointed.  Suggestion for future planning - figure out what is important and what is optional and go from there.

 

I love my kids, but I would never choose a particular ship on any fleet because they had one unique option that my child may get to use 2 or 3 times.

 

(Have you ever seen the lines for some of these things on NCL? The waits are seriously long, and waiting for a second turn could be an all-day adventure.) 

 

My kids rode each of the water slides on the Getaway, once. That took a good chunk of their day. They never went back.

We rode the double carts every day. It never took more than 30 mins start to finish. Same with laser tag. I spoke to a gentleman in the elevator who had a similar experience with the single carts.

We did figure out what was important and the carts were it. I understand if your priorities would be different. 

6 minutes ago, Kmkub said:

We agree that it was ultimately set too low, yes. Sometimes these rides go for several years with a restriction, and then some crazy situation presents that proves the restriction needs to be higher.

 

Also i don't know if you have been on the carts ( my guess would be no).  Had anyone at NCL sat a 48" person in the cart it would have been apparent that they were not tall enough. Seeing my son in the double cart it was clear he would not have been able to reach the pedals. 

Anyway, not about to tumble down that rat hole again. We can simply agree to disagree when it comes to how good of a job NCL does. You can continue to enjoy your vacations where you wish and I will enjoy mine on ships owned by other companies 🙂

Cheers

1 minute ago, Kmkub said:

We agree that it was ultimately set too low, yes. Sometimes these rides go for several years with a restriction, and then some crazy situation presents that proves the restriction needs to be higher.

 

And when this happens the cruise line should notify people as expediently as possible. They should not pretend as if 55" was always the height while standing in front of the video screen that says 48" 

In my instance rumor has it that the change occurred before final payment by a brief time (NCL never did confirm the date so i have to go on internet rumors). Had I been notified i would have been on the Symphony instead. This is the exact reason they didn't tell people. 

1 minute ago, NowHeather said:

Funny thing is jeffjeff that quoted text can be changed by the person doing the quoting... just saying...

Please fix that. while you can make it look like i said that I would really rather you didn't. 

NCL is not very good at all and it might mislead people. 

Thanks

7 minutes ago, Kmkub said:

It's possible their initial testing showed everything was good for X height, but later discovered that in some odd/rare circumstance, the driver of X height got thrown from the car or something, so legal immediately made them change requirement to Y height. This is why they have height restrictions on amusement rides. It's about how the person can engage with the seat belt.

 

Very large people have this issue on rides. They are simply too big to fit into the seat belt and/or seat.

 

There was a reason for this decision, and it's likely about saving lives.

 

Your over-50 people sometimes misbehave is a very silly analogy.

 

People have died on amusement rides by ignoring all the safety guidance. 

 

The customer isn't always right. 

So they screwed up by setting the height wrong. Glad we agree 🙂 

Newleno

You know that we can all see the unedited posts because I quoted you .... sorry lol

"NCL is great" is the best edit to a quote ever.

23 minutes ago, Newleno said:

guess it kinds of all depends, our first 5 cruises were on ncl, then we did not cruise on them for about 5 years, now our last 3 cruises (in the last 6 months) were all on ncl, not because of loyalty or such nonsense but because they were the cheapest.

For me NCL won't happen again.

Not solely because of the customer service around the race track either. There were a few things I liked for instance the Buffet food both quality and variety were the best I have experienced.  

The two major negatives in my view far out weigh the good. The service at the main dinning ( and to a lesser extent at the specialty dining) was AWFUL. I don't expect anything special but in 5 nights eating at taste savor and Manhattan room we didn't get beverages prior to appetizers. Not even one time. The first night we had a party of seven. My son got his food, 15 mins later i got mine. The rest of the table got nothing. Finally the guy in the suit came over to ask how our meal was. Only when I responded that mine was good but nobody else got theirs yet did their food come. On two occasions my in laws never got their bar order and instead just excused themselves and walked up to the bar in the hallway. Your local Applebee's has better service. My opinion is that this is cause by NCL not having enough staff. No waiter was loafing or relaxing. It just seems there were not enough of them.

The other thing isn't something NCL does wrong it is just freestyle cruising in general, it isn't for me. I like having the same waitstaff every night at the same time. You get to build a relationship. I end up knowing about their families and caring about them. The unintended consequence of freestyle cruising is the huge amount of planning that you need to do. Everything needs to be scheduled or you risk missing out. This is the nature of the beast. Traditional cruising half of the pax are eating while half see the show, then you switch. You cant count on this when people can eat any time. As such, reservations are required. After trying freestyle I have realized i prefer the old way.

1 minute ago, Newleno said:

Well sometimes I find some valuable information here from some great people, but I am always fearful I will offend someone and lose my privileges.

Yes, I have found that out the hard way. lol 

Many great people. A few who might have questionable motives.

When i first found this site in 2005 it was amazing. So much good info, so many helpful people.

2 minutes ago, Newleno said:

Thanks for your insight, unfortunately CC is not a free speech site,  I think you will be banned

It is for some... I just wonder what the determining factor is. Perhaps if you work for a cruiseline? it seems that the people that defend the lines regardless of details seem to be able to say whatever they want, Including name calling.

NCL actually asks on their surveys if you are aware of cruise critic. That makes me wonder which way the money is flowing in that transaction. Also the fact that they mention it there tells you that it is important to them. This means that they 100% have employees here to help manage the spin of things.

So many of my posts were deleted by Mitchell, who's needless harassment of me continues, assigning me points for responding that i thought a posters comment wasn't helpful while conveniently ignoring the posts of people criticizing my parenting skills. So the good information won't be as well displayed.

I will add it again messy in one post because i don't have time to go back and rewrite several posts.

1. To ride double carts the workers confirmed that the limiting factor is if they can get a helmet to fit the child. They have helmets to fit some pretty small kids. Kids that are well short of the 55" limit are permitted to ride.

2. NCL Have falsely advertised the attractions on their new ships. This is the crux of the problem that those of us that make decisions where to spend out money. The deleted post took me about 45 mins to craft and explain in a way that wouldn't draw the ire of the cheerleaders, this one is the cliff notes version. Flame away. 

3. Saving Jinxy from not knowing the policy changed makes the harassment from several posters and from Mitchell the moderator much more bearable. Hopefully the information I'm sharing helps others too. That is my ultimate goal. 

With regard to the Moderators. Does anyone know how to reach someone? Mitchell (I'm assuming is an actual person, perhaps a computer "bot") continues to send cryptic "reminders" with points and seemingly randomly lock my account then unlock it when I complain in a post. I have tried every way i can think of to reach out to Mitchell and or any other Moderator to no avail... In this process he has decided to remove valuable posts as listed above.

I'm sure this post will get me reminded again. If that happens again and I create another account this time ill be sure to stay incognito 🙂

If this post gets deleted can someone please post the info contained in bullet point 1 so that two wheels and others can have it for future reference. I put some effort into getting that info for y'all 😉

Thanks

20 minutes ago, Bootman4U said:

I wasn't aware that this change "affected a small number of people" and that is an assumption.

 

And no, I would not "play dumb" because you'd be lying and the kid will know it, too.

 

Why haven't you posted this complaint on social media or have you?  Believe me, that could make a huge difference provided you detail exactly what happened and exactly what the company's non-response was.  Good luck but do stay honest please.

I am a dinosaur I don't have social media 🙂 .

The largest issue with the ride itself was addressed right before I left once the NCL supervisor got back to me with accurate info ( that passengers in the double carts could be smaller than 55"). Still disappointed that driving was no longer an option but at least he wasn't totally excluded. 

The larger issue of NCL honesty and customer service remains but the route to fixing that for me is just to spend my money elsewhere. As an example. I was making small talk with a worker at check in. The safety video was playing on loop in the back ground. The screen shows "riders must be 48" tall". So I ask, "When did this change to 55" happen? It seems recent". His reply in full cover up mode "It has always been 55" sir, from the very first day". This is while standing in front of a video screen that says 48" lol.

They made a mistake and got the required height wrong from the start, they corrected their mistake and changed it to 55". The cover up of pretending that they didn't get it wrong is worse than just acknowledging that they got it wrong, at least in my eyes 😉 

On 1/23/2019 at 8:40 PM, Two Wheels Only said:

 

Did the supervisor give any info as to the height requirements for a non-driving passenger?

 

Neither of my kids are even 48" so I had no plan to take them, anyway (excess weight hurts the power/weight ratio which hurts lap-times).

 

Just curious as I'm sure that this topic will come up again.

While I was waiting for our turn on the double carts I had a nice discussion with the guy working. He stated that the determining factor for passengers on the double carts is if they can get a helmet to fit. There were no height or age requirements for the passenger on the double carts. As others have noted really small kids can be seen riding the double carts. Not something to help you plan, but that is what they use. I probed around the subject a little more but no better info was coming. Hope that helps.

7 minutes ago, Two Wheels Only said:

 

Did the supervisor give any info as to the height requirements for a non-driving passenger?

 

Neither of my kids are even 48" so I had no plan to take them, anyway (excess weight hurts the power/weight ratio which hurts lap-times).

 

Just curious as I'm sure that this topic will come up again.

She would not give a measurement. I did press her but no dice. I imagine that they want to reserve the right to check for belt tightness? Although as many had reported here some pretty small kids have been allowed. 

I will ask and report back when i return. Cutting out the garbage customer service line for yall 😉

4 hours ago, Trimone said:

Good grief! Imagine if they changed the itinerary? Who would want too be on a cruise with him!

You would! Itinerary changes are not something that NCL controls. They do however control their advertising and how they treat their customers on the phone.

4 hours ago, Paelos said:

I'd probably go in there with the following options:

 

1 - Get whatever I can in writing and confront the reservations people on the boat with the policy change

2 - Point out that these karts are featured in the first 15 seconds of their highlight package and featured prominently in every advertising package so OF COURSE you booked based on doing these.

3 - Negotiate to try and get him in there at the least popular time, whenever that happens to be, thus lowering the safety issue.

4 - Last resort, put him in a double kart and he gets to ride with you.

I have no plans to try to let him drive. Rules are rules. Now that we finally found someone that knew what was going on at NCL ( had already been reported by a few posters here) we will ride tandem and make the best of our only NCL vacation. 

17 minutes ago, chillinwithabeer said:

This kids family thought he could ride this ride when he was too small. 

And yes, the staff let him. 

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/03/27/a-boy-was-decapitated-on-a-waterslide-now-the-rides-visionary-creator-faces-a-murder-charge/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.63aec93f80ce

 

Consider the fact that rules exist for a reason.  I regularly deal with parents who don't like rules for their little ones.  I'm no NCL cheerleader, more so a cheerleader for just agreeing to rules not trying to get around them.  Trust me that companies have reasons.  They may not tell you the true reasons tho.

This is possibly the most ridiculous post on this Topic, although there is some stiff competition. 

Not one time did I state that i wanted them to risk anyone's safety. Not once did I ask for an exception to the rules. What i did ask for was 

1. Honest communication of the change.

2. Knowledgeable people answering the phone. Thanks to the few good replies i got here i was the one that told NCL that their policy allowed for him to ride tandem. Two agents argued with me right up until the supervisor emailed the ship and found out that he did in fact meet tandem requirements. Cruise Critic is 100 times more accurate than NCL phone center.

3. Professional people who return calls when they say they will. 

And yes, when they advertise one thing and then change it, regardless of the reason, i think they should pass on a token apology for the trouble. 

46 minutes ago, Joeghartman said:

 

 

I reakly couldn’t care less about go carts in a cruise ship. We are sailing Bliss in August and really would prefer a ropes course.

such a strange post to decide to comment on if you dont care about go carts...

4 hours ago, ceilidh1 said:

OP - I understand your disappointment and frustration!

 

We booked Bliss before it was even built and my kids (7 and 11) were most excited about the go karts over everything. We cruised last September and had a blast! My daughter met the 55" height requirement and rode on her own - honestly, those karts are really designed for adults. She had such a hard time controlling and turning and they go pretty fast. On her second lap she was hit from behind and it really scared her so she ended her turn at that point. My son wasn't quite at 55" but was allowed to ride a tandem as a passenger. Unfortunately, the tandem passengers have no controls at all so he really just went on a "ride"...I drove and have to admit to finding the kart really "clunky" (not sure how smooth the singles are). We are going back on Bliss this September and neither child has any interest in doing the Go Karts again - maybe yours will be the same?

Thanks for the feed back! It is likely that he will enjoy the ride after the disappointment of not driving wears off. We shall see. The good news is after several very poorly trained customer service agents swore up and down that he would not be able to even ride the tandem a supervisor finally returned my call and contacted he ship to confirm that he would be allowed. A small consolation prize 

4 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

Changing a policy is not a screw up.

It would have been a bigger screw up if a young kid got hurt while go karting due to being too short to fit properly.

Changing the policy isnt the screw up. Setting it wrong in the first place was. Failing to tell anyone that they changed it was. The reason i will never sail NCL again is the way they handled it after the fact. Non returned calls and rude customer service that didnt know what they were talking about. 

4 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

I am with you on that one. No smoked salmon at the buffet for breakfast was a huge disappointment for me. Did I demand OBC? Nope.

 

Right before I booked the Getaway, the Ultimate Arcade card was very reasonably priced. Both DH and DS were really looking forward to playing games together. I booked the cruise, went to purchase the card and was shocked to see the $56 per person per day price. What did my DH and DS say - it's ok, we are sure there will be plenty of other fun stuff to do.

Should have I requested OBC because I was very disappointed that NCL raised the price stealthily?

Changing a price is not the same as removing an attraction. As i said before i have no complaints about the multiple price increases. In fact i was hoping they would double it again, thin out the herd.

9 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

I’m sure they increased the height after they discovered 4’8” was too short, due to safety or kids that short not being able to drive them properly. Good for NCL! Heck, they’ve taken slides away without any notice. Do they need to contact every single customer for every single change? They removed smoked salmon from the buffet after I booked my cruise, I love smoked salmon. Should I have received an email and OBC?

Yes Good for them. Loosing customers is great for business. The difference with the smoked salmon is they didn't run an advertisement telling you to book the ship because they offer salmon. If they did and then didn't deliver you would have a valid argument. It is kinda fun laughing at you cheerleaders while keeping this at the top of the board! Thanks!

2 minutes ago, MikeBTN said:

 

NCL didn't "screw up", they altered a policy.  It happens all the time.  See the recent posts regarding change to the alcohol prices as evidence.

 

You can take issue with customer service if you wish, but my experience with ALL cruise lines is the people you talk to have almost no idea what actually occurs on board the ship.  They're probably trying to get info for you, which is difficult considering the Bliss is at sea and not there in Miami.  I'm not making apologies for them, or any other cruise line, I'm just saying that is unfortunately the nature of my experiences with multiple lines.

 

Your little one will be able to ride with you or another adult in a double kart with no issue, so you can stop worrying.  There are specific times where they only allow double karts, which would probably be the best time to go, otherwise you're racing with the single karts which are much faster.

 

Your attitude in this thread, on the other hand, is something you need to work on.  No need to be a jerk.

They didn't alter price. They removed. So you are ok sailing with no alcohol, with no chance to cancel? So not the same as changing price. 

They have done that twice since I booked. You will not hear one complaint about that from me. 

2 minutes ago, roger001 said:

I'm with you.  I'd climb on that ship with a bad attitude.  I don't care how much other fun stuff might be there to enjoy, I got screwed on this deal and this cruise will suck.   It's go karts or nothing.  My opinion anyhow.......                

Not going to do that, but I'm also not going to pretend that NCL didn't screw up. Like I said in my original post hoping someone else catches this soon enough to avoid the ship if this was important to them. Round these parts you get a few useful replies (formula comes to mind) and a bunch of people who think NCL can do no wrong. 

But if I keep one family from being in the tough spot I'm in, then it was worth it.

5 minutes ago, phillyguy31 said:

Ok let's keep it to the facts as you stated here, they changed the height policy and didn't notify anyone, do you want them to send an email out to everyone who has booked the Bliss even though it affects a very small number of passengers. What do you want them to offer? Will OBC make you son feel better or you? If he is really going to be that upset there is nothing NCL could do to make him happy but let him ride the carts. Also if he is allowed how many times would he ride them? From what I hear they book up fast and you are luck to get 2 rides, so the rest of the cruise is spoiled for because of 20 minutes? However I do agree with you about call backs they are an important thing for customer service, that being said the PCC can and will only read from the rules. They can't change them and if they said it was OK the the crew on the ship said NO the ship wins at least at that time. I would just play dumb, don't plan on a fight and if he is denied take it up on the ship. You stand a better chance of getting it resolved there instead of on the phone. It is interesting that you had your doubts to begin with and seemed to jump through hoops to make sure it was 48".

I have fully kept to the facts. Yes I expect them to send an email. I get 4 emails a day from them, one of them should include the news.

By removing the karts they have taken value away from me. An OBC would not make my son feel better, it would however make me feel better. It would make me feel like they give a damn. I don't debate that they are within their rights to tell me to go to hell, which they clearly did. That doesn't mean that they should. 

I planned to get the weekly pass. My understanding is that you can do them multiple times a day.

As for the guy reading the website. That was specifically around passengers. Several people have stated that smaller people an be riders. NCL has no additional info for their phone people. When the guy said that riders would also need to be 55" it was like he was asking me. This makes the problem worse because I don't want to risk resetting expectations without good info, and nobody has that.