OP back from the 14 day NCL "Antarctica & South America: Argentina & Chile". The main issue I had with NCL on this cruise was that NCL, 2 weeks before departure, cancelled 1 of 2 days of scenic cruising in the Antarctica and exchanged it for an additional sea day in the Atlantic.
When I booked this cruise NCL's own description included:
"Calling all penguin and nature enthusiasts-come aboard Norwegian Star for a once-in-a-lifetime cruise to Antarctica. Cruise through Paradise Bay in Antarctica and witness a pristine frozen wonderland of glacial mountains and azure icebergs that a colony of adorable Gentoo penguins call home."
NCL cancelled Paradise Bay. The only reason given by NCL was to "to enhance the guest experience." This reason was confirmed by Guest Services while I was on board. No other reason or explanation was provided. NCL did not offer any goodwill compensation.
Not sure if I was more disappointed in NCL in making the last minute itinerary change and not giving me what I paid for or NCL giving me a BS reason for the change.
Bottom line, NCL terms and conditions allow NCL to make itinerary changes, and NCL did. NCL terms and conditions allow me to remove the DSC and I did.
When removing the DSC at Guest Services, I was not asked for the reason I was deducting the DSC from my final account. If NCL wanted to enhance the guest experience I would have thought NCL would want to know the reason I was deducting the DSC, so that NCL could correct the issue on future cruises. The impression I was left was, NCL could not of cared less if I did or did not remove the DSC.
There were other service issues on this cruise. The quality of this NCL cruise was significantly less than my pre-covid NCL cruises. The drop was so significant that I will not consider NCL for future cruises. My impression at the end of this cruise was NCL is prioritizing cost cutting regardless of the affect on the guest experience.
I have completed 3 Princess cruises post-covid, and the quality of those Princess cruises were similar to pre-covid Princess cruises and exceeded by far the quality of this NCL cruise at a similar price point. Princess gave me what I paid for, so I had no issue paying Princess its DSC.
Just reporting my experience on this NCL cruise and that if you are not happy with your NCL experience instead of just complaining there is (to use Mistertomatoe's description in post #25) the nuclear option of removing the DSC. For those who think I am punishing the crew by removing the DSC, then we are into the tipping discussions which already has 1,000's of posts on this site so no need to continue to beat that horse. I am OK with my decision. If you would have made a different decision, I am OK with that, too. To each their own.