grouchomarx

I never really even had to deal with GS on a cruise before except once on HAL. They kept charging me for drinks I never had every single day. It was annoying to have to go there but they always just removed it without question or argument.

Honestly the rest of my cruise was excellent it was only GS that was awful. Service, food and drinks were really great all around. I was never unhappy except standing in front of that desk.

Thank you, fortunately the person I was traveling with was able to turn my raging frown upside down by making me realize my choice is to either go on and enjoy my cruise to the max given the circumstances (still had drinks!) or just be mad all week. I took his advice and let it go, figuring I’d rectify it after the fact. I actually was able to relax and forget about those GS people and not sweat about anything else. Sometimes another persons words help so much to get you out of your mindset. I had a very seriously fun time.

I like your attitude. Unfortunately, the first day the managers/supervisor couldn’t get it done. The second day I got a random man at the counter and after trying really hard to reason with him to no avail, I said can you please get a me a manager and he was like I am the supervisor and was like oh Lord, we are getting nowhere!

Cabana is a very nice luxury. You can make your own shade, the bed is super comfy and has 4 throw pillows, side curtains for privacy if you want it. It is assigned randomly (no choice) and you keep the same one all week. It seems to be the norm that when you don’t occupy it (like you’re not in the vibe that day), others will try and often succeed to squar in it. You just ask to get them removed. On Joy one side of vibe was much much windier than the other, I’m glad I got the less windy side. And on the final sea day back to NY it was so windy no umbrellas were allowed in vibe so without a cabana you’d be stuck with full sun. Worth every penny. All cabanas appeared booked out, I think I got the last one. The cabanas on Joy are relatively new so it’s not a lot of info online. The top is a solid piece of fabric and provides genuine shade, the sides have curtains you can close or open and if you want more/less shade and to make them to stay in place when closed/windy you tuck them hard into the mattress bottom and they stay put. Two side tables, not much in the way of special drink service but half the fun of vibe is sitting at the bar honestly. This most recent one was right in front of the hot tub, nice for easy access to everything, not so nice for privacy lol!

In my limited experience NCL customer service is hit or miss but usually has been very good. For example when I booked the second person they automatically added travel protection with no mention of it. I didn’t think of it, as it wasn’t brought up but saw it on the invoice and didn’t want it. First rep I call, nope, can’t remove it. Second one I call, 10 min on hold and it was done (he has his own travel insurance it would have been a complete waste). Why one rep could do it and not the other? Mysteries of NCL. My guess is whoever made this booking did something very wrong or the person in GS did something very wrong behind that keyboard.

I had both printed and email invoices ready in hand, in their face. I am not Platinum only silver. Originally my platinum companion got no vouchers he was owed without making yet another visit later to GS but then finally got what he was due. Everything was a pita. He has cruised quite a bit and never had to deal with this type of nonsense.

When I added the second person I assumed it is just putting them in the room with basic FAS. The prices reflected that. It was not a lower fare, it was actually little higher than mine and I thought that was because the fare went up closer to sailing. I showed up with a printed list of what I bought as well as an email confirmation detailing everything. It was all there, clear as day. They took the papers and shuffled them around here and there, going in and out of the office, could not explain about the key card discrepancy. They wanted me to go away because they could not figure it out, which I eventually did. It was the most maddening thing because it was clear as day what was happening and they just wanted to walk away.

It was done 48h prior to sailing. Once it was confirmed everything looked good on paper, nothing weird, fares were appropriate for our cabin and no notations or aberrations of any kind. If it was messed up from the jump why did my original card show all the extras? I could see if it never did but it went from being there to disappearing with the click of a few keys from that woman who did not know her job and admitted it.

I had to use the dining vouchers of the platinum person I was traveling with for extra meals, which I was happy to have access to. Vibe was upgraded to a cabana and after all that I ran to the spa to cancel the thermal suite. Yes I got my money back, without a word of call from GS assuring me things would be made right and not until the final day of the cruise. I didn’t get to have my FAS+ for the whole time which is the thing I was most sore about. I was afraid to keep laying out more and more money to make up for what I lost after this insane experience on day 1. I was actually worried I’d never get my money back.

Just back from 5-day Joy to Bermuda today. I sailed just two months ago on Joy and loved it. I had booked a standard (not solo) balcony cabin for myself and decided to add someone last minute. I had previously purchased about all the upgrades you possibly could. FAS+, 2 extra specialty dining, Vibe, thermal suite pass. The rep who did the booking for my friend on the phone said nothing other than ok he is on the reservation. So I assume he’s just standard FAS and he’s also platinum so will get some more perks. Get to the terminal to check in and get my room key with all my extras printed on it. His card has nothing printed on it which we think is strange (not even basic FAS and our fares were the same). Once on board we go to guest services primarily looking to get him into the Vibe which is fully booked. But we lucked out and got a cabana. The rep is really slow and tells us she is still “learning the system” and everything takes ages but we have patience and are calm. She says she has to print new key cards since we now have a cabana and when she makes my new card it now has zero extras printed on it. Somehow in the time from me boarding and booking a cabana, all the extras I paid for were dropped from my booking and now I literally have nothing. There is a lot of back and forth, she’s going in and out of the back office, getting a manager from time to time, yet cannot resolve what is happening and I’m starting to be in shock and complete disbelief. I showed them several times my itemized list of what I paid for and because they don’t see it in their system they proceed to act like these purchases never happened. And they were very unkind about it. We didn’t even have the basic FAS like everyone else on the ship and in order to even get drinks and one meal, we have to pay (again) the gratuities on the dining/drinks which we do. We leave thinking that the manager will resolve this (as promised) and I’ll be back to normal in a few hours. Nobody ever contacts me and I decide I’ll deal with this tomorrow. So I go back to GS and am treated even more dismissively about the situation, being shown printouts that don’t show my purchases and gaslighting me into thinking I imagined I bought these things and they were super rude. So instead of having FAS+ which meant better drinks, more dining, unlimited internet, plus the extra 2 meal package I now paid extra to have the most basic amenities and inadequate internet. This is no small change they stole from me. I do the rest of the cruise assuming I will have to fight with either NCL and/or my credit card company to get my money back. I wake up today all stressed about it to see in my final statement they credited me for all the things I bought but didn’t get to use. It wasn’t even itemized, just a lump sum that was approximately correct (off by $10) and that I have a zero balance. Guess that is NCL math for ya. Worst experience on a cruise! I always thought GS could handle issues and resolve them in a professional manner, instead they were rude and dismissive, never communicated anything or apologized (not even a little!) or gave me any kind of compensation. They need to better train their staff. At least if you cannot technically figure out how to resolve an issue, be polite about it and admit you can clearly see there is a problem that the fault of NCL and you will make it right. At no time was I raising my voice, yelling, saying anything rude or abusive or acting like a crazy person. I was completely calm the entire time and showed very easy to read proof of what I bought and they still handled it so poorly.

I always like to upgrade to FAS+ but due to a meg gigantic mess up on NCL’s part, I sailed with only the basic package and honestly it worked out just fine. It helped I was in the vibe where they are very free with their drink pouring and sometimes gave me things I was not entitled to without charge. But I don’t know if I would upgrade it next time. Or if there will be a next time, NCL really screwed me over on this cruise and I am going to post about it and complain as loudly as I can to them.

You can go in there as soon as you are onboard, highly recommend you make the most of your time there. Only the thermal suite is not available right way, not until after sail away in early evening.

Thanks so much, good to know. We are going to try for a cabana, fingers crossed but don’t get my hopes up too high. Last cruise I didn’t know I had a credit and got stopped in the line to disembark. I was embarrassed because I thought I owed them money so when the lady handed me $65 it was a nice surprise!

I booked the thermal suite and the Vibe and I may want to cancel both but I can’t do it anymore on the phone since I’m sailing this Wednesday. Will I be able to cancel once I board or it’s too late? The person I’m sailing with last minute is not able to get Vibe over the phone and doesn’t want the thermal suite so I figured what’s the point of only one of us having it since we want to spend all our time together. The lady on the phone said you can try to book Vibe once on the ship but the accounts I’ve read online seem to not have had success with that. Not sure what to do. These are very last minute changes to the plan that just happened today.

If you want higher end stuff, worth it. I want real champagne, Grey Goose, Patron, expensive cocktails ($20) so it’s an easy choice for me. The FAS works well for me because I want upgraded drinks, more specialty dining and unlimited internet. If I didn’t want one of those, maybe I’d think twice but I def want them all.

Without umbrellas and aside from the bar which is very shaded, no it’s a very sunny deck unless you have a cabana. These vary a lot by ship but on Joy you could get quite a lot of shade in the cabana.

Yes they have umbrellas and you can ask for help in getting them situated. If it’s super windy they don’t allow them though (from what I read online).

I booked one for next June and a few weeks after, it went down almost $400. Got the cheaper price locked in.

I was on hold for 30 minutes of silence and then they disconnected my call the other day. I had a heck of a time getting through finally for what turned out to be nothing.

It’s pretty bad stuff, I don’t know where they got it from but clearly trying to unload it on unsuspecting folks lol

I think they whoop it up more or less depending on the crowd. If there is more demand for shots, more shots!!! Although the shots they did on my cruise were strange. Something green, pistachio something or other. Never heard of such a thing before that.

I’m not sure I understand your comment. You get assigned a specific cabana, it’s the same one all week. You can also sit on any of the other furniture in the Vibe whenever you like. You are not relegated to just the cabana.

Their website is frequently broken in one way or another.

We had cookies and fruit skewers, never saw any sandwiches. People were taking the cookies and asking the bartender to put them into creamy frozen drinks. It was tasty!