What is the worst Cruise line that you have sailed on

[EGG]

Not a terrible cruise but we did a short 4 or 5 day cruise on Carnival Victory out of NY on a holiday weekend. The ship was fine although the cabin was super small. We now check cabin sizes. I can't remember anything particularly bad about the food. After that cruise I knew why they called Carnival the party ship line. I had trouble sleeping at night with people walking and singing in the halls at all hours of the night. Just not my cup of tea but a lot of people obviously had a great time.

[Dayenu]

I've only cruised on 3:

Princess the best, also the most expensive

Norwegian very good, surprisingly lower prices

Royal Caribbean is the least liked but will go again if the itinerary is right

[McDebbie]

Never had a bad cruise -once a sad cruise when our cat died the day before we left. :(

 

Love Carnival and NCL both, guess we are easy to please.

 

My mother and aunt both hated hated hated MSC. Don't think I will ever cruise them - well, maybe if free.

[mrstek]

Never had a bad cruise. We love Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Carnival & Disney. Our least favorite was Holland America, but not beacause they did anything wrong. The demographic was just older than what we prefer. We look forward to sailing them again when we retire.

[gadaboutgal]

After 66 cruises on most of the major lines in the last nine years, I would first have said Costa Classica, until:our cruise on the Carnival Liberty in 2009-truly dreadful experience-bad ship design and decor, bad service. But then we thought Carnival lines is so popular, we must have just had an off one. So we sailed Carnival Dream in August 2011--what a dogawful cruise. Truly the worst experience, and for 7 days we spent about 75% of our time hidden away in our cabin, venturing out for inedible food now and then, avoiding the unruly crowds, the poor deck plan not large enough to accommodate the number of passengers, and just generally miserable service. (It goes without saying, this is just my experience and opinion.)

[fendbass]

This is a little off the topic, but this looks like a good one to avoid

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/blog/index.php/2011/09/07/video-north-koreas-first-cruise-ship/

 

I just about busted a gut laughing, even at the concept of a "North Korean Cruise Ship"

[GlendaleCruiser]

I've never had a bad cruise, but I tend to avoid Spring Break and the shorter cruises where there is more drinking. I also do longer cruises and try to avoid the snooze cruises where the demographic is so much older.

 

I'm over 60 but a night owl and I don't want anyone rolling up the sidewalks with me in them................:rolleyes:

[mafig]

Costa was the worst for us. However, it was one of our favorite cruises, because of the itinerary -- to Bermuda.

 

Didn't like the food or service. One example is their OJ machine, which closes at 10 AM. We were in the buffet area and DH felt like a glass of OJ.

It was 10:01 AM. There was no line at the machine. He made his way to the machine and a "server" ran from across the room and practically pushed him aside, and threw herself in front of the machine to point out "this machine closes at 10!"

 

We like NCL, but only in suites.

Used to like Carnival, not so much anymore.

Used to hate Celebrity, now we love the new Solstice class.

Like Princess, but haven't been on them for awhile.

Royal Caribbean is so innovative, love to see the new things they come up with.

Holland America has excellent service.

[freewilly]

I am looking at Alaska.. anyone had major good or bad cruise experience to Alaska?

[Deckhandoug]

I am looking at Alaska.. anyone had major good or bad cruise experience to Alaska?

 

Ryndam was EXCELLENT!

[OCruisers]

NCL ... Our last cruise on SS Norway was the worst! :o

 

Still, we keep an open mind and would consider NCL for a short 7 Day cruise.

[Jasalth]

Mine was Freedom of the Sea's from RCL. Now I do think there were extenuating circumstances for the cruise though...

 

The day we set sail, they announced who would be the crew for the new Allure of the Sea's. We know this, because the CD made a ship wide announcement about how he was going to be promoted to the CD there, and mentioned it ANYTIME he was anywhere.

 

Room steward was horrible, we had 3 balcony rooms in a row, 2 connecting and all the balcony dividers open. She would do a decent job in 2 outta 3 rooms every day, and it was a crap shoot whose she would basically skip. Not like we weren't all family and wouldn't notice or anything..

 

Dining room was HORRID. We had a set dining time and after 2 days of 3+ HOUR dinner services with 2 children we never went back. Food was either cooked into leather, or raw the times we ate there. Took over 40 mins our first night just to get water let alone anything else to drink....

 

Now like I said, I do attribute this to the crew finding out who would be "promoted" to Allure after we left port for this cruise. I got the feeling (and from the CD seeming to rub it in people's faces the whole cruise) that the change was a wanted thing by many. New ship = higher prices = more in tips and such for the crew, but their behavior lost them their tips (MDR staff totally from us and it all went to the buffet staff , stewards cut because of her not doing her job 3/7 days for our room..)

 

I am not saying I will never cruise on RCL again. At the moment I have been on Princess, RCL and Disney and soon to be Carnival and haven't sailed the same line twice. But I am very wary about new ships being launched around my sail date now!

[Deckhandoug]

I must have been on the same cruise! The very worst, MSC Orchestra, in my 129 cruises taken since 1971!

 

Worldspan

129 cruises strong

 

I see that everyone that lists an MSC cruise in their signatures on this thread also rates MSC as their worst cruise ever.

[DavyB]

I don't think you can judge an entire line by one cruise or one ship. Our least favorite so far was Carnival, but only because it wasn't our "cup of tea". Each line seems to have something to recommend itself and something it needs to work on. Bad experiences can be had an any cruise line.

 

 

I agree, I've never had a bad time on a cruise but my least favorite was Carnival. I thought it lacked service back in the 90's when I first cruised with them but thought I would try it again last year knowing they were better but they were not.

 

As far as service goes, Celebrity is the best I've experienced.

[Colorado Kat]

My uncle's cabin cruiser, in 1965. It sank in the St Lawrence Seaway.....

[phish tales]

by far it is NCL. only sailed them once, but they were absolutely, positively, without a shadow of a doubt, the worst, most terrible, cruise from hell we ever cruised on. never, ever,ever, ever, ever again. :eek::eek::eek:

[mr green]

by far it is NCL. only sailed them once, but they were absolutely, positively, without a shadow of a doubt, the worst, most terrible, cruise from hell we ever cruised on. never, ever,ever, ever, ever again. :eek::eek::eek:

 

Well said!!!:D

 

I have had posts removed for saying less.

 

john

[SuiteTraveler]

Wow, this is an interesting thread! Can't believe all the complaints about NCL! I've cruised on the NCL Jade twice - both times in suites - both times had a FABULOUS time! Everyone else from my roll call also seemed very happy with the cruise and they were in every type of cabin possible - but then we were in the Med - what's not to like? I toured the whole ship with our cruise crawl and thought all the cabins looked nice. Of course I liked our Courtyard Villa best! The only food mixup on that ship was when a assistant waitress accidentally delivered our appetizers to the table next to us who were waiting for dessert. It was really very funny and the waitress looked so panicked about the mistake and they went to extreme pains to sort it out.

 

I'd say our worst cruise was on Carnival Splendor in her maiden year - but nothing bad happened (I wasn't on the cruise where the ship lost power) and the food was quite good, if not great, and we enjoyed the entertainment and met some nice people. We had a Spa Balcony, very nice, and I enjoyed using the beautiful spa facilities a lot! The ship just wasn't as upscale as some other cruises we've been on although I enjoyed the crazy decor which gives one the immediate sense of being on vacation in a party. I speculated to my husband that Carnival had hired a drag queen to decorate that ship and told "her" to "Go for it!" LOL! The mix of people was very interesting and provided some humorous moments - everything from die-hard partiers who were drunk for most of the cruise to business people to families. I had a great time people watching on that ship! Just fascinating to me! That's as bad as that cruise got - which isn't bad at all! I guess we've been very lucky!

[cruisingberger]

HAL! Sailed 5 years ago with a group of 11. Every night at dinner we waited more then 2 hours for food. We had 5 kids in the group. While we were waiting for food the adults would go up to the buffet for kiddie food so they could wait for the meal. Room smelled and my son got pink eye!

Gross! Never again!

[navychica]

I think it depends on the ship just as much as the cruise line. My parents and siblings were on a Carnival cruise out of Jacksonville this past Spring break, felt it was an excellent mix of ages, and said their only complaint was that there seemed to be less activities than HAL/Princess. I have friends who were on a Carnival cruise out of Mobile that same week and said "it felt like they were in Wal-Mart for 5 days straight!" Personally, I've been on HAL, Princess, and RCI, and although each had pros and cons, none of them really stand out as the worst. I'd give HAL an advantage for service, Princess has the best food, and RCI had the most to do.

[mr green]

HAL! Sailed 5 years ago with a group of 11. Every night at dinner we waited more then 2 hours for food. We had 5 kids in the group. While we were waiting for food the adults would go up to the buffet for kiddie food so they could wait for the meal. Room smelled and my son got pink eye!

Gross! Never again!

 

It is unfortunate, but more or less normal, for a table for 12 having to wait up to two hours at dinner. It has happened to us, but, since we knew the reason so we saw no call to complain.

 

john

[lilfish7]

On the now defunct Premier CL (it went under shortly after our cruise). It was my first cruise and I was 13. I instantly found a wonderful thing called room service. I ordered their yummy cheesecake several times a day (gotta love that 13 yo metabolism), until.....they RAN OUT OF CHEESECAKE. Ugh. How dare them!! The sweet guy on the RS line said "Miss...you've eaten all the cheesecake...we have NO more cheesecake!!"

 

 

 

After we heard they went under, I said "why...I'll NEVER cruise that line again...ha!!!" ;)

 

 

(this is totally sarcastic, it was a wonderful first cruise experience)

[Pushka]

P&O. On the now scuttled Orient. I think the convicts had a better cabin than we did. About 30 years ago.

[Norwaylin]

Well, guess I'm one of the few NCL afficiandos! First NCL cruise was on the Seaward in 1988 - or 1989. Can't remember. It was a great cruise! (Western from Miami). Looking back, this was my first "modern" cruise since two on the old Pacific Princess back in the late 70's. (Remember the "Love Boat"?) Little did I know back then!! In 1990, took my first cruise on the SS Norway, and loved it!! Took five cruises on her since then (because it was cheap, and I liked the Eastern itinerary). Last Norway cruise was in late March 2003, two months before the fatal boiler explosion which took her out of service forever. Haven't been on any NCL ship since then.

 

Worst Cruise Ever...RCI Viking Serenade August 1995. LA-Catalina-Enseneda-LA. Old, dirty ship with overflowing toilets and really bad food. YUK!!

 

I was on the Seaward in October 1989 and also thought it was a great cruise to the Western Caribbean.

[Norwaylin]

Carnival. The week I cruised was Spring Break. I know that there are more than the usual amount of children during these weeks, but they seemed to be totally out of control. They ran around the ship, were in the hot tubs (where there were signs clearly stating no children under a certain age allowed), going into the elevators and pressing all the buttons (on more than one occasion), etc. In the dining room, you wouldn't know their parents were with them. I stayed in the casino as much as I could because it was 21 and over only! I saw one lady sitting just inside the casino with her child in a stroller on the outside. I felt sorry for this child because of the smoke in the casino.

 

Seating in the dining room resembled your neighborhood family restaurant with booths in the center. We fortunately had a table for eight by the window. The food wasn't bad, but I have had better choices on NCL, RCI and Bermuda Star Line (no longer in service).

 

My favorite ship was NCL's Norway. One thing that impressed us was that while sitting on the pool deck, if you looked up, a waiter was right there asking if you wanted a drink. After that, I went on the MS Starward and MS Seaward. Loved them as well. It's hard to believe that NCL has gone down in service. I am looking forward to trying the Epic next year.