NCL - Poor service, poor corporate planning

[mugtech]

This is why I won't sail the XYZ-away ships. Too much hassle, I don't want to plan my vacation so far in advance.

 

To me it seems NCL is getting further away from the Freestyle concept by requiring do much advance planning/reserving.

 

 

It is NOT required, some people just think it is or are obsessed with having everything set before they get on board. Most people create their own hell.

[dalgirl]

Having just returned on the Breakaway from Bermuda:

 

They changed RofA on us once we boarded - we had to move around Second City, etc. at the box office, but there was no problem doing this. They have a fantastic box office set up. BTW - the actors were wonderful but sorry people the show blows -- consider it a blessing if you miss it:D

 

I always book my dinner reservations once I board since I don't want to pay in advance - just go up to the reservation desk (send one person) and make your reservations. They can book everyone on the same reservation with no problem. And once you go to the restaurant if there is a fee, they can take the key cards and charge the right accounts - you don't have to pay and book before you go. There will be spots available when you board.

 

You are getting way too stressed for the reality of Bermuda. It is a lovely, sleepy little island with very laid back people and not a lot going on. We came back to the ship in the evenings and enjoyed all the onboard entertainment. There is a lot to see and do.

 

After 15 cruises with 5 more in the planning stages (NCL: UK/Ireland, South America and "only the Caribbean, Celebrity:Asia and RCCL: again "only" the Caribbean) I can verify that Bermuda on the Breakaway was a walk in the park. Once you get on board, all of these terrible things you are stressed about now can be taken care of with the click of a computer.

 

When you get back let us know (good or bad) how the vacation went.

[graphicguy]

It is NOT required, some people just think it is or are obsessed with having everything set before they get on board. Most people create their own hell.

 

That's the point. Freestyle means you don't have to do all that pre-reserving. I never made one reservation on either the Epic or Breakaway. Not for MDR, a specialty restaurant, any show. I just showed up. Worked great.

[garycarla]

Just an FYI.

 

You do not have to book meals in advance.

You do not have to book shows in advance.

You do not have to LOCK yourself into what should be a VACATION in advance.

You do not have obligate you or your money in advance.

 

The vast majority of folks just board the ship and decide later what to do. As somebody earlier said, it is beyond me how folks know what they want to eat or do months in advance.

 

Oh well.

[SissasMomE]

I don't get why they call it Freestyle Cruising/dining. It was originally marketed as eat where you want when you want. But I read on here all the time about people making all their reservations for not only dining but also the shows in advance - what's up with that? And if you don't reserve in advance you get either shut out of the shows/specialty restaurants or your only choice left is to eat really early or really late. Seems to defy the concept. And having tp pay for some shows??

I guess that's why we have moved on to other lines. It's a shame because we did enjoy our 4 cruises with NCL but they really seem to be catering to a different demographic now.

 

There was always availability on the Getaway for both shows and dinners. Not sure why people think they *have* to reserve in advance .... it can all be taken care of once onboard.

[nona0541]

Too many people today think of the cruise lines as "Burger King", you know, "have it your way". What every happened to getting on the ship and enjoy the cruise? Imho, if I want to dine at my time and where I want, I do it on land. jmho--

[richg35]

edit

Edited June 3, 2014 by richg35

[richg35]

That's the point. Freestyle means you don't have to do all that pre-reserving. I never made one reservation on either the Epic or Breakaway. Not for MDR, a specialty restaurant, any show. I just showed up. Worked great.

 

Were you sailing alone? With one other person? During a peak time or non peak time? Your specific circumstances aren't applicable to everyone's. A large group is going to need to pre-plan reservations because you can't expect to just roll up in a large group and expect to not wait a decent amount of time. It works that way at real restaurants too.

[richg35]

I'm not sure about the tons of cruising options.

 

you have Carnival and Royal carribean? with NCL priced right in between them.

 

I didn't actually say cruise options, I said vacation options, of which there are virtually unlimited. Instead of cruising with NCL I could decide to drive to California, or fly to aruba, or go on another cruise line.

 

Price isn't really the deciding factor. Disney was $$$$ but also I'd have to say the best experience I've had.

 

Separately, the "take care of it on the boat" thing is just a cop-out. With the internet, the vacation experience now starts the minute you book. Having inadequate systems in place isn't an excuse to provide a subpar experience from top to bottom.

 

There's a reason that the Magic Kingdom is seeing higher than ever attendance despite increased prices and a poor economy. Outstanding experience from day one. I had to spend 35 minutes on the phone with a Disney CSR the other day and the experience couldn't be more different than what NCL provided. And it's never appropriate to take out frustrations on the rep, but they are also the conduit for feedback to the company, so if people don't adequately communicate things they observe as deficiencies, then the company will make no efforts to rectify them.

Edited June 3, 2014 by richg35

[swedish weave]

Too bad some didn't read SeaSharks advance notice of the booking time changes !!! And some of those who did tried to crucify him !!!

 

This old world we live in is constantly changing and the companies who operate on this planet make changes also.

 

Compensation for waiting on the phone ??? Wait for that also. Not gonna happen.

[Love my butler]

Sailing with a group of 7 on the breakaway on 7/13.

 

First problem - at some point it seems like they changed the dining reservations booking window from 45 days to 90 days and didn't notify passengers. Logged in at the 55 day mark and all of a sudden everything was there to reserve.

 

Second problem - it took my aunt 90 minutes on the phone to take care of booking entertainment and dining reservations. Since we are in 3 rooms, there are no suitable tools for everyone to book as a group online. Over the phone they also only take a max of 6 people per dining reservation, so we could not even make complete reservations for our group. They said you had to take care of it on the ship.

 

Third problem - The only two performances of Rock of Ages were both originally scheduled for in-port days. Why would they do this? Shouldn't the headliner show be done on sea days so that when in port folks can take advantage of doing in-port things?

 

Fourth problem - I'm not sure if people were complaining about point 3, but they cancelled one of the in-port performances and rescheduled it. They sent an email telling us we had to go online to choose a new reservation.

 

I tried doing that and it looked now like there was only one performance of RoA being offered, and I couldn't choose it because the system was telling me that I couldn't because I could only do that show once per cruise. So they cancelled a performance and didn't update people's reservations so that they could re-book.

 

I called and customer service wasn't able to help either, as their system hadn't been updated. They told me the show was rescheduled to 7/15 (a sea day) but it wasn't appearing in their system to update. Their solution was to "keep checking the website" to see when you could update the reservation for RoA. I asked them why they would have emailed customers about the change before their system was ready and then would put the onus on passengers to "keep checking" rather than proactively communicate, and they had no answer.

 

Due to the 90 mins my aunt spent on the phone trying to initially make our dining and entertainment reservations, plus the 40 minutes I spent on the phone with them today (and being unable to have the problem resolved), I asked for compensation. They said they couldn't do anything. I just got a lot of "I understands" from them, since they had no answer to any question and couldn't even provide an ETA on the problem resolution.

 

Setting up this cruise has been one of the worst travel experiences I've had. We've been on Disney, Carnival and Princess (in groups as large as 16), and never had anywhere close to the headaches as we've had in dealing with NCL.

 

I'm sure 50 people are going to post how great their experiences with NCL customer service has been, and that's fine, but there's gotta be some reason why 40 days out this cruise isn't full and they keep lowering the price and offering discounted upgrades. Maybe the ship sucks? Maybe it's something else? But IMO seems like NCL should be doing more as far as customer retention and satisfaction goes.

 

A lot of time and frustration getting reservations. Sure doesn't sound very 'freestyle' to me.

[mugtech]

7 of us had no trouble making reservations once we were on board the BA last October, and at no extra charge to us they made us a Filipino dinner on the last night in the MDR. Best Chicken Adobo I ever had. Being frustrated with not being able to do something that you do not have to do is your own problem, let's hope you can chill out and be content to solve these problems once you board the ship. Good luck

[shelly11]

I don't get why they call it Freestyle Cruising/dining. It was originally marketed as eat where you want when you want.

 

 

 

That's why I don't reserve anything until I get there. And if it's full oh well, tons of stuff to do on every ship.

 

As far as the OP wanting compensation for being on the phone and/or having issues, really? I'm just happy when someone can help me.

 

I currently can't afford a trip and I'll gladly take any that people are willing to throw my way if it's all too frustrating for you. ;)

[SissasMomE]

I didn't actually say cruise options, I said vacation options, of which there are virtually unlimited. Instead of cruising with NCL I could decide to drive to California, or fly to aruba, or go on another cruise line.

 

Price isn't really the deciding factor. Disney was $$$$ but also I'd have to say the best experience I've had.

 

Separately, the "take care of it on the boat" thing is just a cop-out. With the internet, the vacation experience now starts the minute you book. Having inadequate systems in place isn't an excuse to provide a subpar experience from top to bottom.

 

There's a reason that the Magic Kingdom is seeing higher than ever attendance despite increased prices and a poor economy. Outstanding experience from day one. I had to spend 35 minutes on the phone with a Disney CSR the other day and the experience couldn't be more different than what NCL provided. And it's never appropriate to take out frustrations on the rep, but they are also the conduit for feedback to the company, so if people don't adequately communicate things they observe as deficiencies, then the company will make no efforts to rectify them.

 

Disney customer service is top notch. I can easily say we have been thousands of times, and never had an issue. But you really can't compare cruising on a mainstream cruise line with an operation like disney. NCL needs to revamp their website - I agree with you there. It is easy on RCCL and Princess to link ressies - you can't do it on NCL. I would imagine it would be a really simple thing to fix. Why they don't - who knows. Anyway, I have long wait times almost every time I call NCL, but I have never had anyone rude to me.

[DevCruise]

It is easy on RCCL and Princess to link ressies - you can't do it on NCL. I would imagine it would be a really simple thing to fix. Why they don't - who knows. Anyway, I have long wait times almost every time I call NCL, but I have never had anyone rude to me.

 

Technically, you can link the reservations, however, it doesn't do much from the cruisers perspective. It does make it easier for the phone rep/PCC to jump between reservations. Might do some other things in the background, who knows.

 

It would be nice if NCL improved aspects of their website/reservation system, but I think we should be careful what we ask for. How many of us still prefer the old website?

 

As for Disney vs NCL. You're paying a crap ton more for Disney. With that comes certain benefits.

[Sizzlechest]

No kidding!

 

OP....your group.....so they don't want to do ANYTHING for themselves?

 

I think they'd like to have dinner together, which isn't an odd request.

[graphicguy]

I think they'd like to have dinner together, which isn't an odd request.

 

Oh....I agree.

 

Last big group we had cruising (13 family membes) we couldn't get everyone to agree on where to eat, let alone when to eat. We had a different sized group every nite. We set up a time to meet at the MDR. If you showed up, great. You ate with us. If you didn't, sorry...you're in the buffet.

 

Invariably, someone who said they'd be on time, wasn't (couldn't get their hair right, couldn't find the right shoes, got back late to the cabin, etc, etc, etc). One thing was for certain, the issue of punctuality went directly to the forefront. And, it was the same people who were late every time we tried to go for dinner. And, those who were always late seemed to complain the loudest about eating without them. After th e2nd night, it bacame a running joke....."on time or in line" was the motto.:D

 

Too bad, so sad. Buffet for you.

 

We didn't try to make reservations until we got on the ship. We couldn't get everyone to agree on a time to eat, a time to see a show, etc.

 

For the shows, some wanted to see a particular show, some didn't, or they didn't like the time the rest of us wanted to see the show. No problem. Go see it when you want. We just won't be with you.

 

I think trying to make reservations for a large group is just a PITA. I think Freestyle would be perfect for them. Show up, get seated.

[mkad1109]

That's the point. Freestyle means you don't have to do all that pre-reserving. I never made one reservation on either the Epic or Breakaway. Not for MDR, a specialty restaurant, any show. I just showed up. Worked great.

 

My experience too! When we went on the Epic I booked Blue Man group and Cirque de Soleil in advance. That was IT for our party of 9. We went to Moderna, Le Bistro, Sushi place (chose not to do Teppanyaki as we feel we have over done it by now).

 

All this talk was making me nervous about our upcoming trip. I plan on figuring out what I want to do when I want. Glad to see some folks believe this to still be possible.

[Loujul]

Beautifully put!! Why stress over the inevitable incompetence of some, regardless of the cruise line. Enjoy the fact that you're on a cruise in the first place and not working in a sewage treatment plant!

[Sizzlechest]

Oh....I agree.

 

Last big group we had cruising (13 family membes) we couldn't get everyone to agree on where to eat, let alone when to eat. We had a different sized group every nite. We set up a time to meet at the MDR. If you showed up, great. You ate with us. If you didn't, sorry...you're in the buffet.

 

You're conflating a group of people who obviously DON'T want to be tied down to a specific dinner time with a group of people who do. On my last cruise 2 years ago on the Star, reservations were unnecessary for the MDR. Well, scratch that. If you went to the first MDR, then it was a madhouse. For some reason, people either didn't know or were intimidated by the rear (fancy) MDR. Maybe it was the SLIGHTLY stricter dress code? I don't know, but that one was a pleasure.

 

The complication arises when the UDP is involved. Many of the specialty dining sell out fast for the popular times. I know, I've seen it first hand. Unless you don't mind eating at odd times that will conflict with seeing a show, then yes, don't sweat it. Wait until the last minute. If you'd like to see Rock of Ages, then you've got to work it around the show. The dumbest thing is making it so it's impossible to have dinner early (at a specialty restaurant) and see an early show. It's also dumb to schedule a main entertainment attraction on port days. Thankfully they corrected this (partially).

 

For the shows, some wanted to see a particular show, some didn't, or they didn't like the time the rest of us wanted to see the show. No problem. Go see it when you want. We just won't be with you.

 

The problem is the dining reservations, whenever you make them and no matter the size of the group, easily conflict with entertainment offerings. The theater seating for the Breakaway, which is one of the largest NCL ships, is 800 seats. That's less than some of the oldest and smallest NCL ships, e.g., the Star (1,000).

 

There's nothing wrong with not planning ahead and making reservations last minute. Just don't be disappointed if you miss something you really wanted to see. If you miss Rock of Ages on the first night it's offered, you'll have to skip (or cut short) Harbor Nights in Bermuda to catch the ferry back to the ship. Want to see the fireworks? Cross your fingers there's no shows or dining openings that conflict with it. If you're okay with missing out on stuff, then bully for you. Others may want to experience those things, so they plan ahead.

Edited June 4, 2014 by Sizzlechest

[newmexicoNita]

Sailing with a group of 7 on the breakaway on 7/13.

 

First problem - at some point it seems like they changed the dining reservations booking window from 45 days to 90 days and didn't notify passengers. Logged in at the 55 day mark and all of a sudden everything was there to reserve.

 

Second problem - it took my aunt 90 minutes on the phone to take care of booking entertainment and dining reservations. Since we are in 3 rooms, there are no suitable tools for everyone to book as a group online. Over the phone they also only take a max of 6 people per dining reservation, so we could not even make complete reservations for our group. They said you had to take care of it on the ship.

 

Third problem - The only two performances of Rock of Ages were both originally scheduled for in-port days. Why would they do this? Shouldn't the headliner show be done on sea days so that when in port folks can take advantage of doing in-port things?

 

Fourth problem - I'm not sure if people were complaining about point 3, but they cancelled one of the in-port performances and rescheduled it. They sent an email telling us we had to go online to choose a new reservation.

 

I tried doing that and it looked now like there was only one performance of RoA being offered, and I couldn't choose it because the system was telling me that I couldn't because I could only do that show once per cruise. So they cancelled a performance and didn't update people's reservations so that they could re-book.

 

I called and customer service wasn't able to help either, as their system hadn't been updated. They told me the show was rescheduled to 7/15 (a sea day) but it wasn't appearing in their system to update. Their solution was to "keep checking the website" to see when you could update the reservation for RoA. I asked them why they would have emailed customers about the change before their system was ready and then would put the onus on passengers to "keep checking" rather than proactively communicate, and they had no answer.

 

Due to the 90 mins my aunt spent on the phone trying to initially make our dining and entertainment reservations, plus the 40 minutes I spent on the phone with them today (and being unable to have the problem resolved), I asked for compensation. They said they couldn't do anything. I just got a lot of "I understands" from them, since they had no answer to any question and couldn't even provide an ETA on the problem resolution.

 

Setting up this cruise has been one of the worst travel experiences I've had. We've been on Disney, Carnival and Princess (in groups as large as 16), and never had anywhere close to the headaches as we've had in dealing with NCL.

 

I'm sure 50 people are going to post how great their experiences with NCL customer service has been, and that's fine, but there's gotta be some reason why 40 days out this cruise isn't full and they keep lowering the price and offering discounted upgrades. Maybe the ship sucks? Maybe it's something else? But IMO seems like NCL should be doing more as far as customer retention and satisfaction goes.

 

I can't believe you asked for anything and expected compensation? I will remember that next time the grocery store has a line and I have to wait 10 minutes or so. I will ask for a discount on my groceries. Or when I go see the doctor, I will ask to be charged only 1/2 price because I had to wait 1/2 hour.

 

I guess you haven't heard the word: travel agent. and yes, you are doing to hear from many of us who book for 7 all the time. That is a small number of people traveling together, 3 cabins is hardly considered a group.

 

There are times when I night defend a cruise line but can see both sides of the story, this is one time when I can't believe you are so irritated about this. Holy cow, I have to wonder what traveling with you would be like? Hopefully you will take a deep breath and calm down before you get on the ship...

[jkgourmet]

I can't believe you asked for anything and expected compensation? I will remember that next time the grocery store has a line and I have to wait 10 minutes or so. I will ask for a discount on my groceries. Or when I go see the doctor, I will ask to be charged only 1/2 price because I had to wait 1/2 hour.

 

I guess you haven't heard the word: travel agent. and yes, you are doing to hear from many of us who book for 7 all the time. That is a small number of people traveling together, 3 cabins is hardly considered a group.

 

There are times when I night defend a cruise line but can see both sides of the story, this is one time when I can't believe you are so irritated about this. Holy cow, I have to wonder what traveling with you would be like? Hopefully you will take a deep breath and calm down before you get on the ship...

 

2nd favorite post of the day!:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

[newmexicoNita]

I don't get why they call it Freestyle Cruising/dining. It was originally marketed as eat where you want when you want. But I read on here all the time about people making all their reservations for not only dining but also the shows in advance - what's up with that? And if you don't reserve in advance you get either shut out of the shows/specialty restaurants or your only choice left is to eat really early or really late. Seems to defy the concept. And having tp pay for some shows??

I guess that's why we have moved on to other lines. It's a shame because we did enjoy our 4 cruises with NCL but they really seem to be catering to a different demographic now.

I think you are getting a little confused. The OP is talking about making reservations because there are 7 of them and they want to be together, and the reservations are for certain shows on the newer ships, not the normal nightly entertainment...We just got off the Dawn, ate in 4 specialty dining rooms and never had trouble getting a reservation. Freestyle is the same as always: eat where and when you want. We have even had a family group of 12 and we had no trouble sitting together. We did have to have 2 tables and wait a few minutes. As I said, the OP is talking about something totally different tor I am confused.

[DGP1111]

I should just walk away from this particular thread, and offer zero opinion, but this time I can't (or won't).

 

I can actually feel a strong empathy for the original post, as I also personally think there continues to be an unfortunate, and very strange, disconnect between NCL Corporate and Norwegian Breakaway.

 

I routinely chat with travel planners who've arranged vacations for their clients on this particular ship, and the majority of them have said they eventually get it all accomplished, but with more challenges than average.

 

My own experience with Norwegian Breakaway was a 'glitchfest' from the moment of walking into the Port of New York. It was almost as though it was a maiden voyage and the crew arrived for duty that morning. Well, for quite a few of the entertainment crew, that was actually the case.

 

The majority of all passengers (who'd done online advance planning) had the majority of their entertainment schedules changed. In my case, as well as those I was traveling with, it was a 100% change. Some of those changes were now placed on top of already-booked dining. Because these were last-minute forced changes, the computer system could not handle the display of that, and so the in-cabin TV would just show error messages, or incorrect info. The doofus Entertainment Manager said, "Hey that's not my problem, go see Guest Services". Guest Services said, "No, those changes were made by Entertainment, so you have to see them". The onboard Cruise Consultant literally said, "You're hoping for concierge assistance since you're Platinum? That's funny. Next!"

 

And then Credit Services advised, "You know that paid event that got cancelled? . . . well, we just charged you for that".

 

The onboard dining glitches eventually saw several of us put our hands in the air and say, "Uncle! I give, You win."

 

So to those who've said for most to just wait until board because it will be much easier . . . that probably is the case most of the time, but definitely not always.

 

The two positives of the week: Sailing with great friends, and seeing Bermuda for the first time. The rest I'd choose to never repeat.

 

The sailing prior to Breakaway was pretty much perfection.

The sailing after Breakaway was pretty much perfection.

 

It takes A LOT for me to ever utter, "I'm not having a good time" while onboard a cruise ship.

 

.

[newmexicoNita]

I should just walk away from this particular thread, and offer zero opinion, but this time I can't (or won't).

 

I can actually feel a strong empathy for the original post, as I also personally think there continues to be an unfortunate, and very strange, disconnect between NCL Corporate and Norwegian Breakaway.

 

I routinely chat with travel planners who've arranged vacations for their clients on this particular ship, and the majority of them have said they eventually get it all accomplished, but with more challenges than average.

 

My own experience with Norwegian Breakaway was a 'glitchfest' from the moment of walking into the Port of New York. It was almost as though it was a maiden voyage and the crew arrived for duty that morning. Well, for quite a few of the entertainment crew, that was actually the case.

 

The majority of all passengers (who'd done online advance planning) had the majority of their entertainment schedules changed. In my case, as well as those I was traveling with, it was a 100% change. Some of those changes were now placed on top of already-booked dining. Because these were last-minute forced changes, the computer system could not handle the display of that, and so the in-cabin TV would just show error messages, or incorrect info. The doofus Entertainment Manager said, "Hey that's not my problem, go see Guest Services". Guest Services said, "No, those changes were made by Entertainment, so you have to see them". The onboard Cruise Consultant literally said, "You're hoping for concierge assistance since you're Platinum? That's funny. Next!"

 

And then Credit Services advised, "You know that paid event that got cancelled? . . . well, we just charged you for that".

 

The onboard dining glitches eventually saw several of us put our hands in the air and say, "Uncle! I give, You win."

 

So to those who've said for most to just wait until board because it will be much easier . . . that probably is the case most of the time, but definitely not always.

 

The two positives of the week: Sailing with great friends, and seeing Bermuda for the first time. The rest I'd choose to never repeat.

 

The sailing prior to Breakaway was pretty much perfection.

The sailing after Breakaway was pretty much perfection.

 

It takes A LOT for me to ever utter, "I'm not having a good time" while onboard a cruise ship.

 

.

 

I might have some empathy for the OP if it wasn't for 2 things: 1-normally with 7 people the passengers wait until on board to make dinner reservations, if sitting together is important. Truthfully, when we travel with family we like to combine, nights together and nights doing our own thing, but that is a personal thing, 2-anyone who would even suggest compensation for time spent on a phone call is going to turn everyone off. That is just a plain over the top.