Cruisers beware

[hawkeyetlse]

NCL did nothing wrong here whatsoever

I agree with everyone else that the OP must take responsibility for choosing this cabin, and that most experienced cruisers would have known to avoid it. But NCL knows better than anyone else where the potential noise issues are, and they continue to put guests in these cabins week after week. When someone complains to them on board about the noise, I don't think that the correct response is "well, you chose that cabin" or "don't you know how to read a deck plan?" or "you didn't even pay for your cruise!" (I do understand 100% that those are the only acceptable answers here on Cruise Critic :rolleyes:)

 

Since there was another cabin available in the same category, I don't see why they couldn't have been moved sooner. (But the OP didn't say when they first complained, who they talked to, and what the initial response was.) Aside from that, I agree that the compensation was sufficient, because in that case the amount the guest paid for the cruise should be taken into account.

Edited April 5, 2016 by hawkeyetlse

[SeaShark]

Cruise of Jan 2016 on the Norwegian Dawn.

PROS: Easy on and off ship. Easy parking at the port. I am sure there were more but I was too sleep deprived to enjoy much that the cruise had to offer.

CONS: Our cabin was under the galley (unknown to us at time of reservation) ... had no idea that the noise level would be so bad. It was impossible to sleep. They finally moved us after 4 nights of sleeplessness. The on-board guest relations gave us one free specialty meal and a bottle of wine and 200.00 reimbursement. Note- we already had the specialty meal package, so what good was that?

After arriving at home I phoned NCL's guest relations department.... was told (after an unbelievable amount of time on hold) to send them an email. I did and received an email back stating they would be in touch after 15 business days...HA! That was Feb 10... forward to today March 31...no response, so I again held a phone line for 50 minutes...just to be told they would NOT be giving anymore reimbursement. ( I only asked for partial reimbursement for the time I was sleep deprived).

This was a Harrah's Casino at Sea cruise, so therefore I felt I was not a valued guest to NCL and they referred me to Casino At Sea customer service. Again this proved a useless effort... another long phone hold. At least I found out from the Casinos At Sea rep that NCL passes the buck because no one takes responsibility for the customer.

Found plastic in my dessert at the Brazilian Steak restaurant. Cabin was worn and some lights did not work.

And I am a Latitudes member which carries no weight either..... You have been warned... consider another cruise line.

 

 

Just my 2 cents, but I think some folks have missed what caused the bigger issue here. The OP stated:

 

"The on-board guest relations gave us one free specialty meal and a bottle of wine and 200.00 reimbursement."

 

So...compensation was offered and accepted. As they say, you only get one bite at the apple. Since the OP accepted this compensation, the shoreside folks were correct in denying further compensation. If you are ever offered compensation and do not feel that it is sufficient, do NOT accept it...only accept what you feel is sufficient.

[hpecorari]

FYI - The cruise was January 31 on the Dawn out of New Orleans

 

Harriet

[Viv0828]

I think many folks are missing the point. If the cabin was as noisy and terrible as the op described, ncl knows it, probably has had numerous complaints, yet still places unsuspecting cruisers in that room.

 

 

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[zqvol]

Cruise of Jan 2016 on the Norwegian Dawn.

PROS: Easy on and off ship. Easy parking at the port. I am sure there were more but I was too sleep deprived to enjoy much that the cruise had to offer.

CONS: Our cabin was under the galley (unknown to us at time of reservation) ... had no idea that the noise level would be so bad. It was impossible to sleep. They finally moved us after 4 nights of sleeplessness. The on-board guest relations gave us one free specialty meal and a bottle of wine and 200.00 reimbursement. Note- we already had the specialty meal package, so what good was that?

After arriving at home I phoned NCL's guest relations department.... was told (after an unbelievable amount of time on hold) to send them an email. I did and received an email back stating they would be in touch after 15 business days...HA! That was Feb 10... forward to today March 31...no response, so I again held a phone line for 50 minutes...just to be told they would NOT be giving anymore reimbursement. ( I only asked for partial reimbursement for the time I was sleep deprived).

This was a Harrah's Casino at Sea cruise, so therefore I felt I was not a valued guest to NCL and they referred me to Casino At Sea customer service. Again this proved a useless effort... another long phone hold. At least I found out from the Casinos At Sea rep that NCL passes the buck because no one takes responsibility for the customer.

Found plastic in my dessert at the Brazilian Steak restaurant. Cabin was worn and some lights did not work.

And I am a Latitudes member which carries no weight either..... You have been warned... consider another cruise line.

 

 

You only have yourself to blame for not checking the deck plans when you booked. IMO NCL gave you a lot more than you were entitled to receive.

[blackwing]

I think many folks are missing the point. If the cabin was as noisy and terrible as the op described, ncl knows it, probably has had numerous complaints, yet still places unsuspecting cruisers in that room.

 

 

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But he won the cruise as some sort of casino promotion, of course the free casino rooms are going to be the worst rooms. He could have paid a charge to upgrade his room, and chose not to. It's like hotels.com, the rooms you get through them are always the ones nobody wants, but you paid a cheap price, so either pay more to get a better room or just say it's ok.

 

Frankly, I would settle for a free room under the galley any day rather than sitting at home.

 

I find this thread very entertaining. He came to post about how awful NCL is that they treated him so badly, was expecting a chorus of "Huzzahs" and "You Go Girl" and instead, got exactly the opposite. So he posts his "y'all just don't understand" and says he will not return. Hahahahahaha.

[zqvol]

Info provided for those who care and for those who wish to think otherwise.... so be it... I am not responding to any more comments. Happy Sailing!

 

 

The reasonable people come on line and call you out for taking an unreasonable position and you decide to run and not respond any more. The only thing that I see in your original post is that you picked a cabin you didn't like and don't want to take responsibility for your error.

 

Seems like another person who wants something for nothing, this is a lot of what is wrong with the US today.

[All-ready2cruise]

Research, research and more research.... good golly Miss Molly, how did this ever happen??? :rolleyes:

[terracool]

I don't believe that I have ever responded to a thread like this in this way because I try to always be happy, enthusiastic, and friendly on these boards but...I have finally reached a tipping point in my ability to tolerate the complete and total lack of personal responsibility that people on here take for their own ill-informed/irresponsible/unwise/etc. decisions. Three NCL cruises through Total Rewards under my belt, another coming up through CAS, and we have certainly never felt like undervalued guests...quite to the contrary, actually. We pay to upgrade to balconies, but there are still balcony cabins in lousy locations and guess what? We ALWAYS consult the deck plans before and during booking to confirm our cabin location. I can't believe that NCL was willing to offer one iota of compensation beyond a cabin change in this situation. People need to research before they book and travel. A lot of complaining could be avoided.

 

Rant over. Returning to a rose-colored, zen-like state of calm now.

 

I'm glad you said it because I was certainly thinking it. I'm just sick of people demanding this and demanding that for common things that arise in travel. It's nice that NCL moved the OP to a quieter cabin, but that's not enough! OP was wronged! Wronged! And he is due his compensation! Moved to a new cabin (to offset his own poor choice) and given $200, a free dinner and bottle of wine? That's nothing! He's been wronged and is due his compensation! Maybe I'm just worn out from the guy over in Cruise Air who is demanding that American Airlines upgrade him on an LAX-Heathrow long haul flight because he had some common hiccups on his domestic itinerary. Demanding his compensation!

 

I'm sure NCL knows where the noisy cabins are, but the OP booked one, it didn't work out, so NCL moved him. And gave way more in compensation than was deserved. And yet it's not nearly enough.

 

I was on a cruise where the captain announced shortly after boarding that we would have to miss the Vancouver stop (scheduled for only 5-6 hours) because of engine problems. Someone in our party was all adamant that he was going to use this atrocity to get a full refund for his cruise. Full refund! Ten minutes earlier, he couldn't have found Vancouver on a map.

 

Honestly, sometimes I don't know if people are genuinely outraged by these common issues or if they are using them as a pretense to try to get something (as I suspected was the case with our party member who thought he was going to get a full refund for missing a port). And I don't know which would be worse.

 

Rant over. Joining Dor in that rose-colored state of calm now. :)

[welove2cruise2014]

I think many folks are missing the point. If the cabin was as noisy and terrible as the op described, ncl knows it, probably has had numerous complaints, yet still places unsuspecting cruisers in that room.

 

 

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Is it NCL's responsibility to advise every single customer that books any cabin, to alert them of past noise (or whatever) complaints? I don't think so. I am also a fan of personal responsibility and therefore think anyone who "ends up" in these cabins, without doing their own research, (seemingly of their own volition) gets the experience they deserve.

 

Don't want the "bad location / noisy / etc" cabin? Do your research, or spring for a different / better cabin somewhere else on the ship.

 

As an aside... what is NCL supposed to do with these so-called undesirable cabins rather than sell them to those "unsuspecting" customers? Take them out of inventory? Turn them into more storage space?

[hladygirl]

We have a comped cabin through twin rivers casino and ncl. OA cabin 8010. Near the star dust theatre but we will not be in cabin during shows. It cost us $1,000 in total for one week with UBP and free specialty dining for 4 nights. I can put up with anything for this price.

[riddle]

Wow - talk about slamming the OP. We had a similar experience on another NCL ship (I can't remember which one, maybe the Jewel). It sounded like loud carts crashing all night long. Yes we were under the FLOOR where the buffet was but not directly under it. Nonetheless, no one should have to suffer sleepless nights (and we did). Would it be ok to be at a hotel and be kept aware all night due to noise? No cabins should be such an area that there is no noise protection if they are under or over a source of great noise.

 

Our experience was different. I think that since I had attended a Meet N Greet I contacted the ship's head person who put me in direct contact with the head of guest services. I don't think it came as any surprise to them that there were problems with this cabin. In addition, the ship was scheduled for dry dock in a few weeks and I think they were doing a lot of preliminary work at night which was also crashing around us. it sounded like an elevator crashing all night.

 

The head of guest services originally told us that she could only offer us another inside cabin and that we could keep our original (so we did not need to move our stuff) and just sleep in the new cabin. She then called back an hour or so later to tell us that someone was leaving the ship that day (I think this was Day 3) and we would get their balcony.

 

We did not get any monetary reimbursement and I never even thought about it. We did the obligatory chocolate covered strawberries and a bottle of wine I believe. They also sent a steward to help us move.

 

Anyway, in my opinion no room on the ship should be "unsleepable".

[ColinIllinois]

What may be an unacceptable situation for one passenger may be perfectly fine for another.

[Victress2007]

Interesting. There is a web site that shows planes and marks good, bad and indifferent seats. Who wants to do that for cruise ships?! I wonder if Drag it Decks would take that on.

 

 

hmmmm, I'll apply for the job of checking out rooms!

 

Vic

[blackwing]

Wow - talk about slamming the OP. We had a similar experience on another NCL ship (I can't remember which one, maybe the Jewel). It sounded like loud carts crashing all night long. Yes we were under the FLOOR where the buffet was but not directly under it. Nonetheless, no one should have to suffer sleepless nights (and we did). Would it be ok to be at a hotel and be kept aware all night due to noise? No cabins should be such an area that there is no noise protection if they are under or over a source of great noise.

 

Our experience was different. I think that since I had attended a Meet N Greet I contacted the ship's head person who put me in direct contact with the head of guest services. I don't think it came as any surprise to them that there were problems with this cabin. In addition, the ship was scheduled for dry dock in a few weeks and I think they were doing a lot of preliminary work at night which was also crashing around us. it sounded like an elevator crashing all night.

 

The head of guest services originally told us that she could only offer us another inside cabin and that we could keep our original (so we did not need to move our stuff) and just sleep in the new cabin. She then called back an hour or so later to tell us that someone was leaving the ship that day (I think this was Day 3) and we would get their balcony.

 

We did not get any monetary reimbursement and I never even thought about it. We did the obligatory chocolate covered strawberries and a bottle of wine I believe. They also sent a steward to help us move.

 

Anyway, in my opinion no room on the ship should be "unsleepable".

 

But what are they supposed to do with these rooms? Let them go empty? Someone will book it. In the OP's case, he got a free room. Why is he complaining? If he had looked at the deck plans, he would have seen he was underneath the galley. At that point had he seen this, he would have had two choices: 1) pay to upgrade his room, 2) bring earplugs, or 3) suck it up. He chose to be cheap and yet now he is complaining he was treated poorly.

 

For what it's worth, last week on Escape our rooms were on 15, directly below the buffet. I never heard anything.

 

At some point, you have to realise you are on a floating hotel with thousands of other people. The cabin next to me was always filled with loud teens who didn't go to bed when we did. Several times we told them that our young children were trying to sleep and the noise was keeping them up. Twice I asked their parents to ask their kids and their friends to be more aware of the people around them. It never changed, all week. Am I entitled to $200 and wine from NCL because of the jerks next door? Sounds like you are saying I should be.

[TheDougOut]

CruiseDeckPlans.com has a little yellow star over your room - "Underneath pool area and buffet. There may be noise from above."

 

Confirmed!

 

We'll be nearby, but in an outside cabin on the fringe of the garden buffet seating area. If we hear noise, it'll be our cue that we're missing something. Like bacon. I call that a feature.

[renata102]

Just my 2 cents, but I think some folks have missed what caused the bigger issue here. The OP stated:

 

"The on-board guest relations gave us one free specialty meal and a bottle of wine and 200.00 reimbursement."

 

So...compensation was offered and accepted. As they say, you only get one bite at the apple. Since the OP accepted this compensation, the shoreside folks were correct in denying further compensation. If you are ever offered compensation and do not feel that it is sufficient, do NOT accept it...only accept what you feel is sufficient.

 

Lol "one bite of the apple" wow. That's the stupidest thing I heard in years

[SPB in da RVA]

But NCL knows better than anyone else where the potential noise issues are, and they continue to put guests in these cabins week after week.

 

The OP CHOSE the cabin intentionally. Thanks for playing please try again!

[SPB in da RVA]

I think many folks are missing the point. If the cabin was as noisy and terrible as the op described, ncl knows it, probably has had numerous complaints, yet still places unsuspecting cruisers in that room.

 

 

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You are missing that the OP INTENTIONALLY SELECTED THAT CABIN! NCL did not PUT anyone anywhere.

[bbryan5]

You have been warned... consider another cruise line.

 

Nah, cruised NCL 8 times and every cruise has been great.. if YOU aren't happy with NCL, than YOU should consider another cruise line :p :p :p

[SPB in da RVA]

Is it NCL's responsibility to advise every single customer that books any cabin, to alert them of past noise (or whatever) complaints? I don't think so. I am also a fan of personal responsibility and therefore think anyone who "ends up" in these cabins, without doing their own research, (seemingly of their own volition) gets the experience they deserve.

 

Don't want the "bad location / noisy / etc" cabin? Do your research, or spring for a different / better cabin somewhere else on the ship.

 

As an aside... what is NCL supposed to do with these so-called undesirable cabins rather than sell them to those "unsuspecting" customers? Take them out of inventory? Turn them into more storage space?

 

If that were the case NCL would be advising EVERY single passenger abut EVERY single cabin on EVERY single ship. I cam promise you that over the course of time SOMEONE has complained about any cabin you pick.

 

It is NOT NCLs job to do your research for you. Perfect example of society's sense of 'nothing is my responsibility any more and it is always someone else fault when something goes wrong so I should get something out of it for free'. Puhleeze. Does your mommy still cut up your dinner for you so it is all bite size? :rolleyes:

[riddle]

We're in a suite next week. Will it be ok if we (including 2 little kids) are kept up all night by ship noises or is it just because it was comped? Should make no difference - it you get a comped cruise you are paying for it in the casino.

 

This is such a thing as noise reduction materials. No cabin should have constant nighttime noise.

[hawkeyetlse]

If that were the case NCL would be advising EVERY single passenger abut EVERY single cabin on EVERY single ship. I cam promise you that over the course of time SOMEONE has complained about any cabin you pick.

As slippery-slope arguments go, this one is particularly weak. Most cabins do not have chronic issues. Those that do, they can do something about it, or they can do nothing and just cross their fingers on every cruise and hope that this week's passengers don't make a stink.

[mking8288]

I am struggling to understand whether the gallery for the buffet continue to be busy, long after closing (aside from dish washing ... late night and service carts being moved, or glasses from the bars ??) on the Dawn - or other ships in the fleet for that matter ... as the infamous midnight buffet are long gone.

 

We had an inside stateroom on the Dawn, deck 5 - well over 10 years now & it was below the gallery - I know we hear some noises in the morning as they get ready for early bird breakfast, carts getting move & late evening (not late night) when they are done serving dinner - but, from midnight to 6 AM ... we had no issues, not being able to sleep.

 

Actually, we're sometimes in the casino playing so late that for all I care, they could've bang the drums above us as we weren't in the room at all.

 

I don't know if OP call down to reception/front desk/guest services to register the noise complaint - as that might've help (okay, it might not - but ;) ) Only trying, trying to empathize OP's surprises once onboard as a relatively new cruiser.

 

Looking at the deck plan & stateroom locations, I am surprised that passengers in the other 10+ rooms nearby did NOT have major issues and unable to sleep at all - the gallery area above is relatively large and I would think that others would be complaining during the cruise if 2 or 3 dozen + folks are getting noises all night long, making it impossible to sleep.

 

Just our two cents worth of comment - enough said on other points already.

 

As for ignoring or not treating passengers sailing under casino rates and/or programs - that is not true, IMO - and some of our cruises are comp'd and we will leave it as such.

Edited April 6, 2016 by mking8288

[res2cue]

I think many folks are missing the point. If the cabin was as noisy and terrible as the op described, ncl knows it, probably has had numerous complaints, yet still places unsuspecting cruisers in that room.

 

 

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I'd be surprised if it was nearly as bad as the OP described. These forums would be full of complaints and we would all be well aware of how terribly awful these cabins are.

 

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