Short review of my 9/17 Breakaway Cruise

[CasinoCruzGirl]

First let me say I have always been a big NCL Fan. I just made platinum status on this cruise. My first NCL cruise was in 2015. Let me also say I have never given a bad review of any of my cruises, this one had some flaws. Will I stop cruising NCL because of them? No. Did it ruin my cruise? No but I did have a big issue in the casino that did have me in tears.

 

So it was me and my friend Phyllis in our compted Haven Spa Suite via CAS. Our cabin was lovely. Our Butler Seke was fabulous she couldn't do enough for us or been any more happy. Phyllis was certain she was new because she was just so happy all the time. Turns out she's been with NCL 15 years she was a waitress until 5 years ago when she changed to Butler. Our room steward Jericho was pleasant we didn't see him much I guess our Butler took the lead we saw her several times a day. I asked him for extra towels several times that never happened other than that our room was cleaned daily and towel animals every night. We received so much goodies and snacks from CAS and Seka we had to say cut down on it we never were able to eat it all. We also had a bunch of other friends on board for this cruise we had lots of laughs and so much fun.

 

We had a bit of a bumpy ride down to Bermuda they took a longer route to avoid the storms out in the Atlantic last week. No sun the first 2 days. When we arrived in Bermuda and got off the ship it down poured and we turned back to the ship and said oh well but when we got back to the ship low and behold the Sun came out and we had a day and a half of gorgeous weather and plenty of sunshine. We decided to just to snorkel park those 2 days. We had to leave Bermuda on Thursday a day earlier than we were supposed to, to beat Hurricane Maria back. That was disappointing but I trust NCL to keep us safe and if they said we gotta go then we gotta go.

 

Every crew member we ran into was smiley and happy (until the casino problems I had which I will talk about later. We ate in the Haven restaurant several times, I hate that the menu never changes but what we ate was good. The Maitre D at the Haven was so amazing "Mr D" we made him our "hero" and made sure to see him the last day to show our appreciation. He always made us feel special even when we saw him in other restaurants when he stopped in.

 

We had dinner one night at the Manhattan Dining Room. When we sat down I looked at my water glass and there was a big lipstick stain on it and everyone else at my table looked at their glasses and one of the girls had a chip on hers. That is not acceptable and pretty gross. The only other dinner we had a problem with was La Cucina. There was 4 of us and before we sat down we gave the hostess a present and card to give to one of the girls when we had desert it was her birthday. Our water glasses were never refilled I had to take one of the girls glasses because I had finished mine, they forgot 2 of the appetizers, we were never asked if we wanted grated cheese for our pasta (lets get real even in a small mom and pop pizzeria the waitress askes if you need cheese on your pasta) you would expect in a nice restaurant they would ask - never happened. Waiter never came by and asked if we needed anything else. When desert came what a surprise the gift and card for the birthday girl never came. I had to get up and find the hostess to tell her ummmm we have been ready for you to bring it over she said oops sorry I forgot. I did tell the maître D of all the problems he was very apologetic and asked when he could get us but there was nothing else we wanted. We actually had more dinners than we needed. Loved Tepanyaki, loved Cagneys, loved the noodle bar, loved Le Bistro.

 

Now onto my Casino issue. I leveled up from Pearl to Sapphire on this cruise. Gone are the days when they give you $100 free play for leveling up...no biggie, things change. I was given $100 OBC from CAS, $150 OBC for a suite and $25 for something else (all Non Refundable) and also $25 Refundable for leaving Bermuda early. Total of $300. All I bought was 4 cartons of cigarettes on day ONE which was $128.00. The 2nd day my OBC showed $77 available, the 3rd day it showed $62, and the last 3 days showed $56 and I never bought anything to make those amounts fluctuate. The only other charges I had where my "convenience" fees from downloading $$$ to casino. The total of that was $97.00 I had gone up to the players club the last day and asked a host what can be done for me. She said oh your a good player we can remove your convenience fees and the few port tax drinks (less than $3) I said great ill be back later. When I went back spoke to another host she said oh no we cant take that off we don't do that until your next cruise because you just leveled up this cruise. Ok I get that but Im not happy about it because I had nothing else for them to take off my bill. I lost a lot of money on this cruise (which I expect I never go with intention of winning or losing more than I can afford) But seriously you want to risk a loyal cruiser over $97? The amount wasn't the issue it was the principal. Where was my $25 Refundable credit if I didn't buy anything else? Why wasn't my Non Refundable credit ever correct? If it had shown me the correct $172 earlier I could have went shopping in the gift store But it never was correct. We kept asking and the answer was its a "glitch" well that glitch did me no good. I never was able to even use the $56 because by the time I was done talking to everyone in the casino store was closed. I even had the hotel director come and he said it will all be taken care of and one of the hosts told me the same thing don't worry it will be taken off (the $97.00) Nope never was my bill was still the same. I have submitted a complaint to guest services and will see what they say. I'm not holding my breath for any sort of resolution. But going forward I will make sure every single credit is used properly every single day). I tried really hard to resolve this on board I was even in tears from frustration but I gave up in the end because I thought maybe they would take care of it.

 

Don't get me wrong I will still cruise on NCL and I will still gamble in their casinos but will just be more knowledgeable of all OBC uses.

[easyboy]

I understand your frustration with your casino issues. I would not blame you in escalating the matter if only as a matter of principle. I guess the persons you talked with have the discretion to resolve the issue while onboard.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[jplovestocruise]

Hey there,

 

I'm so sorry to hear about this. You seem like a lovely person and a blast to hang with! I also love the NCL casinos (last cruise on the Dawn I hit 6 jackpots) but do find that you don't get a lot of "freeplay" for playing - I'm also a big gambler.

 

I really need to sit down and do the math because even though they didn't give a lot of freeplay I believe I got a rather good deal on my Haven Villa for my upcoming cruise (saved thousands).

 

I've been there - spent a lot of money in the casino - didn't hit anything - AND feeling like your money isn't being valued; it's not a fun place to be. I hope Norwegian makes right with you and perhaps I'll see you someday in the casino!

 

Cheers~

[CasinoCruzGirl]

Hey there,

 

I'm so sorry to hear about this. You seem like a lovely person and a blast to hang with! I also love the NCL casinos (last cruise on the Dawn I hit 6 jackpots) but do find that you don't get a lot of "freeplay" for playing - I'm also a big gambler.

 

I really need to sit down and do the math because even though they didn't give a lot of freeplay I believe I got a rather good deal on my Haven Villa for my upcoming cruise (saved thousands).

 

I've been there - spent a lot of money in the casino - didn't hit anything - AND feeling like your money isn't being valued; it's not a fun place to be. I hope Norwegian makes right with you and perhaps I'll see you someday in the casino!

 

Cheers~

 

 

Oh CAS has always treated me great. I Had a haven Spa Suite Compted on this cruise and my next one and have had great great deals with me and my friends pooling our comps for the Garden Villa several times. It was just the frustration of so much miscommunication and for them to not make it right over $97 was the biggest frustration. Like I said it wasn't the amount but the principal of them crapping on me the way they did. I wasn't asking for free play I was asking for them to waive my convenience fees because there was nothing else for them to take off. SMH

[PelicanBill]

Service should be stellar in La Cucina and all the speciality venues. Dirty/broken glassware should not happen but is forgivable once in a while.

[jplovestocruise]

Oh CAS has always treated me great. I Had a haven Spa Suite Compted on this cruise and my next one and have had great great deals with me and my friends pooling our comps for the Garden Villa several times. It was just the frustration of so much miscommunication and for them to not make it right over $97 was the biggest frustration. Like I said it wasn't the amount but the principal of them crapping on me the way they did. I wasn't asking for free play I was asking for them to waive my convenience fees because there was nothing else for them to take off. SMH

 

I totally understand. They should have made that right ASAP especially since, if you're like me, you spend 97 dollars every 5 minutes lol. I'm sorry to hear this - it actually really irks me!

[BlueHonu]

We were on the same cruise. We both made pearl on this cruise. They used my points to remove $28 of fees and taxes.

No treats for us from the casino. We realize that we r small fish, but a little something would be nice.

We ate at Manhattan 2x and neither of the waiters were friendly.

We ate at Savor and had a dirty tablecloth with pepper and a dirt smudge. Also poor service.

We ate at Taste. We had 2 Splendor packets on the floor by my chair. Our waitress Nelly was awesome. Called us by name and we felt like we were in a specialty restaurant.

We also went to the noodle bar and enjoyed that experience.

 

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

[Clarea]

Thanks for the report.

[Aldeya]

Thank you for the report. We were on the same cruise, had a good time but the service really went down from our previous experiences with NCL. Granted it was in the buffet but I also picked up the tea cup and it was a lipstick on the side of the cup.

We had the best and the worst waiters in the same restaurant - Taste. The best was a young lady who made sure we were served quickly to make it to the Latitudes party ( put her on My Hero card). The worst was male waiter who literally threw plates on the table before we finished our previous curse, didn't refill the glasses and generally looked like he didn't want to be there.

 

We never got the $25 credit for missing a day in Bermuda. Could it be that you received because you were in Haven?

[Mike_DeA]

I was on last week as well. I noticed a mysterious $30 OBC which I assume was the refund of some port taxes for the missed day in Bermuda.

[TenForward]

We received the $25 credit each for Bermuda port tax, had a balcony room.

 

We fortunately had great service in all the MDRs, except there was one waiter in Manhattan who refused to let anyone speak while he took our drink order...to the point of holding out his hand and saying "Stop. Stop speaking". One of the ladies was just saying "make it two" as she wanted the same drink. She got the hand in her face and "Shhh, shhh, shhh" we laughed but it was rude. And weird. Everyone else was great, our water always filled, grated cheese offered and general follow-up to make sure all was ok.

[Pugzila1022]

Don't get me wrong I will still cruise on NCL and I will still gamble in their casinos but will just be more knowledgeable of all OBC uses.

 

Hi Geri,

 

Sounds like overall it was a great cruise and you had a good time despite the weather.

 

I am a huge CAS fan and use them to book all of the NCL cruises. I've seen a tightening of their rules over the years as far as what they will comp, and more often than not it really depends on who you talk to at the casino host desk. You're right to think that they were beyond crazy not to wipe off the $97, and you should have demanded (in a nice way) to speak to the casino manager and explain you received mixed responses (it will be taken care of, it's a glitch, etc)....but that you want to make sure it's off your bill.

 

One weird thing is I'm always told they review everybody the last night of the cruise and do the credits then. I always check the cabin television to review my bill and I always see a bunch of credits. The convenience charges are ALWAYS comped for good players, at least in my experience. I also see a bunch of other credits that they generate, but honestly don't pay close attention and will likely be more attentive on my December cruise.

 

Have you phoned CAS to talk to your rep? Maybe they can help.

 

At any rate, you had a great time (except for the $97 and the yucky glasses). Don't focus on that mis-step and just think about how great the CAS program is overall. A comp Haven spa suite is not a bad perk at all!