First NCL cruise will be my last NCL cruise - Bliss

[hladygirl]

There are a lot of reasons why I am rethinking NCL and considering other cruise lines. Mainly it is the high prices. The go carts are not even an issue for me. Love NCL but they are pricing me out! MSC is calling me.

[JinxyB]

I haven’t been on the NCL boards much, and imagine my surprise to discover this height change on the go carts, along with the drink package changes😊.   I cancelled my thanksgiving sailing on the Encore today.  My child would be devastated to not be able to ride the go carts (he would prob only be 52 inches by November).  Thanks for this information, bc NCL certainly hasn’t informed me!!

[PTC DAWG]

17 minutes ago, JinxyB said:

I haven’t been on the NCL boards much, and imagine my surprise to discover this height change on the go carts, along with the drink package changes😊.   I cancelled my thanksgiving sailing on the Encore today.  My child would be devastated to not be able to ride the go carts (he would prob only be 52 inches by November).  Thanks for this information, bc NCL certainly hasn’t informed me!!

Imagine his despair now, no cruise at all.  🙂

Edited February 6, 2019 by PTC DAWG

[JinxyB]

4 minutes ago, PTC DAWG said:

Imagine his despair now, no cruise at all.  🙂

Don’t despair, I already had 2 other cruises booked for same week.  Just waiting to see airfare, etc.  I wasn’t crazy about itinerary for the Encore, anyways.

[PTC DAWG]

52 minutes ago, JinxyB said:

Don’t despair, I already had 2 other cruises booked for same week.  Just waiting to see airfare, etc.  I wasn’t crazy about itinerary for the Encore, anyways.

But no go carts, how will the kiddo survive?  🙂

 

The Bliss doesn’t do much for me at all...go carts seem to be a waste of prime deck space..indoor viewing deck the same 

Edited February 6, 2019 by PTC DAWG

[momto2js]

I understand your perspective COMPLETLY.  My son was not 54" tall until he was 12.  There were almost 2 years we did not go to amusement parks with roller coasters with a 54 inch requirement.  

 

In fact, our first getaway trip, I thought I had all of our bases covered.  But low and behold, I missed the 100lbs requirement (we are still likely 3 years from that happening)

 

 

[jeffjeffjeffjeff]

So many of my posts were deleted by Mitchell, who's needless harassment of me continues, assigning me points for responding that i thought a posters comment wasn't helpful while conveniently ignoring the posts of people criticizing my parenting skills. So the good information won't be as well displayed.

 

I will add it again messy in one post because i don't have time to go back and rewrite several posts.

 

1. To ride double carts the workers confirmed that the limiting factor is if they can get a helmet to fit the child. They have helmets to fit some pretty small kids. Kids that are well short of the 55" limit are permitted to ride.

2. NCL Have falsely advertised the attractions on their new ships. This is the crux of the problem that those of us that make decisions where to spend out money. The deleted post took me about 45 mins to craft and explain in a way that wouldn't draw the ire of the cheerleaders, this one is the cliff notes version. Flame away. 

3. Saving Jinxy from not knowing the policy changed makes the harassment from several posters and from Mitchell the moderator much more bearable. Hopefully the information I'm sharing helps others too. That is my ultimate goal. 

 

With regard to the Moderators. Does anyone know how to reach someone? Mitchell (I'm assuming is an actual person, perhaps a computer "bot") continues to send cryptic "reminders" with points and seemingly randomly lock my account then unlock it when I complain in a post. I have tried every way i can think of to reach out to Mitchell and or any other Moderator to no avail... In this process he has decided to remove valuable posts as listed above.

 

I'm sure this post will get me reminded again. If that happens again and I create another account this time ill be sure to stay incognito 🙂

 

If this post gets deleted can someone please post the info contained in bullet point 1 so that two wheels and others can have it for future reference. I put some effort into getting that info for y'all 😉

 

 

Thanks

[Newleno]

12 minutes ago, jeffjeffjeffjeff said:

So many of my posts were deleted by Mitchell, who's needless harassment of me continues, assigning me points for responding that i thought a posters comment wasn't helpful while conveniently ignoring the posts of people criticizing my parenting skills. So the good information won't be as well displayed.

 

I will add it again messy in one post because i don't have time to go back and rewrite several posts.

 

1. To ride double carts the workers confirmed that the limiting factor is if they can get a helmet to fit the child. They have helmets to fit some pretty small kids. Kids that are well short of the 55" limit are permitted to ride.

2. NCL Have falsely advertised the attractions on their new ships. This is the crux of the problem that those of us that make decisions where to spend out money. The deleted post took me about 45 mins to craft and explain in a way that wouldn't draw the ire of the cheerleaders, this one is the cliff notes version. Flame away. 

3. Saving Jinxy from not knowing the policy changed makes the harassment from several posters and from Mitchell the moderator much more bearable. Hopefully the information I'm sharing helps others too. That is my ultimate goal. 

 

With regard to the Moderators. Does anyone know how to reach someone? Mitchell (I'm assuming is an actual person, perhaps a computer "bot") continues to send cryptic "reminders" with points and seemingly randomly lock my account then unlock it when I complain in a post. I have tried every way i can think of to reach out to Mitchell and or any other Moderator to no avail... In this process he has decided to remove valuable posts as listed above.

 

I'm sure this post will get me reminded again. If that happens again and I create another account this time ill be sure to stay incognito 🙂

 

If this post gets deleted can someone please post the info contained in bullet point 1 so that two wheels and others can have it for future reference. I put some effort into getting that info for y'all 😉

 

 

Thanks

Thanks for your insight

Edited February 7, 2019 by Newleno

[jeffjeffjeffjeff]

2 minutes ago, Newleno said:

Thanks for your insight, unfortunately CC is not a free speech site,  I think you will be banned

It is for some... I just wonder what the determining factor is. Perhaps if you work for a cruiseline? it seems that the people that defend the lines regardless of details seem to be able to say whatever they want, Including name calling.

 

NCL actually asks on their surveys if you are aware of cruise critic. That makes me wonder which way the money is flowing in that transaction. Also the fact that they mention it there tells you that it is important to them. This means that they 100% have employees here to help manage the spin of things.

[Newleno]

ncl is great

Edited February 7, 2019 by Newleno

[jeffjeffjeffjeff]

1 minute ago, Newleno said:

Well sometimes I find some valuable information here from some great people, but I am always fearful I will offend someone and lose my privileges.

Yes, I have found that out the hard way. lol 

 

Many great people. A few who might have questionable motives.

 

When i first found this site in 2005 it was amazing. So much good info, so many helpful people.

[deedle7544]

#bestthreadever

[Newleno]

On 2/5/2019 at 9:30 PM, hladygirl said:

There are a lot of reasons why I am rethinking NCL and considering other cruise lines. Mainly it is the high prices. The go carts are not even an issue for me. Love NCL but they are pricing me out! MSC is calling me.

guess it kinds of all depends, our first 5 cruises were on ncl, then we did not cruise on them for about 5 years, now our last 3 cruises (in the last 6 months) were all on ncl, not because of loyalty or such nonsense but because they were the cheapest.

[jeffjeffjeffjeff]

23 minutes ago, Newleno said:

guess it kinds of all depends, our first 5 cruises were on ncl, then we did not cruise on them for about 5 years, now our last 3 cruises (in the last 6 months) were all on ncl, not because of loyalty or such nonsense but because they were the cheapest.

For me NCL won't happen again.

Not solely because of the customer service around the race track either. There were a few things I liked for instance the Buffet food both quality and variety were the best I have experienced.  

 

The two major negatives in my view far out weigh the good. The service at the main dinning ( and to a lesser extent at the specialty dining) was AWFUL. I don't expect anything special but in 5 nights eating at taste savor and Manhattan room we didn't get beverages prior to appetizers. Not even one time. The first night we had a party of seven. My son got his food, 15 mins later i got mine. The rest of the table got nothing. Finally the guy in the suit came over to ask how our meal was. Only when I responded that mine was good but nobody else got theirs yet did their food come. On two occasions my in laws never got their bar order and instead just excused themselves and walked up to the bar in the hallway. Your local Applebee's has better service. My opinion is that this is cause by NCL not having enough staff. No waiter was loafing or relaxing. It just seems there were not enough of them.

 

The other thing isn't something NCL does wrong it is just freestyle cruising in general, it isn't for me. I like having the same waitstaff every night at the same time. You get to build a relationship. I end up knowing about their families and caring about them. The unintended consequence of freestyle cruising is the huge amount of planning that you need to do. Everything needs to be scheduled or you risk missing out. This is the nature of the beast. Traditional cruising half of the pax are eating while half see the show, then you switch. You cant count on this when people can eat any time. As such, reservations are required. After trying freestyle I have realized i prefer the old way.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

18 hours ago, momto2js said:

In fact, our first getaway trip, I thought I had all of our bases covered.  But low and behold, I missed the 100lbs requirement (we are still likely 3 years from that happening)

Getaway only had a 100# min requirement for the green and blue slides - and rightfully so. My 62# 7 yo was able to use the purple, orange and red water slides, the ropes course, the spider net (120# max limit) and the trampoline (bounce, 80# max limit). 

Unless you didn't mean the Getaway, but a getaway instead. :)

Edited February 7, 2019 by Itchy&Scratchy

[Newleno]

17 minutes ago, jeffjeffjeffjeff said:

For me NCL won't happen again.

Not solely because of the customer service around the race track either. There were a few things I liked for instance the Buffet food both quality and variety were the best I have experienced.  

 

The two major negatives in my view far out weigh the good. The service at the main dinning ( and to a lesser extent at the specialty dining) was AWFUL. I don't expect anything special but in 5 nights eating at taste savor and Manhattan room we didn't get beverages prior to appetizers. Not even one time. The first night we had a party of seven. My son got his food, 15 mins later i got mine. The rest of the table got nothing. Finally the guy in the suit came over to ask how our meal was. Only when I responded that mine was good but nobody else got theirs yet did their food come. On two occasions my in laws never got their bar order and instead just excused themselves and walked up to the bar in the hallway. Your local Applebee's has better service. My opinion is that this is cause by NCL not having enough staff. No waiter was loafing or relaxing. It just seems there were not enough of them.

 

The other thing isn't something NCL does wrong it is just freestyle cruising in general, it isn't for me. I like having the same waitstaff every night at the same time. You get to build a relationship. I end up knowing about their families and caring about them. The unintended consequence of freestyle cruising is the huge amount of planning that you need to do. Everything needs to be scheduled or you risk missing out. This is the nature of the beast. Traditional cruising half of the pax are eating while half see the show, then you switch. You cant count on this when people can eat any time. As such, reservations are required. After trying freestyle I have realized i prefer the old way.

Yeah we are all different, the majority of cruselines now have some sort of eat when you want  program, we have hardly ever had a meal with others on any cruise (if I have to hear: "what did you use to do for a living?" one more time).  I find cruiselines to be like airlines generally the same.  For us the one of the main things about cruising is being on the water, hearing the water, seeing the water, because of this fact we can take a lot of inconsistent service, etc.  Food quality -  on our 15 oct/nov cruise excellent jumbo shrimp every night at the buffet, on our jan cruise shrimp only one time at the buffet on a 10 day cruise. Food/service varies.  We look at a lot of factors when cruising but number one is price.  Heck for a cheap cruise we will even go to Roataan, yeah really we are that frugal.

Edited February 7, 2019 by Newleno

[jeffjeffjeffjeff]

Newleno

 

You know that we can all see the unedited posts because I quoted you .... sorry lol

 

"NCL is great" is the best edit to a quote ever.

[Kmkub]

On 1/23/2019 at 3:08 PM, jeffjeffjeffjeff said:

Not going to do that, but I'm also not going to pretend that NCL didn't screw up.  

It's possible their initial testing showed everything was good for X height, but later discovered that in some odd/rare circumstance, the driver of X height got thrown from the car or something, so legal immediately made them change requirement to Y height. This is why they have height restrictions on amusement rides. It's about how the person can engage with the seat belt.

 

Very large people have this issue on rides. They are simply too big to fit into the seat belt and/or seat.

 

There was a reason for this decision, and it's likely about saving lives.

 

Your over-50 people sometimes misbehave is a very silly analogy.

 

People have died on amusement rides by ignoring all the safety guidance. 

 

The customer isn't always right. 

[NowHeather]

47 minutes ago, jeffjeffjeffjeff said:

NCL is the best cruise line EVER! I Love them!!!

Funny thing is jeffjeff that quoted text can be changed by the person doing the quoting... just saying...

[jeffjeffjeffjeff]

7 minutes ago, Kmkub said:

It's possible their initial testing showed everything was good for X height, but later discovered that in some odd/rare circumstance, the driver of X height got thrown from the car or something, so legal immediately made them change requirement to Y height. This is why they have height restrictions on amusement rides. It's about how the person can engage with the seat belt.

 

Very large people have this issue on rides. They are simply too big to fit into the seat belt and/or seat.

 

There was a reason for this decision, and it's likely about saving lives.

 

Your over-50 people sometimes misbehave is a very silly analogy.

 

People have died on amusement rides by ignoring all the safety guidance. 

 

The customer isn't always right. 

So they screwed up by setting the height wrong. Glad we agree 🙂 

[jeffjeffjeffjeff]

1 minute ago, NowHeather said:

Funny thing is jeffjeff that quoted text can be changed by the person doing the quoting... just saying...

Please fix that. while you can make it look like i said that I would really rather you didn't. 

 

NCL is not very good at all and it might mislead people. 

 

Thanks

 

[Kmkub]

1 minute ago, jeffjeffjeffjeff said:

So they screwed up by setting the height wrong. Glad we agree 🙂 

We agree that it was ultimately set too low, yes. Sometimes these rides go for several years with a restriction, and then some crazy situation presents that proves the restriction needs to be higher.

 

[jeffjeffjeffjeff]

1 minute ago, Kmkub said:

We agree that it was ultimately set too low, yes. Sometimes these rides go for several years with a restriction, and then some crazy situation presents that proves the restriction needs to be higher.

 

And when this happens the cruise line should notify people as expediently as possible. They should not pretend as if 55" was always the height while standing in front of the video screen that says 48" 

 

In my instance rumor has it that the change occurred before final payment by a brief time (NCL never did confirm the date so i have to go on internet rumors). Had I been notified i would have been on the Symphony instead. This is the exact reason they didn't tell people. 

[jeffjeffjeffjeff]

6 minutes ago, Kmkub said:

We agree that it was ultimately set too low, yes. Sometimes these rides go for several years with a restriction, and then some crazy situation presents that proves the restriction needs to be higher.

 

Also i don't know if you have been on the carts ( my guess would be no).  Had anyone at NCL sat a 48" person in the cart it would have been apparent that they were not tall enough. Seeing my son in the double cart it was clear he would not have been able to reach the pedals. 

 

Anyway, not about to tumble down that rat hole again. We can simply agree to disagree when it comes to how good of a job NCL does. You can continue to enjoy your vacations where you wish and I will enjoy mine on ships owned by other companies 🙂

 

Cheers

[Kmkub]

1 minute ago, jeffjeffjeffjeff said:

And when this happens the cruise line should notify people as expediently as possible. They should not pretend as if 55" was always the height while standing in front of the video screen that says 48" 

 

In my instance rumor has it that the change occurred before final payment by a brief time (NCL never did confirm the date so i have to go on internet rumors). Had I been notified i would have been on the Symphony instead. This is the exact reason they didn't tell people. 

I'm sorry you are disappointed.  Suggestion for future planning - figure out what is important and what is optional and go from there.

 

I love my kids, but I would never choose a particular ship on any fleet because they had one unique option that my child may get to use 2 or 3 times.

 

(Have you ever seen the lines for some of these things on NCL? The waits are seriously long, and waiting for a second turn could be an all-day adventure.) 

 

My kids rode each of the water slides on the Getaway, once. That took a good chunk of their day. They never went back.