a funny thing happened on my prima transatlantic...

[bmwman]

On 5/23/2023 at 3:05 AM, UKstages said:

i was enjoying my cruise very much when, after leaving sydney, cape breton on day 4, we hit stormy weather and somewhat rough seas. that’s not a problem; i’m used to that. homey ain’t afraid of no boat rockin’. but when i tried to go to sleep, i noticed that the cabin was making unusual noises that i hadn’t heard before… on this or any ship. it sounded to me like i was onboard a ship built of wood in the 1900s (which is ironic since i had just visited the titanic exhibition at the maritime museum in halifax a day earlier).

 

there was constant creaking and popping, about once every two or three seconds, easily twenty to thirty times a minute. it was impossible to sleep. i put on noise canceling headphones and could still hear the noise. i put on music and listened through my noise canceling headphones and still heard a cacophony of creaking. i tossed and turned and didn’t sleep all night.

The Prima has not been to Australia according to the records I have reviewed - am I wrong 

[DMP609]

2 hours ago, bmwman said:

The Prima has not been to Australia according to the records I have reviewed - am I wrong 

Hello! Sydney, Cape Breton is in Nova Scotia, Canada.

[ontheweb]

55 minutes ago, DMP609 said:

Hello! Sydney, Cape Breton is in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Yes, we've been in that port and had a wonderful time.

[dexddd]

16 hours ago, retiring soon said:

Hi all!

 

In regards to your compensation you did much better than we did on the April 20th Dawn cruise from New York City to Southampton. We were supposed to stop in St John's Newfoundland and St Pierre-Miquelon, the two ports I was really looking forward to & they were canceled and all the compensation we got was $50 on board credit per cabin. I would have thought we should at least get the port fees back but I've been emailing Norwegian and they're not budging.

We missed Port in Scotland on Prima and got nothing.

[dexddd]

9 hours ago, Heartfelttraveler said:

We were in the Owner's Suite on the Spirit in July 2019.  The shaking and noise was so bad whenever the ship exceeded 16 knots it was crazy.  We left Southampton about 10 hours late and the ship was doing 19-21 knots for several days.  I emailed our NCL cruise consultant with a few iphone videos.  Within a few hours we had a manager in our suite profusely apologizing.  Our friends in a veranda had the same problem.  We were both given a percentage of our cruise fare in future cruise credits.  

We felt this was very fair of NCL.

PS - I broke my foot in Southampton the night before the cruise.  I had a prescription painkiller and I slept like a baby.

We had the same room in late 2016 and the shaking kicked in around 20 knots.  Like bad vibrating with all glasses rattling, room shaking, thought prop was going to break.  We had CC member do visit and thought it was crazy.  Luckily only about 12 hours whole trip.  Other issue ignored was very poor shower pressure until mentioned at Captain party then magically fixed.

 

Otherwise, other than small balcony, we liked the room.  They are currently selling that room next year for $33,500 for 16 day trip if interested.  No thanks.

[UKstages]

On 5/26/2023 at 11:13 PM, AtSeaAlways said:

So if there is storm, is that a failed product?

 

by definition, if the cruise line has offered you a good will service recovery in the form of future cruise credit, they are stating that the cruise failed to meet guest expectations. the cruise line can not control weather and is not responsible for weather. immediately before offering the opinion that they make you consume more of the failed product, i stated that NCL was not required to give anything. The point, as @insidecabin mentioned, is that the service recovery is in the form of FCC and not a credit to your folio.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bmwman]

11 hours ago, DMP609 said:

Hello! Sydney, Cape Breton is in Nova Scotia, Canada.

 

11 hours ago, DMP609 said:

Hello! Sydney, Cape Breton is in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Oh sorry never heard of it live in the fog ridden badlands of old London town 

[insidecabin]

5 hours ago, UKstages said:

 

by definition, if the cruise line has offered you a good will service recovery in the form of future cruise credit, they are stating that the cruise failed to meet guest expectations. the cruise line can not control weather and is not responsible for weather. immediately before offering the opinion that they make you consume more of the failed product, i stated that NCL was not required to give anything. The point, as @insidecabin mentioned, is that the service recovery is in the form of FCC and not a credit to your folio.

The package regulation that covers non conformance.

 

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/634/regulation/16

 

Refund/adjustment should still happen for non conforming due to weather, they are not required to give compensation/damages

 

I think many just take weather adjustments  as part of a cruise and as long as the cruise line tries to do it's best accept it.

 

[DCGuy64]

On 5/25/2023 at 8:17 PM, UKstages said:

it was all-consuming and deleterious to one's health. and several others have come along to corroborate this, with one saying he "almost went mad" and that it affected his "enjoyment, mood and attitude." it is - apparently - a serious design flaw with the prima and affects a considerable number of rooms.

If enough people bring this to NCL's attention, it should be fixed at the first dry dock. I haven't had a chance to peruse many of the Prima reviews yet, but if what you say is true and many passengers had the same experience as yours, it certainly sounds like something worth investigating and fixing.

[graphicguy]

On 5/22/2023 at 11:30 PM, wncretired said:

You need to write a book! (wait, you just did!)

I know this was not funny to you, but to me (the reader), it is hilarious!!

🤬🤬😢😢😂😂

I skimmed it, but TLDR!  

 

Hope whatever (if ever) went wrong, was taken care of.

[mountbiker]

On 5/22/2023 at 11:11 PM, UKstages said:

oh, geez. i see i have an email from corporate that came in today. i took a quick glance. it appears to be very much a pro forma canned response. they kind of lost me when they referred to me as a “shareholder.” i am not. and they seem to have got other key details wrong. sheesh.

 

i’m still a bit loopy. i’ve been sleeping well in the new room, but i had such a deficit that i’m still not fully recovered. in fact, i fell asleep on a tour bus yesterday. i didn’t have the most engaging tour guide, but that had very little to do with it.

 

so, i’m going to go enjoy the rest of my cruise(s) now.

 

you kids behave yourselves.

 

i’m sure the usual suspects will be along soon to tell me what a nutter i am and also how brilliant i am. i’m sure there will be those who will demand to know why i let this go on so long and others who will wonder how NCL could let this go on so long. i think marc spijkerboer is likely to see increased traffic to his linkedin profile. and i’m sure it won’t be long before cruise critic runs a feature article on how to make your ship’s bathroom floor the most comfortable it can be. they will reveal shocking details on which lines have the most spacious floors and which have oversized toilets that obstruct the footprint and pose an obstacle to a good night’s sleep.

 

and some forum folks, i’m sure, will want to know how much i tipped the security officers who stormed the new room and interrogated me.

 

i adore you all.

 

(except for the ones i have on ignore... them, not so much.)

So we were in a 2 bd rm haven. Constant tap noise from balcony doors. No amount of fiddling seemed to help

[UKstages]

hey, hi there… it’s me again… the OP.

 

i’m back with a few more posts and an update in which i tie up loose ends and tell you how the rest of the trip went.

 

it was lovely… certainly, there were no sleep disruptions. and while the weather did not cooperate till the very end of the cruise (amsterdam, zeebrugge and southampton), a good time was had by most. and the scenery (mountains, fjords, waterfalls) was truly spectacular in several ports. i had a five-night land-based holiday in london following the end of this cruise, so i’m only just now getting around to checking in with cruise critic and tending to more mundane tasks.

 

i can tell you one thing, for sure.  after 21 days at sea, i was in for a rude awakening. if you learn anything from me, it should be this… don’t try to use your cruise card for payment at any of the restaurants or bars in london. turns out, they won’t accept it… it’s no good off the ship. who knew? they expected me to pay for everything i ordered… both food and beverage.

 

what is wrong with these people? (i asked to speak with a manager.)

 

i’ve published a rather comprehensive review of my B2B on the prima and that can be found here…

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2944111-i-spent-21-days-onboard-ncl-prima-here-is-my-prima-facie-case-for-the-good-the-bad-and-the-fugly/

[UKstages]

first off, i can now reveal, as i promised i would upthread, that the room with the horrible disruptive noise at high seas is cabin 11344.

 

avoid this room at all costs!

 

here is a recording of the noise, made on the second night this problem presented itself... 

 

 

 

 

[UKstages]

i’m sure there will be some who will say “that’s nothing! that’s just normal cabin noise. you’re just a cantankerous curmudgeon who likes to complain.” and there will be others who will finally see how disruptive and sleep depriving this was…  to have to listen to this for hours and days on end.

 

bear in mind, that the actual noise is much louder than the recording, but the recording gives you a good idea of how annoying it is. the recording is just under two minutes; please listen to the whole thing so you get an idea for how persistent, yet random, the noise is.

 

and imagine that there are a number of cabins on the prima inflicted with this problem… so many that they are documented in their database… and yet these cabins continue to be sold. and NCL has no executable plan for what to do when somebody reports this noise, even on a ship that’s not sold out and that has vacant cabins.

 

that ain’t no way to run a railroad, er, i mean cruise ship line.

[YVRteacher]

OMG! It’s like there was a bongo player with no rhythm in your cabin walls! 
 

I certainly didn’t imagine it was that bad. Now that you have shared the sound, I don’t think NCL did enough to compensate you nor did they act quickly enough.

 

I truly admire your ability to still enjoy aspects of your cruise. You sound like a great person and I hope to meet you on board one day.

Edited June 17, 2023 by YVRteacher

[UKstages]

for what it’s worth, i never heard from the assistant GM again and i never heard from the GM at all. so much for the suggestion of getting together for a cup of coffee or a drink or a meal to learn my perspective on all that is right and wrong with the prima. i was told that it wouldn’t be possible on the first cruise, as they were busy preparing for visiting ports the ship had never been to before, but, for sure, on the second cruise when all the excitement had died down and they both had time, the assistant GM said they would be very interested in doing that.

 

well, it never happened, for whatever reason. i don’t think it’s because of any malicious intent… that she consciously avoided me.  i just think it’s because nobody pays any attention to details or follow-up on the prima and they only handle problems in the here and now… at this very moment… they are never interested in examining underlying causes or fixing things for the long term. they’re always moving on to the next disaster and never doing a post mortem on how to make things better on an ongoing basis. it’s crisis management all day long on the prima, with no long term planning.

[UKstages]

as for that $500 credit that they promised me… interesting story there.

 

i was told i would have a $500 credit. i asked whether it would be FCC or OBC. and i was told, “no, it’s a direct credit toward your bill.” that suggested to me that i would get a $500 cash credit to pay down my bill.

 

not so fast.

 

i didn’t get any such $500 credit.

 

they said it was coming from corporate so it would take at least 24 hours.

 

after three days, i went to guest services and they confirmed there was no $500 credit. they basically said, “this is a corporate thing, we can’t help you.”

 

it wasn’t until a day or so before the cruise ended that i figured out what had happened.

 

it is customary at the end of a comped casino cruise to “settle up” your account. you see a host, who credits the convenience charges you may have incurred for transferring money to your account (that’s an elite status player perk). he or she will also look at your play and give you some sort of comp in the form of nonrefundable OBC… it’s like a small percentage loss rebate and it’s meant for you to go shopping in the onboard retail outlets and get something indulgent.

 

you’ll often see casino players running around in the late hours of the last day at sea buying liquor and jewelry and making other indiscriminate purchases. if you have charges like shore excursions or specialty dining or whatnot, they can zero those out and consume your OBC against that balance. it’s all based on your play or actual loss and it could be anywhere from a hundred bucks to a couple of thousand dollars (or more) for serious players.

 

my problem, if you can call it that, is that i already had a considerable amount of OBC on my account… $800 from casino status perks (two cruises X $400 each cruise), plus some bank of america credit card OBC which i had ordered. (prior to the cruise, i had figured out how much my excursions would cost and i made sure i would have enough to cover it. NCL excursions are expensive, but with the latitudes 15% discount, plus the $50 off, plus the fact that i’d be using “monopoly money” to pay for them, they become viable.)

 

after i shopped… i bought some tee shirts and hoodies as gifts, a bottle of liquor, a camera and some accessories from the photo gallery, a few more tchotchkes… i checked my bill and the host had not credited out all my purchases. i went back and told her she had made a mistake. and she explained, no, that was all she could take off because i had so much nonrefundable OBC.

 

say what?

 

earlier in the cruise, because of port cancellations, i had about $300 in nonrefundable OBC returned to me because those excursions never took place. i knew that and went and purchased a $321 bottle of mccallan enigma whiskey to make up the difference. what was this about additional nonrefundable credit?

 

when i looked closely, i did see a line item on my bill for nonrefundable OBC of $300. and an additional line item on the next day for refundable OBC of $200. i guess that was supposed to be the $500 “cash” credit. there was no description of what these OBC deposits to my account were for… none. it just said “refundable OBC” and “nonrefundable OBC.”

 

now in the general scheme of things, you might be thinking… what’s the difference? you got your damn $500 credit.

 

well, the difference is that OBC is not “cash” and nonrefundable OBC is one step removed from that. so, i had to scramble on the last night to get three hundred bucks worth of overpriced doodads and trinkets and tchotchkes, most of which held little actual value, few of which i actually wanted or needed.

[YVRteacher]

Time to write a letter to NCL! (I’m not joking or being sarcastic.)

[UKstages]

so, the $500 corporate offered me as a “make good” for service recovery and which was described as a “credit to my bill” was really only worth $300 or so in real value. 

 

that’s one thing.

 

the other, perhaps more important thing is this: NCL’s invoice system sucks… my bill was four pages long and you need an advanced degree in mathematics and psychology to figure it out. who divides a credit into refundable and nonrefundable OBC without telling the customer? who enters a $500 credit in two separate transactions on two different days? NCL, that’s who.

 

it’s easy to see why the average bear couldn’t find that $500 credit on the invoice, especially since that bear had a large number of other OBC deposits to his account. this bear was not looking for a $300 or $200 credit!

 

that’s not all… the DSC or OSC as it is now known was applied correctly, in the sense that the correct number of charges were made… but some days there were no charges at all. on other days there were two or three “service charges.” who bills like that? NCL does.

 

again, if you count them all up… the charges are correct. but can you imagine the dozens or hundreds of inquiries guest services has to handle from people asking why they were charged two or three times on one day for what is supposed to be a daily service charge?  if they would make that one change to their invoice system they could eliminate thousands of visits to guest services over the course of a year, tens of thousands, fleet-wide.

 

they also use questionable designations and euphemisms on the bill. the fee for charging money to your account in the casino is not listed as a “casino convenience fee” but as an “entertainment convenience fee.” the deposit to your account is an “entertainment charge.” they’re charging for entertainment now on NCL ships? do tell.

 

a liquor purchase is listed as “gift shop.” and so are jewelry purchases and cosmetic purchases and purchases from the actual gift shop. i suspect that’s because all those shops may be run by the same concessionaire, so it makes sense from an accounting perspective, but it’s confusing when you try to reconcile your bill if you know you haven’t purchased anything in a “gift shop.”

 

most confusingly, the $50 FAS excursion benefit is listed as a “reversal of free at sea credit.” say what? they’re reversing a credit? no they are not… they are applying a credit. the “reversal” of a credit is a charge! it makes no sense. and it makes it very difficult to reconcile the bill, particularly since the charge for the excursion is posted on a different day than the $50 "credit."

 

the problem may be that these charges were coded and labeled by engineers or programmers who set up the system years ago. the designations and descriptions make sense from a programmer’s or accountant’s perspective. everybody at NCL understands what these words mean… but they are not customer friendly and cause confusion and invariably drive traffic to the guest services desk. who would ever think that a “reversal of a credit” was in fact a credit?

[UKstages]

these would normally be easy things to fix… but nobody at NCL is focused on such things. they are all running around trying to fix problems as they occur, whether they be a noisy cabin, a steep gangway, or a closure of a public space for a private event. but they never stop to regroup and rethink and figure out how to fix the underlying problem so that it never happens again and doesn’t inconvenience future guests and waste more senior officers’ time.

 

that’s the biggest problem with NCL… very little forward thinking.

[UKstages]

2 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

Time to write a letter to NCL! (I’m not joking or being sarcastic.)

 

thanks for the support.

 

yes, a letter to VP of guest services in miami was written while onboard. i first mention this in post #11 on page one of this thread. i sent the email on a friday, if memory serves and received a response on monday. it resulted in a $500 credit (sort of), as you can see from the most recent posts above.

 

but it also became clear that what the ship's team told corporate was very different than what they were telling me. and it pointed out that the folks in corporate don't really understand how to compensate casino customers. $500 is a lot for a free cruise that only cost me about 1K in out of pocket pre-cruise fees and taxes. but it is very small compensation when you look at my overall spend on this B2B.

[smillerholmes]

7 minutes ago, UKstages said:

the problem may be that these charges were coded and labeled by engineers or programmers who set up the system years ago. the designations and descriptions make sense from a programmer’s or accountant’s perspective. everybody at NCL understands what these words mean… but they are not customer friendly and cause confusion and invariably drive traffic to the guest services desk. who would ever think that a “reversal of a credit” was in fact a credit?

On my last cruise my invoice was extremely long as well and I gave up trying to figure out the "credits" and "reversal of a credit", but vowed that I would reconcile day to day on my next cruise so the next time it doesn't happen.  It's annoying and I can't speak for others, but it leaves me feeling cheated even if the numbers all work out.  I'm usually up early anyway and I will just pop by Guest Services when there is no line until that gets to be more annoying than trying to figure out my bill (probably day 3...)

 

Glad to hear your trip ended better than it started!

[UKstages]

thanks... trip definitely got better even if the weather didn't cooperate until the final three days. and i had a great london theatre holiday, as well.

 

i agree with you that reviewing an NCL invoice it does make you feel cheated and, perhaps, disillusioned. the problem with reconciling the bill is that charges and credits often appear on different days from when the charge was made or the credit awarded.

[IsanTom]

On 5/22/2023 at 11:17 PM, ChiefMateJRK said:

Yikes.  I gave up about halfway through.  I book steerage, pack ear plugs and fully utilize the beverage package.  I always sleep like a baby and wake up READY TO GO.😎

I love it! Thanks

[tcrandal]

17 hours ago, UKstages said:

first off, i can now reveal, as i promised i would upthread, that the room with the horrible disruptive noise at high seas is cabin 11344.

 

avoid this room at all costs!

 

here is a recording of the noise, made on the second night this problem presented itself... 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for posting noise, was definitely curious about it for our cruise this week, now I’m relieved to know that our white noise machine (you can alternatively use an app) will easily mask any issues with that. I would highly recommend people to look into that if they encounter similar issues. Not much different than hotels that we stayed in with thin walls and floors that you could hear everything all night long, so we now travel with a small white noise machine and sleep blissfully through any noise. Our secondary mitigation would be noise cancelling earbuds, but that would have to be an extreme issue. I recall the hanger issue keeping us up all night in our early days of cruising, until we learned to remove all empty hangers from the bar in the closet.