Is there a Cruise line that cruise Hawaii only without days at sea from USA or Canada

[Tljcruiser]

15 minutes ago, steveknj said:

 

Glad to see your recent review, since I know that there have been differences that I have noticed on NCL since the pandemic on two "more traditional" ships, the Breakaway and Getaway that we sailed on last year.   Still had a wonderful time, but those ships felt understaffed (even though the ship on one of those cruises was half empty) and they seem to cut down on activities.  For a cruise on the POA, I don't even NEED a lot of those things.   A cabin, food and really not much more.   By lacking customer service skills can you provide an example of where you saw that?   I've seen that sort of thing happen on other ships as well, and trying to gauge if it is much worse than anything else I've seen.

I meant to do an actual review but life got in the way once we got home!  Maybe I will get around to it.  The main things that we  had issues with were service related that I chalked up to this ship being America staffed and just different.  I hope what we experienced is not fleet wide on NCL.  It has been years since we have cruised with them. 

When we arrived our cabin was not clean.  The beds were made, but there was so much dust on every wooden surface that you could write your name.  There were bits of paper and stuff in the floor, just looked like it hadn't been vacuumed.  The mirrors had handprints all over them.  My mom walked down to guest services to ask if we could get it gone over again and discussed with the person at guest services that we had read online that there had been an outbreak of norovirus the week prior, so we just want to make sure the room was cleaned sufficiently.  The guest service agent did not deny the outbreak.  He asked her to go back to the room and stay until someone came to inspect.  So she sat in the room for over an hour and then went back down.  She spoke with a different agent who was rude and said all the rooms were throughly cleaned and that there had been no cases of noro the week prior.  He sent her back to the room but a supervisor came fairly quickly.  She ran her finger across the cabinet and when dust flew everywhere she apologized and said the room would be cleaned while we were at dinner.  We left at that point and came back a few hours later to a cleaner room but it was 10:00 pm and the bed had not been made for my daughter.  We had no idea how to assemble it and had no linens.  Had to call beck to guest services and ask for the bed to be made.  Our room attended came at this point and made up the bed.  We explained that we have 3 people in the room and would need towels for 3 at this point there were only 2 towels and 2 wash clothes.  We had to keep asking all week for an additional towel and wash cloth.  He just kept leaving 2 all week long.  The only time we had enough towels would be if we saw the cart outside and just took what we needed.  It was very odd. 

We only ate in the dining room twice but both times it took an extremely long time to be waited on and served.  Both times we had to ask for bread it was not automatically brought and both times did not receive it until our entrees arrived.  Both times water glasses were left empty for long periods of time.  Both times at least one of us did not enjoy our entree and did not eat much, we did not want anything else, but on any other cruise I have been on the server would notice and encourage the guest to order something else.  I have had this happen several times on other ships when I have just been too full to finish, they are always concerned that I did not like what I ordered and want to bring something else.

 

Another issue was the towel stand closes really early.  Usually you are able to get a clean towel in the evening if you want to swim or sit on deck or whatever.  We went to get beach towels around 6 one day, found the towel stand closed.  There was a lady cleaning up the ice cream stand right beside the towel station who was super nice..  She noticed us with our wet towels and asked if we needed help.  We explained we just needed new beach towels.  She said they were closed but to go to guest services they could exchange them for us.  So we walked downstairs where we were met with disdain it seemed for thinking they could give us towels.  There were two agents at guest services and both were rude and acted like we were bothering them asking for towels.  We were onboard over the 4th and on 7/4 we stuck around Hilo harbor to watch their fireworks display, which was great!  It was a little chilly on deck and would have been great to have a towel to cover up with.  All the ships I have been on in the past have a towel stand open for night swimming, or movies on deck that people want to use a towel for.  

The day we tendered, we walked down to get the tender tickets and were told to go directly to deck 3 to disembark once our number was called.  I asked to verify this again because that was NOT was printed in the Daily for instructions on how to tender the night before.   It stated to go to deck 5 prior to getting on tender.  Our number was called so we went down to deck four as that was a far as the elevator went and were going to walk down the steps to 3 but there was a long line and people were not happy that we were "trying to cut". we were just following the assistant cruise director's instructions that she gave us when they handed us the tickets.  So we went back upstairs to 5 (as the written instructions said) to  join the line and hand over our tickets.  It just seemed like they do this every week all the crew members should know the process.  

In the buffet restaurant the ice machines were often out of ice and there were many times that you would need to go to various drink stations in order to find clean cups.  There is apparently not enough cups to go around.  

One morning when we were getting off it was raining a little and they were selling ponchos as you left.  They were wrapped in plastic and I could see the NCL logo on the package but I couldn't tell if it was on the poncho and just visible thought the plastic or if it was on the wrapping.  I was just curios if it was a think plastic poncho with a logo or if it was a thin plastic dollar tree poncho that would tear after 1 use.  (it was the latter). I picked one up just to look at it closer, I did not open the package.  The crew member selling them told me not to touch it if I was't going to buy it.  It was so absurd I thought he was joking but he didn't appreciate me laughing. A few years ago on a Disney cruise when it rained they passed out the nice thick Disney parks ponchos as we disembarked for free.  I was just trying to see if it was like that or not.  I can't imagine any other crew member on another ship fussing at a passenger for looking at an item for sale.  Again I never removed it from the package. 

Overall it wasn't anything horrible, but just a general lack of service and several crew members who seem like they could care less about the guests onboard experience.  It was just different from any cruise I have been on in the past.  We have sailed several times since covid and have seen a little difference in the crew seemingly being overworked but this did not feel like that.  As I stated we did not have very high expectations for the actual cruise experience after reading reviews of the ship so we were prepared and it was fine.  It was just a whole lot of money for subpar service.  It was a way to see multiple islands without the hassle of packing/unpacking and having to fly to various places so I don't regret it, but I hope that their other ships do better! 

[mskaufman]

I have a review of NCL POA from last week (7/8 - 15) on the NCL Board.