Goodbye NCL and Possibly Cruising Altogether Rant One

[mjkacmom]

16 hours ago, MajSteve said:

Goodbye NCL Rant Three

Things That Went Absolutely Wrong:

The Weather: OK, I am well aware that NCL has no control over the weather.

(I thought the cruisers in the Haven Class did that sort of thing.)

The outdoor areas were closed for 6 out of the 9 Sea Days. Oh, you could sit out there if you enjoyed rain, hail, and 50 mph winds. 

The port stop at Gibraltar was cancelled due to some mysterious engine trouble.

The embarkation at Port Canaveral was a nightmare. 2 hours and 15 minutes in a line, outside just waiting to get into the terminal. Three hours to actually set a foot on the ship and then another hour and a half before the cabins were ready. Pictures attached. No excuse for this NCL; Not even water stations available during the wait. Our supposed "embarkation times" assigned meant nothing.

The gift shop did not contain one item related to our cruise. Only Caribbean items. Who wants to go on a TA cruise and purchase a Virgin Islands T-shirt? Think I am getting snarky? Just wait!

 

To be fair, your issue is with the port, ncl doesn’t own it or staff it. No one is given an embark time, just a check in time. Boarding starts when the ship is disembarked, sometimes things go wrong.

[DCGuy64]

The two areas where I can sympathize with @MajSteve are these:

1. Bartender issues

2. Embarkation

It's well known to anyone who uses Cruise Critic that NCL doesn't monitor check-in times. In fact, nearly every time someone asks about 'what time should I show up,' most people on here will say 'whenever you feel like it.' Well guess what? That means EVERYBODY SHOWS UP AT THE SAME TIME. IMHO, NCL should start strictly enforcing the check-in times to stop these bottlenecks.

The bartender issue is a legitimate gripe, and I really think it comes down to poor staffing. It took a VERY long time to get drinks on our last cruise. The Shakers Martini bar had 2 bartenders for about 50-60 guests, maybe even more than that. They just couldn't keep up.

[coka]

MajSteve, I am interested in reading further about your cruise.  I have not sailed NCL in quite some years and I am interested in knowing what you think the positives and the negatives were on your sailing.  Writing takes time...I understand!

Coka

 

[asctony]

8 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

The two areas where I can sympathize with @MajSteve are these:

1. Bartender issues

2. Embarkation

It's well known to anyone who uses Cruise Critic that NCL doesn't monitor check-in times. In fact, nearly every time someone asks about 'what time should I show up,' most people on here will say 'whenever you feel like it.' Well guess what? That means EVERYBODY SHOWS UP AT THE SAME TIME. IMHO, NCL should start strictly enforcing the check-in times to stop these bottlenecks.

The bartender issue is a legitimate gripe, and I really think it comes down to poor staffing. It took a VERY long time to get drinks on our last cruise. The Shakers Martini bar had 2 bartenders for about 50-60 guests, maybe even more than that. They just couldn't keep up.

This happens on almost all cruise lines today. Staff have been cut back. People disregard times, too.

Happy Cruising on any Cruise Line!

[mjkacmom]

7 minutes ago, asctony said:

This happens on almost all cruise lines today. Staff have been cut back. People disregard times, too.

Happy Cruising on any Cruise Line!

And the vast majority of cruisers never heard of CC so it’s not like they know check in times aren’t enforced.

[schmoopie17]

17 hours ago, MajSteve said:

 

 

 

 

 

NCL is really screwing up the embarkation process. Not only taking two hours, but making people be upside-down that long is beyond comprehension.

[ontheweb]

8 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

NCL is really screwing up the embarkation process. Not only taking two hours, but making people be upside-down that long is beyond comprehension.

Now that was funny! Maybe it would make more sense if the cruise was "down under" in Australia, and those were of course passengers from North America and Europe.

[marrashadow]

We experienced a long wait on HAL for embarkation and often these times are based on activity at port. And how organized passengers are with the paperwork needed to board. I watch 6 people stop at counter then began digging through luggage. We had ours in hand and we got the sweetest smile from the woman checking us in. You are waiting at least 20 minutes and even with the signs everywhere you can't get your items ready beforehand? Lines are mostly cruisers fault. Debarking is different as often that is border agent staffing which cruise lines do not control. That being said on any ship, rooms won't be ready until at least 1pm so if you want to be able to access your room once you board opt for times late in afternoon.

 

Bartenders will tend to go towards those who are nice to them or tip them. Take a few minutes when they aren't busy to chat and possibly provide a small tip and you will find your service expedited as a general principal you will find that with most cruise staff kindness counts.

 

 

[mjkacmom]

3 minutes ago, marrashadow said:

We experienced a long wait on HAL for embarkation and often these times are based on activity at port. And how organized passengers are with the paperwork needed to board. I watch 6 people stop at counter then began digging through luggage. We had ours in hand and we got the sweetest smile from the woman checking us in. You are waiting at least 20 minutes and even with the signs everywhere you can't get your items ready beforehand? Lines are mostly cruisers fault. Debarking is different as often that is border agent staffing which cruise lines do not control. That being said on any ship, rooms won't be ready until at least 1pm so if you want to be able to access your room once you board opt for times late in afternoon.

 

Bartenders will tend to go towards those who are nice to them or tip them. Take a few minutes when they aren't busy to chat and possibly provide a small tip and you will find your service expedited as a general principal you will find that with most cruise staff kindness counts.

 

 

We’ve been held up at embarking due to a shortage of border agents which held up disembarking.

[marrashadow]

Just now, mjkacmom said:

We’ve been held up at embarking due to a shortage of border agents which held up disembarking.

Which again is not a cruise line staffing issue but border control. High volume ports with multiple ships leaving means less agents to go around add to that unprepared passengers and what should take a minute or two per passenger takes much longer.

[The Traveling Man]

2 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

We’ve been held up at embarking due to a shortage of border agents which held up disembarking.

So have we, several times at several different ports.  Ship happens.

[DCGuy64]

58 minutes ago, asctony said:

This happens on almost all cruise lines today. Staff have been cut back. People disregard times, too.

Happy Cruising on any Cruise Line!

Not true of our last cruise. OK, so it was MSC in the Yacht Club, but still: it isn't true that every cruise line has problems with serving drinks in a timely manner. 😉 I *do* think they could beef up the staff to speed up the wait times, though.

 

35 minutes ago, marrashadow said:

You are waiting at least 20 minutes and even with the signs everywhere you can't get your items ready beforehand? Lines are mostly cruisers fault.

More of the "I'm on vacation, I don't want to think" mentality. 🤣

[asctony]

Just now, DCGuy64 said:

Not true of our last cruise. OK, so it was MSC in the Yacht Club, but still: it isn't true that every cruise line has problems with serving drinks in a timely manner. 😉 I *do* think they could beef up the staff to speed up the wait times, though.

 

More of the "I'm on vacation, I don't want to think" mentality. 🤣

OMG! I never said all! I said most!

Diamond on MSC and if you are not in the Yacht Club drink service is very slow. Been Cruising MSC since 2009.

[DCGuy64]

2 minutes ago, asctony said:

OMG! I never said all! I said most!

Diamond on MSC and if you are not in the Yacht Club drink service is very slow. Been Cruising MSC since 2009.

OMG I didn't say "all," either. 😉 I said "every." 🤣

[Beachcreature]

12 hours ago, fredflint said:

Well with everyone having a free drink package having fewer bartenders lowers the cost.  🙂

I am generally defensive of NCL and have enjoyed all of our 9 cruises with them.  One department, however, that needs improving is the whole drink package process.  You pre pay tips which is usually a plus for staff but when you order drinks, if you have the drink package with the prepaid tips you shouldn't have to tip again.  Once a server realizes that you are not tipping it seems that they prioritize other passengers that are tipping.  I don't have a solution but NCL needs to look into this or lose some loyal passengers.

[mjkacmom]

2 hours ago, Beachcreature said:

I am generally defensive of NCL and have enjoyed all of our 9 cruises with them.  One department, however, that needs improving is the whole drink package process.  You pre pay tips which is usually a plus for staff but when you order drinks, if you have the drink package with the prepaid tips you shouldn't have to tip again.  Once a server realizes that you are not tipping it seems that they prioritize other passengers that are tipping.  I don't have a solution but NCL needs to look into this or lose some loyal passengers.

As someone who tips for every drink, I’m fine with the situation.

[ontheweb]

3 hours ago, The Traveling Man said:

So have we, several times at several different ports.  Ship happens.

Here is the possibly worst ever "ship happens" story.

 

A hurricane kept us out of Fort Lauderdale on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend until Labor Day. There were now too many ships disembarking passengers that day and way too few immigration agents. And pretty much everybody now had to get off early to get to the airport and hope to fly standby. I know we changed from the tags for a 2 PM flight to the ones for earliest disembarkation.

 

So they called the first tag, and the lounge was very full. And no one was let off yet before they called the second tag. And now it was wall to wall people and one could hardly breathe. Finally, there was an announcement by the cruise line (RCCL) and everyone expected it to say that disembarkation was about to start. Instead they said it was the last chances to buy photographs. That led to a lot of muttering saying I will never again sail with them.

 

And of course the airport was hell. We were lucky and managed to be the last 2 called to board as standby for the next flight (2 PM just like our original 2 days before.) But while waiting for the airline agents, I did hear people who had been told that there would be no possible flight for them until the next day screaming at the poor airline agents.

 

 

[graphicguy]

Just as an FYI, Port Canaveral has always had issues with embarkation.  Pier 88 in NY is another.  And, last but not least, SEATAC (Seattle) is the other.

 

None of those seem to have their port personnel "together".

 

However, these are port issues, not NCL (or any cruise lines') issues.

Edited April 23 by graphicguy

[DCGuy64]

25 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

That led to a lot of muttering saying I will never again sail with them.

I wonder how many people actually ever make good on that. Even on this site, I have seen people say such things, only to announce, with great fanfare a few weeks later, "I'm booked on 3 more cruises with them!" I tend to take such comments very much with a grain of salt.

[The Traveling Man]

18 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

Here is the possibly worst ever "ship happens" story.

 

Well, it seems that the OP has left the building and this thread already has been hijacked a dozen different ways, so here goes:

 

Your story concerns getting back to port in time for debarkation and travel to the airport for your trip home.  Not a bad story, lots of intrigue, dramatic plot twists and turns, I give it an eight. 

 

If we include all manner of travails which might befall a cruise passenger, though, I'll put my Star story up for contention for "worst ever."  In December 2016, the NCL Star was less than halfway through a 270 day "around the world" voyage.  They really didn't sail around the globe, just from Denmark, through the Suez Canal, to China, down to Australia, and finally back to the Star's next home port of Athens.  Leaving Singapore, one of the two Azipod propulsion units gave up the ghost.  Travel for the next month was slowed to half speed, meaning lots of missed ports, shortened times in port, etc.  Lots and lots of unhappy campers posted frequently on CC about their woes.  It  took a month of limping along before the itinerary brought the Star back to Singapore, where an unplanned couple of extra days in port resulted in the Azipod being repaired.  YAY!  Back to normal speed and the originally published itinerary.

 

That lasted barely 24 hours before the OTHER Azipod broke down.  Back to slow speed and missed ports throughout Southeast Asia.  We were following along, voraciously reading every post on the several CC roll calls for the various segments of the cruise.  We were booked to join the Star in Sydney in early February 2017.  By that time, NCL already had all but given up all hope.  They offered anyone on our cruise and the ones following ours a full refund, without penalty, to anyone who chose to cancel up to and including the very day prior to their scheduled embarkation. 

 

Well, we decided to stick to our plans.  NCL was offering some FCC, so even missing a few ports, it seemed like the thing to do.  We departed Sydney on time, but were unable to get to Melbourne as scheduled.  NCL gave us an unscheduled overnight stop in Melbourne, and another whole day to tour the city before we departed early in the evening of 9 February 2017.  We limped out of Melbourne on one propeller, bound for New Zealand, where almost half of our port stops already had been cancelled due to our slow speed.  About 1:00 AM on 10 February, I was awakened by an eerie stillness.  Yep, now both propellers were out of service and we were adrift in the Tasman Sea.

 

It took a couple of days before the tugboats that came to our rescue were able to get us back into Melbourne, where we enjoyed a lovely extended vacation in Australia.  They finally did get both Azipods repaired, and by the evening of Valentine's Day we were underway at full speed for Auckland, missing all of our intermediate ports in New Zealand (eight stops were planned, as I recall), making it into Auckland just in time to disembark our passengers and take on the next group, bound for Singapore.  We were B2B, so we were able to spend a day in Auckland before rejoining our ship.

 

So, we missed all those ports in New Zealand, but we received a ton of FCC, enough to afford another B2B to Australia and New Zealand the following year.  At the time, though, we thought this was the epitome of ship happens.

[DCGuy64]

1 hour ago, mjkacmom said:

As someone who tips for every drink, I’m fine with the situation.

As someone who doesn't, I'm not. Actually, I *do* pay gratuities, I've paid them as part of FAS. I resent being compelled to tip a 2nd time in order to actually get what I've already paid for. Imagine being asked to tip your waiter before you sit down, but to actually get him to bring your food, you have to tip AGAIN. Nope.

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, DCGuy64 said:

I wonder how many people actually ever make good on that. Even on this site, I have seen people say such things, only to announce, with great fanfare a few weeks later, "I'm booked on 3 more cruises with them!" I tend to take such comments very much with a grain of salt.

Neither of us were among the people saying we would never cruise with Royal Caribbean again, in fact at that time, our second cruise, it was the only line we had ever cruised on. But, as it turns out, we have not cruised with them again. But that is due to they started building ships that were much too large for our tastes.

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, ontheweb said:

Here is the possibly worst ever "ship happens" story.

 

A hurricane kept us out of Fort Lauderdale on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend until Labor Day. There were now too many ships disembarking passengers that day and way too few immigration agents. And pretty much everybody now had to get off early to get to the airport and hope to fly standby. I know we changed from the tags for a 2 PM flight to the ones for earliest disembarkation.

 

So they called the first tag, and the lounge was very full. And no one was let off yet before they called the second tag. And now it was wall to wall people and one could hardly breathe. Finally, there was an announcement by the cruise line (RCCL) and everyone expected it to say that disembarkation was about to start. Instead they said it was the last chances to buy photographs. That led to a lot of muttering saying I will never again sail with them.

 

And of course the airport was hell. We were lucky and managed to be the last 2 called to board as standby for the next flight (2 PM just like our original 2 days before.) But while waiting for the airline agents, I did hear people who had been told that there would be no possible flight for them until the next day screaming at the poor airline agents.

 

 

Let me slightly amend my story. Thinking back, it believe it was the Sunday of Labor Day Weekend, not the Saturday when we were supposed to dock. And since I am sure we got 2 extra days, the Tuesday after Labor Day when we finally reached Fort Lauderdale. Not that that really changes the story much.

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, The Traveling Man said:

Well, it seems that the OP has left the building and this thread already has been hijacked a dozen different ways, so here goes:

 

Your story concerns getting back to port in time for debarkation and travel to the airport for your trip home.  Not a bad story, lots of intrigue, dramatic plot twists and turns, I give it an eight. 

 

If we include all manner of travails which might befall a cruise passenger, though, I'll put my Star story up for contention for "worst ever."  In December 2016, the NCL Star was less than halfway through a 270 day "around the world" voyage.  They really didn't sail around the globe, just from Denmark, through the Suez Canal, to China, down to Australia, and finally back to the Star's next home port of Athens.  Leaving Singapore, one of the two Azipod propulsion units gave up the ghost.  Travel for the next month was slowed to half speed, meaning lots of missed ports, shortened times in port, etc.  Lots and lots of unhappy campers posted frequently on CC about their woes.  It  took a month of limping along before the itinerary brought the Star back to Singapore, where an unplanned couple of extra days in port resulted in the Azipod being repaired.  YAY!  Back to normal speed and the originally published itinerary.

 

That lasted barely 24 hours before the OTHER Azipod broke down.  Back to slow speed and missed ports throughout Southeast Asia.  We were following along, voraciously reading every post on the several CC roll calls for the various segments of the cruise.  We were booked to join the Star in Sydney in early February 2017.  By that time, NCL already had all but given up all hope.  They offered anyone on our cruise and the ones following ours a full refund, without penalty, to anyone who chose to cancel up to and including the very day prior to their scheduled embarkation. 

 

Well, we decided to stick to our plans.  NCL was offering some FCC, so even missing a few ports, it seemed like the thing to do.  We departed Sydney on time, but were unable to get to Melbourne as scheduled.  NCL gave us an unscheduled overnight stop in Melbourne, and another whole day to tour the city before we departed early in the evening of 9 February 2017.  We limped out of Melbourne on one propeller, bound for New Zealand, where almost half of our port stops already had been cancelled due to our slow speed.  About 1:00 AM on 10 February, I was awakened by an eerie stillness.  Yep, now both propellers were out of service and we were adrift in the Tasman Sea.

 

It took a couple of days before the tugboats that came to our rescue were able to get us back into Melbourne, where we enjoyed a lovely extended vacation in Australia.  They finally did get both Azipods repaired, and by the evening of Valentine's Day we were underway at full speed for Auckland, missing all of our intermediate ports in New Zealand (eight stops were planned, as I recall), making it into Auckland just in time to disembark our passengers and take on the next group, bound for Singapore.  We were B2B, so we were able to spend a day in Auckland before rejoining our ship.

 

So, we missed all those ports in New Zealand, but we received a ton of FCC, enough to afford another B2B to Australia and New Zealand the following year.  At the time, though, we thought this was the epitome of ship happens.

OK, that was bad, but I am going to argue for more than an 8 for my story. I will give 2 reasons. The first is being trapped in a lounge for embarkation when nobody is being allowed to leave and it is so packed that you can hardly breathe. And the second is the hell the airport was with no planes having arrived or departed for 2 days.

[The Traveling Man]

2 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

OK, that was bad, but I am going to argue for more than an 8 for my story. I will give 2 reasons. The first is being trapped in a lounge for embarkation when nobody is being allowed to leave and it is so packed that you can hardly breathe. And the second is the hell the airport was with no planes having arrived or departed for 2 days.

Okay, I'll nudge it up to a nine😄