Back from the Dream 4/8 sailing

[Drumrun]

Well, we are back from the 4/8 sailing of the Dream. In general we had a good time. True, the service and the food in the Four Seasons was bad. Other places better. The staff was great throughout the ship, but they seemed tired and overworked. The Bistro has the best food hands down and Jean Louis is a wonderful and classy Matre D. Well worth the extra $15 per person. My kids had a great time and were sorry the trip was over. My big complaint is not with the Dream itself or the staff BUT with NCL. We had a one-hour wait at the airport for our pre-paid transfer to the ship. Long line and no place to sit down, no water -- no nothin'. We were not greeted by Dream staff when we arrived but left to find our way to our cabin. $4.50 for a one liter bottle of water in the stateroom.....please! Internet costs .75 a minute with a $3.95 hook up fee AND it's the slowest connection I've had since 1997. 5 star hotels, starbucks and even Motel 6 has FREE wireless connection. It just felt like NCL had it's hand in my pocket the whole time trying to get every nickel they could. I have traveled the world in my business and have rarely felt this way. NCL will be my last sailing choice in the future.

[electricron]

About your complaints, all the cruise lines have similar policies.

So I guess you should stop cruising....

 

We had a one-hour wait at the airport for our pre-paid transfer to the ship. Long line and no place to sit down, no water -- no nothin'. $4.50 for a one liter bottle of water in the stateroom.....please! Internet costs .75 a minute with a $3.95 hook up fee AND it's the slowest connection I've had since 1997.

 

A one hour wait at the airport for the van/bus to fill isn't abnormal. You shouldn't expect taxi services from a van or bus. Long lines with no place to sit down at airports isn't abnormal. And I know there are chairs available at the Houston ship's terminal, I've sat in them before. $4.50 for a liter bottle of "soda" water aboard a cruise ship isn't abnormal. $.75 a minute for internet services aboard a cruise ship isn't abnormal. Slow connections while at sea aren't abnormal.

 

Don't compare a land vacation at a hotel or resort to a cruise vacation. They're completely different.

[Don Haynes]

Did you expect a bellhop to take your luggage to your room as the bellhop showed you the way? I'm sorry, no bellhops on any cruise ship I have sailed on.

 

And yes, all of the major cruise lines do nickeal and dime, unlike a hotel resort a cruise line has to pay for fuel to move the ship about.

[CruisinMatt]

I'm sorry, no bellhops on any cruise ship I have sailed on.

Even though it's not a mianstream line Seabourn has bellhop style porters that show you to your suite, carry your hand luggage and offer to reserve dinner for you at the specialty restaurant.

 

I've also been show to my cabin on Costa many times.

[bobar]

Well if you think ncl gouged you on all their charges,try some of the other cruise lines.They have packages on ncl on the internet that make it much less than .75a minute.

and like at a nice hotel on land. you may get free breakfast but you're not gonna get a comped meal in their best onsite restaurant.Cruising is differeent than land trips and after 27 cruises 7 on ncl with 8 coming in june I can say that they are very consistant. i always know what

i'm gonna get and they have some of the best service and hardest working ships afloat.At least it sounds like y'all had a good trip though and that's what matters.

[BuckeyeGal]

I have to agree with Drumrun concerning the ground transfers for this sailing--only I had to wait almost two hours in line. The NCL rep assured me when I arrived at the airport I would have an approximate wait of 45 minutes which is more than reasonable. 45 minutes became two hours --and no, there were no chairs in this particular section of the airport.

 

Otherwise, great cruise and EXCELLENT onboard staff!

[BILLP1]

Why do people feel that they have to defend cruise ship rip offs. A rip off is a rip off no matter that it is on a cruise ship or a hotel or a restaurant .

Agree with the original poster, especially after our last Dawn Cruise.

 

Should we walk on a ship with our hands over our heads and say please over charge me for every thing on the ship.

 

I don't see them advertising the fact that water will only cost you $4.50 a bottle and if you want a decent dinner that will cost you $15PP.

[cruiser-dude]

I've been watching this board for over 6 months now. There is extremely little bad reviews of the Dream. I've not heard any bad reviews of the Four Seasons, including food or service. When we went at Thanksgiving, when the ship was packed, at a peak pricing time, we ate at the Four Seasons most often (closest to our cabin). It was awesome, every single time. We ate at Le Bistro once, and loved it, feeling it was definitely worth the extra. (We actually chose to dine at Le Bistro on Thanksgiving Day instead of doing the traditional Thanksgiving meal that you can always do...) We realized that the pricing of the cruise left us to pay much less than other lines with the option to pay more for extra special food if we wanted to. I like being given the option! And - we all agreed that the food and service in all restaurants was so good that even if we had missed the incredible Filet Mignon and Chocolate Fondue, that we would have still experienced great things!

What, specifically, (IYO) made the food "bad"?

Why would you think that you had to pay more for a decent meal?

[electricron]

Why do people feel that they have to defend cruise ship rip offs. Should we walk on a ship with our hands over our heads and say please over charge me for every thing on the ship. I don't see them advertising the fact that water will only cost you $4.50 a bottle and if you want a decent dinner that will cost you $15PP.

 

Why is it a rip off? You can drink water, just as pure as what's in a bottle, free. What's in the bottle is carbonated, and you shoould pay just like you do for sodas/pop.

What's a decent meal? I had no problems with the food. Is it 5 star restaurant quality? No. But I've never seen any 5 star restaurant attempt to serve 7,500 (2,500 x 3) meals in a day. Have you?

 

If we fall into the all inclusive mentality, every movie theatre will serve free candy, free popcorn, and free sodas. Cruise lines already serve free meals and free ice tea, free juices, free milk and free water. If you attend certain functions, you can also get free alcohol.

 

What else do you expect?

 

If there's a lack of chairs at the airport, don't blame it soley on NCL. Other cruise lines, including Carnival, Celebrity, and Royal Caribbean also use the same airports.

[Bob's Mom]

I must have been on the same shuttle as BuckeyeGal but was told there would be a 30 minute wait. It was another 1 1/2 before the bus arrived and then it took the single NCL staff 1/2 hour to count the passengers before we headed to the other terminal to repeat the process. The next event, at embarkation, was being handed a letter dated December 2005 saying that Cancun had been removed from the itinerary. I had monitored this since January and continued to get the story that the April 1 and 8 cruises were stopping in Cancun and had been confirmed on an excursion as well-I heard only 3 days before we left that the port was canceled-so why did NCL staff continue to sell this port when the decision had been made in December? I found the food and the staff fair to fantastic. Our cabin and ship were very comfortable, Roatan and Belize were wonderful. Be warned though if you take the NCL excursion to Shark Ray Alley that it is not the Altan Ha reef but one that can take large numbers of snorkelers, you also might wait 45 minutes for the morning's pick up and then go wait to get passengers from NCL Sun and another 30 minutes on the boat waiting for late NCL staff in San Pedro. I would do this excursion again, it was my favorite but NCL needs to clear in their description and their staff shouldn't be the ones making us hurry up to wait for them. Perfect weather, loved the free style cruising, Tim Hill and meeting Mousey from this board. Never did find Kristi or Falling Rock but I imagine all our kids met up-it was a wonderful group of kids playing ping-pong and having fun. Oh and Victor Bodden is just as great as everyone says he is! Enri was our driver and we felt like royalty the whole day. Roatan was beautiful and Enri, his wife and Victor made us feel very much at home.

[Scarlotte]

On a slightly different note......We are planning a cruise on teh DREAM in June; but had heard there were engine problems in November 2005. Since you just went recently, was there any talk of engine problems. Did you notice engine slow-down or any missed ports?

 

Appreciate heads up on this.

 

Thanks

Scarlotte

[electricron]

On a slightly different note......We are planning a cruise on teh DREAM in June; but had heard there were engine problems in November 2005. Since you just went recently, was there any talk of engine problems. Did you notice engine slow-down or any missed ports?

Appreciate heads up on this. Thanks Scarlotte

 

The Dream's diesel problems was repaired last November. Cancun is still being missed because the port hasn't been reopened yet.