NCL's web site. Good or Bad?

[lynnemac]

Hi gang,

 

Has anyone ever seen a web site quite as bland as NCL's? From the completely unappealing blue and white motif to the mostly poorly laid out pages. It is hard to navigate and seems to me that finding where you need to go is hit or miss. What are your opinions or am I just not savvy enough to find my way around?

 

Mac

[goldmom]

I also have found the new site to be a bit difficult to navigate, but maybe I just need to play around on it a bit more and get used to it. I know many people have been having problems with pre-registration and booking excursions.

 

The other thing I don't like is that if you want to price out a cruise it only gets you to a certain point and then you have to call. You used to be able to click through and actually see which cabins were available.

 

Maybe in time they'll fix these things.

[Petlover19]

I've stopped trying to use it...it's a mess. They should take a lesson from the PRINCESS CRUISE LINE. What a difference!

[UpYonder]

I agree. It is hard to navigate. One thing I have been trying to find is the wine list for the Sun - does anyone have one or know it has been moved?

[Zeno]

I hate to admit it but I actually preferred the old website - mainly because I could get info on the availability of specific cabins.

[guinnessirish]

Me too i was toild the wine lists were avaiable online but have not found them either.

[Cruiser#5]

personally, I don't like the new website and gave up using it, i find the response time too slow.

[MadDog Cruiser]

At the moment, I don't like it as it "is down for maintenance"... If NCL would give the customers the functionality we had in the past, I could deal with their "new and improved:confused: " website... unfortunately they are not there yet...:(

[fabby50]

I don't like it at all. I much prefer Royal Caribbean's - you can do much more of your own work on line. In addition to booking cruises you can book shore excursions, make payments, send gifts, see your specific cabin category on your own reservation page with all your cruises details - just about everything but make spa appointments, which I wish someone would do soon. I would love to see a "full service" web site where you could do everything before boarding - including making dinner reservations if you want. I guess maybe I'm dreaming!

[Pisti]

Let's make it unanimous. I complained about the old website and got scolded by ShoreGuy. The new one is worse but I knew better than to complain:D . But since you ask....I just gave up on it.

[heelfan94]

It's not easy to navigate and it doesn't do everything a cruiseline website should do. I would love to log in and see my reservations from a home page. I don't want to go through entering my 8 digit number, sailing date, last name, initial each time for each reservation. It's crazy. Why can't you log in using your name and password, and see all of them at once? And why can't they include a link by your reservation number for pre-registration? It's all so spread out it drives me nuts.

 

Today, for example, I'm looking for the faq's because that's where the number is in case someone needs to contact you while you're sailing. Where are the faq's??????? Anyone?

[heelfan94]

I found it. :o

[fin]

Do my eyes deceive me, or has CC avhieved unaniminity? Not only that, but a post slightly critical of NCL has received no flames?

 

Seriously, I know NCL reads this board and hope that they will take the proper message from this thread and go back to the drawing board. In this century, a thoughtful, well designed website is virtually essential to running a succesful business.

 

PS - I have not even looked at the new site.

[POOHISME2]

I think the long awaited new and improved website is a huge disappointment.

 

What's with the deck plans sideways? :mad:

 

Its hard enough to navigate the system let alone impossible to find availability with out calling NCL then you have to look at a sideways deck plan?

[lynnemac]

Hi gang,

 

Thanks for the responses. I'm glad to know that I am not completely computer illiterate. If you haven't checked out the "new" website yet, please do so you can ad even more opinions.

 

I hope NCL reads this.

 

Mac

[iluvcruzn]

I really think that the new website is awful. In my opinion, they rushed the site because they knew that there new marketing campaign was being launched and they had to have the new website to go along with it. The website has way to many bugs, and is barely stable. There is a complete lack of information, and it's hard to find anything on the site. It also annoys me that you cannot find the prices of the Penthouse or above on the site. I hope that they will quickly resolve all of the issues and really create a better environment for learning about freestyle crusing.

[newtocruising18]

You don't think they deserve one day to work out the kinks??? Geez, tough critics...

[Petlover19]

Define "one day"!

[fabby50]

The new web site has been up for several weeks not one day. I actually think they went backwards instead of forwards. At least you use to be able to do your reservation on line, could see all the pricing and they had the appropriate pictures for the staterooms. This is not the case now. I'm sure for the folks that use other cruise line websites and had used the old NCL website could write several pages of comments on the new site. For those of us use to doing everything on line now (I live in a small town and the web has opened up the world for us here in Hooterville), the site is a disappointment. I'm am sure they will improve - I love cruising NCL and it is no reflection on their ships, staff, etc. They just need to hire a better web design company and review customer comments to work out bugs.

[songanddance]

You don't think they deserve one day to work out the kinks??? Geez, tough critics...

 

I could be wrong but I believe the New site has been up since the new marketing plan was introduced back on the 2nd of October. Therefore it has been over two months of "fixing" and heavens knows how much in lost sales from folks who simply give up and go to ther lines where they can get answers. Tough to spend millions in advertsing trying to drive people to a web site that is so hard to use that it drives people away.

[swoosh2005]

I agree about the website too. There was a lot more available information on the old site- And I'm a big NCL advocate.

I was also unable to do my online pre registration and ended up faxing it in.

[monicajay]

The problem with the web-site is that they spent too much time making it "pretty" and forgot to add any content. I can't believe they will not let us price out a cruise without calling in........ (and waiting on hold)

 

I hope they find some new web-people soon and start adding some real meat to those pretty front pages.

[cmdchiefthom]

I'm booked on the Pearl on the 30th of March and one of the ports is St. Lucia which is still not listed at a port on the Shore Excursion drop down. I wish NCL would get its' act together!:(

[bakechef]

Terrible web site, I enjoy doing things onliine. I have tried for over a month to pre register but have not been able to, I have tried 4 different browsers, 3 different computers, and even a different ISP (I have access to two wireless networks) and nothing, so now I have to fill them out manually and find some place to fax them in, at my expense, this is unacceptable in this day and age, a temperary glitch is one thing, but a month without a service so important is just stupid.:mad:

 

JMHO

 

MAC

[KeystoneCruiser]

I too find the new website hard to navigate and also not as much information as before.

 

Some observations:

1.) I was looking for the size of the ships (# of passengers, crew, tonnage, length, etc.) the other day for a question on these boards and couldn't find the information. On the old site, you could find it on each ships page.

 

2.) If you have a slow browser, then it won't work. My main computer was out for three days and I had to use my daughters very old and very slow computer and the NCL site would not load at all and I got an error message about the machine being too slow for it.

 

3.) The deck plans are harder to read and you cannot enlarge them as much as you could on the old page.

 

4.) It is harder to find press releases about NCL

 

5.) It has been nearly two and half months and they still don't have the cruise search up and running. You still cannot go on the new website and look to see what cabins are available and price out the different catagories with airfare etc. Once you get to the page that lists the cruises on a certain itinerary, you just get general pricing and no detailed pricing.

 

Yes, I know you can go to the old site to do a cabin and price search, but what about those who don't know about the old site or aren't members of CC and can get the link?

 

That should have been one of the first features implemented on the new site. Just another way to keep people at the mercy of the NCL Customer Disservice Department.