BEWARE: No Air on Pride of Aloha

[alittlehope]

Just got back from cruising on Pride of Aloha. Buyer beware! We had no air conditioning for the whole cruise. The cabin temperatures were sweltering. Staff acted suprised when we called to report that air was out, only to find out that it was out on a whole section of the ship. (From top to bottom...over 200 cabins were affected!) The temperatures were so high in the room that spending even a few minutes there was intolerable. We were sweaty, sticky, and there was no air movement at all. Even opening the door didn't help as there was no air in the halls either.

 

We slept in a bar the first night and on deck the second night. We requested a fan several times, but were told they were out of fans. (We finally ended up purchasing our own in Kaui.) While I understand that they were in a tough position, the staff and crew did little to help resolve the situation or remedy the problem. Everytime we called or went to the desk concerning the air situation the staff acted as though they had no idea this was an issue. We were told repeatedly (every day of the cruise) that they would put a work order in for it and that they were sure that it would "be fixed by today."

 

I was disappointed in the response as well as the lack of honesty in the situation. Prior to sailing we talked to the people at the front desk about changing rooms. (There were none available). We then talked to the person in charge of hotel services on board. We explained that we didn't not want to stay on the ship if the air conditioning was not going to be working. We were assurred that they had called in air conditioning specialists and that the air would be working before we set sail. We were also told that the air just went out that day. We later found out that was untrue. (During muster drill the man across the hall from us found a letter in his life jacket advising him to change rooms as the air was out in this one. Also, one of our servers told us that they had been dealing with air conditioning issues for three weeks.)

 

At first we tried to make the best of it, but we realized as the week wore on that it really took a huge toll on our vacation. My husband and I are both in high stress jobs (who isn't? :p ) and rely on our one vacation a year as a time to relax and reenergize. The heat was so bad that relaxing, napping, or basically doing anything else in our cabin was impossible. The nights we tried to sleep in our cabin we kept the doors propped open (as did everyone else in the hall). We placed our fan near the door with a bucket of ice in front of it to try to circulate a little cooler air, but we got little sleep the whole cruise and often felt tired and headachy.

 

I would be very wary about booking with NCL--at least on this ship. Air conditioning problems were not resolved when we left and they were working to reboard the vessel.

[fin]

That sounds bloody awful. Be glad this is not your first post though!

[Zeno]

Yuck - how awful. I assume you called maintenance. I know I would have been camping out at the maintenance manager's door until my AC got fixed if I were in your position. I think you should send a letter of complaint to NCL - there really is no excuse for AC to be out-of-service for that long.

[heelfan94]

That sounds bloody awful. Be glad this is not your first post though!

You made me laugh.;)

[mbisson]

I saw another post about this on the Hawaii board earlier but can't locate it now. I'd think lack of AC could really justify complaining to the NCL home office.

[Retired not Expired]

I saw another post about this on the Hawaii board earlier but can't locate it now. I'd think lack of AC could really justify complaining to the NCL home office.

 

It was on the Pride of Aloha Roll Call board Monte.

[mbisson]

It was on the Pride of Aloha Roll Call board Monte.

 

 

Thanks. Now I remember thinking, "this really should be posted elsewhere"

[cruizinwithkids]

At first we tried to make the best of it, but we realized as the week wore on that it really took a huge toll on our vacation.

 

Not fun and with vacation time so precious who wants in ruined like that.

[LateCruiser]

I've seen many "complaints" on the message boards that were just plain funny:rolleyes: , but this is definitely a serious issue. Please write a letter to NCL that states the issue (a "non-demanding", down to earth description of the problem works better than a "blast them to smitherines" one) and suggest that you believe some type of compensation is in order. This is definitely deserving of at least a generous future shipboard credit.

[Zeno]

I've seen many "complaints" on the message boards that were just plain funny:rolleyes: , but this is definitely a serious issue. Please write a letter to NCL that states the issue (a "non-demanding", down to earth description of the problem works better than a "blast them to smitherines" one) and suggest that you believe some type of compensation is in order. This is definitely deserving of at least a generous future shipboard credit.

 

Good advice!

[PDAZ]

That sounds bloody awful. Be glad this is not your first post though!

 

:D But I think even a first time poster would get sympathy for this situation. This is a serious complaint -- I'd take LateCruiser's advice and pursue compensation.

[Another ship trip]

That is really a bad problem. Now I am patient but that would be a deal breaker even for me. No one wants to sleep in a sauna. I imagine it was literally unbearably sweltering. I am surprised nothing was offered onboard for these passengers.

I was on the maiden voyage on this ship's transatlantic and there were many unhappy pax due to poor service overall (I was not among them though. i enjoyed my trip) but they offered big discounts to all pax of that voyage towards another cruise due to all the problems. It took about 12-16 weeks to arrive if I remember correctly, but the problem was eventually addressed and I believe it was a very fair offer to passengers.

 

This issue should get a 'do over' on a ship with working AC. At least on a land based resort, you could go to another hotel. No option on a ship though.

 

Unless....try this one next time.

 

Knock, knock, knock. (door opens)

 

Hello MR. HOTEL MANAGER of Pride of Aloha. Would you care to switch sleeping accomodations until the air in mine is fixed? I am sure that you want your guests to be comfortable, don't you?

[ShedQueen77]

That does sounds awful and well worthy of "complaining" about. I'm sorry your vacation went so badly! I'd definitely be calling and requesting some sort of compensation. It's not like your room service took too long to arrive or something trivial!

 

PS- When I first read the title of your post, I thought to myself "Well, how did they breathe?!" :D Yeah, I'm a little different! lol

[KatyR]

same happened to me on my august 2002 NCL Star hawaii cruise.

ncl = ac problems for life :(

 

mailed them and got 200 bucks off next cruise... yeah right :mad:

[hightownCO]

Usually don't post on NCL board (just haven't gotten around to trying them out yet) but my sister's boyfriend just got back from three weeks on this ship as an entertainer (Chuck - guitarist). He let us know about this issue last week. He was in Crew quarters which were miserable too. Lots of unhappy crew too.

[electricron]

I'll agree, a whole week without air conditioning in my cabin would be a major disappointment. I hope you recevied, or will receive, some on board compensation on this or your next cruise.

 

Ships use "large" chilled water systems to cool the cabins, and to refrigerate walk in coolers in the galley. I would assume they had a few standby chillers that could have replaced one toen down for maintenance. So, it's likely more than one chiller was out of service on your cruise because so many were cabins were without a/c. It can take a week to tear the compressor down and put it back together. But they are fixable, and I hope NCL can get them back in service soon.

[mbisson]

ncl = ac problems for life :(

 

Oh, so that's what NCL means! I guess you're right provided by life you mean it happened to you and someone reported it on another ship 5 years later.

 

My guess would be that AC problems popup now and again on all cruise lines. Then the lines should give adequate compensation to the "victims". I'm not sure $200 was enough so I understand your frustration.

[Droopy_Sails]

Oh, so that's what NCL means! I guess you're right provided by life you mean it happened to you and someone reported it on another ship 5 years later.

 

LOL. I love me an mbisson.

[klugh]

What floor were you on? I'm going in a few weeks. I hope everything is fixed.

[Retired not Expired]

What floor were you on? I'm going in a few weeks. I hope everything is fixed.

 

Another poster said it was the mid-ship section. With crew and passenger cabins affected, it must have been multiple floors.

[KeystoneCruiser]

same happened to me on my august 2002 NCL Star hawaii cruise.

ncl = ac problems for life :(

 

mailed them and got 200 bucks off next cruise... yeah right :mad:

 

 

I was on the Star in Hawaii in 2002, no air problems.

I was on the Pride of Aloha in 2004, no air problems

I was on the Star in 2005, no air problems.

 

A/C breaks sometimes, not a constant problem. NCL should however work dilegently to repair this and/or provide compensation.

[yjl869]

I was one of luck ones who had air. We were 9th floor aft. But when you would wlk through tthe midship..the air would just stop.

I heard that some of the crew jumped ship. The dining rooms were particularly affected by the shortage of staff.

Not to mention that many people were just miserable. I spoke to a man on the flight home. He was offered $100 per day onboard credit. He did not spend anywhere near that amount. So he started selling his credit to others. They paid him in cash and checks, and NCL moved his credit to other passengers. I am not sure that everyone was so lucky.

 

It seems that many things are breaking on the ship. At one point Room Service stopped delivery because their refrigerators were broken. The longboard lounge was unable to servce dinner because their fryers were broken.

 

This ship has some major problems.

[Retired not Expired]

 

It seems that many things are breaking on the ship. At one point Room Service stopped delivery because their refrigerators were broken. The longboard lounge was unable to servce dinner because their fryers were broken.

 

This ship has some major problems.

 

A few posts back, Electricron, who knows way more than I do about ships, said that the chillers that run the A/C are also used for the walk-in refrigerators. Perhaps these two things are tied together and it was the same problem causing both things.

[halos]

Sincerely, that sucks...not just that your air was out but after weeks with that problem it hadn't been fixed!!

There is absolutely NO reason for that...it can be dangerous for some people...mostly elderly folks. I can't believe they're getting away with this :mad:

[mbisson]

Sincerely, that sucks...not just that your air was out but after weeks with that problem it hadn't been fixed!!

 

Sorry, but I missed previous posts that this has been going on for weeks. Could you direct me to them

 

thanks