Have been on many cruises before and this was one of my least favorites of all time. So much that I had the discretionary service charges removed. After I had gone to guest services on multiple occasions to correct charges, I have now left the ship & have a lot of random charges from NCL now and I am in the process of disputing. I gave cash tips where I felt it was deserved. There were things onboard we never even got to use because of the overcrowding etc. Still have plenty of other complaints unmentioned but I cannot go on with this review anymore.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
Pretty fast
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
2 out of 5
Buffet was only okay, not enough variety, seemed to have most of the same stuff daily & there was no theme to where we cruised with the food we had onboard, didn’t like freestyle dining, would’ve preferred a set time & table.
Onboard Activities
1 out of 5
Felt geared towards an older crowd, took several days to get a spot at escape the big too bc of selling out too quickly, overpriced game shows & bingo, pools were overcrowded and couldn’t ever get a chair to lay in bc people would put stuff all over the seats and “reserve them” & never come back for hours, etc etc
Entertainment
2 out of 5
Wasn’t impressed
Children's Programs
2 out of 5
My son had no interest due to previous bad experiences onboard but from the looks of the club, previous reviews and unattended, rowdy and downright nasty speaking kids onboard that seemed to attend the clubs I am happy I didn’t have my son even try it.
Service and Staff
2 out of 5
Could hardly ever get service, room steward asked if we even wanted service one day, took forever to get noticed at the bars, gave cash tips hoping to get continuous service, to never see the same bartender again, went to get more food at the buffet to come back 2 mins later to brand new plates of food set on table taken away again & had to get food all over again. Service was overall very poor. Could’ve used security presence on the ship & never any security on sight as rowdy teens were slamming on arcades, asking for tickets & chasing us around ship bc we didn’t comply, etc.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
Okay I guess
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
Thought the size of the room and large porthole was quite nice to sit and view the waves. My kid liked sitting in the porthole nook. Tv channel selections and WiFi was terrible. Always felt too hot or too cold in the room. Kids running up and down the hallways was loud but overall decent in terms of volume. Windows could’ve used cleaning on the outside. Felt far away from everything. Elevators weren’t close at all and we did lots of walking to get to anything at all. Bathroom smelled like mildew. Toilets clogged often until an engineer came to fix around 10pm one evening.
Ship tip
Probably don’t choose this ship. I probably won’t choose NCL if I ever even Cruise again. This experience gave me a negative mind about cruising again in the future.
Was very sketchy. I always wanted to see Jamaica but now that I did I can check it off my bucketlist and never go back. Had an excursion to go horseback riding on land & sea that was suppose to last 3 hours & it was half that time including the transfer to and from destination. Wouldn’t go again. NCL changed this port to Montego Bay then back to Ocho Rios a week before cruising which made making changes to our excursion a pain in the neck and NCL didn’t apologize or give us any type of credit etc. Went to Oceans 11 to eat lunch and half the items on the menu weren’t actually even available they said. Ended up paying for 2 overpriced sodas & 4 mozzarella sticks. Felt I got ripped off in Jamaica just like Cozumel.
One of our most favorite days only because we had some chill time on the beach, no excursions planned. All of the beach chairs were on a downhill slant of sand so you constantly felt like you were slipping off. The “buffet” they talk about was just burgers and hotdogs like they had every day on the ship, nothing special. My son didn’t eat bc he was sick of hotdogs at this point. Service on beach was poor, took forever to get drinks or even get noticed sometimes. I had to chase people down or walk up to the bars myself which were overcrowded. I give 3 stars because atleast we were able to get beach chairs unlike on the ship but partly probably only because we tendered over in the afternoon after most people had already gone and come back onboard.
Long, exhausting, felt somewhat disorganized because they only said to have passports out, not keycards to stateroom as well for all passengers. Was so happy to leave!
I was on the week after you. Not sure what you mean by buffet themes not matching ports. Mexican food night for Cozumel. Can't match themes better than that.
Sounds like your positive attitude and count your blessings personality made you enjoy ever single aspect of your cruise. I only wish I could have shared a table with you to baske in the happy vibes.
Too bad you didn't enjoy your cruise, we have been on numerous NCL cruises and other than a few minor things we always had a great time. I agree, did you pick your cabin and didn't you know where it was located? Sounds like you focused on negative things from the start. Even the ports, can't fault the cruise line for difficulties at the ports. Hope future vacations for you improve!
Sorry for your disappointment on the cruise. I notice that you were unhappy that your cabin was so far from the elevators. Did you not pick your cabin? I guess that stood out to me as that is very important to us so we really review the deck plan before picking a cabin.
The additional charges may just be holds that were placed on the card and not actual charges. They put a hold on the card at the beginning of the cruise, then add an additional hold each time the purchase amount exceeds the hold balance. They usually only charge your card once at the end of the cruise. The holds will be released based on the policy of your card issuer, which can be from 3–10 days. If the charges show “pending”, then they are usually the hold amounts. This should not affect anything since it will be released.
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