A Big Disappointment

After cruising with Carnival for my last five cruises, I convinced the family to return to what I had remembered fondly of the Norwegian experience.  Unfortunately I found the old ways of Norwegian to be absent and my disappointment grew each day of the cruise.

There was nobody to greet us on the ship, only the pier crew along the way.  Absent was the smiling crewmember to welcome us aboard and send us in the general direction of our cabin.

Once aboard we discovered that they had already conducted the emergency lifeboat drill and we were required to attend a makeup drill the following day.  Seriously, when did they start doing lifeboat drills before everyone is onboard?  We were made to feel as if we were juvenile delinquents for missing the drill.

Spa service was very unprofessional and when confirming that they had indeed already added an 18% "service charge" to the bill, I was told straight to my face that the "service charge" was "not a tip".  I added an additional $10.00 tip to my bill and later inquired at guest services exactly what the 18% "service charge" was for.  Their response (after confirming with the spa manager) was that IT WAS THE TIP!  Telling me a lie, straight to my face, is one thing.  When you attach that lie to a monetary transaction, it becomes a crime.  The spa manager made things right, however I spoke with several people on the cruise who had the same experience.

The White Hot Party was a total dud.  The band played for 30 minutes and then left us with the comment that the party wasn't over  yet - that they had the best DJ's at sea.  The DJ never showed up and only after complaining at guest services did they do something.  The band returned an hour later when everyone had already left.  There were 9 of us left to enjoy the White Hot Party.

Getting off the ship was a carnival in itself.  What was extremely annoying was the fact that in Saint John there were no taxis or other type of transportation at the dock.  We were told by several people that all the taxis and shuttle busses were at the other pier tending to the two bigger ships which were in port.  We were truly made to feel like second class people.  All this only after we missed the tide and got stuck waiting for the right tide to be able to enter the port.  Seriously?

Do you see a trend here?  This is not the type of customer service I had so fondly remembered of Norwegian.