Worst Cruise I have ever taken!

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 32

Review summary

Norwegian has been recommended to my wife and I over and over by family and friends. We have previously traveled on Carnival (4 cruises), Royal Caribbean (10 cruises) and Disney (2 cruises). Traveling on this Norwegian ship was the worst mistake we have ever made, in terms of traveling. Check-in at the port was good. We are from Tampa so we go out of this port quite a bit. Unfortunately our issues started after we walked on board. Upon arriving to the floor our room was on, we were greeted by a rushing staff member who almost tripped over us. No apology or anything. Then as we enter the room the smell of poop was throughout the entire room, thankfully we brought some air freshener spray! As we started unpacking some of our things we went to put our cash, passports and such in the safe to find that our safe was drilled out and did not work. We went down to the front desk and they didn't seem to care 1 bit. They were telling us that there was nothing the could do but they could store our things for us and that if we wanted to access it we would just need to come back to the front desk. Why in the world would I want to leave all of our valuables and travel documents with the front desk and wait (the lines were long the entire cruise) every time I needed to go into port? That was the start our our trip... Bar Service: If you want to get a drink from ANY bar on board plan on waiting in line for a minimum of 20 minutes to get a drink and if you are on the pool deck, bring shoes because you will be standing on the hot deck for a while. Constantly my wife and I would just stand at the bar waiting, new guest would walk up at the right time and get there drinks but the many guests waiting for service go unnoticed. Buffet: greasy, greasy, greasy, tasteless food and workers who could careless about cleaning the bar off and making sure the food is fresh and not crusted over. And if you ask for something that is empty plan on being ignored or just blown off. EVERYDAY! Sit Down Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Service: Plan on being in the dining room for AT LEAST 1.5-2 hours and missing shows. The service is slow and the food is very sub par. They care more about their presentation of the food than they do the food being hot, cooked correctly and their actual manners. At one point of of the other guests of a table slammed his food down on the table and made a big scene because everything was so bad. Activities on-board: Well there's not a lot unless you want to pay an additional fee and a rather large additional fee at that. Constantly my wife and I were looking for things to do because the activities that we had looked into, we tried to attend but found ourselves leaving halfway through because of the employees seeming that they just aren't happy. The shows on-board were FANTASTIC. That is one good thing I will recommend about this cruise. Attitudes of all employees: During an interview with the captain and administration on board it was mentioned that the staff members work 12 hour days, 7 days a week. This totally explains why 99% of the staff we had interactions with seem to HATE their job and seem like they are completely burned out of doing working. Rain backup plans: 2 days that we were in port it rained and another port was cancelled because of the wind. The cruise director did a HORRIBLE job on creating more activities for everyone since everything was cancelled on shore. In conclusion, I would NOT recommend anyone take this cruise! Maybe other Norwegian Cruises are better but the Norwegian Dawn out of Tampa was, by far, the WORST CRUISE I have ever been on and hope to ever go on. I would suggest everyone go on the Royal Caribbean or Carnival of this ship any day! If you want to enjoy your vacation and enjoy your surroundings, find a different cruise!

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Tampa, Florida

Costa Maya (Mahahual), Mexico

Harvest Caye, Belize

Coxen Hole, Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras

Disembarkation

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