Norwegian Cruise Line NO MORE......

Being long time cruisers with status at both Princess (Platinum) and Royal Caribbean (Diamond) we were excited three years ago to try a Norwegian Sailing from Miami on the Norwegian Epic.  We decided to try the Haven Experience as the reviews were very good.  It turned out to be the best cruise experience we ever had.  From the private Haven restaurant, to priority seating at the shows, to the private sunning deck, the Haven Spa Suite room, the entire experience was wonderful and from there we were NCL cruisers for life…. or so we thought.

Fast forward three years.  We decided to take the same exact cruise because we wanted to enjoy the same experience again and didn’t care about the itinerary.   We even booked the same room again (14149).  

This time, we sailed out of Port Canaveral. We were greeted by friendly staff on board and were excited to once again be onboard for our “favorite cruise experience”. Let the fun begin or so we thought.

We went for lunch at the “private Haven restaurant”.  We ordered our meal and when delivered, the amount of salt on the food made the meal inedible.  We sent everything back and made mention of the amount of salt on the food.  While apologies were flowing, we were concerned that things had changed.

We finally made it to our room and were happy with what we saw.  The room once again was beautiful and we were happy to have chosen this experience. 

As Haven guests, we were given PRIORITY luggage tags. There was nothing priority at all. We arrived at the port at noon and our luggage was not delivered to our cabin until 6:30pm only after our butler and cabin steward got involved. We had 7pm dinner reservations which is why we needed our luggage. We were surprised to see other cabins luggage outside of their rooms with standard color tags hours earlier. 

Then the problems began. Our toilet worked on and off.  Thankfully, we were near the spa so there was always a bathroom handy but we would have preferred for our bathroom to work within our room.

The week became very long.  Toilet not working, food overly salty, lack of concern by staff. 

One day at the pool deck, we met with the staff captain who advised us to contact the Hotel Manager.  We met with him and he was very apologetic.  He claimed he would move us to another room, but there were no rooms available.  We didn’t want to move, we just wanted our bathroom fixed.  This issue went on for days.  We had plumbers and other staff visit us multiple times as late as day 6 of a 7-day cruise since the problem was never properly fixed.

To add insult to injury, we were given a $500 refundable credit by the hotel manager which was the maximum he was authorized to extend to us as he recognized the week-long issues we experienced. This was to be applied to our credit card on file. Our onboard account statement showed it, however we have never been refunded to date.

We contacted Frank Del Rio, President, and CEO of NCL holdings as we thought he should receive direct feedback for corrective action on future cruises. After all, they ask for surveys after a cruise. What a joke!  We mailed Mr. Del Rio a letter February 26th with pictures of the plumber trying to resolve the toilet issue and never received a response. We were shocked at the lack of communication from anyone within NCL. As a result, we emailed a second letter March 19th to Mr. Del Rio, received a read receipt back and as of today April 2rd, no response.  We also communicated in the same manner to Andy Stuart, President and CEO of NCL and his response was consistent with Mr. Del Rio. NOTHING!!! This is nothing short of UNACCEPTABLE!!

Our biggest concern was this; we purchased the “Haven Experience” for a relaxing stress free vacation and we did not receive what we purchased. What we did receive was a sub-par Haven Experience based on our previous Haven cruise.

Be aware of sailing on Norwegian.  Things happen, but what separates a good company from a great company is how they deal with issues that develop. The lack of response by executive management clearly communicates they do not care about their customer experience and satisfaction.

While in the end, the Haven experience is one that should be an amazing experience, I would be hard pressed to spend another dollar with this organization. I hope other cruise lines adopt this type of experience as it is well worth the money, when properly executed.

As if things weren’t more unsatisfying, I emailed Mr. Del Rio today April 2 and asked if he would like to see my review before posted.  Amazingly, I got a one word reply “sure”. Maybe he thinks we just complain and look for some compensation when there were really no deficient issues to speak of.  Why else would five weeks go by without any communication back from NCL. We travel often and have never experienced anything like this.  Any traveler should expect a basic level of service and satisfaction of which we received little this time.

There are many choices available between resorts, cruises, and hotels. Customer service should always be every organizations’ highest priority.  The lack of response to our situation tells me that although we favored NCL with our vacation dollars over their competitors expecting a certain level of service and had a less than acceptable experience, NCL does not care but rather just wants their revenue stream and if they don’t deliver what is expected, “WHO CARES”.

BEWARE OF RECEIVING WHAT YOU PAY FOR WITH THIS CRUISE LINE.