This ship didn't have a grand atrium like other ships and I was disappointed in the gift shops. There was one gift shop for clothes, one for jewelry/watches, another for jewelry only and another for liquor. When they cancelled our port for St. Lucia the only thing we got was a refund for the excursions we booked through NCL, that's it. Only a fraction of the excursions were even online so many people booked other excursions on Viator and lost their money for St. Lucia because we sat at the Bonaire port for hours before we even knew what was going on and then a few more hours before they told us they were canceling Bonaire. I was on a cruise with a different company and when they cancelled one of our ports they took us to a different one, refunded our excursions for that port and gave us $100 ship board credit. I just happened to think of checking the shore excursion desk the day we embarked and at 1pm my top three excursions for one of the destinations I re-booked from Viator was sold out. Like how was that possible when these weren't available online???
Embarkation
5 out of 5
It was chaotic with so many people but the lines kept moving. I later found out our ship was full.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Overall, all the food and drinks were good in the dining room buffets and the specialty steak restaurant and the Brazilian Steakhouse. There were a few not very good drinks or not what I ordered from the pool bar. For instance, they had a mango daiquiri machine, and I ordered a mango margarita and they gave me the daiquiri. The breakfast buffet never had pancakes/waffles or french toast, I had to go to the sit-down restaurant for that.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
My boyfriend said the fitness center was big and very nice. The pools were super tiny though. We did the water slides and they were nothing special and there was rock climbing but we didn't do that.
Entertainment
We didn't go to any shows.
Children's Programs
No children
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
Everyone seemed nice but we never had a towel animal, which is signature of a cruise, and we never received an itemized bill. I was in line the night before disembarkation and a guest services person was fielding questions in line. I asked if I needed to settle my bill and they said no I would get a bill at my cabin. Never got a bill the night before or the morning of and I was not about to stand in the guest services line on the day of disembarkation. The service was slow but the ship was completely full so at peak times it was understandable.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
There were always people cleaning up but the design was awful. Because the ship was so full we had to take the stairs a lot and sometimes the stairs would be roped off at the 5th floor. I got lost a lot and there was only 1 store on the whole ship that had any clothing and none of it was for kids-FYI. None of the gift shops sold conditioner or razors either but they had krazy glue!
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
I forgot to pack my conditioner and my boyfriend forgot his razer. I really thought with us having a suite we'd at least have conditioner. I went on a wild goose chase through the ship to purchase them and then someone said the cabin steward could get them for us but he didn't have any either. So we had to go on another wild goose chase in Aruba to find them. I really thought our cabin would be bigger for upgrading to a suite but the only difference I noticed from previous cruises with a balcony cabin was that we had a real bathtub in our shower.
This port had a great shopping district however, you were hunted down if you even looked at a piece of jewelry. A guy followed me out of the shop. At first I thought he said I left something on the counter but I was just browsing the jewelry section. I had to tell him multiple times I was just looking.
I was on this cruise. They also automatically refunded the port fees and taxes for the missed port. That’s standard for cruise lines. If you book through a reputable third party for excursions, they refund you if your ship skips the port. You do have to contact them and request it vs it being automatic when through the cruise line. It also sounds like you were in a club balcony suite. They are not suites at all, simply slightly larger balcony rooms.
I had expected towel animals too. When our travel agent explained they only did it when requested to save on the excessive and entirely unnecessary laundry, it made sense. It was cool to find 2 swans on our anniversary. They had really decorated the cabin. It was great.
I find it important to do my homework when picking out vacations. We check our hotels, events, restaurants and activities, all allowing us to go in with reasonable expectations. Sorry your cruise didn't go well. We are looking forward to ours in 1.5 months
Sorry to hear about your experience. One thing I learned cruising during Spring Break is a no no. I was on the Prima recently and the itemized bill was always on the TV as well as the app.
Regarding your final bill, no need to go to the front desk. It's available on the NCL app 24/7 to consult. Wifi is free to use the app. Regarding your St Lucia port that was cancelled, I was on a Holland America cruise last week and two of our stops were shortened by half...HAL never gave us a refund or whatsoever. They did refund their own excursions but no other refunds for the inconvenience.
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