Extremely Disappointed, food is really bad, coffee with no creamer

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 13

Review summary

I purchased cruise credits a year ago and regret it, now I have to use them up. I have one more Norwegian cruise coming up in April but after that I will never sail on Norwegian again. I have so many things I dislike about this Cruise line. Food is honestly awful, very plain I am not sure if they have a cheese shortage or just trying to save money and push customers to pay extra for the specialty dining. You also need to read the fine print on what vegetables are included in your meal. A few times when I just ordered the main entry, I was served a blob of soggy cooked spinach as a side vegetable, since then I have looked for what vegetable comes with the meal and have substituted the soggy spinach with broccoli, or something more appetizing. I ordered French onion soup in the main dining room; it was a bowl or broth with some onions and a piece of bread floating in it with a half a teaspoon of cheese on the bread. (I always like French onion soup but because of all the baked-on cheese on top), I heard the French restaurant on board has a proper French onion soup. I went to the Italian restaurant (specialty restaurant) when I was on Norwegian sky and ordered the Lasagna, this was not much better, it was basically noodles with meat sauce and for some reason hardly any cheese. I ordered cream of broccoli cheese soup, it was very plain, I could not taste any cheese, it was like I just ordered some boiled broccoli. They have decided to replace the usual half & half cream for the coffee with coffee mate creamers, even when I asked if I could get some proper half & half cream for my coffee they could not and said we have this instead (coffee mate creamer). I am guessing this is a push for us to purchase coffee at Starbucks on board. Pool tables cost $4.95 US per game, I know I have played pool on RCC ships, and they do not cost anything. This so called anytime dining is a bad idea, it should be called if you want to dine at regular times expect to wait 3/4 of an hour for a table or eat late. every night we had long waits to eat, usually 3/4 of an hour or more at the Manhattan restaurant and 1/2 to 3/4 or an hour at the Taste and Savor restaurants. We barely saw any shows because the line ups were so long, and it was hard to make any reservations. I went to one show that was good but had to stand the entire time. We had credits on our account because they cancelled 2 ports, one was for an excursion we booked, and one was for port fees. We had to line up at guest services to collect the money or they would not let us disembark, and they refused to refund our credit cards, so basically the entire ship had to waste time lining up on the last day to get their money or they would be delayed disembarking on the Saturday. This was ridiculous, they said they did not have the means to refund our credit cards???? I said can you at least pay me back in Canadian funds as I am Canadian, and I paid my payments in Canadian. I spoke with someone working for Norwegian on board (not a dining staff or my cabin attendant) that told me the staff has been given a pay cut and have been told to work longer hours and on top pf that Norwegian is keeping the gratuities we pay for the cabin attendants and dining staff. I believed them because I could see many staff members did not look happy. I decided that well I can't do much about the dining staff as we had a different waiter every night, I went to guest services and told them I am not happy with the service and because these gratuities are optional, I got a complete refund, and decided I would give that full amount directly to the cabin attendant. Waiter service was also hard to find a server, I am assuming this is, so we have to line up to get a drink or do without, reducing the quantity of drinks we consume on our beverage package. My cabin was small but sufficient and the cabin attendant did a good job keeping fresh towels and cleaning the room twice daily and she was very pleasant when we saw her. I have one more sailing with Norwegian because of my cruise credits, once that's done, I will never sail with Norwegian cruises again

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Port Canaveral, Florida

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

Tortola, British Virgin Islands

Disembarkation

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