This was our first and last cruise with and NCL. The ship itself was dark, dingy, and far too crowded. It was overrun with very, very rude Asian passangers. Food and staff was mediocre at best. Same bland, cold food every day at the buffets... if you could even get to the food. Missed a port of call that we were very much looking forward to… Something we found out later that NCL is known to do! Disembarking was a nightmare! Royal Caribbean and Carnival will have my business from now on.
Embarkation
3 out of 5
Went smoothly... staff was pleasant.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
1 out of 5
Slow service in the main dining rooms, felt like the staff was put out by having to wait on us. Food in dining rooms was "ok". Buffets were way too crowded!! Rude asians cutting lines constantly bumping into us. Never a table available in buffet area, had to stand to eat or take food to another area on the ship. Same food choices every day and not very good... bland and usually cold! No buffets available after 11pm. O'Sheehans service wasn't very good and neither was the food. Very small portions as well. Can't comment on the specialty restaurants as we didn't try them. Everything else was so bad that I refused to take a chance of spending extra and ending up with more bad food and service.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Activities were decent but certainly nothing special. Nice that there was an adult pool, but getting chairs was impossible. Fitness center seemed decent, never checked out the spa. Battle of the Sexes was fun. Bingo was expensive so we only played once. Played Deal or No Deal once, also expensive for what you got.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
Shows and performances were all ok. Comedian was our favorite. Again, nothing special and I've enjoyed the entertainment more on both Carnival and Royal Caribbean.
Children's Programs
1 out of 5
We had our 8 year old daughter with us. She enjoyed the arcade, even though it was quite small and only had a handful of working games. She was very much looking forward to the trick or treating and haunted hallway... we were cruising over Halloween. Well the haunted hallway was an hour plus wait for a 90 second walk through and the trick or treating was more of a scavenger hunt to find the whopping 6 places that were handing out candy. She got frustrated and gave up at the 3rd stop. Total FAIL!!
Service and Staff
2 out of 5
Room steward was pleasant. Bartenders and waiters all seemed alright. But felt like they just wanted to get you served and get you out of there. And throwing a few dollars cash tips didn't change things.
Ship Quality
1 out of 5
The layout of the ship was awful! All common areas seemed so small and cramped. Couldn't walk side by side down cabin hallways. Atrium was smaller than any I've seen. This ships holds far too many passangers than it should! And although clean, it just seemed so dark and dingy. Not what I would expect on a cruise ship.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
Cabin was clean and comfortable.
Ship tip
Don't do it!! This was our first cruise with NCL and expected much better. Save your money and cruise with Royal Caribbean or Carnival!
We were very much looking forward to our day here... a nice beach day and snorkeling at the underwater garden. About 30 mins prior to when we thought we would be disembarking, the captain comes on and says the waters are too rough for the tender boat to take us in and that port of call was cancelled. And although they claimed it wasn't safe, you could see a Royal Caribbean ship off in the distance anchored off their private island and tender boats bringing their passengers back-and-forth. I was told by several other passengers that and CL was known for skipping this port. Not sure what it was really all about, but this is the main reason we will never sail with NCL again.
We really enjoyed Nassau. Would visit here again. We booked an excursion through Expedia, not NCL. Not many shore excursion choices through NCL (at all our ports, not just Nassau). We very much enjoyed our sea lion encounter on Blue Lagoon Island.
Awful! Awful! Awful! Waited in line over 2 hours to get off the ship... and once again, very rude Asains were cutting the line and just walking right past everyone to get up front. Not one staff member ever said a word to any of them. We ended up getting shuttled into a secondary line which didn't move for over an hour while they allowed other passangers from the main line to keep moving forward ahead of us. Very frustrating!
Missing a port is a decision made for your safety, not because the Captain was lazy that day and just didnt feel the need to let 2000 passengers off the ship. It costs Cruiselines a LOT of money in port taxes to have berthing privelages, and they pay that whether or not the weather cooperates. So it is actually money out of their pocket when they can't stop at a port. I understand the disappointment, as it's happened to us as well, but it is easy to make the most of the situation, anyway.
And I have to say, the way you spit out the word 'Asian' is quite offensive. I've seen rude people of every type on every cruise I've been on! But I've never thought to classify 'them' by race.
Cruise ships are beautiful melting pots of all races, shapes, colors, and creeds. And I think cruising just isn't for people who don't appreciate that.
for the life of me I cannot understand peoples fascination with the buffet. Its food that is ready before you get there for 2000 people and they are surprised its commonplace. You're on a vacation and there is fine dining all over the place, and you go to the food trough.
It was honestly extremely hard to continue reading after the Asian comment , that’s extremely racist doesn’t matter their ethnicity/nationality rude is rude. It’s something you should be fully aware of seeing as how rude you clearly are in saying something unsavory.
I agree I've encounter rude passengers on Princess, not asian, who were hogging six lounge chairs that nobody showed up for 1.5 to sit in and when I asked to sit they still said no. This against boat policy. I let it go because I didn't want it to ruin my day.
I went on NCl jewel, which is smaller, and it was not crowded at all. I Love how NCl does the BBQ on the pool deck, with steaks, chicken kabobs. Jumbalyia, pasta and more always hot, fresh. Also the Asian Orchad garden is good too. Teppanyaki was delicious. The burger's at buffet are good. I didn't care for the meatloaf at OSHeehan's, but my husband loved there burger. Hot tubes were crowded, but I'm not big on hot tubs. I heard many passengers had horrible time on Carnival when boat broke down and to be tugboats to port.
My bery first cruise with royal, which I loved, we could not take tender boats into grand Cayman due to bad weather. I found hard to believe, until I actually went last year and seen they have no dock like cozamel, tender boats are the only way. So with bad weather, unfortunately, they have to reroute us. Which wasn't bad, we got to stay at cozamel a day and a half.
I never let one not so good of an experience on carnival cruise stop me frin taking other cruises with carnival. I've hears great things about ncl. Maybe the ship you went on wasn't the best, doesn't mean the other ncl ships are bad.
Shh813,
I've read and heard great things about NCL. I do think it was the ship, but being my first with them just left a bad impression with me. Expected better for the price.
cruisersssndr,
We were told we couldn't take tender boats to the island because the water was too rough. So we just cruised right by it. Several passsngers pointed out that RC was anchored near their private island and they are tender boats were running Hmmmmm 🤔
Just because you didn't like that ship doesn't mean the who,e cruise line is bad. Try another ship. We were on the Getaway in 2014 and loved it as other shipmates. Still gets great reviews.
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