Not trustworthy, poor value

Ship tip

Cruise Review My wife and I have cruised on Holland America, Carnival, Princess, and now Norwegian (NCL), and I can truthfully and adamantly state that our Norwegian experience was absolutely the worst. A long list of complaints and grievances will follow, and I’ll start at the beginning… I. The bait and switches. Our cruise was originally booked in late August 2022 with a sail date of February 17, 2023 on the Norwegian GEM out of Manhattan, New York. The itinerary was: Turks and Caicos. Puerto Plata, St. Maarten, St. Thomas and Tortola. This was very attractive to us particularly the stop in Turk and Caicos. As we began looking at shore excursions in December we notice on the NCL website that our itinerary had change without prior notice to us. We were now to sail to Puerto Plata, Tortola, St Thomas, San Juan and Bermuda. Two of our original “big draws” – Turks and Caicos and St Maarten were now gone. Disappointed but resigned we carried and booked pour shore excursions. Due to limited choices and prices offered by NCL most were with third party vendors from Viator and Shipmate. Incredibly, on February 2, 2023 we received an email from NCL with yet another itinerary change. Now Bermuda disappeared and St. Maarten reappeared and to further complicate matters, an almost total shuffling of the remaining ports and dates, necessitating yet another round of cancellations and rescheduling of shore excursions. Ifg that wasn’t enoiugh, while on the cruise in St. Maarten, the Captain come on the PA and tells us we won’t be going to Tortola, BVI and instead will have another day at sea. The supposed reason – bad weather between St. Maarten and New York, discussed next. II. The Tortola Lie and Arrogant Captain At a sit down open discussion with the Captain, he was asked about why we skipped Tortola and he reiterated the weather excuse as well as regulations requiring a slowdown in certain areas due to the presence of the endangered Right Whales, Here are the facts: - The time to be spent in Tortola, BVI was six hours. The time to arrive in NYC was 10 am. We ended up arriving in NYC at the terminal at 5:55am – fours hours ahead to the scheduled itinerary. - During the course of the three days back to NYC, no noticeable bad weather was observed; days were mostly to partly sunny with periods of relatively high winds but no higher than experienced on the journey South. - I took screen shots of the navigation screen with my phone periodically during the return trip. All measurements were taken at least 2-3 hours apart and mostly more. Of the 13 recordings of speed that I made, the high was 20.1 kts and the lowest 15.4 kts for an average of 17.6 kts. A review of readily available online information states that the speed of the GEM is 25kts, well above what was experienced. - Protections for the Right Whale along the Mid-Atlantic East Coast were obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (“NOAA”) website . Seasonal restrictions were in place during this cruise. However, according to the NOAA website map the only impact to the GEM would be during the entry to the Hudson River and New York Harbor. The 20-30NM distance involved would have only minor impacts to the GEM’s timing. The Captain at the open discussion was asked, “Was there ever any intent to visit Tortola?” From the above facts, and the history of making itinerary changes, the answer would appear to be, “No”. The Captain avoided answering this direct question by raising the Right Whale issue which I have debunked. He further unintentionally exposed the truth by stating that the time of arrival in NYC was always 7 am, despite the itinerary saying 10 am, and that the early arrival was needed to turn the ship around for the next departure at 4 pm that same day. The Captain made it very clear that he did not want to hear about problems, that they should be directed to Guest Services. Fine, but what happens when Guest Services is not empowered to address problems or inept at doing so? Isn’t the Captain ultimately responsible for his ship? III. Boarding Issues Registering and checking in went reasonably smoothly if you completed the paperwork online as requested. However, once onboard the public spaces and Garden Café areas were very congested despite the staggered boarding times. Rooms were not ready leading to the situation. During the mandatory emergency muster, no accommodations were made for the physically disabled, Our reporting station was at the very bottom of the theatre stairway, which had no railings. Finally after we refused to re[port as requested, a runner took our passes to the recorder at the bottom. If the NCL truly cared about it disabled passengers this could have been anticipated and an appropriate system put in place. IV. Dining Concerns The dining experience was not off to a good start when the highly publicized “all you can eat” prime rib at the Garden Café failed to materialize. It was later almost matched when the “Mexican Night” provided just a few poorly made Mexican dishes among the multitude of other offerings. If you don’t like the ship’s out of faucet water, cartons of water were sold; this should have been made free upon request. Overall, in my experience, the dining was subpar – unless you were willing to pay the extra surcharges to dine at a specialty restaurant. It was a case to paying for the quality that is commonly included on other cruise lines. V. Gratuities I have no problem recognizing and rewarding crew staff for their hard work and attention. I also recognize the difficulties in ensuring all are rewarded including those behind the scenes who are not seen. Still, I find the gratuities to be excessive. To begin with, and additional $100 was added to the stated $300 mandatory gratuity when we booked. In fairness, those confirmed before the increase should have been “grandfathered” in at the original fee. In addition, on other cruises the cabin stewards made it a point to introduce themselves and to provide individualized service. On the GEM, our steward never introduced himself and we only learned of his existence a few days into the cruise via the ship’s TV network. When at least a certain amount of the gratuity is dependent on actual interaction and service, the quality of the service rises. Even more irksome was the automatic imposition of a 20% gratuity on all beverage and gift store purchases. This should be optional and on the basis of service received. VI. Inferior Concern for the Handicapped I previously mentioned the problem with accessibility at the initial emergency procedures muster, one that could easily be rectified by a change in procedures. Another display of lack of concern is the line for Ship Services. On a ship with a stated capacity of just under 2400 passengers, having only 3-4 staff manning the service desk during peak hours is unacceptable. Even more unacceptable is not having a service line for those with special needs. As it is these people have to stand for long periods in line. This could easily be rectified by a having a dedicated line for those with special needs. When not needed, the staff for that line could handle normal passengers as is done in many stores and venues. VII. Held Hostage at Sea For our cruise, the scheduled four days at sea turned into five, On other cruise lines with many fewer days at sea, plenty of free entertainment is offered. Not on the NCL GEM. There were no shows or free afternoon movies, but there were plenty of pay to play opportunities. Movies were available in room for about $10 a show. An example is the “Deal of No Deal” daily scheme. Playing cards were $29.95for one or $59.95 for three. Some of the top prizes were appealing such as $5000, but winners are counted by the season, not the cruise and most people came away with nothing, a free photo, or a few with several hundred dollars. Pay to play Bingo was also offered daily. There were daily trivia games with minimal prizes and entertainment value. Tastings of wine, and other alcoholic beverages were held but at a cost. A passenger should be able to expect more on a cruise with this many days at sea and days with weather not conducive for outside activities. VIII. More Minor Concerns There were a number of annoyances that are not generic but more specific to our cruise: - Twice our cabin was without hot water in the shower. This was corrected within hours; - We had requested at the time of our booking extra pillows and an extension cord for my CPAP machine. None were received; - Quiet spaces in public areas were hard to find while at sea; - There were few direct telephone lines to services such as the photo studio or stores, necessitating an in person visit. To close, my bottom line recommendation for future travelers on the NCL GEM and NCL in general is to be wary. In our experience they were untrustworthy and of inferior value and quality. There are other better cruise lines available, avoid Norwegian. Rob Mrowka Machias, New York, USA