Sadly NCL is Going Down the Tubes

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 35

Review summary

The concierge we spoke to prior to the cruise (at 855-625-4283) did not follow through on my requests. I had to ask the butler and cabin attendant to handle things after we embarked though I specifically asked to have this handled prior to embarkation! NCL never sent us priority luggage tags though we were in a suite, the entire ship had to search for our luggage and we received it 5 hours after we embarked. That is unacceptable in a suite, forget the stress we had believing it was left behind! NCL has extremely poor communication! Very poor! No info regarding which dock we were arriving at, no one could tell us so we almost missed a shore excursion as the tour operator went to Tobaco Dock in Lisbon but we were at the other dock. With a knee that was bone on bone, I had to go back into the ship to get help; they sent me back out to the NCL shore excursion guy to help us though it was not an NCL excursion. That guy (who looks like Gary Busey) was mean and useless and clearly he had no interest in helping. I had to go back on board a second time (long walk on a bad knee) and our concierge called the tour operator to figure out what to do. Why do you not have travelogues of each port we docked at to give clients an idea of what they might want to know? The info on the TV was pretty useless! And why do you not provide maps of each port because some ports had maps, one charged a euro for a map and several had none. Um really? Too much money for NCL to provide them to their clients? NCL did not communicate that there was a "Behind The Scenes" tour; we asked once we got on board but it was full! How is that possible? Why does NCL not have down loadable maps of each deck available to clients after they book (even have them on board if you don't want us to print ahead of time). The NCL web site has diagrams but unprintable unless you want to print many pages, cut them up, tape together, decrease the size to use them. The diagrams by the elevators are useless except to give you a generic idea of what is what. No instructions as to how the wi fi worked and it took 3 employees to help us figure it out. Why are there not written instructions. Though I did a screen shot each time I logged on and off wi fi (many times after 1 or 2 minutes as it never loaded) I had proof yet the log showed I used 50 minutes while off the ship on a shore excursion...impossible...and 70 minutes while we were at dinner. Yet...each time I logged off and had proof that I did not forget to log off. Yes, they gave me back those two sets of minutes but the rest was just a nightmare trying to accomplish anything on wi fi! What a joke! The afternoon savory and sweet canapes/snacks were simply the most boring and repetitive offerings ever. At least 4 times we got a plate with chocolate candies...not great chocolates and not good! You all couldn't even do chocolate covered strawberries at least once??? You couldn’t vary the savory canapes instead of the same ones day in and day out? The shops are also really boring...same old, same old! Liquor, souvenirs and jewelry. If you had a boutique or two, women would buy clothes and accessories I assure you! Impossible to believe we found not one thing to buy that was cool, different or interesting! The room service form is ridiculous...it doesn't list all the breakfast items including toast, english muffins etc. We had to write all over the back of that menu which was just ridiculous and made it hard to read for the butler to decipher??? Why??? Revise it unless it is too much trouble??? The art auction was a joke! We compared it to the one on the Panama Canal cruise last March (2022) which was organized with efficient staff. This one was chaotic, disorganized and on one they registered people but wouldn't let them in to peruse the artwork so that just delayed the whole shebang! The lighting in the living room was atrocious; you simply could not read or write in such dim lighting that pointed everywhere except where you would sit. We had to rearrange our suite, moved the couch under the lights and our cabin attendant brought us a floor lamp. This made it palatable but why would it require that? As far as room service which we had often...the blueberry muffins were very dry, the french fries were rarely hot and often undercooked, coffee often not hot in the pot, cole slaw was served in a tiny "bowl" and I use that term loosely...the bowl was about the size of a fifty cent piece? Finally, the Mallorca port was hell on earth! The walk from the ship to the outside of the port was horrific; you all provided shuttle buses to take people to the Cathedral but they refused to allow those of us who were handicapped to get a ride. The NCL staff could not have cared less; they were all yelling and basically said...too bad...start walking. We did not care if you wanted to charge us for a shuttle but to do nothing....nah...that is a violation of ADA!!! You should be ashamed! So...I'm as tired of writing this as you are of reading it! I plan to send a cleaner version the the NCL CEO's and President so no worries. I think they should know we wouldn't cruise with NCL ever again if you offered me a free around the world cruise, that is how serious I am. Going back to Celebrity! P.S. Why would NCL take credit in their ratings for whether or not a port was great? You should be asking how your shore excursions were in each port because those were a zero!

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Children's Programs

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

New York, New York Did not visit port

Ponta Delgada, Azores

Lisbon, Portugal

Cadiz (Seville), Spain

Malaga, Spain

Palma De Mallorca, Balearic Islands

Barcelona, Spain

Cannes, France

Livorno (Florence & Pisa), Italy

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

Disembarkation

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