Transatlantic Missteps

I truly loved the length of time on the ship and meeting folks from all over the world. Especially like the variety of entertainment oppourtunities and valued the hard working crew. I was sorely disappointed with a few issues I think are major considerations for the cruise line decisions makers. First is communication from staff to crew. The captain of the Getaway was available, visible and great with communication about the mishaps that occurred. The difficulty was from the those under him who are not skilled to handle direct and honest and timely communication when a delay occurs. By simply informing people of why we are standing in a long unmoving line, or why two lines converge in an area by a bank of elevators being used to escort wheelchair customers to the head of a customs and immigration line. Being asked to move to accommodate the persons in an area too small to accommodate the existing lines was evidence of very poor planning. Additionally, standing in long lines for customs or disembarkation without a person of leadership and skill to communicate effectively with upset cruisers, again shows poor planning. 

Secondly, I think the crew was wonderful and attempted to handle irate and woefully unkind privileged cruisers, yet again lack of training and consistent communication skills could have mitigated the situation.  A little timely information from supervisory level staff trained in deescalating conflict would have gone a long way to defuse the upset. Getting different information from crew only fuels the upset about why a port excursion was cut short or a port bypassed or why  customs takes 3 hours to process the first excursion tour groups, or why steep ramps for going on and off the ship could not have been prevented, these are were communicated poorly by staff in the middle of the situation. Finally I and my wife thoroughly enjoyed the ship and feel that the Captain was exceptional with his leadership ,wit, style and being so visible to cruisers during stress times. The reasoning for the missteps are understandable as propulsion issues and weather condition are realities, but NCL needs to work harder at training staff in leadership roles and those interfacing with cruisers on communication skills and defusing upset. A little information, timely and accurate goes a long way to calming my upset. Somethings are avoidable , some not and NCL needs to plan more for the avoidable.