My worst cruise ever!!!

My wife and I are seasoned cruisers, Platinum Latitude on NCL and Diamond on RCI and 5 other lines and this cruise stands out.  Let me first point out two positives.  The food at the specialty restaurants and O'Sheehans was very good as were the entertainers. 

This ship is poorly designed for 4000 cruisers.  The main meeting area, The Atrium, is toooooo small for it's uses.  Besides being used for a majority of the ship's activities, it is also the site for guest services, future bookings, restaurant reservations, computers for onboard use, bar, and tour reservations.  With all these and the fact that it is very noisy the area is chaotic.  If you ate at O'Sheehans the noise drifted up to the area.  Often standing room only.  This ship is designed for cruising with daily stops so people can get off the ship.  We on this cruise had 11 days at sea because of very high winds at Ponte Delgada, Azores stop prevented out landing. 

At Brest, France almost every passenger got off the ship but there was only one gangway in place, there is almost always two to handle so many people.  There was a large crane on the dock near where the aft gangway should be placed and this is the only reasonable cause for not deploying it that morning,  At 12 noon when many of the passengers started to come back to the ship, the one gangway could not handle the load.  The average age of passengers was 62 plus years.  Many of these people were overweight  and/or disabled.  The ramp was steep and many crew members were called upon to help these passengers back on board.  This process meant that most passengers had to wait for up to two hours to board in 50 degree damp weather. It took us 1 1/2 hours and I was angry.  This was a situation that was totally preventable. 

One of our ship's Azipod's was not working properly and we were told that our progress to Southampton would be slowed and we would get there at 12 noon and be able to stay until midnight.  This was making it possible to fix the propulsion azipod.  We had to go through UK customs prior to leaving the ship.

This was to happen after stopping in the Azores as the officials were to come on board there.  My wife and I did not get off until 4:30 PM.... meaning no Stonehenge; no Salisbury Cathedral and certainly no London.  Another disappointment, but wait there is more;  we were told by the Captain at night that we would by- pass Zeebrugge  meaning we would not get to Brugge a World Heritage Site!  We were given $100 per passenger for missing this port plus the port taxes refunded for the two ports we did not go to. How generous?? We would be staying over night in Rotterdam as a reward but the championship soccer match was being played there so the city was on Maximum Security to prevent any rioting... the cruise from Hades!  We could not have been more disappointed in what we had hoped was to be a great cruise.  A number of the cruise staff were outstanding including Joao Gigante, Hotel Director, Alberto, cruise entertainment staff for Trivia and many others very hard working staff!  The most disappointing staff member was the Cruise Director,  Sisal.  He did not introduce most acts in the theater, and was not too visiable.  Stay away from this ship unless you are going to Island Hop!