Booze cruise with bad service...

Cruises: 2-3 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 35

Review summary

This is our 2nd cruise with Norwegian this year, we went as a family of 7 spanning 3 generations. My parents let the kids pick the cruises now that they are going and they pick the ones that have all the kids stuff like watersides, climbing wall, and ropes courses. My daughters also wanted to visit Miami so we ended up choosing the Getaway and spending a couple nights at Margaritaville Resort (fantastic place, definitely recommended) before embarkation. Embarkation was a mixed bag, arrival and getting checked in was easy and fast, but then we were jammed in a room for an hour waiting before group 1 even got called, we were group 6. Once on the ship we had to wait a couple of hours, in limited spaces (given that everyone had to be in those spaces), with some of our luggage before able to go to our rooms. I understand there is a process to it all, but why have us show up so early if you are going to shuffle us from one sardine can to another. There was food and drink available, but many people managed to get hammered before they even let us in the staterooms... sigh, I knew from that point this wasn't as family friendly as the last cruise I was on despite having great draws for kids. The ship was setup with the main deck bars right between the kid’s pool and the adult pool/stage with lots of seating around the whole area between the front of the ship and the aft. This sounds good until you realize that the bartenders are just feeding people drinks with no concern how hammered they already are making the whole area just littered with people who are having a hard time walking. The dining was a mixed bag, the cafe was the basics that were what you expected, but nothing special, most of their "theme night" food was a disappointment, the theme was at one little section and was barely up to that theme, like the best seafood for "seafood" night was shrimp... like I said, disappointing. The specialty dining was fantastic, but again, it's not included. We attended the Illusionarium which had a great set menu and fantastic show. The Moderno was fantastic food even though the service was sub par for specialty dining. We also heard good things about most of the other specialty dining. Entertainment was pretty good, I loved the steampunk feel of the Illusionarium, Burn the floor and the Million dollar quartet were big hits with the kids, and there was always something going on. The entertainment didn't disappoint on this ship, but again, much of the "better" entertainment was going to cost you extra. The activities were probably the biggest hit with the kids and the reason the trip was still a positive for the most part (kids had fun, the adults didn't). The high ropes were their favorite by far but they had a lot of runs at the watersides and rock wall too. Service killed this trip for all the adults in our party, I understand most people have the unlimited drink package and want "to get their monies worth", but that doesn't mean the staff shouldn't pay attention to how intoxicated the people are that are getting these drinks. 2-5 drinks at a time with one card means the person is either heavily intoxicated or might be feeding drinks to someone who is, they take no accountability for how intoxicated people are getting. Sadly, that isn't the worst of it, quick version, the stewards are stealing from the rooms and threatened us when we complained. Long story... an item went missing from our room, and trust me, we tore the place apart looking, so I called to ask if it had gotten scooped up with the dirty towels, and without getting into fine details, the steward confronted both my wife and I at different points in front of our daughter and said we called him a thief and we should check our room. The item re-appeared, but we had security involved, I filled out a report (about the steward, not the missing item) and after the same steward confronted my father, we talked with security again and we never saw him the rest of the trip. After we got home, we realized we were missing some things we had bought (nothing expensive) and, almost everyone else we talked to on the ship about our trouble with the steward said things were missing from their rooms, but almost all of them said they didn't want to go through the hassle of complaining (which is why the stewards keep stealing from the passengers). First was Roatan, and we went off to Fantasy Island on our own to do some snorkeling and diving which was easily our best stop, highly recommend Fantasy Island if you enjoy snorkeling or diving. The market at the pier was pretty small and limited but you could definitely find a souvenir. Our second stop was Harvest Cay, which is Norwegians Private Island in Belize. I'm going to give a comparative review to the Norwegian private island we docked at when I was on the Epic (Great Stirrup Cay) earlier in the year. On Great Stirrup, they had a huge buffet, a lot of bars, and various specialty food stands all included (private island, only people there are their passengers, makes sense right?), but on Harvest Cay, it was completely opposite, if you wanted any food or drink on their private island, you had to pay for it. To top it off, the ships internet didn't work for anyone that whole day, when I called to complain they said it doesn't work very well in this port, it will work about half hour after we leave. I'll let you draw your own conclusion there, but I will tell you the debit and credit machines on the island worked lightning fast... Third up was Costa Maya and we took the kids to the water park, they had an absolute blast doing ziplines and waterslides for a good 4 hours straight, it was well worthwhile. The market here was the best on the trip, it was a maze back to the ship, but there is a lot of shops with a ton of different stuff, if the market is your thing, this is the market to spend some time in, swim up bar in the marketplace :) Last was Cozumel and we split up, my wife and I took our oldest daughter to the dolphin swim and ride while my father took my youngest daughter for a scuba diving lesson. The dolphin swim was amazing, the excitement on my wife and daughters faces is something I will never forget. I would warn everyone though, if you want pictures, it's very pricey, $30 to email you 1 picture, $40 to print 1 picture and no group buying options. My other daughter would probably say scuba was the highlight of her trip and you could tell it was my father’s highlight of the trip, he talked about how proud he was of his granddaughter the rest of the trip, it was great. The market here was pretty good too, it was setup more like a plaza that you walked through to get back to the ship. Disembarkation was ok, the long line snaking through 7th deck was discouraging when we first saw it, but it moved fairly quickly and there wasn't any delays at customs. Overall, there was a lot of good points, good conversations, made new friends, and had some good adventures, but the bad service, especially being stolen from and harassed by the staff, really diminished the experience for the adults. We are just thankful that the kids didn't get effected nearly as much and they both had a great time overall.

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

Onboard Activities

Entertainment

Children's Programs

Service and Staff

Ship Quality

Cabin / Stateroom

Ports of call

Miami, Florida

Coxen Hole, Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras

Harvest Caye, Belize

Costa Maya (Mahahual), Mexico

Cozumel, Mexico

Disembarkation

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