Needs serious improvement

Why ask for a time to choose for embarkation when no one sticks to it and it is utter chaos. Long queues and totally disorganised.

There is no denying that the servers work extremely hard however the senior staff in the main dining rooms need some extra training and to be more proactive! We went down to the main dining room for breakfast and after being seated it took a while to be served. My husband ordered fresh orange juice and it never came. The excuse from the Maitre D was that it had to come from upstairs and they couldn’t do it but after two attempts , he finally got it. We were told that when we come down the following morning - the orange juice would be there waiting. I can tell you that the orange juice never arrived the following morning either!! Once we placed our order for breakfast it took forty five minutes to arrive. The order was a mixture of hot and cold food - my children ordered cereal and my husband and I ordered hot food. When we asked where the food was all the Maitre D could say was ‘sorry’ but didn’t do anything to see what was happening with the order. She just stood around looking pretty. The servers were totally rushed off their feet but my impression was that they got no support from their senior staff. We decided to try again the following morning….. big mistake AGAIN. The orange juice was not there as promised. We ordered our breakfast and my family were having bets on how long it would take for the food to arrive. Again we were left waiting and after 25 minutes the food started arriving in stages ….. my children’s cereal came first and then mine and my husband’s hot breakfast arrived with missing items. By this stage my children had finished breakfast - it would of been nice to get our food altogether so we could eat as a family!! When we complained again , the Maitre D told us we should expect to wait an hour and fifteen minutes for our food to arrive - REALLY?? Needless to say we never went to the main dining room for breakfast again and resorted to eating at the buffet. The buffet is like any other - lots of food choice however was surprised not to see anyone at the entrance with sanitising gel asking people to sanitise their hands - probably a cost cutting exercise. The servers were great but totally rushed off their feet as always. We ate at Cagneys and Teppenyaki which were both excellent. We chose to go to Cagneys for my husbands birthday and he got a nice surprise with a birthday cake slice however none of the servers sang happy birthday to him like they did at other tables - perhaps we weren’t special enough!!

The onboard activities were full and boring. Language courses , quiz after quiz. There was absolutely nothing for my children to do (aged 13 and 18) when we were stuck indoors. The pool was over crowded with people reserving their chairs from early morning. One pool is not enough for the size of the ship. Children in the hot tubs when it clearly states no children allowed. My husband was in the fitness centre every morning and he said it was fine. Did not partake in the climbing wall or water slides because I couldn’t deal with the extra long queues. We tried Bingo once but that was so boring. Half the fun on Bingo was dabbing out your numbers with a dabbed but NCL do it with punched holes - hardly enjoyable so didn’t go back. Overall a very poor experience with the onboard activities.

If I could give the entertainment a rating of zero I would. Let’s start with the cruise director Alvin. He had zero personality. I have been on many cruises where the cruise Director puts themselves out there …. you see them around the ship , talking to the cruisers , getting involved but he never did any of that. Even when he made his announcements over the tannoy in the mornings , it was like the headteacher making an announcement at school. Perhaps Alvin was a bit overwhelmed by the job he was meant to do and if that’s the case he should reconsider his job position. When we cruised on the Getaway in 2019 , the Cruise Director was Vincent and what an incredible job he did. He was fun and had a sparkly personality.and he directed and was fully engaged. He knew how to do the job and he did it well. He had a great team around him and he made the trip memorable. So much so I made a point of telling him what an outstanding job he did. The difference between the Cruise Directors was immense and sorry Alvin you just didn’t do it for me and sorry to say your entertainment team were equally as bad. I can’t even remember who they were !! Now onto the entertainment- The Getaway hasn’t moved on from Burn the floor or The million dollar string quartet. They still on 4 years later and haven’t changed the show at all. The first night there was a comedian who was utter rubbish. I was actually embarrassed for him. People were walking out after 15 minutes. We walked out soon after and even one of the senior officers who we passed made a comment out loud saying ‘so many people leaving the show - that’s not good’. No it wasn’t good - it was shocking!! Part of going on a cruise is for the entertainment- family entertainment but there was nothing that my children wanted to see and we had seen it all before. NCL you seriously need to up your game with your poor lacklustre entertainment. Go take a look at your cruise competitors and see how it’s actually done.

I give my room Steward Paul 5 stars as he was always friendly and polite and did a sterling job. The servers in the main ding room , buffet and restaurants get 5 stars too but that’s where I stop. Let’s start with Guest relations. It seems to be a pre requisite when you work at Guest relations not to smile and be as rude as possible to your guests. Unfortunately I had to deal with Guest relations on numerous occasions and it seems that every time it was an absolute chore for them. Before our cruise I booked a birthday package for my husband as a surprise. It all went through my credit card and I got the email invoice as confirmation. When I went to Guest relations to make sure all was in order , I was greeted by a very curt Artur from Slovenia. When he looked on the computer for my booking he told me it wasn’t booked. I told him I got the confirmation email and it has been booked and paid for. Artur said that he would have to email the head office to see why it’s not showing and he’d get back to me once he heard back from them. I told him I would go back on my emails to show him that it had been booked and I would bring it back to him. About 30 minutes later I was back showing Artur the PAID invoice and his response was I know I heard back from Head Office (wow that was quick) and it was all sorted. He asked me what cabin we were in ( we had two cabins - one for my husband and I and one for my kids) for the package to go in and when I gave him my cabin number and said that my husband and I are in Cabin xxxx his response was ‘I don’t need to know your sleeping arrangements’ and that is great customer service right there!! If you can’t deal with the public don’t work in Guest Relations. Artur you were a complete disgrace to deal with. As far as the birthday package goes let me continue with that as it didn’t go as promised or planned. I asked them for the room to be decorated for 9am as I knew we would be having breakfast at that time. I also requested that the room be made up before they decorate. I was promised it would be done. My daughter and husband went upstairs to the shops and then had to go down to the cabin to collect something. This was at about 10:30ish ( when the cabin should of been made up and decorated) Once in the cabin they saw a delivered white box which was the birthday cake. My husband thought that was very kind however where were the decorations???? I went back to Guest relations and dealt with another member of your friendly team. He phoned housekeeping who told him that we were in the room at 9am with the Do Not Disturb light on when they went in to decorate which is a basic lie as we were in the main dining room waiting 45 minutes for our breakfast to arrive!! I asked the Guest Relations gentleman if I had the Do Not Disturb sign on - how did room service get in to deliver the cake?? Ah he didn’t quite know how to respond to that question. All in all it was a total shambles and a ruined surprise for my husband. We were called to a meeting with the Assistant General Manager Plamenko Baku after making numerous written complaints via a ‘leave your comment box’ at Guest Relations. When I told Plamenko about the birthday package shambles I was told by him that I would be ‘compensated and more’ for the serious error. I only found out once we got home that I was given 50 dollars back on disembarkation day and the lady at cruise credit told me it was for a missed excursion. Clearly that got lost in translation somewhere. I’m so glad that Plamenko Bakic took it so seriously that all he could give was 50 dollars and couldn’t even credit my credit card - what a disgrace!! Basically I got the impression that your staff are grumpy , disgruntled and apethetic to any situation that arises!!

The ship is big but the layout is good. All areas were clean however your toilets could do with more regular checks.

The cabin was spacious and clean however extremely noisy being at the front of the ship.

Chaos and no order to disembark.