Overall this is the worst experience we had in a cruise, honestly.
First, the title "Repositioning" had confused many guests we spoke with onboard, including ourselves. This should be shown as "One-Way" or some more alerts that this cruis is NOT returning to Port of Miami. This is a huge inconvenience and again lot of guests were extremely frustrated and dissapointed. The feedback we got was that the Cruise Line did it on purpose to confuse guests and sell this package at "lower cost" which ends up been more expensive for lot of people like us that needed to return to Miami as always before. The other worst experience was with the bad dirty-water smell in certain recreative areas, looks like the bathrooms couldn't be cleaned at some points and just collapsed, this is horrible. We were thinking in trying another boat from NCL but experience definitely left us with a really bad taste. All our comments are honest, constructive, and can be verified. Please contact us if need any more information in order to improve. Thank you.
Embarkation
1 out of 5
Horrible, very disorganized. The personnel did not know that we purchased the liquor package with the balcony, nor any details. They only had a piece of paper like in the old times, how in a digital world they will not have our info handy? Aweful customer service, employees yelling at guests. Everyone was very frustrated.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
1 out of 5
Food was the worst we had in a cruise so far, some fruits smelled already spoiled. Most of the dining places closed and the one we paid for was not good at all. Undercooked steak and many other problems like very small side dishes and had to pay for regular drinks like an expresso, very very expensive.
Onboard Activities
2 out of 5
Very old boat, other than the shows nothing else we could enjoy. Very small pools and always crowded, not enough for amount of guests.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
Musicians were good, most of them. Enjoyed the music every place we went however they finished very early during day and night.
Children's Programs
Did not bring children but we never saw any children related activity.
Service and Staff
2 out of 5
Certain personnel was kind in restaurants, bar, etc. but we never saw room cleaning and when we asked for cleaning room one day we were told that only once alllowed by cruise line policy
Ship Quality
1 out of 5
Strong dirty water smelled in certain areas, to the point that had to leave. Found dirty bathrooms in many ocassions, close to some restaurants and music areas, this is the worst we have seen in many years cruising.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
Cabin overall was OK, not to what we ended up paying for but the balcony room was acceptable for this boat.
Ship tip
Be ready to expect issues, this boat is from 1999 so even though it's been remodeled still outdated for today's standards.
This was OK due to the fact that there are only few hours available, boat left around 3P or so. Not enough time for pool activities, lunch, etc. Puerto Plata is nice, enclosed for tourism and very safe.
Place is new, very clean and pretty, personnel very kind. We had a good time, also Inmigration area is very organized for US Citizens in our case. We found food extremely expensive.
Had to wait over an hour in Customer Service line to get a refund due to an authorized charge on my Credit Card. Personnel was confused, disorganized and very few of them dealing with so many inquires. It was a total disaster, worst we have seen in our experience.
I was also on this cruise to La Romana from Miami. And it is true that there were many people that were upset and confused about the repositioning Cruise not going back to miami. I spoke with a few and I heard a few similar comments about how when they called NCL to book this Cruise they were infected it was going back to Miami. I believe this since NCL customer service is home-based csrs. Quality control is available at Best in that situation. I knew this was a repositioning cruise and used it as a way to get to Punta Cana to stay at an Airbnb for a week. However on the last day of the cruise to get off the ship that morning I went down and made sure I was good on my account at 6:00 a.m. at the desk and was told I do not know about. They did however over authorize my credit card to which that card was useless for the next few days until they dropped the authorization. That's frustrating. But more frustrating is when I went to get off the ship and I go to the gangway and the guy says I owe balance which I don't so I go over to the temporary desk across the hall from the gangway and wait forever behind other people having the same situation happen. Get to the desk he says I don't have a balance and he continued to make sure that my room was room ten which it was. So I go back to the gateway and ding it says that I own a balance. I went through this like for 45 minutes back and forth in a hot hot gangway. That experience plus the overall authorization plus the witnessing of people getting screwed by NCL really makes me not want to board and Ship by NCL again.
Why would repositioning confuse you or anyone that cruises its one-way self-explanatory. Now the rest of your complaints worry me because I'll be on the Sky for a September cruise, I really hope thing go fixed.
I'm not getting this. you booked the cruise. you see the itinerary. it shows you every place plus your return port. you see it's not going to Miami, then blame the cruise line for not telling passengers.... WHICH THEY DID. what did you think a repositioning cruise was? why would YOU book it without asking questions.
This is why it’s always important to READ your cruise contract which lists in detail your itinerary! It’s amazing to me how many people fail to do this. Would solve so many problems people have with cruising.
Haven’t done a repositioning cruise,however we have sailed on the Sky and it was one of our least memorable experiences. The service was slow and lacking. Food was subpar and the ship just wasn’t up to par in many areas. We haven’t been back on NCL since. Just not a good experience.
Ok you did the research to know the boat was built in 1990's but didn't know what was your last port was and how much time you had in Dominica?? It was to bad about the rest of the stuff I would have been pissed.
Appreciate your feedback. However, much like others have said, you should have known your itinerary. Sorry you were confused. A Repositioning cruise by definition means going from one home port to another.
If you didn’t check the itinerary before sailing you only have yourself to blame for that! Really, we’re to believe that a whole load of passengers didn’t check where they were sailing to and it was NCL’s fault? I’ve been on a few NCL ships now and no they do not manage everything on paper. They’d never manage to function if they did that.
Sorry you didn't enjoyed your cruise. Some do return to deoarture ports, while others dont. It requires reading about the specific cruise before booking. Tks for sharing
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