FREE Beverages! Not for us. by Ricris
Sail date: / Traveled as: CoupleShip: Norwegian Sky / Destination: Caribbean - Bahamas
Let me start off by saying that my wife and I have cruised on Norwegian Sky four times and the first three times were great. We booked our last Sky cruise online through NCL in late July, 2019. There were many dates available to choose from and all of them indicated FREE open bar, just as they had been for years prior. We decided a departure of September, 14th because it was best for our schedule and it was almost identical in price to what we paid last year, except we were not going to Cuba. We later found out too that we were not going to the Grand Bahama port due to hurricane damage. When we arrived on the ship we went to the bar and ordered two Margaritas to begin our relaxing vacation. This is when we found out something was seriously wrong. We were shocked when we were charged an absurd amount for our drinks. We immediately went to guest services and they told us the FREE open bar was discontinued on September 4th. We tried to explain that when we booked our cruise the website still said FREE open bar and we even showed her that the NCL website still said FREE open bar, but our comments were only being heard by someone who didn’t care. We asked to speak to a supervisor, and she also did absolutely nothing for us, except telling us she would create a claim and someone from NCL would contact us. I asked when and how that would happen and she said within a few days by email (which to this day has never happened). I explained to her that this did nothing for the vacation we are on and I soon came to the conclusion that NCL had destroyed this vacation. We were so upset with how we were being treated by customer NO service, that we seriously thought about leaving the ship before it departed. What stopped us was the fact that we knew we would never see our luggage again. We needed to do something and it now came down to three choices. We pay ridiculous amounts for the overpriced drinks, we purchase the exorbitant beverage package for $1,188 or we have no cocktails while onboard. Neither was a good choice and we knew if we were going to purchase the beverage package, we needed to do it before we left the Miami port. Right or wrong, we made the decision to purchase the beverage package and battle with NCL after the cruise. We tried not to think about what we paid for the cruise and the beverage package, but throughout the cruise we talked to so many other people who told us they received the FREE open bar when they booked their cruise. When I originally spoke to guest services, I asked if we were the only customers complaining about not receiving the FREE open bar and they said no one else had. However, others told us there were people complaining to guest services about not receiving the FREE open bar. For this cruise NCL had created a bait and switch. To lead many of us to believe the FREE open bar was still part of the Sky package and then to deny it after we had boarded the ship is pure wrong and unethical! NCL needs to make this right by refunding the $1,188 immediately. In addition to all of this, NCL confiscated a gallon container of distilled water that was in our luggage. The sealed container met all of NCL’s criteria identified on their website. This was not the prohibited drinking water and was needed solely for medical purposes. We had to once again waste our valuable vacation time with guest services, who eventually returned our sealed gallon jug of distilled water.