Please read the fine print before booking your air fare!
Norwegian Spirit Cruise Review to Europe - Mediterranean
12 Night Grand Mediterranean (Venice To Barcelona)
Sail date: October 24, 2015
Ship: Norwegian Spirit
Cabin type: Inside
Cabin number: 9577
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 9 years ago
Review summary
This cruise advertises, Day one in Venice and Day 2 in Venice but the ship is leaving at 1 am on day two so it is really in Venice LESS THAN 24 HOURS. It seems that day 2 is actually 1 hour in Venice and 23 hours at sea. Unless you read the fine print you may also not notice that you must be on board by 11 PM on day one so any flight arriving after 9:30 on day 1 will cause you to miss your cruise. Since does not make this clear at the time of booking, we wasted $1500 on a flight arriving at 10:50 PM on day one in Venice. When we received our cruise documents which you do not receive until after you pay in FULL, we noticed this and called immediately. The happiness guarentee they offer got us an onboard credit of $75, resulting in a loss of $1425 and the need to buy replacement airfare at a cost of $ 1750.
Please don't make the mistake we did. If we had booked directly with NCL.com this would not have happened. The cruise itself was perfect, but it ended up being very expensive booking through and we will never make that mistake again.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Entertainment
Children's Programs
Service and Staff
Ship tip
NCL is always a great itenirary and a good deal.
Ports of call
Livorno (Florence & Pisa), Italy
Traveler Photos
8 Comments
BDRebel 9 years ago
I agree with the other posters here. The cruise line states plainly on the website the times of departure, arrival, and "All Aboard" times. Unfortunately, your travel agent saw fit not to give you that information. I am glad that you were able to make other (albeit expensive) transportation plans and did not miss the boat.
Thank you, though, for the warning to other potential cruisers that you should always research a purchase before making final payment.
deboftheseas 9 years ago
sherry311 9 years ago
No the problem occured because we were not informed and did not see the fine print. Our Cruise Only consultant did not mention it and you dont get the cruise documents until after you pay in full. We did not have that pointed out to us until we had paid in full and called to ask about transfers from the airport.Yes, under day 2 in tiny print it does say 1am departure. But we did not notice that until it was too late. So day 2 is really 23 hours at sea and one hour in Venice, which makes you wonder why they list it as day 2 in Venice to begin with.
CrusinTim 9 years ago
WAIT....You were informed you had to be onboard by 11pm on day one and you bought a plane ticket that had you arrive at the airport at 10:50pm? 10 minutes prior to final boarding? How is this CruisesOnly's fault? YOU booked the flight. So you feel that arriving at the airport 10 minutes before FINAL boarding was OK? It takes longer than 10 minutes to get your luggage at the airport!! It takes longer than 10 minutes to go through port check-in even if the terminal is empty! Booking with NCL has NO control over the time you book your flight so regardless, the outcome would have been the same. NCL decides the FINAL boarding time of 11pm, NOT CruisesOnly! Anyone that has been on 7+ cruises as you state you have been, would know PLANNING to arrive at the airport 10 minutes prior to final boarding time if the ship is nothing but REALLY poor planning. We have used CruisesOnly for 25 years and have NEVER had an issue with them. We ALWAYS receive an initial statement emailed to us starting right after booking then a new one updated every time we made a payment.Next time you want to throw money away...give me a call!!