Great Trip - BUT now you see it and then you don't!
Norwegian Spirit Cruise Review to Alaska - Inside Passage
11 Night Alaska: Glacier Bay Skagway & Juneau (Seattle Roundtrip)
Sail date: September 21, 2022
Ship: Norwegian Spirit
Cabin type: Balcony
Traveled as: Large Group
Reviewed: 1 year ago
Review summary
My wife and I are an active couple in our mid-70’s that have had the good fortune of being able to travel quite extensively. That said, we are relatively new to cruising and have chosen Norwegian Cruise Lines as our primary large ship vendor. One trip that we have always wanted to go on was to visit the inner passage of Alaska. We booked on the Norwegian Spirit for an 11-day cruise embarking from Seattle September 21 and returning on October 2, 2022. To our surprise the ship was half full carrying only ~1,000 passenger’s verses 2,000+ that it can hold. We’re not certain whether people were still wary of COVID or there wasn’t sufficient crew to support a higher number of passengers. We book stateroom 10562, midships with a balcony on the port side of the ship. I must say that this stateroom was very comfortable, relatively spacious and had a much better bathroom then we previously had on the Epic. We can’t say enough positives about the service, personnel, entertainment and specialty dinning. The meals and service at Cagney’s and Le Bistro were exceptional, however the quality and variety of food available at the Garden Café was at best marginal and certainly did not compare to previous travel on other NCL trips. Weather prevented us from sailing to see the Hubbard Glacier and also docking in Skagway. Weather is not be controlled by NCL but these weather-related changes caused cancelation of the White Pass Summit Train & City Tour (Skagway) and the Craft Brewery & Distillery Tasting Tour (Victoria, BC). All and all we truly enjoyed our cruise, BUT here comes our major problem! Hundreds of dollars of our money were lost by NCL - a case of now you see it and now you don't. On October 2, at the end of our Alaska cruise on the Spirit I had a credit of hundreds of dollars due to cancelled excursions. I was told that these monies would go back on the credit card on file within 30 days of debarkation. I am now approaching 90 days after taking all of the steps I was directed to by NCL including filing a claim and being assigned a case number. The automatic email I received was that it might take up to 30 days to get a response, that was 45 days ago. Guest Relations informed me that my monies were returned to the World Points Rewards a Bank of America program. I have no Bank of America credit card and therefore do not participate in this program. I have requested that they (NCL) provide with me with the last 4 digits of the credit card they posted the monies to and the date that the monies were credited and have received no response from them. NCL Guest Relations and their Resolution Department have become a black hole. I doubt whether my wife and I will ever travel with NCL again! Any suggestions as to what next steps I can take would be greatly appreciated??????Embarkation
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ports of call
Icy Strait Point (Hoonah), Alaska
Vancouver (Canada Place), British Columbia
Disembarkation
Traveler Photos
