Dead in the Water

Past NCL cruises have been very good but this one was a disaster.

For months our ship, the Norwegian Star, has been experiencing significant problems with its Azipod propulsion system.  

These problems have forced this ship to alter a transatlantic journey then to delay and/or significantly alter a number of Asian cruises.  One engine was already out of commission when we boarded the ship in Sydney, Australia on February 6, 2017.

We made one port in Melbourne then headed back to sea.  On the first night out the other engine died and we ended up dead in the water in the Tasman Sea for 20+ hours then we endured a very slow 30+ hour tug boat tow back to Melbourne for 3 days of repairs in port then several more hours of sea trials before finally departing for three days at sea on a direct trip to Auckland, NZ. 

Fortunately, we had calm seas and light winds not the high winds and very rough 7.5 to 12 foot seas we encountered just days later on February 14th.  Had we been dead in the water in those high winds and rough 7.5 to 12 foot seas that would have been a very dangerous, very uncomfortable situation to say the least.  Imagine how dangerous it would have been being adrift and totally out of control in high winds and rough seas for 20+ hours then having a single, small tug boat trying to tow a 965-foot-long, 91,740 Gross Tonnage ship back to port for 30+ hours in rough seas.

In the end, we missed our port of call in Tasmania; we missed the Milford Sound fjords cruise and we missed all of our ports in Dunedin, Akaroa, Wellington, Napier and Tauranga, NZ.  To make matters even worse the ship arrived in Auckland three and a half hours late causing many passengers to miss their flights home which may result in them having to purchase new tickets at significant additional costs to them.

Prior to our cruise, we had already incurred more than $5,000 in mostly non-refundable travel costs (our cruise related costs only) so cancelling was not an option.  This was to be our ‘Once in a Lifetime’ vacation trip around the world.  Due to NCL’s negligence our dream vacation started on a sour note with a very dangerous, very boring twelve-day cruise to nowhere.  

We found NCL’s refund offer totally unacceptable.  We are especially upset by NCL’s refusal to refund any part of the full $588.30 in “Gov Tax/Port Exp/Fees” we paid even though we made only one port of call due to the complete failure of the ship’s Azipod propulsion system.  We were also charged the full $324 in ‘Service Fees’.  Yes, we did use the services but only because we were unable to disembark in Melbourne.  We did try to get off in Melbourne to fly to Auckland but we were told that hotel rooms there were completely sold out.  We were stuck on the Star for another nine days.  These were NCL’s faults, not ours. 

NCL knew they had a serious problem before we sailed but they ignored our safety and chose to sail anyway.  Sad.