Don Howell's Blog

NCL Cruises: Freestyle or Free-For-All?

 
The Mexican Cruise from Hell
A terrible waste of $5,000

ell, it has finally begun to feel like winter. “What a great time for a cruise!” Just make sure it’s the right one.

My wife and I recently took our fourth cruise on Norwegian Cruise Lines, this one a twelve day voyage to the Western Caribbean aboard the Norwegian Dawn. We spent nearly $4,000.00 USD on just the tickets for the so-called mini suite (Stateroom 11070), but you can expect to pay hundreds (if not thousands) more. Experienced travelers know that the gratuities are not included in the ticket price but are added to your account once on board. Moreover, any alcoholic beverages must be purchased onboard, as passengers and their luggage are thoroughly screened for a “personal stash.” In fact, anything other than water or iced tea will cost you. All excursions are also extra and can range from approximately $25 USD per person to nearly $100 per person.  In all, we spent over $5,000.00 USD with NCL on this trip!

As Latitudes (frequent sailing) members, my wife and I knew all of this and were prepared for another wonderful adventure. Boy, were we wrong.

We had previously booked passage in suites for a number of reasons. First, the cabins are much roomier. Also, such accommodations come with much greater personal attention (a concierge and a butler are assigned to a limited number of guests to meet dining and excursion planning) and room amenities (a real bath, a dvd player, and a spacious balcony, to name a few). Finally, it may cost more, but you get priority boarding and departure throughout the trip from the first day to the day of departure.

Being a long-time client meant nothing to NCL

Our first hint that something was amiss came upon check-in. We arrived in New York by car on the late side, but we had always previously whisked through the priority line. At the dock we were instead directed to the general line. Concerned, we went immediately to our “mini suite” to check it out.

As a note, we had made all arrangements directly with NCL by phone in response to a direct email offer sent to frequent guests. Yet the cabin was not like our previous accommodations. There was no note card from the butler informing us of how to get a hold of him. Indeed, there was to be no butler or most other special privileges we had paid more to get. Worse, there was no DVD player – not a small problem as my wife had a college paper to write based on a dvd which she was going to view on board. And the ship was fully booked.

I accompanied my wife (who was visibly distressed and in tears by now) to the reception desk. There, we got a real taste of NCL customer support. I said that there had to be a mistake as I had specifically asked about the level of service twice – once at booking and once at final payment. Three times, the clerk tried to lay off the problem onto a travel agent (“who was your agent”). Three times, I told her I booked directly with NCL. When I said that our room did not have a butler or a dvd player, I was told that was because our room did not come with a butler or a dvd player. As I continued to press, she went and retrieved the assistant desk manager, Aya Evangelista. She also asked for our travel agent, repeated the obvious (“your room doesn’t have those things”), and told us that there was no record of any conversations with NCL. Standing in the lobby of a ship in NYC, she then asked me if I had my notes from these telephone calls available.

And no one gave a damn 

At no time did anyone try to offer any solution. In fact, we were told that the ship had no dvd player available for us to use. And it got worse. We had a need to get off the ship upon return to NYC so that my wife could take her final exam that evening. We were told that this would not be possible. Ms. Evangelista did, however, offer to look into the problem and get back to us. That was the last time we ever heard from her.

But this did give us the opportunity to really see how unfettered Freestyle Cruising really worked; you know, without a butler to run interference for you. On a trivial note, while these cabins did come with a concierge, she is the only one for all such cabins (we never saw or heard from her, either, after the first day). Dinner reservations and excursion tickets were actually obtained faster by us directly as opposed to going through her. But that was about the only thing that the word fast could be associated with.

A half hour wait in line for breakfast 

Most times, dinner at any of the three main dining rooms meant waiting on a line for upwards to a half hour (the same was true for breakfast on shore excursion days). There was no crowd control, so pushing and line cutting were commonplace. Nor were the hours as posted or even regular. For several days we waited at the end of a long line for 15 minutes to be seated for breakfast at 9:30 AM. The next day we went to the dining room at 9:15 AM and it was closing. The woman pointed to the hours at the door and said they always closed at 9:00 AM. Go figure.

Ports of call represented a special treat. Most times, we were only in a particular port for about six hours. In many ports (notably Belize, the Grand Caymans and those in Mexico), no one had informed us prior to the sailing that we would not actually dock, but would use tender ships to get ashore. Unless you had special accommodations which afforded you pre-boarding rights (see above) or you had paid extra for an excursion, you needed to get on a long line early in the morning in order to get a tender ticket. There was no special order to the process; if you had a $400.00 USD per person inside cabin you could beat out your pricier brethren, you just needed to send down one representative from your party early to get the tickets. As we found out, if you do not do this, your wait to get ashore would be well over two hours beyond the commencement of disembarkation (for a six hour port call). But here again, you folks who believe that vacationing is a demonstration of the survival of the fittest can simply jump the line during the chaos! Lots of others did. But don’t get me wrong; going to shore this way did have its rewards. As the tender approached, you got to see the truly breathtaking site of all those other cruise ships (from those other lines) berthed dockside, where their passengers could walk ashore. We even got to take pictures of them!

By the by, getting back to the ship on the tenders was an even bigger disaster. I don’t run a cruise line, but even I figured most people would wait as long as possible to go back from the short stay. Indeed, people who were on local excursions were programmed to do so. But the same number of tenders continued to play tag team back and forth, as they had all day. Each time was a mob scene, commencing an hour or so before scheduled departure. And it was truly democratic; this time, even if you booked the expensive cabins it did not help you. Nor were the handicapped spared. They got to wait on the same long line and many were visually showing the strain. And here’s a news bulletin, it was hot in the Caribbean sun. Naturally, NCL had all this covered; they set up a tent near the tender, so that if you made it that far, you could avoid dehydration with the water they provided. They just never made you aware of it until you got there.

And then things started disappearing 

About four days before we were to return to NYC our left side mattress cover disappeared (the “king size” beds are actually two twins pushed together and which periodically drifted back to twin status). My wife was sleeping on that side and did not mention it until after the cruise ended. She did mention, however, that she had very itchy small red bumps which began to appear at about the same time. We were told by NCL crew that these were bites from the beach critters on Honduras. More on this in a moment.

By the tenth day, the pro-forma invoice was slipped under our door during night for our review. That was probably the first time most people actually got to see their mandatory gratuities and “incidental expenses”. I expected those (and had kept track of them), but I never expected that my shipboard credit would not be posted. You see, in the original email, NCL had promised a $50.00 USD shipboard credit for booking under the offer. When I went to (the infamous) front office desk, Johnny Uy, who worked under the tutelage of the aforementioned Ms. Evangelista, first chastised me for “waiting so long” to question the missing credit. He then asked me to prove it since they had no record of it (they must send them all to the same training seminar). I pointed out that my records were at home but that NCL had made the offer in a promotional email in February so that HE should be able to verify this with the company. By the time I had walked back to our cabin, Mr. Uy had called my wife and given her an 800 phone number for NCL in Florida so that I could take it up with them. “800” phone calls were $5.00 USD per minute on ship, so I emailed the company (also at a cost) from the ship. I never received the promised credit.

The more you spend, the worse the service plus bed bugs 

Getting off the ship in New York was also an odd experience. They assigned departure times based on your cabin level. Incredibly, cheaper inside cabins were able to depart before us. I can understand that some individuals needed to make outgoing connections, but the tag colors were assigned by cabin level and later called by color. And lest you think this was some sort of reward, the ships amenities were buttoned up by then, so your options were to wait (hours, naturally) in your cabin watching TV or in a crowded lounge with the surging masses.

I promised to get back to my wife’s bug bites. Upon our return, a friend told us about a problem with bed bugs which was emerging on cruise ships (see here). My wife’s bites turned out to be from bed bugs! We are now paranoid that we may have uninvited guests in our house brought in with the luggage.

Never again 

The thing about this cruise is that none of it had to turn out this way. My wife and I have traveled extensively. We’ve stayed in budget locations with the kids and we’ve stayed in luxury hotels like the Plaza in New York. Usually staff is courteous and helpful at least on the surface. The pervasive attitude at the Dawn’s front desk was indifference if not outright hostility. And until this cruise, we never saw how the vast majority of average cruisers were treated. Freestyle cruising is just a way to cover over a total lack of organizational planning. It’s cheaper for the company, too. Perhaps this was best summed up by a shopkeeper in the Grand Caymans who heard the short version of all of this. He said our story was not at all atypical, saying, “…they (NCL) seem to make it up as they go along.” He went on to list several passenger favorite cruise lines. NCL was not on that list!

If this story is not enough to make you think twice about dumping five or six thousand dollars into an NCL “adventure,” ponder this, I never got any resolution from NCL – not even an apology or even my shipboard credit. The email I sent took six weeks for a response and it was this: come and spend more money with us on another cruise and we’ll give you a $200.00 USD shipboard credit for that cruise – but you’ll need to come within a year or it’s no deal. No word on whom I would turn to when I don’t get that one either.

Do some homework  

I urge you to do some diligence. Go on NCL’s website. There are email links for everything from wedding planning, groups, reservations etc. Where is the link for resolving problems? The answer is; there is none. That should be your first clue about how they might handle your problems. Google NCL cruise problems and see how many people have complained about NCL to the company itself (to no effect) and to various state attorneys general.

Indeed, $5,000.00 USD could buy you that dream vacation you have always wanted. So unless your idea of a vacation includes reenacting scenes from “Lord of the Flies”, being ignored (or even denigrated), and then being wooed to do it all again, don’t cruise on NCL. If you do go, get the smallest cabin that will fit your needs, as the service level will not go up even a bit unless you book the top cabins (and even then you’ll need to bring All your paperwork with you). And be prepared to wait, wait, and wait some more.

You’ll also need to be forewarned that the difference between Freestyle cruising and Free-For-All cruising is miniscule. You really are, as the company says, on your own when you Freestyle.

It’s just that my wife and I are not “itching” to go back on NCL again soon. Or ever.