reviewer
Shorelooksgood2me
New Windsor, NY

Like Cruising? DON'T CHOOSE NCL!!

1 star rating

budget-conscious traveler, budget conscious traveler, not rich, love to travel, lover of cruises, family traveler
Pros

    eventually you get back home

Cons
    the little extras add up to a big bill, cabins extremely small with a baby added, expensive, food wasn't great, crew not willing to go the extra mile, customer service not to helpful, get rid of crew and start over, drinks are a bit pricy, Never cruise NCL Your life depends on it

MAY
26
2008

Easily the worst cruise I have ever been on!  The ship is gorgeous and the compliments end there.  The staff gets by with providing the absolute basic minimum service. Activities are almost non-existent.  5 premium pay restaurants but only 2 sit down choices for those who didn't want to pay extra to eat.  Overpriced in every way.  The crew almost seemed to feel sorry for us on the trip.  They told us that they are only doing what Norwegian Cruise line tells them to do. 

List of gripes:

$25 per 8x10 photo(and they took plenty!)

$10 for a drink and they had the nerve to add an auto-gratuity on top!

$75 bingo for those who can afford to cheat and win with the automatic play machine.

Overpriced snorkeling/shore excursions that they sell you when they know that the weather forecast is 60 degrees and cloudy at your destination (no refunds 48 hrs before your tour.)

No Midnight buffet.

Lobster night was never advertised. (And it just so happened to be on the night when everyone on-board was sick from a Noreaster.)

Even extra charges at the premium pay restaurants for King Crab Legs or Lobster.

The crew pushes to get every penny out of your pocket.

The best service is offered by the bar staff.(They are at every corner and will gladly clean out your wallet given the opportunity.  Going as far as selling a seltzer water for $2.50 per glass.)

Did I mention that only water and "Brewed Tea" were available? Other than Coffee and Hot Cocoa?  No Juice except for breakfast and sodas were $2.00 a piece.

The Garden Cafe is your all you can eat food buffet.  The food was tolerable at best. By the way, they close down a number of times a day and shut down completely for the evening around 10:00 PM

No Ice Cream available on-board unless it was from 12-5 at "Sprinkles"(UMM..."Sprinkles" doesn't even have sprinkles for your ice cream!!  No toppings are available. And you must negotiate to get another scoop.)

They ran out of chocolate ice cream one day and told me that they had no more.(I still can't get over that!)

House entertainment was embarrassing and painful to even watch! Lyrics were butchered and the same set played night after night!  Even on the rare occasions when things seemed to be headed in the right direction, time was up and it was the end of the night.

Safety became a huge issue on our trip.  We had a passenger fall overboard.  I was HORRIBLE!!  It completely put a black cloud over our trip right out of the gate. It was like Laurel and Hardy were out there looking for this person.  We truly felt like we were at the mercy of the seas and if anyone came along and decided to Hijack the vessel or do harm to the folks on-board we would be finished.  They never found the lady and we had to rely on the media in Bermuda to get any of the facts on the accident. We stopped around 4 hrs into our trip and stayed to look for this poor soul for most of the evening.  NCL did not offer us a single thing to help us deal with these circumstances.  No talks, offers of counseling of any kind or acknowledgment that our trip was going to be less than the experience they promised when they took $3000.00 out of our pockets.

I could go on all night folks.  Do yourself a favor.  AVOID NCL AND THE NORWEGIAN DAWN AT ALL COST!!  You can help to send a message to the management by not supporting this operation.  They need to take a long hard look at their business plan and rethink their offerings.  They will never get another penny out of my pocket as long as I live!  If they offered me a free cruise I would decline.  My time is too valuable to waste. 

Last edited on May 26, 2008



I_thumb_down Norwegian Cruise Line - Dawn is not recommended by Shorelooksgood2me

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I_comment_shdw24 Comments about Shorelooksgood2me’s Review

 


CruiseLover wrote on Jun 5, 2008 at 1:38PM

I thought May 26 2008 was the date of the cruise you were on, not the date that you posted. I do know about(Mindy Jordan). It is a real tragedy and I hope the whole truth is revealed. So besides the date of your cruise and (Mindy Jordan) I still stay with what I wrote to you. I do apologize for the last statement. You are entitled to your own opinion. Happy cruising. I do mean it.

Shorelooksgood2me wrote on Jun 5, 2008 at 12:22AM

In response to CruiseLover's comment from Jun 4, 2008 at 6:41PM:

Thanks for the comments, no need for the negative comment at the end.
You were not onboard the same time as I was, so your comment on the weather is 100% inaccurate. If you care to invest the time, perhaps you would like to take a look at the date I sailed, and you can tell me again how the lady (Mindy Jordan) didn't fall overboard and was lost at sea on May 10th at 7:45PM. Maybe you would like to check the records and find that there was a huge storm that came through during our trip.
May you and NCL have many more happy cruises together. I wouldn't take another trip with them if it was free. By the way, NCL takes a portion of your tips intended for the wait staff..............try to convince someone else who doesn't know better.

CruiseLover wrote on Jun 4, 2008 at 6:41PM

I was on the NCL cruise the same week - May 25, 2008. No one fell overboard - there was turnaround for a medical evacuation of an elderly woman to be picked up by the Coast Guard, All ships charge for extras - ships cost the hundreds of millions to be built. I have been on 10 cruises - 5 with NCL and the food has been very good especially in the specialty restaurants. You pay for what you get. Customer service was helpful - example, wife's handle on the luggage was broken - brought it to customer service on deck 7 they had a new handle put on it by the next day. Light on balcony was broke - an electrician was sent up and fixed it right away. Cabin steward was asked to leave extra towels and did not, advised customer service of the situation on Friday and the last two days towels were there. Otherwise, room was always clean and ice the bucket. Bar staff and waiters always helpful. If you didn't want anything you just told them "no thanks". Drinks were not $10 - the first specialty drinks of the day in the special cup was $8.50 + tip after that $6.50+tip.

Bingo has gotten very expensive especially for the amount won.

I did not do shore excursion, but weather was never 60 degrees - low 70's.

Ships are getting away from midnight buffets. Lobster was available a couple of nights - I know - I had it.

Garden Cafe was opened until 11:30 p.m every night. And Blue Lagoon is open 24 hours. Ice cream was available every night in the Garden Cafe and in the main dining rooms at night.

House entertainment was OK, except in Dazzles 2 - Patti and Jose were excellent every night and packed in the crowd. A great variety of music.

I think NCL and passengers like myself are better off without you.

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