Norwegian Cruise Line
Reviews and Complaints

This is the first experience I had with NCL, we went as a group of three families and we all booked ocean view, the cruise is Pride of America, ship hopped between four Islands in Hawaii. I have high expectation but everything turns out short. The following summaries our disappointment:
Room- there is no view, all three rooms window were blocked by the rescue boats. Cookies crumbs were all over the sofa bed, apparently, the bed was never pulled out during cleaning.
Service & Food- bad service at the buffet area, especially the person that serve the meat, she serves prime rib pieces less than 3cm thick ( same as roast beef, pork etc.), and refuse to add extra saying that there is a line and we need to go back to the end of the line. Fruits, especially papaya, were prepare awfully, the seeds from the papaya seems to be pulled out by hand and finger, with 50% of the papaya meat gone. All the other restaurants were between good and excellent, but the line was long, I guess no one wants to go to the buffet. Also the variety of food is very limited, and always not prepared enough, the shrimp cocktail went out within 2mins and the second batch, the shrimp size is half of the first batch. Morning breakfast, getting an omelet takes at least ten minutes. There is no 24hr food service, between lunch and dinner, only left over was served.
This is not a bargain cruise line, I expect NCL to provide at least sometime comparable to other cruise line that cost only half as much. Really disappointed.

Norwegian cruise line bumped my group of family and friends because "Rosie O'Donnell" chartered the whole ship months after my group was booked. As a result some people in our group had to back out because they could not rearrange their vacation time. The on-board credit that was promised to us we had to fight for every day of the 7-day cruise. A free group picture was also promised to us, but found out that it was not free at all--if we wanted it we had to pay $25.00. We arrived in Nassau 7 hours late and as a result of this, we were not able to get off the ship until 8PM and by that time everything was closed. For this inconvenience, we were given $50 credit which I think was in insult since we never got to see Nassau at all. A simple thing like receiving a box of chocolate-covered strawberries which we were also promised never came to be.

This cruise line leaves a lot to be desired.

September 5, 2009

Ms. Yvonne Thompson
Customer Relations
NCL
7665 Corporate Center Drive
Miami, Florida 33126
Tel: [protected]
Fax: [protected]

CC: Leon Black Apollo Management L.C.
Cruise Line International Association
Consumer Affairs Organization

Dear Ms. Thompson,

I am writing to advise you of my concern, displeasure and disappointment with the recent cruise I booked with your cruise line.

My family and I were guests aboard the NCL Dawn for the cruise that set sail from New York to Bermuda from August 23rd through August 30th 2009. Our complete names are: Carmen Ferrigno (age 40), Sandra Ferrigno (age 41), Alec Ferrigno (age 10), Jude Ferrigno (age 6).

I will detail several of the issues we had with your cruise, but I want to start with the most important and most frightening for me and my family.

NCL’s Complete Disregard for the Safety of My Two Children: When we check into our stateroom on Sunday, August 23rd we found that the child lock on the balcony door was broken, so that anyone could open the door even if it was in the upright or locked position. Given that we have a six year old child (and a ten year old child), this was a serious concern for us.

We reported the incident to your customer service representatives who said they would send someone to look at it that night. No one did.

The next morning we asked again and your team sent a carpenter by the name of Marlon who looked at the lock, agreed that it was broken and said it looked like it was a big job and he wasn’t sure he would get to it. I told him this was a priority and he said it would be fixed that afternoon (Monday, August 24)

That night, we saw that it was not fixed and the following morning I then called your customer service representatives again and was told that the lock was broken, it could not be fixed and we would have to stay in the room until we reached Bermuda when they would get a part to fix it.

Those three nights were ruined since neither my wife nor I could sleep knowing that our small son could open that door and potentially fall overboard. When we asked if we could be moved we were told there were no open rooms available. No one ever suggested switching with someone who did not have a small child.

I believe the broken lock is clear violation of your safety code and that my family was put in real danger by your staff’s lack of concern or action. I can tell you that my vacation was ruined because of it and am asking for a full refund of my money. Your organization states in all your literature that the safety and welfare of your passengers is your number one priority and yet no one on your staff did anything to address this problem for half of my vacation.

In addition to the above issues, I am listing several others we believe violated your policies and led to our dissatisfaction:

The Safety of Your Guests: We signed up our children (ages 6 & 10) for your Kids Club “Free Style Play”. The first time we arrived, we informed the staff supervisor that both of our children had asthma and asked if we could be given a beeper just in case one of them had an asthma attack. We were told by the supervisor that beepers were only given to parents of children two and under (primarily to deal with the inconvenience of having to change diapers) and that it would be sufficient if we just gave them the area that we would be in and if a problem arose they would come get us. Please note that at no time did your child care staff ask for us to drop of my children’s inhalers. We kept checking in our children during the hour and a half they were there for free play because we were concerned that they would have a problem and we might not be able to get there in time. While they had no incident of asthma, your staff’s lack of concern convinced us that we would not use your Kids Club again. In fact, we feel that your cruise staff’s primary concern was that of dirty diapers rather than genuine medical issues for the children in their care, a fact that truly disturbed us and clearly ran counter to your literature that states safety is your primary concern. 

Price Gouging and Oppressive Policies: Our second night, we had reservation at one of your premium restaurants, Salsa. Our room was minutes from the restaurant. Three minutes prior to our reservation time, the restaurant called our room to inform us that if we were more than 15 minutes late, not only would they not hold our reservation, but they would also charge us the full restaurant fee. When we arrived at the restaurant two minutes later, we were surprised to see that it was completely empty and reservations were clearly not needed. We understand that one of NCL’s policies is that if you do not cancel a reservation within certain amount of time that you will be charged the addition fee. However, threats to guests before they are even late seem ridiculous and the idea of forcing us to pay yet again for services we didn’t even use is unethical.

Price Gouging and Hidden Fees: Throughout the cruise we and other passengers (we spoke to many families while our children were playing together in the pool area) that we were being “nickled and dimed to death” with various hidden fees and outrageous prices for items usually included such as bingo cards, soft drinks, and tips. We were on an NCL cruise 3 years ago and didn’t feel this way. We had a pleasant experience and that is why we booked this trip. To hear that bingo cost a woman and her daughter her $90 shows just how appalling your policies have become. The most egregious of these fees was the hidden TIP FEES of $12 per person per day you charged everyone on board. For a family of four, those fees amounted to $337 for our vacation. Not only is it completely unethical to demand such charges, the fact that guests are not told about it ensures that for most of the vacation, they are double tipping. Given that your sit down restaurants had strange and constantly changing hours, we wound up eating at these buffets quite often and yet we were still charged the $12 per person fee for tipping.

Health and Welfare of Guests: We spoke to many other families onboard about the fact that in your main buffet restaurants, including the Garden Cafe and Deli and the 24 hour restaurant/diner, the restaurants were so understaffed that we were forced to clear other guests plates and since no staff member ever wiped down a single table, we had to resort to getting our own hot water from the beverage counter to wipe down the tables ourselves as did many of the other guests. This was highly unsanitary and is a primary factor in the fact that all of my family wound up getting severe respiratory infections during the trip. Our doctors’ bills far outweighed the tips you forced on us.

While Bermuda was beautiful and we enjoyed the time there, your company’s lack of concern for our safety and health, the horrible service, outrageous hidden fees and unsanitary conditions have convinced us that unless you change your policies drastically, we will never book another trip with NCL or its affiliates and we will let everyone we know why.

I expect a written reply from your team as soon as possible. Please note I will be forwarding a copy of this communication to the Cruise Line International Association and Consumer Affairs Organization as well as to your corporate offices. I also will be sending a copy of this to Leon Black, founder of Apollo Management L.P. at 9 West 57th Street, 43rd Floor, New York, NY 10022, as I believe their recent investment in NCL makes them an interested party.

Sincerely,

Carmen Ferrigno

Customer Service Rep booked wrong dates, now they want to charge additional $250 per person (8 people)to correct travel dates. We cancelled trip and due to additional expense, they still are charging us $250 per person, total of $2, 000 for suppling nothing.

Ok how does this sound for a vacation:

My wife and I sailed last August on the Norwegian Sky for 4 days in the Bahamas for our honeymoon! The trip was wonderful. Despite the fact we left two hours early due to hurricane activity and a good portion of the people sailing with us never made it, WE had a great time. So we told our family and scheduled another cruise for June 15th-June 19th with a total of 18 people.

My nephews baby gets third degree burns from another guest spilling coffee on him. He couldn't go outside for 3 days. Also five mebers of our group ate in the Palace and all woke up in the middle of the night sick. We inform NCL and they Quarantined them to their staterooms for 24 hours. The next morning they were all feeling better but were still quarantined to the ship for another 24 hours. They missed both the islands. So finally day four the family is all going snorkeling together... Until a tiger shark attacks a 17 year old girl, bloodies the water and all beach activities are cancelled.

NCL response: One $100 credit for each of them towards their NEXT cruise. WHO WOULD WANT TO CRUISE WITH THEM AGAIN! Not any member of my family.

When you think that we all spent at least $1000 each for the cruise. We could have had one hell of a vacation for $18000.

Norwegian Cruise Line in their brochures in the state rooms says... if we leave anything on board it will be shipped to us at our expense... my experience is that it was all stolen.. gifts for three children and three grandchildren left behind in my stateroom was never found ... staffing problems obviously... will never cruise on Norwegian again...

Arrived at approx 2 pm Feb. 3rd 2008 the check in was fine, went to dinner at the palace at 6 pm My wife, and I both had steak, they would be a cheap come on dinner for 4.99 at home. They were tough, and tasteless. The next morning we ate at the crossings. We both had eggs, hash browns, I had ham, my wife had bacon, the hash browns were quartered red potatoes that were not done, the ham was tough, and the bacon tasted like it was cooked yesterday. After that when we ate on board the ship, we ate at the buffet. It was also terrible, but you could stay to the fruits, cold cereal, and at least have your eggs cooked right there. The only decent one was the hot dog, and hamburger bar, aft of the buffet, but they closed this one up for meaningless repairs, like painting for 3 days, but this one ran out of hot dog, and hamburger buns 3 days in a row, which we were docked at that time and they could of went off ship and replaced the supply. Also after breakfast no more juice was in the dispenser, we tried to go to the Palace again, but was refused entrance, very rudely, and embarrassed by the maitre because we had shorts on below our knees, it was not hush hush, she was so loud that every body looked at us like we had the plague, but later that night we found out that one mother, and daughter that we had met were let in the same night with shorts the same length as ours. This is when I found out that freestyle, was not really freestyle, which was one of the reasons I booked the cruise. An overview of the food, and service was: the salad fixings were bad, never enough to make a good salad, the lettuce was always wet, and slimy. The bacon sat in grease, and was uneatable; the pancakes were like microwaved ones. The only good things about breakfast was Chris the egg chef was very good, and the cold cereal. Also when you ran out of things like bread, or jelly, it would take at least 20 min. to get more. One day it took 25 min. to get bread, and when it got there they sat it down, and went to doing something else for another 10 min. before they put it out for us to use. The only bright spots in the dinning areas were Chastity, April Jackson, and Chris the chef. We were going to try one of the extra fee dinning areas, but everybody that we talked to said it was just as bad as the included areas. We met a lot of new people from all over the world, but not one had anything good to say about the dinning on this ship. This is the first cruise I have ever taken, and was very disgusted with the food, my wife, and I both had diarrhoea every day, also my wife, and I are diabetic, and even though we had to be selective in what we ate, it was still very bad, the only difference between eating in one of the premium rooms and the buffet was the looks of the room. You can polish crap to make it look better, but it is still crap. Our friends that we met on board, and at home have assured us that the other cruise lines do serve there guests a lot better food. Now about the stateroom, the showers were very small, and the water went from cold to burning hot with no pressure, the mattress were very hard, and uncomfortable. The window was always so dirty that we could not see out of it. Francisco, the one that did our cabin was OUTSTANDING!

Now the entertainment, lets face it the word Las Vegas STYLE is the only thing that gets you through on this one, but I live in Las Vegas, and every act that was on this ship would be a free lounge act here, but they were some of the bright spots, like Tony Beau, Ross Bennett, and the ncl cast that performed in the Stardust, also I would like to say that Silas, Nick, Suzanne, and Jess did do an outstanding job entertaining us. In the book in the cabin it said that if we had a complaint to go to the reception desk, well we did because we had went on shore, and then decided to go on the glass bottom boat excursion. We asked one of the guys on shore that worked for ncl what the charge was he said 34.00, but when we got to the table to purchase it another person said 39.00. When we told him that the other person said 34.00 he said well ok I guess I’ll give it to you for that. There was another couple that he was going to charge the higher price too. Then we met a couple from England that said that they had paid 39.00 on shore for the same excursion from a person on shore that worked for ncl. When we went to the front desk they shrugged it off like that’s the way it was, so get over it, so we figured it was useless to talk to them. We also looked at the shore excursion list at the reception desk, and it stated 34.00 for this excursion. I understand the business part, and that costs are a big part, but when you treat the people that keeps you in business the way the guests were on this cruise, you won’t last. When we saw on the news while on the cruise that you were only going to cruise Hawaii with one ship, we were not surprised. I did think that you could have told your employees about it before it came on the news, and all the guests new about it before them. The people that work for you are your lifeline, and if you treat them bad, it is the guests that suffer for it. That starts the domino effect. I don’t understand about the Coast Guard making you use union labour, but this is no excuse for the treatment that we were given. When I was booking this cruise, cost was not even considered, but the way we were treated, I figure that I overpaid you for the meals, room, and entertainment If it wasn’t for the things we have seen on the Islands this cruise would have been a total loss. I blame the management for the way this ship was run. Hopefully you will take the complaints to heart, for your sake as well as your guests. My cabin was 0201. I have written, called, and emailed NCL several times, and have not received an answer of any kind.

Lost and found issues, My daughter left behind a stuffed cat which she has had for a number of years.
I called the lost and found number as soon as it opened the Monday after the cruse. I was told they would check with the ship and get back with me. Well a month later and 4 phone calls nothing! On the 5 call the person I spoke with said she would e-mail the ship and check on the item. I then spoke to a supervisor to complain that after 5 calls and nothing was happening, her response was did I not understand the rep would e-mail the ship! I then asked why it took 5 calls? Did not get a answer. I then tracked down a number for Roxanne Barr. Here is what I got from her:
1. Item was not found.
2. It was my daughters fault.
3. Sometimes things don't get turn in.
( this was left in the room )
4. She was sure the cleaning crew did there job.
5. Maybe another passenger took it.
( how could they get to the room before it was cleaned )
6. I was lucky most cruse lines do not offer this service.

I would have been better served if they just would have said up front the stuffed cat is gone.

I will never ever recommend Norwegian Cruse Lines to anybody.

I have booked Norwegian Jewel from February 15th to 24th, 2008 by web (reservation nr. 1501321), and I've book shore excursions too (confirmation ID [protected]).

In the confirmation, my son's (aged 16) excursions price were less than my husband and I. Once aboard, when we received the tickets, the prices for my son where higher than the booked and confirmed, and my account was charged for u$ 1035 in total, instead of u$ 955- (u$ 80 more than booked).

Since February 26th, I have been asking refund for u$ 80.-, wrongly collected, and they receive the emails, and nobody answers them.

A new website that focues on help for crew members who have been injured at sea is now available. It also lists extensive legal resources for guests and crew.

It is available at:

http://www.nclcomplaints.info

If you want to get to the top of it quickly, this is the place to be and the resource you need before you take a cruise or decide you want to work for NCL.

Three seniors bought a 16-day cruise package direct from NCL online with their trip insurance, flying PHL to catch NCL Crown in Santiag, Chile, with one night in hotel there before boarding. All flights cancelled day 1 and 2 out of PHL led to offer of ground/air transport in Chile, with no guarantee, to catch ship four days later (maybe) along coast. We declined and sought full refund. This falls under "trip delay" category of insurance policy which we had no chance to review before payment on line to NCL or to option a better policy they forgot to mention. NCL is owned by Star cruises out of Malaysia, beyond US maritime regulation. Months of negotion results in an offer to credit us 75% for an alternate NCL cruise, but they will not quote us a fare! Lawyer says take the money and run. She had a similar problem with NCL, a tricky firm to deal with online and one to avoid among cruise lines judging from complaints going back three years. Buyer beware.

I took a cruise on NCL, the Dawn, this summer to Bermuda and the Bahamas. There were 10 of us - 5 rooms on deck 10. Various problems - horrible service, rude staff, lost shoe from luggage, room keys that wouldn't open causing us to lose the use of 1 room for the first full day, poor quality food. Whenever we tried to get help the response from management was terrible and very rude. An expensive pair of shoes was lost out of my luggage when delivered to my room (rip was in luggage and 1 shoe was missing) and they said it was my fault. I should have not given them my luggage to move on board. Everyone was rude. We got yelled at by staff for the simplest of requests. I would NEVER travel on NCL again.