Norwegian Cruise Line — Local services in Miami Springs

Ok, so let me start with the positives... Embarkation and Disembarkation were very quick and smooth. We booked a 7 day Caribbean cruise on the Encore. The ship was large, clean and pretty. Our room attendant Gustavo was fantastic! He cleaned our room, greeted us every day and even brought us a mattress topper and extra towels immediately when we requested it. We chose a specialty dining night at Los Lobos and the food was so so good as well as the service there. That is pretty much where the good ends. The food and service on the boat was awful, we nearly had to beg for drinks we were ignored almost everywhere we went by service staff. We got $20 per day, per person service charges when we had already paid our port fees and gratuities ahead of time and couldn't have them removed u til the day before the cruise ended, which we did and still ended up with more service charges for the last day. We also had charges for drunks and entertainment when we had the drink packages and didn't purchase any entertainment so that also had to get refunded. The service desk acted very annoyed when we questioned all of the extra charges but they did end up taking them off, not how I wanted to be spending hours if my vacation waiting in line, reviewing charges to the account and disputing them. In the casino or at the pool we never once had wait staff approach us to offer us a drink though they were walking around often with completely empty trays. When we did flag them down to act for drinks they were very rude to us. We mostly went to the buffet on the ship and again the staff rarely came to remove plates and never offered us drinks, which was very different from our experience on Royal Caribbean ships. There was only 1 pool for the 7k cruisers unless you paid significantly more money for the Vibe or Haven areas. There were absolutely no pool chairs available ever! The limited number of chairs was taken very early in the morning and used all day even though the policy stated if the chairs were unused/unattended for 15 minutes the stuff would be moved...it never was. Same with the hit tubs and the were mostly full of splashing children the whole time if you could access one. Our room was very small compared to other cruises we have done and the clothing storage were just shelves no drawers so stuff fell everywhere unless we kept it in our suitcase or on the limited number of hangers. I have never been on a ship that moved so much or was so loud! We were on a ship in the middle of a storm before and it didn't move this much. One night we were almost thrown from. Our bed due to the movement. The waves hitting the boat were so loud it sounded like thunder or bombs so needless to say we didn't get good sleep. Even though this was a really large shop it was really broken up so it was hard to find anything and all of the venues felt small and lacked seating to enjoy the events happening there. The shopping on the boat was mostly jewelry there was definitely not a large selection. The entertainment seemed very geared towards elderly cruisers. The activities included game shows, Bingo, art shows, slow music and borijg comedians, Port times were changed afyer our booking to shorter amounts of time at each port and moved to very early morning times. One port day was 645am-230pm and nothing was even open until 9. It definitely doesn't feel like vacation when you're trying to wake up very early to experience the port stops. Last but not least the private island. It was the ONLY sunny day we got the whole trip and port times were 930am-4pm. We got up and had breakfast all ready to go at 930 only to find out that you had to book tender times to go to the island. We ended up with number 20 which was the very last number and sat and waited until almost 1 so we hardly got any time on the island. Once over there we waited in line for our drinks only to get a ticket and go to another line to wait where they would made our drinks. We did enjoy a couple of hours of swimming but wasted most of the day waiting. Norwegian we won't be sailing...

I'm writing this review as someone who used to love ncl. Let me start by saying that I have sailed with norwegian three times, but all three were prior to covid with my last sail being in 2019. I also want to add that in 2022, I sailed with disney. I am only adding this because i'm wondering if the changes that I saw on norwegian were due to covid, but I did not see this same response with disney. I will also note that on all 4 ncl cruises, I've sailed with my BFF, and on the Disney one, it was us and her 2 girls. Let me start with some of the good things that I've experienced with ncl every time, including this one. EMBARKATION was a breeze. We were through the entire process in 20 minutes. I would, however, like to add that we were part of the casinos at sea program. There were signs for special Embarkation lanes, but they weren't in use. It moved very fast, so it wasn't a big deal, and perhaps they would have opened up the lines if there were more people, but I don't know. I just wanted to add this in because when I get to some of the other parts, it's going to be pertinent. As before, the beds were super comfy, cabins clean, and casino slots factually paid out some. Now for the parts that were completely different from my 3 ncl cruises pre covid. CABIN STEWARDS. Sigh. On all 3 of my previous Norwegian cruises as well as my Disney one, the steward would come in one or two times a day to clean up. They would remove any dirty dishes and turn down our bed, and even make little adorable towel animals. They were also very easy to find , as they were almost always in the hallways at some point throughout the day. For the first 2 days, nobody came into our room to make our bed or give us fresh towels, and we were very confused. We then realized (because nobody had told us) that you had to turn the light on in order to ask for service. This was completely new to us and maybe a result of the pandamic, but somebody should have mentioned it. I spoke to several people on the cruise who had the same issue. Even when we turned the light on, very minimal service was done. There was no turn down service. No straightening up of our belongings and no towel animals, which was not necessary, but absolutely made us smile on all of our previous cruises. DINING was absolutely ridiculous. Part of what I love about ncl is the freestyle dining where you can eat whenever and wherever you want, which in my opinion is much better than the other cruises that make you pick a time to go and eat. On all of my previous ncl cruises, the buffet was my go-to. On the previous cruises, the buffet was probably about 60% the same every day. Then, the other 40%, you'd have a variety. So, for example, in the breakfast buffet, they would have eggs benedict, and different versions of them. And these delicious little hash browns that were kind of like mcdonald's. They had neither on this cruise, and the breakfast buffet was exactly the same every day. Zero variety. Lunch and dinner had some very small variations, but basically, it was the same food every day. The part that got me, which was different than I remember from before 2020, was while there were 3 different free restaurants on the cruise, they all had the exact same menu as each other each night. We ate at one paid restaurant, which was the japanese Teppenyaki, and while it was good, the food did not have a lot of flavor. The chef was absolutely amazing, though. CASINO . As I mentioned, we were there as part of casinos at sea. Prior to covid, we had some free play in the casino. We did not have that this time. The biggest thing was, when we booked in February, the lady asked us if we wanted the unlimited alcohol package, and we said no because neither one of us is big drinkers. She said well you will be able to have complimentary drinks when you are playing in the casino l. Aat the casino, we asked for a complimentary drink, and they told us they no longer do that. They told us they stopped last month. ROOM SERVICE now has a charge. I'm running out of space , but ncl has...

The Alaska cruise was a disaster! We were really looking forward to this cruise. My wife and I only cruise Norwegian, but this cruise was not up to our expectations. First the embarkation: whoever designed the pre cruise testing needs to be shown the door. We were told by email to choose our testing time and that we HAD to be there at that time. Our flight was scheduled to arrive at 9:35 AM so we chose the 11:00 to 11:30 time. Upon arrival at the airport apparently not enough buses were scheduled so we were still waiting at 11:30. We booked transportation through NCL. The NCL representative there assured me it would not be a problem. When we finally got there we were astounded to see 1500-2000? People in line waiting to get into the test facility. My wife has artificial knees and a bad back so can’t stand for more than a few minutes. I have an artificial hip and a bad back. Fortunately for us one of the NCL representatives looked at us and knew we could not do that line and took us to the front. Got tested and got onboard after waiting 35+ minutes for negative results. This is a TERRIBLE procedure. We had already taken the suggested PCR test on Wednesday and it was also negative. We would recommend that you take the Disney approach and require a PCR or antigen test be taken within 72 hours of boarding and that guests bring those results with the testing center phone numbers on them if verification is needed. Besides being a LOT faster this would transfer the cost of testing to the guests and you could reduce the amount of staff onshore significantly. Once we got finished with that we began our at sea cruising; then the ship had to turn around and go back until a guest could be medically evacuated. After we got back on our normal cruise someone (I don’t know who) decided that due to the lost time that the Skagway port stop would be eliminated. Skagway was the primary reason we took the cruise. Why we did not simply go to top speed instead of staying at 16.5 knots I don’t know. Yes it uses more fuel but it would have made your guests happy. I kept waiting for someone to tell us that due to the elimination of ¼ of the port stops we would be getting a partial refund or future cruise credits. Never happened. Are you going to do anything about that?

In addition to my husband's comments I want to address the stop in Ketchikan. We booked The Wilderness and Crab Feast and were looking forward to it very much. The port was a nightmare. The distance to the "terminal" was extremely long and once inside the nightmare began. Mass confusion on where to go for which tour. Signage nonexistent and NO ADA provisions at all! After walking around and being told three times where to get our bus (wrong each time) we finally gave up and asked for a credit. We then spent another hour and a half trying to go to town on a shuttle. I had been given a wheelchair by then but along with other ADA passengers we were herded into an all passengers line. You are required by Federal Law to provide specific arrangements for ADA passengers. We missed our tour in Skagway and Ketchikan, both due to your unbelievable mismanagement. Yes we got our money back but our time was wasted and I suffered a great deal of pain and stress moving around trying to get the right bus. Double faced signs on tall poles can solve much of the confusion. Also put signs with tour names on buses, not numbers. We heard many people saying "never again with NCL." I have never been so disappointed.

The restaurants were mainly disappointing. When the buffet had crab legs they were so salty they were inedible. Ocean Blue had overcooked lobster tails and tasteless non marinated filet mignons. The Smokehouse had ribs with such a tough “bark” on them you had to cut it off to eat any part of them. The pickles were simply over salted cucumbers. I know that’s how pickles are made but not overnight. The pinto beans were disgusting. They were sweet. Ugh. On the plus side Onda food was excellent and the Local Bar and Grill...