Norwegian Cruise Line — Local services in Seattle

Unfortunately this message is about the awful experience I had on the Encore during my cruise to Alaska. Based on the experience, we will no longer be cruising with NCL as not only did the experience leave a poor taste in my mouth, but so did the staff.

Our room was dirty when we checked in (used napkin, glasses on the floor, clumps of hair in the shower). The room had clearly not been properly cleaned. Staff was rude and unfriendly, mostly the servers and bartenders. Saying "thank you" was never met with a "you're welcome" or a smile or some sort of pleasantry, it was very straightforward and felt like they didn't want to be there. It made it incredibly unfun to try to experiment with new drinks. The food at the buffet always looked dry and was the same every day, almost no variety. Food at dine-ins was also either dry, just warm, or over-sauced. There was zero consistency in the meal you got, even when you ordered the same thing. For example, nachos would always have unmelted cheese, hot dogs would be room temp, the bbq chicken at The Manhattan was drowned in sauce. It made it a chore to eat, it wasn't enjoyable. Food Republic had a terrible selection, very small and specific. Just tuna and salmon rolls in some variation. Bao Buns had very little meat, vegetables, etc. And nothing tasted fresh. They used minced tuna for the tuna roll which just looks and tastes like canned tuna. Bartenders were incapable of following simple directions. I experienced 3 times, myself say my drink order, the barback(?) repeat it back to me, I confirm, then him repeat it to the bartender, and end up with the wrong drink — THREE times at different moments. That's not a misunderstanding, that's a training issue. The port arrival and departure times were horrific. It left for very little time to actually explore the town we stopped in. The worst offender was Victoria, where we ported around 7pm and the all aboard was 10:45. Everything was already closed by that point and it was dark — absolutely nothing to do any more. It would have made more sense to skip Victoria (which would have saved the bartenders the trouble of being limited to one bar per deck, and kept the casino open) and stay somewhere else overnight or have another sailing day. Anything would've been better than stopping at Victoria at that point. The entertainment on the ship was barebones or simply boring. Maybe I'm not the target audience, but I'm not sure who would go to a "non-surgical neckline reduction" seminar on a cruise. What a colossal waste of space to have something fun. A lot of "entertainment" ended up being a scheme to get you to buy more garbage. For example, the amulet hunt from Effy. It could've just been a fun thing for passengers to do as they explored the ship, but instead, it ends with you having to listen to someone yap about diamonds. Additionally, Silver+ members get invited to a lunch with senior staff, who left after 5 minutes, and you were left to eat the stale crackers provided and cheese while you listen to someone try to sell you on the next cruise on the first day of the cruise you're on. It felt like a timeshare scam. Silverware was way too frequently dirty or mishandled by staff. The amount of times a staff member touched the eating side of a utensil before handing it to me was foul. Every area was wildly overcrowded, it was impossible to find seating during normal eating times in places like the Observation Lounge and Cafe. The Observation Lounge is supposed to be a quieter spot and it wasn't, loud music every night, children screaming, zero peace or quiet to be found on the ship except your own stateroom. After experiencing a handful of these issues I went to guest services to express my disappointment, Marcus (?) who stated he was in the industry for 16 years could not muster up enough energy to at least pretend he cared. The biggest offender, no special event for the Aurora. NCL doesn't turn off the lights, no announcements, nothing.

Pathetic...

I hope to change this rating if an opportunity arises but I must say that the experience was fine until the very end. For some context, My father is 85 (born before WWII started) and wanted to go see Alaska while he was still able to so we believe this to be the perfect opportunity to do just that. After spending a total close to $8000 dollars on the cruise for just between the two of us ($5.3k room, $1.6k excursions) and bringing our large party of around 40 individuals, we imagine we'd be treated like a human customer and not a dollar sign. I had booked in advance 5 excursions where 3 were acceptable in expectation but the other 2 were poorly executed and felt forced upon us due to the monetary gain. I called after the cruise was over (didn't want to ruin the rest while I'm paying for the time to be on the cruise) which basically conveys that they don't take calls into this matter (already the beginning of a poor customer service experience which they tout to be genuinely considerate and cannot be farther from the truth) so I was forced to write my complaint and at least initially it wasn't a complaint it was more of me trying to convey in human form how I was upset that my old father and I were forced into false advertising and would like to be refunded from those unpleasant experiences. I was told because I didn't file this while on the ship (i.e. use the time i paid for on the ship to bring ownership to the cruise) vs after (and I mean a day or so after), there was no other, even exceptional course of action to refund me which is outrageous to hear from a $8.9B in annual revenue company where I'm just looking to reclaim $440 dollars.

Look plain and simple, if you're going to charge my old man and I $440 dollars on things that were said or situations that were forced upon us like eating cold crab legs in pouring rain with heaters that barely work and say that's worth $220 dollars, you are absolutely outside of your mind. The excursion folks should've gathered their common sense and said, "Yep this sucks cause its raining and people shouldn't be eating crab legs outside in the pouring rain while cold, just give them their money back and call it a day" (this did not happen).

If Norwegian claims to advocate and be extremely courteous to their customers, I had not witness this at the end of my trip with my father. This easily allows me to second guess which cruise line I'd would book with in the future as before I had no qualms with Norwegian.

Lessons learned? you'll need to use the time you paid for to be on the cruise to complain about the excursion you paid for that made the experience unpleasant. You're not even guaranteed any compensation at this moment so good luck as it might cause you anxiety, blood pressure, and precious time not enjoying a show with your old man to make your point. That's the rules apparently at Norwegian. Imagine forcing an 85 year old man to eat in the rain, in the cold, crabs you can get at red lobster paying $200 for that experience.

Oh but they did offer a "gesture of good will" that would give my father and I $100 dollars each for our next cruise with Norwegian as long as it is used in the next 12 months! There's nothing I'd want to spend my hard earn cash more on than a company that treated me like this! (Sarcasm)

Constructive Criticism for Norwegian: Hold your excursions accountable for common sense potential bad experiences. Don't make people sit out in the rain to eat cold food and charge them $200 bucks for it. Allow a window of at least a week for the arbitration process to be AFTER the cruise has ended as I'm still trying to salvage the remaining good experience I can have with my father enjoying the cruise and not being required to file a complaint on my and his experience time. I truly believe if you fix these two points, the customer experience will be...

Our overall experience was 4.5 stars. We were on the Encore for a 7 day Alaskan cruise leaving from Seattle Aug 14th to Juneau, Skagway/Sitka, Ketchikan, and Glacier Bay. My family of 8 passengers had a wonderful time. I'm an experienced cruiser and was very pleased with the service and overall trip, food, ship, crew, and entertainment.

Accessible: 5 stars My parents (80+) and my mom required assistance and a scooter that they rented from NCLs-preferred provider. It was delivered to the wrong state room but it was quickly remedied. Their porter service was excellent and brought my mom through the port terminal and out to/from the piers for each port of call.

Ship facilities: 4.5 stars We had 2 balcony staterooms and an inside one with bunks for 4 on the 11th deck. Awesome stewards! Twice daily cleaning/turn down. Notable: midship port side has a bar on deck 8 and plays loud music until 10:30ish. All public areas are well cleaned, and decorated to match appropriate ambiance: the Cavern in Liverpool, Smokehouse BBQ, fine steak house, night club, theatre, and gaming areas and Observation deck (viewing glaciers). Excellently-appointed gyms that we enjoyed daily. $16 per person per day service fees ($112 trip per person) for room stewards and food service personnel. We prefer to tip those that serve us directly with cash. Guest Services were willing to reduce those fees with no issue.

Food: 5 stars This cruise was our first experience with free style dining -- no fixed meal time, schedule whenever or where ever you want to eat. My family included 4 teenage boys and they loved all the different options for their tastes. We primarily ate at complimentary dining rooms and buffet. Service and food was great and of the highest quality. Waiters would speed up the meals based upon our entertainment plans. Notable: no king crab at all. Lobster, shrimp though.

Entertainment: 5 stars We loved all the live music, magic shows,comedians interactive trivia/game shows and musicals. World class pianists and performers of every genre. I personally enjoyed all the Classic Rock tributes, the most awesome Beatles tribute band called Beatles Invasion that played hours every night. My family really enjoyed the escape room, water slides, go karting, and a dozen different game shows and trivia contests. Choir of Men performance was excellent as well.

Excursions/port of call: 4 stars

Our cruise originally included Skagway. Unfortunately, the NCL pier was closed do to a recent landslide. The cruise was rerouted to Sitka (which is beautiful in its own right) but they did so without any communication (texts/emails, travel agency). We were only informed after we were on board the ship and leaving Seattle.

Victoria: Evening (8-11pm) disembark was a bust. Beautifully-lighted city but most stores, museums, gardens were closed or too dark to see. It was originally scheduled for 6 pm which would have been better for the Butchart Gardens. Can't look at flowers in the dark, people.

Juneau: We took a tour bus to Mendenhall which was fine for a family our size. Would recommend an Uber for smaller groups. We were totally rushed. We walked the 2 mile round trip to Nugget Falls and saw salmon swimming upstream for spawning. Plan on rain gear for every excursion.

Sitka: Poor substitute to Skagway but we had a nice hike through the rainforest while looking at pretty cool totem poles. Saw 100s of salmon in the creeks by the marina. The visitor's center and movie was interesting well. Note: The Sitka library has Wi-Fi. Yes! Russian Orthodox church was closed.

Ketchikan: It was an unusually sunny day. We went on a 2 hr kayake excursion called Orca Cove Kayaking. Awesome! Saw lots of jumping salmon, herring, jelly fish, star fish, and eagle...