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John Luthringer

Age: 51
Occupation: insurance
Number of Cruises: 7
Cruise Line: Norwegian
Ship: dream
Sailing Date: June 30th, 2004
Itinerary: Northern Europe

Norwegian calls this ship the "dream". We called it the nightmare. After it was too late to cancel, NCL advised we weren't going to Estonia because of an engine problem. According to other reviews, this engine problem has existed since the first of March. Nobody on this curise believed the engine story because we had to pass Estonia to get to Russia. The unoffical story was that Estonia had raised the docking fee. Who knows. But you'd think after four months if the engine story were true, they would have been able to fix it. This ship is 13 years old but to us it felt and looked much older than that.

We've cruised seven times before and this was the worst cruise we've ever been on. The cabins are unbelievably small. Our couch was broken and we couldn't sit on it.

While we liked the concept of open seating dining and we had some good meals, generally the food was average. Also at times the service in the restaurants was mind boggling slow. In fact we left two meals before they were over figuring we could get food later if we were still hungry.

We traveled with a group. My mother's room had a couch with ripped upholstery. My brother-in-law checked with NCL prior to departure and was told the kids club was open while in port. It wasn't.

NCL advertises that their tipping policy which automatically adds daily tips to your bill, covers all tips. But you are automatically charged an additional 15% for drinks/soda/wine. Also at the end of the cruise you are advised to tip some service people who are not included in the "tipping pool". We felt that NCL had their hand in our pocket from the minute we boarded with little regard for value. One lady I ate lunch with fummed that she just paid $14 for a two minute internet connection. My wife was livid when she learned there was a $5 fee for an exercise program.

We felt the excursion rates on the tours was extremely high expecially in Russia where you have little choice but to book an NCL tour.

We didn't run into a single person on this ship that said they would ever sail with NCL again. Check this ship out carefully before you book. We didn't do so and now we regret it. The best part of the cruise was when we got off to go home. IMHO

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