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Susan Mowatt

Age: 40
Occupation: clerical
Number of Cruises: 3
Cruise Line: Norwegian
Ship: Sun
Sailing Date: November 6th, 2004
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

We sent this letter to all the executives of NCL in their Miami corporate office and have never had our issues addressed. This is why I’m posting our letter, so that others will learn from our mistake. Norwegian Cruise Line is the worst and we highly recommend everyone use a different cruise line.

Gentlemen:

We wish to express our extreme disappointment with the service we received on our recent cruise with the Norwegian Sun from Nov 6th – 13th. We had been planning a cruise to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary with our family since last April. The entire party consisted of twelve adults (including one in a wheelchair and my wife on a rented scooter) and three grandchildren ages 4, 6, & 7. More specifically, we had issues with handicapped access, excursions and employee service.

Handicapped Issues: While our daughter Donalyn Saia’s room was very accessible for someone in a wheelchair, the rest of the ship was not. The doorways onto the pool deck from the forward part of the ship were a hazard for anyone in a wheelchair or using a scooter. Case in point, Donalyn’s chair flipped over backwards while she was attempting to navigate a pool deck doorway. (An accident report is on file with the ship) She subsequently saw the ship’s doctor and had an X-ray of her head. She suffered a headache for two days. My wife also had great difficulty managing these doorways on her scooter and on two occasions she cut her heel on the edge of the scooter as it tipped side-wise while hung up in the doorway.

When planning the trip, we called NCL numerous times inquiring about a “lift van”. We wanted to make sure that everyone knew that there would be two women in wheelchairs and that all the proper arrangements were in order. Every time we talked to someone, they sounded surprised and said that they would log it into their computer. Then we would call again and hear the same thing. Another daughter, Susan (also on the cruise) finally talked to someone in Ground Transportation (a women 305-436-7465) about a week before the cruise. She thanked Susan for calling and informed her that they didn’t know anything about the need for a lift van. She assured Susan that now that she had talked to her everything would be arranged. The lift van was in Ft. Lauderdale. On the last afternoon of the cruise Donalyn’s husband went to the reception desk to make sure that the lift van would again be at the port of Miami. He was told that since they weren’t informed about it and since it was a little late that they would be charged for a van. He then found Susan, who had confirmed all the arrangement, and she went down to the reception desk to resolve the problem. Susan asked to speak with the supervisor who assured her that a lift van would be waiting. After they got off the ship, and waited almost an hour, a van did show up. The driver drove so fast, and zig zagged thru traffic so erratically, that everyone had to hold on tight all the way to Ft. Lauderdale. We realize that the van service is only hired by NCL, but NCL has the responsibility to monitor and get feed back on the quality of such service. This van service was ver poor in our judgment.

Excursion Issues: From the beginning we actively searched and investigated excursions for the handicapped. We were in contact with two NCL Miami reps. We were emailing for months before the cruise trying to line up available excursions for handicapped or at least available lift vans. There was one excursion in Cozumel that was marked in the NCL brochure with a handicapped accessible symbol, but there was no loft van available to get to the site. We were told that busses were available to go shopping in Cancun, but no transportation was available for wheelchair bound persons. It would appear that NCL has an utter disregard for handicapped passengers

Others in our group had many excursion-related obstacles. Our third daughter, Linda Hees, was traveling with her three young children. After getting the boys up, dressed, fed and down to the proper departing deck for the tender, tendered for 30 minutes, and after arriving, at the port, she was informed that the tour was cancelled. Why couldn’t some effort have been made to tell her that the tour had been cancelled before all this effort was put into it? Another two members of our group made arrangements for an ATV/Snorkel/Kayaking excursion. After arriving at the ATV location, they were informed that two thirds of their tour was cancelled. They were told that if any portion of the tour was cancelled that some other activity would replace it. This was not done. When they got back on the ship, they complained to the excursion desk and were told that each of them would have to fill out a formal complaint in writing, which they did. Only then did they receive a 30% refund. We would like to understand NCL’s math on this problem. Lose 2/3 of a tour…receive 1/3 adjustment!! In addition, why was a formal written complaint required? Is it because NCL’s policy is only to adjust the tour costs of those who complain instead of automatically adjusting everyone’s cancelled tours?

After we found out that two of the four ports were tendered, we were told by both Cruise Market Place and NCL that people in wheelchairs “might” be able to go ashore. When we got on the ship, we were told by someone at the reception desk that “no” they couldn’t not go ashore. Then we were told by the excursion desk people that “yes” they would carry any wheelchair persons onto the tender along with their chair. After watching “normal” people struggling to leave the ship, we made the decision not to risk our lives on a couple of men to try to carry our daughter or my wife onto the tender. We therefore missed the pleasure of sightseeing and or paid excursions at two of the four ports. Has anyone at NCL attempted to navigate a wheelchair at the port at Roatan and see any “fun” things?

Employee Service: We were dumbfounded at the consistent three hour dinners that we were subjected to. It didn’t seem to be the waiter’s fault, but never the less, children and some adults were falling asleep at the table. The evening was shot for some since they were to tired to do anything after dinner or they had missed the shows. The food in general was sub-par. The portions were too small and the meat quality was poor. We even had problems with the correct amount of postage for post cards sold to us on the ship. The excursion desk, photo, Latitudes desk, ships stores and library are only open a short time and mostly at dinnertime. While in port, everything is closed. Leaving people who are left on the ship with limited amusement or shopping activities. Although the ships video tour was very interesting, we couldn’t understand the speaker very well since English was obviously not his first language.

Our daughter, Susan was overcharged by NCL/Cruise Market Place for airfare back in August and is still waiting for a full refund. My brother Charles booked the cruise and paid for insurance but had to cancel due to his wife’s unanticipated surgery. He is still waiting for his refund.

Our concerns and laments were conveyed to the gentlemen at the Latitudes desk who did summon a ships officer who said our concerns would be recorded.

My wife and I were very pleased with the “Happy Anniversary” card and champagne provided by Dennis Prguda. However, this positive point can in no way overcome the displeasure expressed to us by ALL members of our group. My wife summed it up by saying “After four cruises with NCL, Never Again” on this line!!

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