valentine, sorry to hear that so many things went wrong for you on this cruise. It wasn't a perfect one for us, either, but we went with the flow. Trust me in that this cruise was definitely out of the ordinary for NCL.
I'd like to address some points made in the above post.
Embarkation lines: We arrived to the ship at 4:00 pm, and the lines weren't bad then. Yet, we did hear that they were bad from noon until about 2:00. I attribute this to lack of communication between Massport and the cruise line. This was the first cruise of the season (that included embarkation), and it was clear that most were either either out of practice or new to the job.
Muster drill: Yes, it was long, but nowhere near an hour. Maybe 20 minutes.
Understaffing: Yes, that was definitely an issue, and one that should not have happened in the first place.
Weather: Very bad, but out of the line's control. There were storms up and down the New England coast...tough to avoid them.
Breakfast: I am looking at my Freestyle Daily for Saturday, and it indicates that the Sports Bar & Grill and both dining rooms closed for breakfast at 10:00. That is why there was no food available when you arrived around that time.
The Key Card: We were told numerous times that we needed to have this to debark, both in the final morning program (included with Saturday's Freestyle Daily) and in many of the announcements made that morning.
I don't mean to sound as if I'm picking apart the post, as there some valid statements within it, such as the embarkation waits, understaffing, waits for dinner (although I didn't experience this personally as we went early), and the lines (or should I say mobs) at the bars. But as I mentioned in my initial post, the bad weather kept everyone indoors, exacerbating the understaffing situation.
Now that it's been a couple of days since we disembarked, and the post-cruise euphoria has faded, we are indeed remembering more about this cruise we did not like. Some crew members had no idea about the cruise line or the ship, service was spotty, and Freestyle Dining does not work well on this ship. Yet for me, this was more than offset by the food (I'll admit this is subjective), our very comfortable cabin, and the wonderful performance by Jane L. Powell. Yet, the understaffing was a huge issue, and I truly hope NCL gets this cleared up soon -- otherwise there will be many unhappy pax this summer.
Linear Mode
