NCL Sky - Feeling Used

Just returned from a 4 day run to the Bahamas on Norwegian Sky. We expected SOME college kids, having cruised at this time in previous years, but it turns out that NCL worked with a "company" to market this cruise on campuses. It was 80% college kids! We would never have booked with them if we had been made aware of this. Non-college cruisers are used to offset the costs, and are not warned in advance. Extra security to keep the staterooms quiet at night might have helped but NCL didn't appear to care too much. Won't be going anywhere with NCL again... they ripped us off and knew about it. Am I right to be upset?

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you are right to be angry...but also wrong to feel that going during spring break time during such a trip of bahamas will attract

serious cruisers...sorry but i don't think ncl is at fault, they are just doing their part by filling the ship.

NCL didn't force you to sail during Spring Break.

NCL Sky - Feeling Used

 

Oh geez. lol

No one ripped you off and no one used you.

when will people start taking responsibility for their own actions?

you are right to be angry...but also wrong to feel that going during spring break time during such a trip of bahamas will attract

serious cruisers...sorry but i don't think ncl is at fault, they are just doing their part by filling the ship.

I agree. :rolleyes:

Just returned from a 4 day run to the Bahamas on Norwegian Sky. We expected SOME college kids, having cruised at this time in previous years, but it turns out that NCL worked with a "company" to market this cruise on campuses. It was 80% college kids! We would never have booked with them if we had been made aware of this. Non-college cruisers are used to offset the costs, and are not warned in advance. Extra security to keep the staterooms quiet at night might have helped but NCL didn't appear to care too much. Won't be going anywhere with NCL again... they ripped us off and knew about it. Am I right to be upset?

 

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Good grief, WHAT did you expect? You knew it was Spring Break, on short, cheap, all inclusive cruise, that attracts just what you didn't want? Sorry, your "poor me" claim has some holes in it.

when will people start taking responsibility for their own actions?

Ha! In this day and age someone's always to blame, if all else fails chalk it up to "xxxx privilege".

Am I right to be upset?

 

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No; you took a cheap 4 day booze cruise during spring break season. Not sure what you expected. Think that if you went for a 7-10 day cruise or the sky cruise between may-feb; you wouldn't have had that experience.

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Just returned from a 4 day run to the Bahamas on Norwegian Sky. We expected SOME college kids, having cruised at this time in previous years, but it turns out that NCL worked with a "company" to market this cruise on campuses. It was 80% college kids! We would never have booked with them if we had been made aware of this. Non-college cruisers are used to offset the costs, and are not warned in advance. Extra security to keep the staterooms quiet at night might have helped but NCL didn't appear to care too much. Won't be going anywhere with NCL again... they ripped us off and knew about it. Am I right to be upset?

 

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It does stink, and it would have been nice to know they were advertising to college kids. But at least you've learned a time you DON'T want to travel, and hopefully your next cruise will be much better. I'm not sure the cruise line has any obligation to notify you of the passenger make-up, but I get the frustration of unknowingly booking a party boat. Please come here before your next cruise and get the advice of seasoned sailors. I think they could have steered you away. And just look at it as a survivor story. :D (However, if there were specific incidents the crew would not deal with you may want to do a formal complaint. Overall though, spring break is just a bad time to travel anywhere.)

Good luck!

Just returned from a 4 day run to the Bahamas on Norwegian Sky. We expected SOME college kids, having cruised at this time in previous years, but it turns out that NCL worked with a "company" to market this cruise on campuses. It was 80% college kids! We would never have booked with them if we had been made aware of this. Non-college cruisers are used to offset the costs, and are not warned in advance. Extra security to keep the staterooms quiet at night might have helped but NCL didn't appear to care too much. Won't be going anywhere with NCL again... they ripped us off and knew about it. Am I right to be upset?

 

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No, you should have expected a lot of college kids on a 4 day cruise during spring break. I have taken 7 days cruises with NCL twice now during spring break and it is mostly families, though last year there was a partial charter with a nutritional supplement company on my cruise. Norwegian does not notify people ahead of time about "partial charters". There is a thread on here somewhere listing the ones that are known. All cruise lines do partial charters frequently, and you never know what you might get, so if that type of thing bothers you, then you need to do a lot more research before booking a cruise on ANY line.

I've heard stories of people being on cruises with a big charter of bikers or swinging seniors. It could have been worse, much worse.

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Just returned from a 4 day run to the Bahamas on Norwegian Sky. We expected SOME college kids, having cruised at this time in previous years, but it turns out that NCL worked with a "company" to market this cruise on campuses. It was 80% college kids! We would never have booked with them if we had been made aware of this. Non-college cruisers are used to offset the costs, and are not warned in advance. Extra security to keep the staterooms quiet at night might have helped but NCL didn't appear to care too much. Won't be going anywhere with NCL again... they ripped us off and knew about it. Am I right to be upset?

 

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I can see both sides of this one, and I'm sorry you had this experience. Did you take this up with NCL management? Not on the ship - but now, after you've returned, with the shore based management?

My thought is: Don't write off the whole cruise line based on this one experience. ALL of the cruise ships going out during Spring break are going to have a high percentage of partying college kids on them. I wouldn't go anywhere near a Carnival ship during spring break, that's for sure.

Talk to NCL, see what they'll do for you, and maybe take another cruise during a better time. You'd probably be surprised at how different that 4 day Bermuda cruise is when it's not spring break.

Let me see if I can understand this.

Spring break + a short cruise + free booze = a lot of college age kids and young adults.

You should have expected exactly what the cruise was. I would never cruise during spring break especially on a short cruise that had free booze, because it is pretty obvious who is going to be on the cruises.

Not sure why you (1) feel like you should have been told who the other passengers were or (2) how you feel you got ripped off, as you got exactly what you paid for a 4 day cruise with free booze.

I can sympathize with the OP. I've sailed on the Sky in March and it was not filled with spring breakers to a noticeable degree, nor did I expect it to be, but then again there wasn't a free drink program then. I think it's one thing if there are some spring breakers on a cruise, or at a hotel during the spring break period, it's quite another for NCL to specifically try to attract that crowd and not make it public knowledge. I mean, is there really anyone that's not a spring breaker that wants to be surrounded by that crap? NCL and anyone with a brain would not think so. Which makes it rude by definition to not tell someone, oh, btw, your vacation will be ruined by drunks behaving badly and making tons of noise and ruining the whole thing so maybe you'd like to choose a different date or ship. I don't think most people associate cruising with hard partying style spring break. That is much more associated with places like Cancun. So don't treat the OP like a moron for not expecting it.

No one dislikes spring breakers more than me. I lived on south beach for about 15 years and spring break really was the worst time of year. Spring break is a HUGE business and there are companies that promote every kind of spring break vacation at every school and university in North America. Instead of saying "NCL worked with the spring break company" its better said and more reality that the "spring break company worked with NCL." Is there a difference? Yes. These companies lure the spring breakers with all kinds of package deals. NCL is probably a tiny bit of their market but nothing is sacred when it comes to spring break. I don't take cruises during spring break and wont even go near Miami Beach. As a local besides the traffic and noise, all the "local" specials are gone from the hotels and local restaurants because they are gouging the spring breakers. You really have to hunker down.

Lesson learned.

Just returned from a 4 day run to the Bahamas on Norwegian Sky. We expected SOME college kids, having cruised at this time in previous years, but it turns out that NCL worked with a "company" to market this cruise on campuses. It was 80% college kids! We would never have booked with them if we had been made aware of this. Non-college cruisers are used to offset the costs, and are not warned in advance. Extra security to keep the staterooms quiet at night might have helped but NCL didn't appear to care too much. Won't be going anywhere with NCL again... they ripped us off and knew about it. Am I right to be upset?

You openly admit that you expected college kids. You openly admit that you have cruised at this time of year before.

What did you expect??? A cruise with a bunch of retirees?

You selected the cruise. You selected the location.You selected Spring Break. You have nothing to complain about.

Just returned from a 4 day run to the Bahamas on Norwegian Sky. We expected SOME college kids, having cruised at this time in previous years, but it turns out that NCL worked with a "company" to market this cruise on campuses. It was 80% college kids! We would never have booked with them if we had been made aware of this. Non-college cruisers are used to offset the costs, and are not warned in advance. Extra security to keep the staterooms quiet at night might have helped but NCL didn't appear to care too much. Won't be going anywhere with NCL again... they ripped us off and knew about it. Am I right to be upset?

This post needs more exclamation points and a reference to the Better Business Bureau.

Can't believe NCL had the nerve to promote. Shocking.

I'm not sure how a person is supposed to KNOW its spring break on a cruise? Not all people have kids in college?

We booked 1 once never realizing it was spring break, now I know spring break can last not just 1 week but several as not all schools go at the same time. Lesson learned!

I do agree it would be nice to know when its something like that or a partially chartered one.

I'm not sure how a person is supposed to KNOW its spring break on a cruise?

Please.

People always seem to suddenly find Cruise Critic when it's time to complain, but can't be bothered to google "best time to cruise"?

http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=133

Come on, man... OP already said they knew it was spring break. Why do you believe it's a mystery?

I am sorry you had a crappy cruise but you are asking us to blame the wall that you walked into even though you knew the wall was there and you walked into it anyway,

Caveat Emptor!! Do your homework BEFORE booking. Be thankful it wasn't the group about whom there has been a lot of complaints when cruising from NY.

Sorry you had a bad cruise. It's your fault though. When was the last time you had a cruise line tell not to take a cruise because there may people on it that you don't like? Should they warn over holidays that it's going packed? Should they tell you in the summer there's going to be a lot of children on the ship? We had 1600 children on a cruise on the Escape one cruise. The worst though, was when we were on cruise the first week of March. we thought we were safe. Nope. 700 college spring breakers from southern Florida colleges. They did have extra security though. They threw 25 of them off in Cozumel for breaking into the ships liquor storage. They had 2 in the brig for shredding a $10,000 painting behind guest services. I had to tell a group of girls that the f-bomb was not appropriate language walking down the halls. We made sure we stayed on the ship in port, since all the kids got off. It was very quiet and pleasant then. We won't be cruising the first week of March though April anymore. All this said, the specialty restaurants were empty. It was before UDP, and there were no college students paying extra for food. We ate good all week. Live and learn.

Non-college cruisers are used to offset the costs

Did the college kids get a lower rate that was subsidized by raising the fares on non-college cruisers?

So many of the above posts are taking as FACT that NCL "promoted" this cruise to College students. WHERE is the proof. Because the OP says so? You've got to be kidding. I don't see any ads on the NCL web page doing so nor any of their email promotions- saying, "Calling all College kids, purchase a booze cruise" .

What LIKELY happened is also mentioned above, some booking agent, promoted this. A BIG difference in the so mentioned "blame". Think about it. I get "promotions" all the time from various booking agents. It's all about SALES, nothing else. Of course, these short, booze included, cheaper cruises are going to be very attractive to the party crowd. And booking agents are going to go where the money is.