wordsjustfly

I've been on several cruises before but Norwegian Epic has been THE worst!

 

Rude staff, kids in the adult zone, no respect for the people getting on board. Special treatment for those getting on at Barcelona port. Got severely ill from the food eaten at the buffet and was stuck in my room for nearly two days. Rooms never cleaned on time, poor service, extra and hidden fees and charges for everything. I repeat do not return! Get your money back if you haven't been on this cruise yet.

 

 

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I'm super sorry you had such a bad experience. I hope you took up,your concerns with the hotel director and food and beverage director. As far as being ill from the food eating on the buffet - you can get sick from anything on the ship. It's a walking petri dish. That's the risk you get on your cruise.

Hi there. We did it. Our kid is 6 foot 3. Here's a video.

We have only done cruise director Q and As before on ther lines and they have always been overwhelmingly positive.

 

 

First time we went to an officer's one on the NCL Jade 9-19th August 2017 cruise. Thankfully most guests were lovely and asked good questions but we also got these two little gremlins below which really upset me.

 

 

1) First time cruiser (obviously) asked Captain Ingar 'Why weren't we informed about the HOHO bus stopping at a certain time, we got ripped off as we couldn't see anything'. Both the Hotel director and Ingar answered politely but basically said it wasn't affiliated with the cruise line and they would look into it. She huffed and told them they didn't answer the question.

 

 

2) An apparently experienced cruiser asked the captain why he hadn't made himself visable earlier on the cruise (like other lines) as it was the last day. Bear in mind he was in the atrium on the 2nd day for a whole hour as advertised and we had some really rough seas he had to cope with. He was polite to her and explained his role while the most of the room gasped and shook their heads at her.

 

The rest of the room threw compliments at them to counter these two fools but as I am quite in awe of the officers I couldn't believe these guys were showing such disrespect.

 

Does this often happen at Q and As?

Some people are just hard to please and some people don't respect boundaries. Gosh we even find that in these forums. It takes all kinds.

I bet that was uncomfortable to witness.

Yep got it all squared away and am now safely home waiting for the apocalyptic eclipse to happen 🤣🤣🤣🤣

We live in the path of totality.

I finally heard from my sister who's on the Pearl. Super sad for this family. My thoughts are with them all.

There has been a death on board, and US Authorities delayed the sailing and are investigating. Now expected to embark the pilot off Victoria at 18:45 at the earliest. She may not dock at all, but rather anchor and send ship's officers ashore via fast tender to have paper work signed by Canadian Authorities in order to comply with US regulations. If she does dock, it would not be until 19:45.

Are you sure? My sister is on the Jewel or the Pearl. All I know she was in Ketchikan today. So now I'm a tad worried. I haven't heard a peep out of her today.

Does anyone know if the Pearl and Jewel are both in Alaska today?

Thanks. ☹️

I don't have high expectations when I travel. I usually don't travel to be pampered as my husband and I go to see the sights and have a few good meals. We do expect people to be helpful when we have questions. We have only cruised on Carnival and we are not huge cruise people. We are taking this cruise as we want to see as much as Hawaii as we can in a short amount of time.(we do have a few days before the cruise in Honolulu.)

I have read the reviews on this ship and it seems reviews are mixed. As long as staff is not rude and the ship is as pretty as it looks on their website we will be happy.

I get what you're saying -and it all depends what you're looking for in a vacation I guess. We cruise every other year and I'll be the first to tell you that when I cruise it's to relax, eat amazing food, be pampered, see some fun entertainment, meet and make new friends and see cool places. I want it all :)

Ship's pretty, international staff are fabulous, American staff is okay :) food this time around was just okay. My best meal believe it or not was a really delicious egg salad sandwich that came from the crews mess hall.

If you have the opportunity rent a car in Maui as you spend the night. Explore the island - the excursions to tour the island are kinda lame. They don't take you to Lahaina, and you don't get to see the Banyan trees.

But this cruise is really a destination cruise as the ship takes you to each island and that's the fun of it.

❤️❤️

One thing folks need to remember about the crew on the POA. While most international crew on foreign flag ships make a very decent middle class income in their home countries (even though they are way below the poverty line for US wages), the vast majority of crew on POA are earning minimum wage for a 84 hour week. Most could make more money flipping burgers at MickeyD's and live at home, or at least be able to go out every night and do whatever they wanted. Many don't get the opportunity to see the "wonderful Hawaiian islands" that the passengers see, most only see the stores and laundromats in the harbor area.

 

As to sailing short handed, this has been a perennial problem with the POA crew, and the other NCL US flag ships when they were out there. Unlike the international crew, where only the deck and engine departments are credentialed mariners, the USCG requires that anyone on a ship that is assigned an emergency duty (so nearly 98% of crew), must be a fully credentialed merchant mariner. The training, and documentation required for this (including an FBI background check) costs the company about $8-10,000 per crew member, just to get them to the ship for their first day of work. Now, when someone quits, they cannot call the crewing agency in the Philippines, like the international ships would do, and have a new cabin steward on the next flight out, they need to hire, train and document a new merchant mariner, since there is not an available pool of qualified and certified cabin stewards just sitting around waiting for a job.

 

By all means, if you feel the need, complain both onboard and to corporate, but know that crew attitude has been a problem since the project started in 2004, and while it has gotten better, until the pay improves significantly, with an increase in cabin fares (which won't happen because of pressure from the foreign flag ships doing Hawaii from the West Coast), crew attitude won't improve. The crew wages for the POA are well below hospitality industry standards, nearly anywhere in the US.

In talking with the crew they state they receive minimum wage of 9.25 and time and a half. And waitvstaff have the opportunity to earn tips. We tip 20% at all specialty restaurants aboard ship.

On international ships no time and a half. Everyone says they make money aboard this ship than they do any other ship in the fleet

Who was the concierge on your cruise?

Chris is the conceirge on PoA.

Peter is an amazing Butler.

Boni fabulous steward

Zuben a very talented sommelier

Martha is the assistant restaurant manager - amazing and gets things done. Love her. She's in Cagney's. but I think she had one more week and she's off ship for 6 weeks.

Is NCL aware of all these complaints? It would be helpful to future passengers ( like myself ) if they were. They have no access to this thread...I don't think... There's just no excuse for poor service and attitude. There's too many people out there that would love to work on a ship that circles the Hawaiian Isles.

I had a really nice discussion with the concierge of the ship and voiced some of my concerns and he agreed with me that the vibe is just different.

All of my comments we're duly noted :)

Don't put so much credence on felt motion as it relates to deck location. When the ship is moving the entire thing is moving, you will notice no perceivable difference between deck 9 or deck 4. My wife is very prone to motion sickness, when things get bad there simply isn't a location we can go to that makes things better. Not once have we been in rough seas on the upper decks and returned to our cabin on a lower deck and found any difference.

Thank you for your perspective. Instead of Bonine last night I took visteral and it helped a bunch. I only woke a couple of times to rocking and swaying. What does your wife do to combat motion sickness?

We'll be on the Jade in Nov. and I'm thinking about bringing our own too. Do you have the UBP?? Some ppl say that if you have UBP it's not worth bringing your own (get all the wine they give you by the glass) but I've seen the list they have and I'm not impressed with it.

 

TIA

 

 

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I'd rather pay a small corkage fee than drink crappy wine regardless of the plan I have. That's just me.

In the grand scheme of things it just made sense to pay the 200 bucks for an unlimited package. We got a deal for buying it in advance.

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We are not impressed with the wine selection this trip. So we are bringing our own wine next time and paying the 15 bucks per bottle corkage fee. Makes much more sense and way more economical. We're already on day 4 spent 200 bucks on reds that are just okay not great. We could've brought some amazing cab's. Sigh.

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Most ships will have forward facing and aft facing suites that start pretty low. BUT,,,, being all the way forward, you will get more motion, even on Deck 9.

 

 

 

In general, if the ship is in bad weather, every room is going to weave and bob. In good weather, every room will be smooth.

Hi - our first cruise we were on the Star in cabin 9500 and I didn't mind it- when we hit rough seas it was and up and down bang bang bang which didn't make me feel sick. It's just the weaving Kinc oh like a weeble- you know weebles wobble but they don't fall down - I think that bothers me.

At any rate you're right good weather smooth sailing - bad weather the ship rocks. Maybe I'm just used to it on day 4 as it isn't bugging me as much.

Thanks again.

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This is obviously going to vary from class (of ship) to class. It is also information that is readily accessible to you on NCL's website by checking out the deckplans of whatever ship you are curious about. Here is Breakaway for example:

 

https://www.ncl.com/cruise-ship/breakaway/deck-plans

Thank you so much. I had no idea this existed. 👍👍👍 off to research the next cruise!

Pride of America

Deck - 13

Stateroom # - 13508

Stateroom category - Deluxe Penthouse Suite

Starboard or Port Side - Port

Quiet Stateroom? Yes

Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? - no

Balcony View – no obstructions.

Balcony Size? Oversized very large

Was wind a problem? - no

If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? - N/A

Any specific problems with this cabin? - no.

Any other comments? - It has a king bed and a Murphy wall bed that is a double bed. The couch also folds out to a double bed. You can actually sleep six people in this cabin.

The bathroom is very large with two sinks and oversized.

Being up on the 13th deck be mindful that the ship tends to bob and sway a lot.

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Our family has decided after four cruises that the suite life is really for us. We love everything there is about it. So we save for a year and go on a cruise every other year or so for vacation.

My only complaint about staying in a suite is that they typically are higher up and the ship tends to weave and bob the higher you go.

Do any of you know what deck the suites begin on?

Thanks in advance.

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It all depends on what you want to do activity wise. And where you want to go.

If you want to go to Alaska the pearl or the star is the way to go. The Bahamas – we really loved the getaway.

We are in Hawaii right now aboard the pride of America- I don't really recommend this cruise for a myriad of reasons you're welcome to private message me to ask my opinion.

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Teppanyaki all the way. La Cucina is a glorified Olive Garden. But then again we are Italian and picky when it comes to Italian food.

Chris was ours too, he was alright as I stated. We just didn't need to interact with him. I don't remember the names of the butler and steward. Are you/have you ate in Cagney's? Is the hostess, Brenna? She was on when we were there and she really made our cruise, really regret not getting her email address.

Hi - Martha is who we interact with the most at Cagney's. We eat breakfast at Cagney's and we've had dinner there. Lunch at Cagney's has been a bust two times so were kind of done with lunch there.

I haven't met Brenna yet- but Theresa one of the waitresses bless her heart and got married on Sunday – had Sunday night off and then was back to work Monday morning.

They work these folks hard.

She probably tripped over someone's walker...........;p

Ha Andy! You are right the majority of the audience were the older generation. In my case I danced too much and then tripped up the stair. I bet you didn't know you could do that? I am the queen of being a klutz. 🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂🤦🏽*♀️

You've got me worried now. We sail on the 26th. I've read bad things but sort of dismissed them, thinking we wouldn't be on the ship that much, it's not like other cruises, etc etc, but my mother is in a wheelchair and I really would like the staff to be nice to her! She will be on the ship more than I will - I'm doing a couple of excursions without her so she can have "days off" - but she'll be going to the buffet on her own when I'm not there. Hopefully everyone will be helpful?

 

I think we were kind of spoiled because our first cruise together (and her first cruise in a wheelchair) was on the Queen Mary 2, and they really couldn't do enough for you and fell all over themselves to help. So I will lower my expectations a bit. :)

They were very helpful, accommodating, and cool when we boarded. And I get the whole spoiled thing. Are you in a suite? If so make sure you tell your butler she'll need help - and really they will help:) Just ask.

When will they finally put an end to mosh pits at Neil Diamond concerts?!?

I know, right Andy?

Lots of good info here. We're going in March 2018. I'm glad to hear that not all the negative reviews of the POA are accurate....especially the ones about the rude crew and staff. Maybe they were rude to people who were rude. Goes both ways.

I am here right now on PoA day three of our cruise. Our family is very low key/maintenance- we do a lot for ourselves.

We have already found our favorite staff members that we clicked with, and those that we know we won't and that's okay.

We love our Butler Peter and steward Boni- they are the best. We also really are fond of Martha who oversees Cagneys and Zuben the ships Sommelier- he's amazing. All of the wait staff has been super nice.

Vincent the cruise director and Chris the conceirge are okay - not like the cruise directors and conceirge of past cruises - just different energy I guess.

But the shopkeepers are a little crabby.

In talking to the staff they say that 25% of the staff are international crew members from all over the globe. The captain is very cool and he's from Croatia - The rest of the staff are Americans. Our experience has always been to cruise with international crewmembers and we have found those folks to be very service oriented- and it's mind blowing to me that they remember our names! The American staff I wouldn't say are rude but mostly indifferent- just a different atmosphere.

But you're right you reap what you sow - I find that kindness goes a long way. :)

Have a great cruise.