bt0510

You were better off than I was from the get-go. I filed my complaint mid-November and was told it would be 8 weeks, then it was 10. I have called that number, called them again today, still no on will respond.

 

Did they at least take care of you?

 

Yes, I'd have to say that they are compensating us much more than we ever expected. We expected them to almost brush it off and offer us $50 towards a future cruise or something like that. They actually blew me away and gave us $1250 towards a future cruise. That's the good side. The bad side is, we likely won't use it. Would we go on another NCL cruise, maybe. But, we plan our vacations about a year in advance. We already have our vacations set for this year. I'm wondering if they would extend that, but it specifically says in the letter that the cruise must take place within 12 months of the date on the letter.

Sorry if someone already said this, I didn't spend the time to read all the responses. Did you call this number: 866-625-1164? That is a direct number to their complaint department, where issues like this are handled.

 

For some additional timeline info, here's my story. My family had a pretty horrible experience on the Thanksgiving cruise aboard Escape. I was actually asked to submit a complaint by their staff (in a round about way, but long story). I submitted on Dec 11. I received an email saying I would hear back within 14 days. I called the number above on January 15 to get a status. I was told that they have so many incoming complaints that exceed their normal rate of complaints, that they are weeks behind. I was also told that my case was sent to a specific department that handles 'significant issues'. I was asked to be patient and it could be several more weeks. I ended up getting an email from them on Feb 2. The funny thing is, they referenced the issues that were part of my case in the response. The first one that they wrote the most about had nothing to do with me, and was not part of my case at all.

I find myself scratching my head trying to understand the purpose of this forum. I've read several threads about people having bad experiences on Escape, and in each one, the same people respond with things like, this is their <20 post, they must be sensitive, you must have been on a different ship, etc. People, not everyone has the same experience as you did! Its going to happen, so let it happen and allow this forum to be a source of information, not a bash-fest. Shouldn't this forum be a place where anyone can come and read some information to allow them to make an informed decision about their cruise? If it were up to you all, this would only be a place to praise the cruise industry, their ships, staff, dining options, etc.

 

I had a pretty similar experience as the OP here, and I wrote a review on this site. Here's the link: http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=519493.

My intention of writing a review was to inform people of my experience. If you had a different experience, I am happy for you, or sad for you, whichever way it went. But to reject the fact that someone else could have a different experience from you lessens the value of what Cruise Critic is probably meant to be.

 

I'm glad TUGBBS is not like this.

Here was our experience. You will see that other people had different experiences. Unfortunately, that makes it very difficult for someone asking these questions to make a decision. Best of luck with that.

 

We ate at specialty restaurants on 4 of the 7 nights. We had much better food and much better service at the specialty locations. The food at Teppanyaki and Cagney's were the top of the list for us. Our experience in MDR (Manhattan) was poor. The service was very poor and the food was just OK. You asked if you could request indian food. To be honest, I don't know, but here's our somewhat similar experience. One night, my wife asked if they could replace one of the sides with mashed potatoes, because she did not like the side that came with the meal she was ordering, and they had mashed potatoes on other dishes. She was told the menus are set, so probably not, but they could try. In the end, we did get mashed potatoes for her, but they came about 5 minutes after the meal. Could it work for you, maybe. They did have indian food in the Garden Cafe at all times though.

A question please

Does the Escape have a special laundry deal - usually Thursday eve - all you can put in a bag is one flat fee?

 

We received this offer on Tuesday and the clothes were returned on Thursday. It was $19-20 for the bag. I don't remember exact price.

To me, "rocky" implies the pitching (bow up/bow down) motion, and the "staggering" the ship experiences when heading into seas. This has very little to do with stability or with stabilizers, and is a function of the bow design.

 

"Rolling" is what I describe in the post linked above. "Heeling" is when the ship leans to one side for a long time, and again, this is more wind than sea affects.

 

On Thursday, during the day, the rocking and rolling started. At one point, I was in the kids pool with my daughter. The rocking was so bad that the pool turned into a wave pool. The water was crashing out of the pool in huge blasts, all over the walkway. On the other side, you could see probably 2 feet below the water line, as we rocked. It was so bad at a few points that I wanted to get out of the pool with my daughter, but could not move because of the constant back and forth.

 

That evening, after seeing Million Dollar Quartet, we went up to the Garden Cafe to grab a snack. We were rolling so much that people were literally walking in zig zags from one side of the aisle to the other. I mean between the food and the wall around the buffet. That's probably a 6-7 foot distance, and you had to walk like that to stay upright. It was pretty intense.

I was thinking about purchasing the unlimited internet package for my upcoming Dec 5th cruise.

 

D you know how the connectivity is ? Was sit spotty?

 

We used the internet one day to check our email. It took my wife and I 32 minutes to login to each of our email (web-based) accounts and just scan through the emails to see if there was anything important. We did this from the internet kiosks in the atrium area. So, the connection was really bad. This was on the morning we were floating into Nassau. No storms.

 

On the other hand, I saw people up in the Garden Cafe, on a few different occasions, using Skype or Facetime, and it seemed to work pretty well for them.

 

I'd go with spotty.

I really did not go down to deck 5 other then to get to the shore excursions. Was there something I missed on that deck?

 

On Deck 6 7 we just went to dinner and only smelled the food smells from the restaurants.

 

Should they eliminate it from the casino? It does not matter to me either way. But it seems like the majority want it banned so probably it should be.

 

There are places onboard/outside to smoke. But then people will complain about smokers in those areas too. You can't please everyone.

 

Our cabin was on deck 5, as is the Splash Academy. You probably didn't miss anything there. Like I said, different people have different sensitivity to smoke. We ate at Teppanyaki the last night. The door to Teppanyaki is closed all the time. When we were seated, the hostess asked us to quickly close the door as we walked in, "because of the smoke smell". When we left the restaurant, as we opened the door, a strong smell of smoke was immediately obvious. Going from the great smells inside the restaurant to that made it more obvious.

 

I am not suggesting that they eliminate smoking anywhere. That's a no-win situation. I'm stating our experience.

There was a smoking and non smoking section in the casino. If you were in the smoking section you would smell like smoke when you left. If you were in non smoking it was ok. I did not smell smoke anywhete else outside of the casino.

 

I think different folks have different sensitivity when it comes to cigarette smoke, and whether they can smell it or not. We were on the Thanksgiving week cruise as well. We smelled smoke throughout decks 6/7/8 and even down on deck 5 in the hallways. The smoke did not appear to be visible anywhere that I went, but certainly the smell was there. My wife and I are very sensitive to cigarette smoke smell, so that may be why we picked it up more than you did.

See inline.

 

Canuckgal33 thank you for your review. We (me, husband, daughter, son) are first time cruisers and we are going on the Escape in July 2016. We have so many questions.

How much clothes to pack? (don't want to overpack)

We had trouble with this too, as the only laundry is paid and takes a few days. We packed enough for each day.

Should we pack a travel cup with straw? Read that you should.

We saw a lot of people do this, and it seemed to work well. We did get a cup with our soda package, but it has a hole in the top.

Do we need to pack beach towels? No, they provide.

When to book excursions? As soon as you know what you want to do.

Do you need to book an excursion to just go to a beach?No. We took taxi's to Secret Harbour in St Thomas and Brewers Bay in Tortola. We rented in St Thomas and it was fine. I would not have rented at the place in Tortola. But that beach was fantastic.

When to book for restaurants and shows?As soon as you know what you want to do. We had issues because of the required duration of each dinner in the NCL system, so we had to book on the ship, which was fine on the first night.

I know we will have more questions we are just very overwhelmed. Any help would be great.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We just finished our Escape cruise, sitting in the airport to head home. This was our first cruise in 10 years, so use that as perspective.

We felt the service was horrible. The staff was mostly dysfunctional. I'll do a review later, but note this. We had reservations for 6 of 7 nights. We were never seated within 20 minutes of our reservation. This included Manhattan, Teppenyaki, Moderno, la Cucina, and Cagneys. I asked one of the food attendants in the Garden Cafe if they had any Cheerios in the back because each location I checked didn't have any. The response was, "I could go check, but it would be better if you just walk to all four corners and find it yourself." Much of the staff had similar attitude. In O'Sheehans for lunch, our waitress rolled her eyes when my wife asked for a soda refill.

Anyone on 5th floor should know ahead of time to expect very loud noises from above from about 9pm-2am, followed by all of the children in the surrounding family cabins screaming from being abruptly woken up.

responses in the quote, above, in red.

How has it effectlively doubled the price per day???

 

Seeing how I was obviously very drunk the last time I looked at the specialty restaurant list, I provided a incorrect comment here. I thought that most of the specialties were open for lunch and dinner. Now I'm going back to the drawing board all over again. I'm an NCL newbie, so please forgive my ignorance! :(

 

I agree with your above replies.

 

The SDP plan has not changed, they just clarified the wording. Most of us assumed that if you buy the 5 day, you were buying 5 meals. Most assumed it worked like a punch card, so to speak. I know there was some that were hoping to eat multiple specialty dinners each day, but that's not realistic.

 

As far as money sucking, we bought the 4 day SDP for our upcoming Escape TA, and we will save money over paying as we go for the restaurants we have chosen to enjoy.

 

Based on the above comment I added, it has not changed to the extent that I originally thought it has, but it has still changed. I was intrigued by the idea of trying a few different venues for an early and late dinner. That will now likely not happen, unless my wife goes along with it. I doubt that. The money sucking part is also part of my earlier ignorance. They are still changing to their advantage, which any corporation would do, but removing what appears to be a very desirable/used aspect of the original dining package. (ie. specialty restaurant hopping)

I just got off the phone with NCL customer service. Since they switched to the SDP, my wife and I have been thinking about our plan for meals, to determine how many DAYS to purchase. SDP was originally DAYS, not MEALS. Now, our plan, which I was going to purchase for today, gets thrown out the window. As noted by others, the SDP is now number of MEALS, not number of DAYS (multiple meals per day). They effectively doubled the price of SDP per day, if not more.

However, the rep said that since I booked back in January, I could ask to have my booking promo switched from OBC to UDP (the old plan). So I'll think about that for a day. I'm not so sure about the knowledge this guy had though, because he had to ask his manager every question I asked him. He also believes that UDP for a 7-day cruise means we get a total of 4 MEALS per person. So he confused me. I'd have to call back.

 

NOTE that I also posted this info in the Everything ESCAPE thread, but thought it would be useful in this thread as well.

 

As a recap, NCL has switched from UDP (as many meals as you want for the length of your cruise), to SDP DAYS (as many meals as you want for each day used for the number of days purchased), to SDP MEALS (the number of meals purchased, not to exceed the number of days for your cruise). In my opinion, they went from a good option, to a fantastic flexible option, to a money-sucking option.

When I purchased my specialty dining package it was called the 7 DAY specialty dining program and now NCL has renamed it the 7 MEAL specialty dining program. I called NCL to ask if I go to Pincho tapas (which is discounted on the plan) for a pre show app and then go to an included restaurant for post show full dinner, am I using two of my seven meals in the same day? They had no answer for me..... Would like feedback from this group please.

 

Catnapper7, thanks so much for posting this here, on the Everything Escape thread, because its one that I subscribe to!

 

I just got off the phone with NCL customer service. Since they switched to the SDP, my wife and I have been thinking about our plan for meals, to determine how many DAYS to purchase. As noted by Catnapper7, it was originally DAYS, not MEALS. Now, our plan, which I was going to purchase for today, gets thrown out the window. As noted by others, the plan is now number of MEALS, not number of DAYS (multiple meals per day). They effectively doubled the price of SDP per day, if not more.

However, the rep said that since I booked back in January, I could ask to have my booking promo switched from OBC to UDP (the old plan). So I'll think about that for a day. I'm not so sure about the knowledge this guy had though, because he had to ask his manager every question I asked him. He also believes that UDP for a 7-day cruise means we get a total of 4 MEALS per person. So he confused me. I'd have to call back.

I'm booked on the 11/21/15 cruise. I've been tracking a bunch of things related to the cruise and ship. I've noticed that the arrival time into Nassau has been changing relatively often from 11am to 12pm arrival time. Is this itinerary a common itinerary on NCL that people can comment on what time the ship generally arrives in Nassau? So, the current itinerary shows the ship leaving Tortola at 4pm Wednesday, Thursday is a sea day, then arriving in Nassau on Friday. We have a dolphin encounter booked in Nassau, so I'm trying to gauge our timing. It is through NCL, so I'm sure they'll make it work, but still curious.

 

Thank you!

Can I contact you? About your agency?

 

Hi. As noted, I'm not supposed to provide that info. I honestly don't know why, since this is a forum to help others, but whatever. I don't think it hurts to provide you with this info. I went to this page on this site, http://www.cruisecritic.com/shipshop/ , and I started calling and asking what they would offer me to transfer to them. I only called 3 of the agencies listed. I ended up going with the first one that I called, even though I had to call them back to get an answer.

I've been following my rate daily, since I booked. I've seen that the 3rd gues price is changing each time the 1st and 2nd guest changes. The 3rd is always just barely below the 1st/2nd for my cruise. I always assumed they just figured they could get more money on a holiday cruise, so aren't really following their promo.

It does still have the payment option on the NCL site. Guess it has not been transferred to the T/A yet. I'm going to guess this is something handled on the NCL end to process the Xfer to the T/A?

 

Also to note, the option to pre-pay DSC is still there and at the old $12 rate.

 

You will continue to see the pre-pay for DSC, even after the transfer. But, good catch on the old $12 rate. I just checked mine and it is the same. Update: I had forgotten, but went back to check. When they increased the DSC, they said that if you pre-pay, it will be the old rate. If you pay onboard, you pay the newer rate.

I am still 8-months out from my cruise, but I take the few minutes to check the price, almost daily. Today, I noticed a pretty decent price increase for my cruise, as well as the other cruises in November on Escape. Up until today, the Thanksgiving cruise has been more expensive than the Nov 14 cruise. Today, the Nov 14 cruise is more expensive. For our cabin, the price increase was $240 total from yesterday to today. I'm feeling pretty good, because when I booked, it was about $600 less than today's price.

Yeah, I never heard anything from NCL, just from the TA. One way you can confirm if it is done is to login to myncl. If you no longer see the pay option, then its with your TA. The milestones will now just be: check-in, plan, and pack.

There was another recent thread about this topic. I booked my NCL via NCL online, then, via this site, found out about possible perks for transferring to a TA. So, I shopped around. I ended up transferring to one of the TA's on this sites TA list. NCL had already given me $200 OBC and the TA almost doubled that. No booking or cancellation fees. I'm staying in a Family Oceanview, 3 passengers, Nov 21 Escape. I believe its all based on price paid, so it sounds like some here didn't get a very good 'perk' from their TA.

Some people have asked, Why would a TA give perks? My guess at the answer is so that they can stay in business. Why would anyone spend the time going to a TA when they can quickly go online and book the same thing at the same price. There used to be travel agencies, large and small, all over the place. How many do you drive past now? I certainly don't know of many. I know of one local chain of a larger northeast agency, but other than them, I don't know of others.

We will be taking our first NCL cruise in Nov 2015 and are very excited to go back on a cruise. My wife and I have cruised in the past. I've done 3 RCCL cruises, she's done 2 RCCL and 3 Celebrity. Two of the RCCL's were us together. The last one was in 2005. This upcoming cruise will be our daughters first.

 

I've been reading a lot of the info on here and see a lot of negative comparisons to RCCL, which is all I know, but also a lot of positive comparisons to RCCL. We'll see how it turns out, but I think NCL's style of cruising matches us.

Are these dinner shows generally family friendly? I mentioned this to my wife, because she loved all of the John Hughes movies. But she was worried that it would be too adult for our daughter. She will be 6 at the time of our trip. I would assume that they would make these types of shows family friendly, but not sure.

For our upcoming trip, one of the biggest reasons is listed in my countdown, below. We wanted to plan a vacation of some sort. For the past 12 years, my wife and I have owned at a couple MVCI timeshares, so that has been our vacations, either going to our home resorts or trading to go elsewhere. Our favorite home resort is in Aruba. But, we already have those booked for other times this year. So, we were deciding what to do over Thanksgiving, us and our daugther. We were thinking of going back to WDW again, because our daughter had such a great time last year. But, prices were higher than we wanted to spend over Thanksgiving. So, we had loved cruising in the past, so decided to check out our options. We also looked at Disney, but those prices were outrageous, to us. We really narrowed it down to our options of which cruises were available for a Sat-Sat during Thanksgiving week. Then itinerary and departure port, for flight cost.

 

We are very much looking forward to our cruise, as my wife and I have loved them in the past. Our last cruise was 10 years ago.

Can anyone point me to the thread about the new ship, NCL Escape?? :D