Pete Nice

We were on this trip as well and I largely agree with the OP. In fact, I'd say the bar staff on this ship top to bottom is easily the best we have seen at sea including the luxury brands. We usually avoid the Day 1 bar crowds so I can't speak as to what is open right as you board, but I can assure anyone who enjoys their drinks that the bar staff is sure to impress. It really restored our faith in NCL, at least on the service side, and we are looking forward to our next NCL cruise in the fall.

I think this sums it up perfectly. From time to time, we might throw a 5 or even a 20 at a bartender for some exceptional service and to a person they have been very grateful even with smaller amounts.

NCL has made it easy to cheat in our opinion. We've been on RCL, Carnival, Cunard, MSC, and NCL together. We were firmly in the RCL camp when we discovered the Free at Sea and determined that NCL was a better value. Carnival and MSC are very unlikely ever again. Cunard, for us, is a no-brainer as we travel to Europe each year and it is just a wonderful way to get there. Fast forward a few years and we became NCL diehards both in the Haven and out due to what we felt was an equal value to RCL, while at a slightly lower price. So at that point, for anything other than a transatlantic, NCL had our business (and sometimes for transatlantics too). Our last cruise on the Getaway, well, we frankly felt ripped off on a few things. Foremost was the Thermal Suite Pass where it was so oversold that we finally gave up even trying to go on the second half of the cruise. That was a lot of money for less than an hour and one actual use. Worse was on that on the one actual use, there were no robes available. Did that make the cruise awful? No, but it did leave a bad taste in our mouth and compliants about it were just brushed aside. Leaving a customer with a feeling that they were ripped off just leads to defections. Normally, we would have just brushed it off, but NCL continued to fall just short. We can put up with some of the cutbacks related to food, as former restaurateurs we certainly get it. Yes, the food quality was down a bit, but overall we reamined fairly pleased. However, on the service front it was frankly unacceptable. Ordering a drink from a bartender and the person just disappears, or, another example, at one dinner I had to get up from the table and walk to another bar to get refills. Later in the cruise a bartender told us we couldn't get a rum and coke and that we would have to go back inside for that one. Another time a bartender wouldn't make my wife a non-alcoholic cocktail. Finally, for the first time ever on a cruise we had staff that we would simply describe as rude. That simply just can't happen. Making matters worse, we also simply had one of the worst meals we have ever had, and easily the worst at sea. That said, that was just one night, every other night was pleasant, but as a restauranteur the subtle changes were noticable and are impacting the overall quality enough to look at other options. Again, we recognize that is likely the case industry wide, but it was enough for us along with some cutbacks in the Premium Plus package to look at other options. So for the first time in a while, we decided not to purchase any Cruise Next certificates and began the process of looking for alternatives and have booked on Celebrity. Frankly, after all of the various NCL add-ons and upgrades, we felt like Celebrity represented a slightly better value. In the interest of full transparency, our primary areas of importance are food, service, and drinks. We just see a bit of a slip in these areas, but remain optimistic as we prepare for an upcoming 14 night on the Jade. Will it be our last NCL cruise? Time will tell, but it's going to be Celebrity's ball to drop unless we see some major changes at NCL. Barring a turnaround, we are not likely to purchase additional Cruise Next certificates and will exhuast what we have as we transition to Celebrity or some other alternative.

Thank you Cake for all of the posts and information, my wife and I are sailing out on Jade in less than a month. This will be our fourth with NCL.