Destination Fun

I am so very disappointed. Went to the lunch buffet as we just boarded the ship and they had one, only one sugar free dessert. They combined sugar free with dairy free and made a soy sugar free cheesecake. Disgusting. I  giving it a big triple “F”. A jelled weird dessert. I wouldn’t touch it with a 10 foot pole. It is bad enough being sugar free but I don’t have to be dairy free. I was looking forward to a sugar free dessert. I asked our cruise consultant if they were available and he said yes. I should have asked further. Never in a million years would I have entertained the notion of such a combo.  I am sad. Other cruise lines do such a better job. They often, have several desserts always available for each type of dietary restriction. 

Wow. I wasn't on this cruise but it seems to me NCL should have refunded 100% of the cruise fare. Tremendous inconvenience for the cruise paxs, etc. Anything short of a full refund is insufficient, IMHO.

I appreciate your thoughts. What I really would like is for them to acknowledge the mess that was made.

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Never said anything about knowing better, but just pointing out that those with dietary restrictions should be responsible for themselves to make sure they have the food and type of food that they need and if they don't they can't blame the airline or cruise line, because they can not always accomodate folks with dietary restrictions.

 

I'm glad you were able to help others and hopefully more passengers were like you and helped those in need. We all need to look out for each other and lend a hand when needed.

The cruise line will not permit you to take on massive amounts of food. Part of the fare that is paid is for them to provide you food that they agreed to accommodate or I simply would not cruise with them. This should be provided until you are back at the port at the ending day of the cruise. If they need to evacuate, they are still responsible until the day and time the cruise would have been over. The responsibility does not end when you leave the ship. They provided food for everyone else. Of course, if they didn’t provide food for anybody the whole ship would be in an uproar. However, neglecting 70 or so passengers gets lost in the 2100(?) passengers. The cruise, I believe, was only about 2/3 full.

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So basically what your saying is the situation sucked and their handling of the situation sucked even more(for the customers anyway)!?

Thank you for your post. I totally agree with you!!!! I applause your detailed description.

It was also very badly handle for those with food restrictions, however, some people who were not even on the this sailing think the whole way NCL handled this was great. [emoji19]

I refuse to even respond to these people anymore. IMO if they were not there, they should have empathy and not try to make NCL look good.

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I am both GF and diabetic and there was very little in that sandwich. As breakfast was before 5am and we did not get food again till 6pm that night, the three tbls of stuffing did nothing. Thank goodness I do not have a severe reaction to gluten or I would not have been able to eat the barely there filling as it would have been contaminated.

There is also gluten in KitKat bars and pretzels.

I did have a personal snack that I was permitted but it did not carry over till 6.

NCL has 70 people with food allergies and they should have made plans for them.

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NCL knew about this for a few days. Wasn't like it was a last minute situation. They should have flown a couple of crews up from corporate to deal with the hoards of people flying in. Really simple business sense.

I agree with you. The whole thing was was handled very poorly and with neglect.

They had several days to prepare. They neglected special needs dietary cruisers. They could have also sent food with the people who had special dietary requirements on the chartered planes with them. They had many ice chests aboard the GEM.

There is no excuse for giving diabetics/gluten free folks sandwiches, KitKats and pretzels.

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Especially loved this comment on your attachment: ...whereas we at the Doubletree had an okay but not great buffet and breakfast was very uninspiring and limited. Their friends were staying at a different hotel got an $80 food voucher and they didn't!

It would have been great to have food vouchers for people with food restrictions. The Doubletree did not have any accommodations.

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Passengers experienced a broken ship and broken rescue organized by NCL on the GEM 11 day sailing round trip from New York on 10/31 to the Caribbean.

People were heading to the ship’s medical doctor for stress and it even brought on a panic attack in at least one person. Many people who have never flown in their lives and did not want to fly were told they had no other choice.

The passengers became very concerned when the captain announced that they would not be heading to St. Thomas but would stop in Grenada instead due to the ship’s broken azipod. The ship was at the time only doing 7 knots.

Many people felt NCL squeezed in Grenada to say they made all five stops instead of letting the passengers enjoy extra time in Barbados where the ship was “destined” to be repaired according to rumor. Additionally, it was also rumored that NCL was aware there were issues but went ahead with this sailing.

NCL left as many as 70 people with special diets without food with their “rescue” from Barbados to the US even though they, NCL, have a department onboard for such services.

The “inconvenience” started before the 9am flight from Barbados to NY hotels around 6pm NY time. Passengers were told to eat breakfast aboard ship in the early morning hours starting with the first group. I guess as early as 2am? People were able to eat some but due to the early hours it did not work well.

They had one food choice for everyone including diabetics and Gluten free people on the chartered rescue planes. It was a sandwich, KitKat bar, pretzels and a beverage for hours. One can only say it was truly lovely for gluten free and diabetics! Food was not provided again until 6pm at hotels that also had no accommodation for special needs diets.

NCL actually had passengers up as early as 2am(???) to go through immigration in groups. We were in the third group that was suppose to be by the bistro at around 5am but the loud speaker came on earlier (no idea what time) and told us to report immediately. The folks that went out in some of the very first groups off the boat ended up being the last to arrive that evening at area hotels. May I say planning???

The chaos and lack of planning at the EWR airport left passengers missing the lunch that was scheduled at 2pm-3pm at the provided hotels. One person fell to the ground at the airport due to stress. Many never made it to the assigned hotels before 5:30.

NCL has offered a 25 discount opf fare paid on this trip less taxes, port fees, etc., etc., to passengers on their next cruise for their inconvenience, while the upcoming cruise that was cancelled is receiving 50 discount on their next cruise without living through the evacuation.

See this news article...

http://abc7ny.com/amp/travel/norwegian-gem-passengers-stranded-in-newark/2630677/

We are on the NCL GEM as well and it is very frustrating not to know what is going on.

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I see on the NCL site that Miami cruises will be diverted to the Western Caribbean. Has anyone heard anything about the Gem out of NYC on Oct. 31? It was originally scheduled for the Eastern Caribbean.

We are on this cruise too and I just called NCL. They still don’t have any info available on re-routing the cruise.

I cruise for the ports, not the sea days. I would hope that they speed up the ship to keep the same amount of ports as we already have 5 sea days.

I feel sorry for all the places hit by the hurricanes.[emoji22]

Has anyone heard of anything nice about humanitarian efforts by NCL?

I just read this story about RC.

http://www.freep.com/story/travel/cruises/2017/09/13/irma-showed-up-and-royal-caribbean-cruise-went-dogs/663733001/