robinium

I highlighted this in my follow up to the guest services manager, actually.

We liked Donna, but we particularly loved everything in Syd Norman’s. Those guys are absolute rockstars. They also did a Donna/SydN crossover cabaret show today which was fun. There was also a band on board called Blaze Band, four guys from South Africa. Those guys have been rocking the ship down most nights, really getting everyone into it. Looking forward to your review!

Absolutely spot on my friend, very well said. I have gone back via reply to the guest relations manager trying to focus back on these points and extract more information about what has happened. I also thought it very important to highlight in my follow up email; none of my grievances have related to the crew on the ground on the ship, who have been excellent, and have made the cruise highly enjoyable despite all of the issues (stemming from senior management decisions). The entertainment, wait, bar and steward staff have been faultless and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed spending our nine days thus far with them. They’re a credit to NCL and the Prima.

Below is the reply I received back from NCL. For context, I did not ask for additional compensation in my email to them, I asked: 1) Whether the cancellation of our Isafjordur port stop was due to an “impossibility to dock”, as claimed by the captain, despite other cruise lines docking in the same port; or, NCL’s reluctance to operate the port as a tender port. [unanswered] 2) Whether their admission of making a mistake regarding the Observation Lounge means that I can feel confident that an attempt to hire out a key, flagship venue of the ship for an entire or extended part of the cruise will be attempted again. [unanswered] 3) Given they “had to” cancel the Isafjordur port stop on prior Prima voyages to this one, why didn’t they inform passengers in advance of the known cancellation of the port stop? Why were passengers only informed at check in time? [unanswered] ————— Dear X, Thank you for writing in to Mr. Harry Sommer, President and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line. Your concerns were forwarded to the Guest Experience department for review and response, as our department handles customer related issues. We appreciate you choosing Norwegian Cruise Line for your vacation at sea. As a company we can assure you, that we do not take itinerary changes lightly and that we would only amend an itinerary when absolutely necessary as we understand the impact on our valuable guests and how much this could affect their plans. Such changes are often required in this industry and although we try as much as possible to deliver the initial itinerary, we never can guarantee that it will be 100% delivered. The terms and conditions regarding itinerary changes are mentioned in our Ticket Contract and we are unable to extend further compensation than what has already been extended. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience and disappointment experienced due to this matter. We appreciate this opportunity to respond to your concerns and hope you enjoy the remainder of your cruise. As always, the onboard staff remains at your service. Sincerely, X Manager, Guest Experience Norwegian Cruise Line

Unfortunately our tour operator got in touch about an Akureyri excursion we had planned; they’ve had to cancel and refund the hot springs / nature baths part of our tour because not only did NCL cancel the Isafjordur stop today, they moved tomorrow’s departure from Akureyri one hour earlier, meaning the tour doesn’t have time to make the nature bath stop 😞 Although I’ve had a good time on board, it does feel like I got the short end of the stick with the number of issues and changes that have come up, sadly. We had a nice tour booked in Isafjordur which was also cancelled. Thankfully the tour operator fully refunded us.

Yes, I’m on board. It should have been today, but is cancelled. We were told it was impossible to dock which seems to have been a lie, as the kind posters here informed me that Celebrity Apex docked there over the weekend. Seems like they just didn’t want to tender, and they only told us this when onboard, even though they’ve had this info for weeks.

I have emailed NCL corporate regarding the cancelled Isafjordur port asking for clarification as to whether the captain’s statement that it was “impossible to dock” and thus we had to cancel the stop was correct, or if it was actually the case that NCL did not want to absorb the additional cost and effort of operating the stop via tender. I have also asked why this was not communicated in advance of the cruise, and why the cruise continued to be advertised and sold on NCL’s website as including the stop in Isafjordur, when NCL were aware of this information weeks ago, as prior Prima voyages experienced the same issue. We will see what happens. I imagine corporate are getting fed up with me by now! 😅

At check in via a new itinerary. Given they just cruised this route in reverse prior to our cruise starting, surely they knew in advance. I will be incorporating all of this in additional correspondence with corporate now, mentioning ABTA.

This is very interesting information, I will actually contact NCL corporate again about this info. They told us day 1 of the cruise (via an announcement and a new itinerary at check in) that it was “not possible to dock” due to the work not being finished as mentioned previously, so they are cancelling the visit. Sounds now like they just didn’t want to bother to tender. They used the sea walk (avoiding tendering) at Geiranger too.

The OL was the primary gripe, I can assure you. The others are being wrapped in to please the highest number of passengers based on what their individual inconveniences were. For context, the boarding process was delayed due to IT issues, meaning passengers had to wait around for a couple of extra hours in Southampton port (or were free to leave for lunch and come back) before boarding. When all was said and done, we only departed the port 30 minutes late. Nothing major, and not something I expect they’d typically give a fairly generous 20% off FCC for. The itinerary change was a cancellation of the stop in Isafjordur, but that was due to the port authorities carrying out construction work to allow larger ships to dock, which NCL were assured would be complete in time for these Prima itineraries, but has not finished on time. This isn’t something that NCL can control, so again, I’d be surprised at them offering generous compensation for this issue.

It is not sensationalised, the staff running the bar actually told us that, as another couple standing next to us complained about the sound. Also, it was running for quite a long time today. Those staff have been up there all day, every day for the entire cruise listening to passengers complaining about the issue with the lounge, and on top of that, they’ve been listening to loudly broadcast, pretentious cr*p in the background for a significant portion of each day (more than 2 hours, I assure you). It’s reasonable to believe they’d be a bit disgruntled.

Headed up to Observation Lounge to enjoy our departure from Ålesund, and was greeted by the Park West art presenter spending ten minutes (and counting) fawning over Peter Max. I don’t understand why they need to have the speakers playing so loud either. Can they not turn them off in the passenger section… or at least turn the volume down? From the sounds of the claps, there are less than 10 people in there. I’m glad we’re getting that 20% off FCC. Seriously hope they don’t do this again, as it is impossible to enjoy being here with this audio, I’m leaving after this drink. Update: The staff operating the bar here just told us they are so unhappy as they have to listen to this sh*t all day long 😂

We actually have the Prima transatlantic 16 day itinerary booked for November 2024, so we’ll be using it for that, which is a pretty nice saving! Is that 20% FCC calculated as 20% of the base cruise fare?

Success! All guests have been given some compensation as a result of the situation… This letter has been placed outside every stateroom. Now, as to whether it will result in NCL ceasing to hire out key venues, I’m not sure, but getting them to acknowledge that they “got it wrong” is a start! 2023-06-09 18.40.59.pdf

One funny thing that came from this at least is that I got to hear some fool buy a painting of a Starbucks cup for $8000 😂

No bottle of wine, nor anything else for that matter.

From anecdotal experience… I’d say not so many 😅

Presumably you can remove the DSC and have a refund of the prepayment, no? We prepaid ourselves.

The guest services manager phoned my cabin this evening to inform me that my email to NCL Corporate had been received and passed to him. He told me that they had opened one side of the lounge to passengers as a “workaround” to the situation. I let him know that I had noticed this and had ventured up there today, but the art auction audio being broadcast through the lounge had made it very difficult to enjoy the open area, plus that it had been very overcrowded. He told me that this was the best they could do under the circumstances. Nothing else offered re: my grievances with the situation. He just told me he hoped I enjoyed my time in Norway today “at least”, and that I enjoy my reservation for Cagney’s this evening.

Thank you for saying this, I appreciate those in the thread who’ve been supportive over this issue, as it really is a bit of an annoying downer on an otherwise great cruise so far. We paid quite a bit for this experience and it’s annoying that we weren’t able to enjoy the views sailing out of Zeebrugee and Amsterdam ports, and now, while we technically can use some of the lounge to do this, it’s mostly standing and with art auction audio in the background.

After departing Bergen, it got very windy and cold again, so we popped into the Observation Lounge during the daytime. It is absolutely packed in here, lots of people standing around in crowds. However, the “Private Function” is currently ongoing, with seemingly only a few people inside. The frustrating thing is that they’re broadcasting (loudly) microphone audio from the art function through the entire lounge; even the passenger portion. So we can’t enjoy a nice bit of light music or a peaceful departure from the port… we have to listen to a pretentious artist talk about the size of brush she uses, adding colour into subject matter and her inspirational path to painting. It is the most boring cr*p I’ve ever heard.

You may become a little more agitated with it when you see that you can’t find a seat anywhere else where you can have a drink because the outdoor spaces are all closed / unusable due to gale force winds and there already wasn’t a huge deal of indoor space to begin with. Thankfully we’ve reached Bergen where they’re enjoying a bout of almost tropical weather and sunshine, so we can enjoy the outdoor spaces this afternoon.

The portion open to passengers ends RIGHT after the bar. I’ve crudely illustrated what is closed off and what is open on the deck plan, so it’s a bit less than half, in reality.

Absolutely, yes. This is much, much better than not having anything. I am certain that this was not the case yesterday, and that sign is new. Both entrances were blocked and boarded like the picture I posted. The staff member who told us the lounge is closed for the whole cruise just said “the Observation Lounge is unfortunately closed for the entire length of the cruise, for a private function”. So I’m quite confident the original plan was to close the entire lounge. They are definitely not using it the whole time - every time I have checked it, there hasn’t been a single sign of life around the lounge.

The second one keeps uploading as a black square, so here’s the image link: https://ibb.co/C7Gycz5