Is Their Just One Cruise Line That You'll Never Sail Again?

Any ship larger than 500 people, and probably not over 400. Husband spends workdays as a pilot dealing with public spaces and the traveling public and wants to avoid that on vacation. ( We have tried Princess, Holland America and Carnival for larger ships. )

I really dislike crowds and HATE to wait in line for anything. My least favorite type of restaurant is a buffet. I carry my own food around at home and, well, want someone else to bring it to ME on vacation. :)

Cruising is maybe 25% of our travels. The rest of the time we do land-based itineraries.

There aren't any whole lines I swear off, but NCL comes closest. I will never sail anything older than Breakaway again, which is the majority of their current fleet.

For me, NCL would be the one I probably wouldn't sail again without a compelling reason. That reason could be a great itinerary I couldn't replicate elsewhere, or a fabulous price, or both even..

Couple years back we did a loop out of Copenhagen, followed by a repositioning to Miami. We echo all your sentiments about NCL.

Reading these forums, I've noticed a similar trend for "never agains". It's generally the big 3, which isn't surprising since they have the most customers.

Carnival: because they want something more upscale

Royal: same as Carnival, but more snobby

NCL: seems to have the most just bad experiences

Then there's the people who say Disney is just too expensive. I tend to agree with that. I went to Magic Kingdom for my first time ever last year. I mean it was fun, but severely overrated. Not worth the ridiculous prices they charge, and I have no interest on going back anytime soon. I doubt the cruise experience is too different. Even if the real Mickey himself served me lobster everywhere I went, I find it hard to see value in it.

I have only been on Carnival, and I love it. I want to try Royal and their Oasis ships. I really have no intent on anything else at the moment. Maybe try Princess and Celebrity when I want something "better".

JMO

Will not go on any ship with more than 1500 pax

I will cruise less & go with a smaller ship even it if costs more $

Won't sail Regent or Seawind again, they are out of business.

 

 

 

Similar to geoherb, we vowed not to sail Norwegian after our 1997 cruise. Don't remember what we did not like about Norwegian and I know they have made tremendous changes, but still won't consider Norwegian. A promise is a promise.

Regent is not out of business!!

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Just one line, which pumped oil round our coast for 5 years... we still feel hurt about that, and can't consider them again for a while.

I won't sail Celebrity again. My friend and I planned to take the tender to Bar Harbor and then take a Celebrity shore excursion. As we had Select Dining, I called the cruiseline before we set sail and asked what time we should make our dinner reservation for on that day. I was told that we were guaranteed to be back by 7:30 PM, so I made our dinner reservation for that time. FWIW the last tender was scheduled to leave at 7:30 PM.

We got on the end of a very long line for a tender at 6:40 PM. Eventually 7:30 PM came and went, and the line had not moved. Not only were there many, many people in front of us on line, but there were also many, many people behind us on line. Finally we boarded a tender, but the driver drove very recklessly, and the tender crashed into some rocks. We had to wait for 45 minutes before a boat picked us up and took us to the ship. Another passenger passed out life jackets. The tender's crew did nothing. Someone who was able to see the driver told me that the driver shouted "Emergency!" and then just ran around in circles.

Not only had we missed our 7:30 PM dinner, we also missed the MDR, because it was 11:15 PM by the time we got back to the ship. So we missed a dinner that we had already paid for and the dinner's prepaid gratuity. Since the newsletter said that pizza would be available until 1:00 AM, we went to the buffet, only to see that the pizza place was shut up tight. Very nice. So we ate salad, because that's all that was available. I was too tired to go to Customer Relations and stand on line and complain that the guy who was running the pizza place had decided to close up early. I don't know what Customer Relations would have done about it anyway. There didn't appear to be anyone in charge at the buffet that I could talk to.

There was a meeting with the captain the next day. He just said, "Sorry about that!" He didn't think that any of us were entitled to even one penny for having missed dinner or the inconvenience of getting back to the ship after 11:00 PM. He also claimed that all of us from that tender had been asked if we were in need of medical assistance when we finally got back to the ship. That was NOT true.

The following day, whenever I heard people talking about our situation, I mentioned that I was one of the approx 96 people on that tender. I was always asked if I had been asked to sign anything. I always said no. Then I was asked how much money I was offered. I told everyone that the captain hadn't offered us even one penny.

A few days after I got home, I received a call from Customer Relations asking me to give them my side of the story. A few days later, Customer Relations called me again to offer my friend and me enough credit to take a one-week cruise to Bermuda in an inside cabin. I would have preferred cash, but we accepted the offer. So we went to Bermuda, where we did not have to take a tender, and I told everyone I met on the ship the circumstances about why I was on that cruise. I also told them that it would be my last time on Celebrity.

The only way I'll ever sail Celebrity again is if the cruise is free, and there aren't any tenders. Oh, and it would be nice if the pizza place stayed open until the time announced in the daily newspaper, unless that's too much to ask.

Carnival - Ships are just too gaudy and dark for our taste

Holland America - too boring

Carnival - Ships are just too gaudy and dark for our taste

Holland America - too boring

I couldn't believe how dark Carnival Pride was, and there was a lot of purple.

HAL has seemed to be ok until the last sea day (when they seem to schedule all of the Mariners Club events) and you feel like they really just want you drinking and shopping because there wasn't anything else scheduled. The sea days prior to the last were better (or maybe the novelty hadn't yet worn off). We aren't night owls so we're immune to boring evenings.

Check Miracle' s MDR color and a wall painting in atrium.

Such a well designed ship, but decor is horrible

Please tell me the cruiseline and why you wouldn't sail with them again?

We have been on 6 cruiselines .The only one we will likely never go on again is Carnival.

We have been on 6 cruiselines .The only one we will likely never go on again is Carnival.

Same for us just change 6 to 8

NCL

Our first cruise in 2003 was on NCL - MDR had only average food and terrible service - only choice was to pay for the excellent specialty restaurants - never went back and never will.

NCL!!!!!:evilsmile: Ever since Fran del Rio took over NCLH, NCL has been nickel and diming passengers to death. After 20 or so cruises with them, last April I said enough, sold my stock and said adios. I booked the owner's suite aboard the Dawn with an attached Penthouse suite and standard balcony for out two sons, and our grandkids. The sum total of OBC I received for booking the OS, was $12.50 each for my wife and I. I did get the stock benefit, but I would have received that even if I was in a basement room. NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!

Let me bring to the table RCI since it has not been mentioned yet. Me, I fully understand mistakes can be made and normally I am willing to work with the mistake maker if they are making an honest effort to correct what went wrong in a timely manner.

This will be a tad long so I can make sense of the adventure I experienced at the Port in Vancouver while attempting to board a RCI ship. This would have been our 3rd cruise with RCI.

The wife presented her boarding papers and passport first. It should be noted she was listed as guest in the cabin with me as the primary on her paper work. Clerk check the paper work and then issued her a sea pass.

Then it was my turn. Laid down the same paper work and passport. The Clerk tinkered around for few minutes and then told me "Sorry sir we can not sell you a boarding pass, the ship is booked full, please step aside, next".

Long story short, it took 3 supervisors and many phone calls before I was handed a generic boarding pass with the statement, the elevators are over there, next.

At our cabin my sea pass would not open the cabin door. While the wife unpacked I headed up to a bar to get a drink. Sea pass was rejected there. Then I went to the passenger service desk, laid down the sea pass and said I needed a replacement because this one will not work.

Clerk looked at the card and asked me how did I get on the ship? While telling my story I noticed a member of ship security standing next to me. More time with a supervisor. Finally given a new card. Then I found out that I was also given two ship board accounts. At that time we could check accounts on the room TV. So each day I would check to see which account any charges that I made was listed and to make sure I was not double charged.

I will note at this time, At no time during this adventure was I offered any apology, a bottle of wine, just a big nothing.

After cruise my report to RCI hq also was not answered.

So, you can guess at this point which line we have not been back on.

Bob

Let me bring to the table RCI since it has not been mentioned yet. Me, I fully understand mistakes can be made and normally I am willing to work with the mistake maker if they are making an honest effort to correct what went wrong in a timely manner.

 

This will be a tad long so I can make sense of the adventure I experienced at the Port in Vancouver while attempting to board a RCI ship. This would have been our 3rd cruise with RCI.

 

The wife presented her boarding papers and passport first. It should be noted she was listed as guest in the cabin with me as the primary on her paper work. Clerk check the paper work and then issued her a sea pass.

 

Then it was my turn. Laid down the same paper work and passport. The Clerk tinkered around for few minutes and then told me "Sorry sir we can not sell you a boarding pass, the ship is booked full, please step aside, next".

 

Long story short, it took 3 supervisors and many phone calls before I was handed a generic boarding pass with the statement, the elevators are over there, next.

 

At our cabin my sea pass would not open the cabin door. While the wife unpacked I headed up to a bar to get a drink. Sea pass was rejected there. Then I went to the passenger service desk, laid down the sea pass and said I needed a replacement because this one will not work.

 

Clerk looked at the card and asked me how did I get on the ship? While telling my story I noticed a member of ship security standing next to me. More time with a supervisor. Finally given a new card. Then I found out that I was also given two ship board accounts. At that time we could check accounts on the room TV. So each day I would check to see which account any charges that I made was listed and to make sure I was not double charged.

 

I will note at this time, At no time during this adventure was I offered any apology, a bottle of wine, just a big nothing.

 

After cruise my report to RCI hq also was not answered.

 

So, you can guess at this point which line we have not been back on.

Disappointing for sure and I would not have been happy. However, the issue was with the shore side staff who do not work for Royal. Just wanted to clarify.