Dream Review 1/09

[ColoradoJuli]

I went on this ship knowing that there had been several bad reviews. I had made up my mind to decide on my own and not to judge the ship by the reviews that I had read.

 

Unfortunately, the reviews are correct. I don't know if it is the Dream or if it is NCL, but we do not plan to every sail on NCL again. The food is awful. There were more than one night that we walked away from the table hungry. The food is very bland and some of it is down right horrible. The deserts were not worth the calories because they also were bland and boring. The coffee is the worst that I have ever had. Even the coffee bar coffee was awful.

 

The entire ship smells like a cigarette. The ship allows smoking all over the ship and consequently it stinks. We were amazed at some of the areas that they allowed smoking. Even though you can not smoke in the hallways or on elevators, they allowed you to stand beside the elevator and smoke. Smoking was allowed in the staterooms so the hallways smell of smoke. Smoking was allowed right next to the dining areas so depending on where you sat in the dining room it was smokey.

 

The staff was apparently not having a good week or they are always rude. Not only was the food awful, but the wait stuff sucked! I have never met such rude people on a ship. Meals became a drudgery and we dreaded eating.

 

Our room steward also had problems. We never say him/her although we saw his/her work and it lacked a lot. We should have known that there would be a problem when we entered our room and found articles from the previous occumpant. Things went downhill from there. Our room was never vacuumed, some days he/she did not give us fresh towels, the trash was not emptied, we did not receive the activites newsletter. Some nights there were not mints on the pillow. There were several things wrong.

 

Embarkation took over an hour and the girl that checked us in had a really bad attitude. This continued throughout the ship. The captain and cruise director were constantly making apologies for one thing or another.

 

We did have a great room. We were in a category CC room 0208. The couch and full length window were wonderful. It is the only positive thing that we found on the ship.

 

The dance group reminded me of a bad high school production. The bartenders didn't have a clue on how to make a martini. There were two people worth seeing and that was the juggler and comedian. The juggler was simply amazing. The comedian was a hoot and very clean.

 

Tendering in Roatan was a disaster. Tendering started 2 hours late. Only ship excursions were able to get off of the ship until we docked. We were suppose to dock around 1:00pm, but something went wrong and we did not dock until 3:00pm. We were the first people off of the boat and we were not released until 3:30pm. This gave us 2 1/2 hours in port.

 

All in all it was a pretty lousy cruise. We will never sail on NCL again. If you can cancel your reservations on the Dream, I highly suggest you do.

 

Sorry to be so negative, but it really was a negative experience for us. Luckily this was not the first cruise for anyone in our group. Otherwise I don't think that they would ever cruise again.

 

Just a side note, we talked to several people. They all agreed that this was the worst cruise that they had ever been on and that the food was awful.

[TheDivineMsM]

:rolleyes: Truer words were never spoken!!

[discjoker]

It truly is sad! It seems that there are two NCLs. My wife and I cruised the Sun in December and couldn't be happier. Service was great, food was great, entertainment was great, the ship was fabulous. It's hard not to, but please don't swear off NCL because of your horrible experience on the Dream. It seems like the Dream is the black sheep of the NCL fleet, at least according to all the negative comments and reviews on this message board. Sorry you had a bad experience.

[margaritagal]

Sorry the cruise was such a bust. We were on the 12/12/04 sailing and we didn't like the Dream any better than you did. I know exactly what you mean about dining being an ordeal. Pretty sad that, here you are on vacation, and you dread going to the dining rooms because you don't know which surly waiter/waitress you'll get that particular day.

 

So....which cruise line shall we try next?

[ColoradoJuli]

I am currently booked on a HAL cruise in May. I will admit, however, that I am also looking at all inclusive land based vacation. I had such a rotten time on NCL that I am a little gun shy when it comes to doing another cruise. We will see.

[pjzkohn]

My family and I traveled on the Dream from December 26 to January 2. We will never go on Norwegain ever again.

 

When we arrived at the port in New Orleans, we were told to wait in the yellow chairs until our number was called, that was at 12:30 pm, we waited and waited. I finally asked what was taking so long at 2:00 pm. I was told that the ship had a rough ride back from Mexico and they were cleaning the ship because of everyone being sea sick. I said to myself, this does not sound right. And it wasn't. I later found out that some of the staff on the ship had the flu or Norwalk viruse.

 

Even before we left port, my husband and I went and had lunch in the Sport's Grill, we should have know from that point the food was not going to be good and it wasn't. The next morning we thought of giving the Four Seasons a chance, since everything was made to order. It was made to order alright, but we think it was made to order on land and then flown in. I have never had to wait 1 hour and 10 minutes for 2 eggs and bacon. Needless to say, we did not eat in the Four Seasons again for breakfast. We did try it for dinner that night, the food was cold and tasteless. We had made reservations for New Year's Eve in Le Bistro, thinking paying extra the food would be better. WRONG! My son and I order the Grouper. When it arrived and we tasted it, we both knew that it was not Grouper, but Sole, being passed off as Grouper. I only eat fish, so I know the difference. I told the waited that it was not Grouper but Sole and we would appreciate something different. We got the Salmon, 45 minutes later, cold and hard as a rock. It was also my husband's birthday, so when we entered Le Bistro, I handed the maitre and card stating that it was my husband's birthday, after the "wonderful" dinner we did not eat, the waiter came over dropped the birthday cake on the table and walked away. I went up to the waited and asked if there was a candle or could they sing to him, I was told they were to busy and walked away.

 

The staff was awful. If you were walking down the hallway, the only staff members that said hello or good morning or good evening to you was the cabin stewards. Anyone else lowered their heads and walked right past you.

 

The excusion staff was the rudist I had ever met. Elizabeth Porter was a true bitch. When we arrived in Honduras, it was pouring rain and thundering. An announcement was made that if you had an excusion to report the to Stardust lounge. We did and we ordered to sit. I went up to the stage to ask if the beach party excusion was cancelled so I could get my son enrolled in the kids club so he would not be bored. I was told by Elizabeth, with clinched teeth, in an angry voice to shut up and sit down until she makes the announcements. I said to her that I am her guest and I do not expect to be spoken to like that. I went the the excusion desk later that day to put in a complaint about her and I was told that they were short handed and that they will look into the situation. SURE!

 

The day of the Tsunami, the Captain of the ship, came over the PA system and made an announcement and stated that we should feel the effects of the Tsunami in a day or two. My husband and I looked at each other and said, "what is this guy stupid or something". The waves would have to go over Africa, over Florida and come into the Gulf. When we got to Cancun, it was a beautiful day. The wind was blowing, I must admit, and there was 3 foot waves. The captain tried to anchor 4 to 5 times and finally gave up and announced it was to difficult to anchor and left port. I thought that there was going to be mutiny on the ship.

 

My family and I have cruised for the last 7 years and only on Celebrity. On Celebrity you feel like you are the only guest on the ship and they treat you like that also. You will never get that exprience on Norwegain Nightmare, or sorry, Norwegain Dream.

[chatisfaction]

Have any of you called or written to guest relations since you returned to register your dissatisfaction? I don't know if it would help but there seem to be lots of dissatisfied cruisers from this ship if enough complain maybe they will do something for you.

[hotspur]

Have any of you called or written to guest relations since you returned to register your dissatisfaction? I don't know if it would help but there seem to be lots of dissatisfied cruisers from this ship if enough complain maybe they will do something for you.

Does anyone have an address or email address for guest relations? Or the name and mailing address of the chief executive?

 

We are not sailing the Dream until May, but I'd like to send someone in a responsible position at NCL copies of some of the recent reviews along with an expression of concern about our future cruise. The discussion about smoking is especially troubling to me. While food and entertainment quality can be subject to individual taste (although negative opinions certainly seem to predominate lately), permitting smoking in places where it shouldn't be happening is simply negligence and should be fixed by someone pronto.

 

Thanks in advance.

[calee]

Yikes..............you guys sure have my attention. We're booked for the 5/14/05 eleven night Alaskan cruise and I'm really concerned after reading this thread.

[tjosh7]

"The day of the Tsunami, the Captain of the ship, came over the PA system and made an announcement and stated that we should feel the effects of the Tsunami in a day or two. My husband and I looked at each other and said, "what is this guy stupid or something". The waves would have to go over Africa, over Florida and come into the Gulf. When we got to Cancun, it was a beautiful day. The wind was blowing, I must admit, and there was 3 foot waves. The captain tried to anchor 4 to 5 times and finally gave up and announced it was to difficult to anchor and left port. I thought that there was going to be mutiny on the ship. "

 

 

Having been on that same cruise, I don't recall hearing the captain state those words. What my group heard him say amounted to this: There were some concerns from other passengers as to whether or not we would be affected by the tsunami, and some even wanted off of the ship. He reassured us that we were in NO danger.

 

Cmon now, would a captain of a passenger ship make such a ridiculous statement?

 

Re: Cancun

3 foot waves? We observed other small boats in the area being tossed about and figured that tendering would be prohibited.

 

Some other notes about the Dream:

Being from Louisiana, food anywhere else tastes bland, which is why we travel with a small bottle of Tabasco and a small packet of Tony's Cajun Seasoning.

 

It was very amusing to see how others reacted to negative situations on this ship. In fact, we had lots of material to keep up amused (ie, "they must have had bubonic plague on the ship last week since they have us sanitizing before each meal".) You see, no matter how bad things may seem, we are still on vacation.

 

"A bad day at sea always beats a good day on land."

 

Thanks to all of you for your reviews of this ship.

[hotspur]

Yikes..............you guys sure have my attention. We're booked for the 5/14/05 eleven night Alaskan cruise and I'm really concerned after reading this thread.

I hope you mean 5/19, calee. ;-) Else one of us will be left behind.

 

Yes, I am concerned that there is some systemic problem here, and I'd rather raise an alert now than after we return from Alaska in June.

[calee]

LMFAO.......hotspur didn't I tell you I'm getting a head start? Not that I'm anxious or anything. This ship will really have to be baaaaad to ruin my trip, I'm going for Alaska not a boat ride.

Cheers !!

[hotspur]

...I'm going for Alaska not a boat ride.

Cheers !!

We, too. It amazes me that some people will go on a cruise and never leave the ship in any port. And some measure a cruise by whether they are served sorbet by the pool, or escorted to their cabin by a white-gloved attendant, or given a welcome glass of champagne, or by the quality of the baked Alaska parade. What hogwash. To us, the ship's a floating hotel that takes us places while conveniently feeding us, and allows us to unpack only once while we do it. The ship is NOT a destination, and the less uncalled-for pretentiousness and formality on-board the better.

 

But the recurring extreme negativity of recent Dream reviews is troubling, and appears symptomatic of poor on-board management. I guess the stuff about smoking bothers me more than anything, because that's simply negligence and not caring. And while it would take a lot to "ruin my vacation," I don't want to be kicking myself after the fact for not making some effort to try to prevent such a situation from happening.

[CruiseDoug]

We had a great time on the same ship, same date. We got exactly what we expected. Maybe you made your cruise choice on the wrong criteria? If you wanted a mega-ship experience you should have kept going. There are two, or more, sides to every cruise story. This was my 40th cruise and perfectly fine; not the best, but what I expected when I booked.

[KathieP]

I was on this cruise also, if you look back there are quite a few reviews and comments about this one. I did post a few days ago about how I thought NCL should change it's port from Cancun to somewhere else, but that was about the only really negative thing.

 

We found the staff to be generally friendly, especially the ones that cleaned the rooms. I'll agree that the excursion staff was fairly rude and tense when we were trying to tender in Roatan but when we told the young man that was helping getting people on the tender that we were going to the orphanage he let us slip on ahead of some of the excursion people.

 

I really don't understand the smoking comment. I am very sensitive to smoke. One morning I went to the pizzaria for breakfast and saw someone smoking inside. It's a very small area and I was suprised so I went up to a supervisor and asked if smoking was allowed. She said NO and when I pointed out the smoker to her, she immediately went over to the lady and told her she would have to go on the deck if she wanted to smoke.

 

I noticed some people smoking outside but it was a pretty windy cruise so that wasn't a problem. I experienced much more indoor smoking when we cruised on a Celebrity ship. The casinos were all stinky and smoky on that one.

 

Celebrations - My in-laws celebrated their 50th anniversay (the anniversary of that was our reason for cruising) so we got them the anniversary packet that included decorating their room, champagne and a cake. There was also a card that said that on the day they were to celebrate their anniversary, they were to give that card to the maitre'd. So the last night they did and at the end of the dinner the waiters brought a small cake to the table and about 6 or 8 waiters stood behind my in-laws and the rest of the family and sang, "Let me call you Sweetheart". It was lovely. I thought my father in law was going to cry. When they finished there was applause from some of the surrounding tables and we were all touched.

 

I think there have been as many positive reviews as negative reviews for this cruise and since I was in a group of 20 and we all had a great time, the positive ones should tip the scale!

[tjosh7]

Would LOVE to be on a cruise with Hotspur, Calee, KathieP and others with the same attitude as myself and the group I was with......

[calee]

Hey tjosh7 meet me at the Philly airport on the 18th and I'll fit you in my suitecase. Once on board Hotspur can put you up for the week and a half cruise.....sound good?:)

[tjosh7]

Tempting........I'll return the favor - Cmon down to New Orleans in November.....

[CruiseDoug]

KatheP... I remember you and your orphange boxes. Was also one of the last groups in the Four Seasons on the last night for the anniversary song. We had a group of 60-plus and all were pleased to at least some degree with the trip.

[marienbad]

We had a good time on the Dream cruise, 1/9/05-1/16/05.

We had a balcony cabin and the weather was fine. Today at home it's 10 degrees and snowing.

The staff was very nice, but we treated them with respect and friendliness.

We thought the food was better than Royal Caribbean, but for lunch in the Sport's bar which was poor and crowded. Le Bistro is to be avoided. The salmon was very fishy tasting, and we sent it back. But most nights we ate at La Trattoria, and had a delightful well-served meal.

The smell of smoke in certain areas of the ship is unpleasant (it bothers us a lot), and it would be great if no one smoked, but that's the choice of those who do. The ship doesn't smoke, the people do.

We had two lovely tours: Tabyana beach in Roatan, and Belizian Beach day, a great experience (one couple from the ship got married on the beach, and that was special). Both beaches were beautiful, and well worth going to.

We liked the production shows. The dancers and singers were excellent. There were three such shows in a week (two performances a night), so they were putting a lot of effort into trying to entertain the guests. Shows were very well attended, and the audience loved them.

The Dream is an older ship, and has a peculiar floor plan, and so prices are low. But I think we received good value for our money, and it's certainly better than 10 degrees and snow.

[Livonians]

Hello all - We sailed the Dream from New Orleans last March and really enjoyed the trip. Enough so that we rebooked for the Feb 20th sailing this year, along with 10 of our closest friends. It is not a Mega ship but that is OK by me. The trip is what you make of it. If your expecting a Crystal Cruise type experience you have booked the wrong ship. It is comfortable but not elaborate. Two selling points for us were (1) departure from New Orleans (a city we truly have come to love) and (2) Best Value for the $$ during our school break in February. I have a real hard time complaining about leaving the frigid Northeast in February to sail around the Caribbean while someone cleans my room, feeds me my meals and does all the dishes. Oh yeah, there is also entertainment each day and you travel to some exotic ports as well. I had no complaints on this ship last year and I do expect to have any this year. Go wih confidence and enjoy.

 

2/2005 - NCL Dream

3/2004 - NCL Dream

1/2003 - RCCL Enchantment of the Seas

1/2002 - Disney Magic

2/1998 - RCCL Majesty of the Seas

[TheDivineMsM]

We had a good time on the Dream cruise, 1/9/05-1/16/05.

We had a balcony cabin and the weather was fine. Today at home it's 10 degrees and snowing.

The staff was very nice, but we treated them with respect and friendliness.

 

???

I don't get this line of reasoning at all. Why is it up to passengers to set the tone of how the staff will behave? WE are paying to have our rooms cleaned, be treated with a certain degree of congenality by the wait staff, and have our pre-booked excursion honored. I believed the old saying, 'the customer is always right' has dropped anchor aboard the Dream...unless, of course, they (the staff) are first 'treated with respect and friendliness.'

 

Ridiculous!!!

[hotspur]

My thanks to those who shared with us their favorable reviews of last week's Dream cruise .

 

We sailed the Dream on its trans-Atlantic repo cruise in September 2002, so we're not strangers to her. Yes, it's an older ship, with little or none of the glitz of NCL's, RCCI's, etc., newer super-ships. But our cabin was comfortable, the shows were fine, the food was good (not great), and the "feel" of a more traditional ship was in some ways quite comfortable. In particular, we enjoyed the fact that the three "larger" dining rooms (Four Seasons, Terraces, and the Italian Trattoria) were, relative to the main dining rooms on ships like Celebrity's Millenium-class or HAL's Vista-class, much smaller and without the feeling of eating in a large hotel's banquet room. The terracing in both stern dining rooms actually gave them a kind of intimacy missing on the mega-ships, and the expanses of glass made for gorgeous ocean vistas (particularly in the Trattoria)--which should be a real plus cruising the inside passage during the long late spring and early summer Alaska days.

 

So we're going into our May 19 cruise with our eyes wide open in terms of the ship, and hoping for a shipboard experience reasonably in line with marienbad's.

[mbisson]

MsM-I can understand and appreciate the problems you had on your cruise with NCL, but you say that you hope you were responsible for getting someone fired and now "I believed the old saying, 'the customer is always right' has dropped anchor aboard the Dream...unless, of course, they (the staff) are first 'treated with respect and friendliness.'

 

Ridiculous!!!"

 

Well, something here is ridiculous. Don't forget the old expression about catching more flies with honey than vinegar.

Oh, & BTW-marienbad didn't say that they "first" treated the staff with respect & friendliness. Only that they DID treat them with respect and friendliness. What a novel concept. Treating others as you would want to be treated. Oh but some rules are indeed golden.

-Monte

[TheDivineMsM]

Since you have not been aboard the Dream as yet, I suggest you refrain from commenting on how to treat this unbelievably rude staff, until you have a better idea of you're talking about.

 

Homey sage is fine..but one size does not fit all.