Quick Review POAM 12-17

[DaisyL]

gsb, thanks for your review. Although we will not be on the PoAm until next Oct. we're following the reviews very closely. We have sailed on the NCL Dawn twice and really enjoy Freestyle cruising and hope NCL America can get up to par with the same quality.

 

We really enjoy eating in the dining rooms 'Freestyle' without having to 'micro-manage' our vacation by having to make reservations in the dining rooms in the beginning of the cruise. It's kind-of self defeating isn't it? I did not pay all this money for this cruise to eat dinner in the buffet or to wait a long time for service and miss the production shows, which we really enjoy.

 

Freestyle dining worked perfectly on the Dawn and hopefully NCL America can improve, too.

[nicknack]

This from a first timer on NCL--mostly CCL and RCCL in the past.

 

Please excuse outline form--will try to get back for questions.

 

First--the negatives

 

1. Second day on Kauai--had to leave at 6 am due to no contract for dock. Why we didn't tender that day??? Just went around in circles for the short trip back to Oahu the next morning. Many were upset as they had to cancel excursions, cars, etc.

 

The reason I asked which sailing you were on was to check the itinerary on NCL.com. The December 10 sailing is one of the small number of sailings which is listed as leaving at 6:00 AM on the second day of Kauai. The GREAT majority, not including Dec 10, leave at 2:00 PM the second day Kauai. I have not read of anyone leaving at 6:00 AM on the second day whose itinerary was listed as leaving at 2:00 PM. Have you? Did you check the itineraries on NCL.com when you booked the trip? http://www.ncl.com/itinerary/it_pam.htm#

I also checked the 2005-2006 Hawaii Brochure (p.47), and it clearly lists the Dec 10 sailing as one of the few with "more time at sea" with "extra" hours of cruising. If you had a travel agent and if you asked, they badly let you down by not telling you the right times which only took a minute to check at web site OR the brochure.

[nicknack]

I have a question about your leaving Kauai at 6 am (bummer). How far in advance were you told about this? My concern would be that for an overnight stop, we would rent a car for both days and park overnight at the port. (In fact, we've done that on Kauai before.) I have to assume that you were given enough notice for pax to be able to return rental cars before leaving. Otherwise, that would be a rather large problem, IMO.

 

Just curious.

 

beachchick

It's not a random event. All you have to do is check the web site or the brochure, which GSB or his travel agent apparently had not done, to see which sailing/itinerary leaves Kauai when.

[electricron]

Remember hearing from dissatisfied passengers of the Star which replaced some ports how $50 per person, $100 per cabin is so too low, and here's a passenger complaining about not even getting that.

Shucks, if NCL had given them some compensation for missed port because of a medical emergency, which wasn't NCL's fault in any way, they would be complaining the compensation wasn't enough.

You just can't please some people no matter what you do. Their half filled glasses are always half empty.