Just sailed the Getaway - Norway - Iceland - Scotland

[AZDivers]

What an absolute mess of an entire trip. 

 

Norwegian really really dropped the ball on this one. This was our 2nd time on that boat and the second trip was nothing like the 1st. The boat was right off of dry dock, all new staff, no one knew what they were doing, never even met our room steward. No customer service to call, lines were hours long to get anything answered.

 

Syd Norman nice addition with syd Norman band very entertaining.
Burn the floor and million dollar quartet nice entertainment
Dueling piano entertaining at first but played same songs over again

 

No smoking in casino should be implemented. Smoke permeates bistro, makes whole 6th floor unusable

 

Food in buffet was commonly cold, chicken over cooked. Indian food was not as wonderful as it was on the bliss.
Specialty restaurants were exceptional - Brazilian, steak, Italian, raw bar.

 

Missed 2 ports, one due to leaving 4hrs late and the other from what we hear was due to Norwegian passing it off as weather but it wasn't.

 

The tendering was an absolute nightmare. Took hours to get off. Some ports you'd literally have 2hrs before having to come back and stand in another line for 90 mins to get a tender.

 

HOT MESS. 

 

We are likely done with NCL after this one. First trip on Getaway in the Baltics was great, Bliss thru the Canal was wonderful, this was all unacceptable and they offered no refund for missed ports nor compensation for missed tours not refunded on the missed ports. Bad.

 

 

Edited June 9, 2019 by AZDivers

[losumi]

I had a similar experience on the Norway, Iceland, Scotland Cruise.  They did upgrade my cabin to a family size ocean view, which I was very happy with and my  cabin steward was wonderful.  The restaurant service was awful, the food mediocre.  I had been on 13 previous cruises with my late husband and by far this was the worst, Celebrity being our favorite. This was my second cruise on NCL, the first one too was not good.  My husband died 5 years ago and this was my first cruise alone, and probably my last.  There were lots of people on the cruise who were frequent travelers on NCL and they love the line, I do not. At the port in Edinburgh we waited over an hour in the rain to board the tenders, all the tours ended at the same time, poor planning.

 

I did receive my money back for the shore excursions that we missed,  I did receive the port taxes credited to my acct. for those missed ports and an additional $50 credit for the first missed port.  The Million Dollar Quartet was terrific and Burn the Floor was Great. I enjoyed Syd Normans too.

 

They gave out little prizes at the end of the cruise for trivia, very tacky, winners should have received their prizes after every win. Large ships like this one might be great for some people just not for me.   NCL should get their act together. 2 missed ports in 14 days, really bad, dining rooms, really bad!

[AZDivers]

18 hours ago, losumi said:

I had a similar experience on the Norway, Iceland, Scotland Cruise.  They did upgrade my cabin to a family size ocean view, which I was very happy with and my  cabin steward was wonderful.  The restaurant service was awful, the food mediocre.  I had been on 13 previous cruises with my late husband and by far this was the worst, Celebrity being our favorite. This was my second cruise on NCL, the first one too was not good.  My husband died 5 years ago and this was my first cruise alone, and probably my last.  There were lots of people on the cruise who were frequent travelers on NCL and they love the line, I do not. At the port in Edinburgh we waited over an hour in the rain to board the tenders, all the tours ended at the same time, poor planning.

 

I did receive my money back for the shore excursions that we missed,  I did receive the port taxes credited to my acct. for those missed ports and an additional $50 credit for the first missed port.  The Million Dollar Quartet was terrific and Burn the Floor was Great. I enjoyed Syd Normans too.

 

They gave out little prizes at the end of the cruise for trivia, very tacky, winners should have received their prizes after every win. Large ships like this one might be great for some people just not for me.   NCL should get their act together. 2 missed ports in 14 days, really bad, dining rooms, really bad!

 exactly.

[Cm84]

It is a shame to read this. I was in Edinburgh the day your boat was there and I sat with a Canadian couple who had nothing but praise for the cruise. Each to their own though.

 

It may be worth mentioning that what NCL had to deal with while arranging tender in Edinburgh was not exactly an ordinary day and not one that any real planning could anticipate and they undoubtedly had to work very hard to create as little disruption to your holiday. The port of Newhaven was completely closed to ambulance services and police before you got to shore.

 

Also, complaining about standing in the rain in Scotland. You realise this is Scotland? Rain is our trademark. 

 

Again, I was not a passenger, simply a local in the area. But I will be a passenger in 3 weeks :)

[losumi]

Dear Cm84,

 

Yes, you were not a passenger on board, so you did not have to wait for over an hour to get on a tender to get back on the ship or wait to get off the ship to go on an excursion.   I do realize it's Scotland and it rains all the time, I have a couple of friends there so I'm always checking the weather and it's always raining, part of the charm.   It was the waiting time and the fact that NCL planned poorly, not the weather, that I was commenting on.  

 

As I said in my review, a lot of people are happy with NCL service, but I'm not.  You spoke to a couple who were very happy, glad for them.  BTW, at the port, I had some delicious lemon sole, for lunch, nice restaurants, there. 

 

I hope you have a great cruise on NCL, and you get to all the ports that you were promised.

[Cm84]

Thanks very much and I am glad you enjoyed lunch in Scotland.

 

I cannot comment for going back to the ship but all I saw was NCL having to deal with a horrible situation on the way off the ship on that day. This I would imagine have caused big delays but I am glad you got to enjoy a bit of Scotland. All the way from New York too! My favourite place in the world.

[Jojo27]

We were on this cruise as well and had a fabulous time.  The crew was outstanding and we did not have any issues with the tender process at either tender port that we tendered.

 

Agree, it was disappointing missing two ports,  but better safe than sorry.    Going into Newhaven we were on the Port tender  and one of the workers told us that a RCC ship missed both Newhaven and Invergordon the same week due to wind/weather so feel fortunate we made at least one of the two stops.  

 

Food is always very subjective but we did not have a bad meal.  I avoid the buffet at all costs so cannot comment on the food there, but all other dining locations were good to great IMO.  Agree with you on the smoke in the Casino, wish NCL would stop any smoking indoors.

 

Hope you managed to enjoy all the other ports, I felt lucky to see the beauty of Iceland, Norway and most of the day in Edinburgh rain free.

[conandrob240]

We are thinking about this cruise for next year. How is the sailing itself? In my mind, I am imagining very rough seas from U.K. to Iceland. Is that the case?

[losumi]

conandrob240,

 

There were no very rough seas, on this voyage.  I remember one day of rocking and rolling, which didn't upset anyone that I know of.  Beautiful to see Norway and Iceland on one trip, so glad I saw them both.

[sjh422]

On 6/8/2019 at 8:34 PM, AZDivers said:

What an absolute mess of an entire trip. 

 

Norwegian really really dropped the ball on this one. This was our 2nd time on that boat and the second trip was nothing like the 1st. The boat was right off of dry dock, all new staff, no one knew what they were doing, never even met our room steward. No customer service to call, lines were hours long to get anything answered.

 

Syd Norman nice addition with syd Norman band very entertaining.
Burn the floor and million dollar quartet nice entertainment
Dueling piano entertaining at first but played same songs over again

 

No smoking in casino should be implemented. Smoke permeates bistro, makes whole 6th floor unusable

 

Food in buffet was commonly cold, chicken over cooked. Indian food was not as wonderful as it was on the bliss.
Specialty restaurants were exceptional - Brazilian, steak, Italian, raw bar.

 

Missed 2 ports, one due to leaving 4hrs late and the other from what we hear was due to Norwegian passing it off as weather but it wasn't.

 

The tendering was an absolute nightmare. Took hours to get off. Some ports you'd literally have 2hrs before having to come back and stand in another line for 90 mins to get a tender.

 

HOT MESS. 

 

We are likely done with NCL after this one. First trip on Getaway in the Baltics was great, Bliss thru the Canal was wonderful, this was all unacceptable and they offered no refund for missed ports nor compensation for missed tours not refunded on the missed ports. Bad.

 

 

I totally agree with  all points of this post.   So disappointed in NCL.   I too sailed on the panama canal cruise on the Bliss in may of 2018 and thought it was the perfect cruise.  But this one was terrible.  Could not believe their lack of planning with tenders in Edinburgh resulting in 2 hours wait standing in  rain and cold wind.  CM84 - your comment that is rains a lot in Scotland is irrelevant in this situation. Even if there had been no rain, I would have been disgusted with a 2 hour wait to return to ship.  NCL did no planning.    And what a disservice to cancel 2 ports.  The thing that disgusted me the most was that this ship came out of dry dock but had a mechanical problem which caused  leaving copenhagen 4 hours late thus missing a port.  

 

there were also long waits for meals served in dining room and the usual traffic jams in the buffet.  

 

Lack of seating in the atrium - had to arrive at least 1 hour early to get a seat.  they did not use folding chairs to give more seating as other ships do.

 

No more NCL cruises for me.

[Turtles06]

On 6/8/2019 at 8:34 PM, AZDivers said:

and they offered no refund for missed ports nor compensation for missed tours not refunded on the missed ports.

 

I am sorry you had such a disappointing cruise.  

 

Were the tours on the missed ports booked through NCL?  If so, I’ve never heard of a cruise line not issuing a refund for a tour in such a situation. Did you ask about this on board and were you denied a refund?  If so, what reason was given? 

[Bowmanvilletravel]

I was on this cruise and have to second JoJo27's review here...I thought it was a fabulous trip. I was disappointed in the two port cancels and yes, the tendering process in Norway could have been better but other than that it was awesome. 

 

I can't believe you found the food horrible....all of us came back 10 lbs heavier than we left...including my 10 year old. 

[marilla chris]

What time does the band start at Syd Norman's? Do they play every evening? Will be cruising in Oct. Thank you!

[marilla chris]

What time does the band start at Syd Norman's? Do they play every evening? Will be cruising in Oct. Thank you!

Edited June 16, 2019 by marilla chris
duplicate

[AZDivers]

On 6/11/2019 at 7:09 PM, conandrob240 said:

We are thinking about this cruise for next year. How is the sailing itself? In my mind, I am imagining very rough seas from U.K. to Iceland. Is that the case?

 

Correct. Very rough on that bit of it. On these large boats its fairly easy to handle but we definitely had some rocking and rolling a couple days.

[AZDivers]

On 6/12/2019 at 8:01 PM, Turtles06 said:

 

I am sorry you had such a disappointing cruise.  

 

Were the tours on the missed ports booked through NCL?  If so, I’ve never heard of a cruise line not issuing a refund for a tour in such a situation. Did you ask about this on board and were you denied a refund?  If so, what reason was given? 

 

NCL will not refund you for tours booked outside of the cruise line. 

[AZDivers]

On 6/14/2019 at 1:47 PM, Bowmanvilletravel said:

I was on this cruise and have to second JoJo27's review here...I thought it was a fabulous trip. I was disappointed in the two port cancels and yes, the tendering process in Norway could have been better but other than that it was awesome. 

 

I can't believe you found the food horrible....all of us came back 10 lbs heavier than we left...including my 10 year old. 

 

You likely enjoyed the buffet. The food in the buffet was Carnival quality for sure. (definitely a huge dip from previous NCL, RCL and definitely Celebrity) We are not big buffet fans personally but we did venture in their a few times. This buffet brought out the worst in people. Once you see people just digging in and eating food WHILE STANDING AT THE BUFFET it tends to turn us off. 

 

The specialty restaurants were all fantastic as I said earlier.

[AZDivers]

Another review was recently posted about the same ship and same sail date. It was also accurate and echos our sentiments.

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=658701

[AZDivers]

And another. I expect many more will be flooding in as well.

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=658614

[Turtles06]

On 6/8/2019 at 8:34 PM, AZDivers said:

 

We are likely done with NCL after this one. First trip on Getaway in the Baltics was great, Bliss thru the Canal was wonderful, this was all unacceptable and they offered no refund for missed ports nor compensation for missed tours not refunded on the missed ports. Bad.

 

 

 

On 6/12/2019 at 11:01 PM, Turtles06 said:

 

I am sorry you had such a disappointing cruise.  

 

Were the tours on the missed ports booked through NCL?  If so, I’ve never heard of a cruise line not issuing a refund for a tour in such a situation. Did you ask about this on board and were you denied a refund?  If so, what reason was given? 

 

1 hour ago, AZDivers said:

 

NCL will not refund you for tours booked outside of the cruise line. 

 

Exactly.  I don't know of any cruise line that gives you compensation for private (non-ship-sponsored) tours when the ship misses a port.  That's why I asked you in the first place.  Your original post (which I quote above) made it sound as though you were expecting some compensation from NCL for your missed private shore excursions.   (Also, most reputable private tour operators will give a full refund if your ship doesn't dock.)  Unless NCL were truly at fault for missing a port, I don't know why you would be expecting compensation.

 

I'm sorry that you had such a bad experience on your cruise.

 

 

Edited June 16, 2019 by Turtles06