Just off the 7-25 POA

[Palmist]

Tired, jet-lagged and in need of sleep. Here are some initial comments. Getting on was easy (15 minutes from curbside to stateroom), getting off using the express carry your own bags was easy, but the while on the POA your expensive week's vacation is NOT so easy.

The hotel manager, Mr. Deering is no longer there; the new hotel manager is Mr. Sterling Paulos who was kind enough to apologize to all cruisers on this trip and credited back 50% of the resort fee.

Last breakfast in the Crossings my husband found his going away present from NCL. He discovered a metal lock washer in his scrambled eggs. More detail to follow afer we get some sleep.

[Casshew]

Welcome back!

Looking forward to hearing the rest tomorrow. :)

[cnmiranda]

OMG!!!!! Thank goodness your husband didn't swallow it! Looking forward to your review.:)

I Tivo'ed a cruise ship show from the Travel channel & watched it last night- Mr. Deering on NCL's Wind was featured. Does anyone know which ship he went to?

[Jeconk]

Sterling Paulos was the Assistant Hotel Manager during the June 20 repo cruise. Is this a permanent move or just temporary while Mr. Deering is on vacation as others have reported. If Mr. Deering has indeed left the ship for good, that does not bode well for NCL. James Deering is considered by many the best in the fleet at ship operations, if he has "abandoned ship" for anything other than a vacation, there is a problem.

Refunded 50% of the service charges due to bad service? That will get people on the two California Coastal cruises, the Repo and the July 4, 11 and 18 trips fired up since they had poor service and no refund.

And people say the situation is getting better?

[margu1241]

As a traveller on 7/18 I am interested to know exactly why you were credited back 50% of the resort fee. It is hardly like yours is the first cruise with problems-when can I expect my credit?
Patty

[Palmist]

We found a letter in our cabin on July 31 stating the following:

"Specifically, we would like to apologize for the lines and wait times that you have encounted this week in your Restaurants and outlets. We are in the process of fixing the concerns and as a result of our failing to meet your expectations and service levels; we will be adjusting the daily Service Charge by 50% per person per day this week for all guests."

Signed: Sterling Paulos
Hotel Director
Pride of Aloha

[dalwhitt]

Palmist, thanks for the first posting off the July 25 sailing. Wow! That's all I can say about the 50% reduction in the service charge. But it is a bummer heading into my Aug. 8 cruise on this ship. If the lines and wait times are still a problem now, I don't see how they will be fixed by the time we sail. We leave Thursday for three days on Kauai. Guess we better enjoy the land portion of our vacation before we head back to Honolulu.

[Jeconk]

I will be interested to see the full reveiew by Palmist, a multi-time poster by the way. Were the wait times this week any longer than ours? This could get messy for NCL.

The interesting thing that I see in the refund is that it is from the Service Charge, but the service charge is not a gratuity and is supposed to pay for the vacation pay of the crew, does this mean that some of the crew won't get their vacation pay?? What NCL should have done is simply given each cabin a $100 or $200 per cabin on board credit to save themselves the hornet's nest that refunding part of the service charge will stir up.

Palmist: Get some sleep! We will wait for your full review. But you just had to give us this tease!!!

[Palmist]

We had a really wonderful vacation in Hawaii in spite of some of the things that happened on the ship.

If you want to avoid long waits for dinner you can:
1. Go to a cover charge restaurant
2. Get to the main dining room before 5:45
3. Eat on shore when in port

I don't consider the buffet food acceptable for dinner.

[dalwhitt]

Sounds like some of the same thing we've heard before. I would love to come back from Hawaii and say that I wrong in everything I've said about this ship. That would mean I had a great cruise, up to the standards of my previous cruises. I can hope, can't I?

[Host CMLA]

[quote name='Palmist']I don't consider the buffet food acceptable for dinner.[/QUOTE]Because the food is bad or because you don't go to buffets for dinner? You prefer a sit down dinner?

[Palmist]

[quote name='Host Cecilia']Because the food is bad or because you don't go to buffets for dinner? You prefer a sit down dinner?[/QUOTE]

In this case the answer is it is a little bit of both.
We prefer to have dinner in a dining room but sometimes coming back from a shore excursion late you don't want to get cleaned up. The buffet can be quick and easy but not what is offered. We tried it one time for lunch and it really didn't appeal to us.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

[quote name='Jeconk']Sterling Paulos was the Assistant Hotel Manager during the June 20 repo cruise. Is this a permanent move or just temporary while Mr. Deering is on vacation as others have reported. If Mr. Deering has indeed left the ship for good, that does not bode well for NCL. [/QUOTE]

If he left for vacation with the problems the ship is having I would say that's about saying he abandoned ship!

Bill

[sbcs5390]

So Mr. Deering isn't on the Wind anymore? I worry that he was what made thei food so great, as the Wind just got best dining on the Travel channel.

-Brian

[gardencat]

[QUOTE]We found a letter in our cabin on July 31 stating the following:

"Specifically, we would like to apologize for the lines and wait times that you have encounted this week in your Restaurants and outlets. We are in the process of fixing the concerns and as a result of our failing to meet your expectations and service levels; we will be adjusting the daily Service Charge by 50% per person per day this week for all guests."

[/QUOTE]Palmist

In the letter of apology, did NCL give any reason for the poor service?
The most likely reason I can think of, to explain the conditions that continue to be reported, is a serious understaffing, but up till now it seems to me that NCL has been denying such understaffing. I just wonder if they gave any explaination to the customers for the problems.

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[segerd]

On our 7/18 cruise we were all given a free drink because of the bad service, I'd rather have my 50% service charge refunded. Sorry to hear that it's more of what we have all experienced for the latest cruise.

[dzubke23]

Does anyone know the name/address to where I could send a letter to NCL (and hopefully get a response)? I'm looking on their website but not finding anything.

[Guest alexMD]

Surely you mean a 50% refund of the "Resort Fee".


Now, if the "Resort Fee" is not a "service charge", nor should be considered a "tip", according to the NCL website... why would it be appropriate to "refund" a portion of it to customers who experienced bad service?

[Palmist]

[quote name='gardencat']Palmist

In the letter of apology, did NCL give any reason for the poor service?
The most likely reason I can think of, to explain the conditions that continue to be reported, is a serious understaffing, but up till now it seems to me that NCL has been denying such understaffing. I just wonder if they gave any explaination to the customers for the problems.

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No, there was nothing else in the letter about why they gave back 50% of the service charge. We were told we sailed with a crew of 700 and there should have been 950 according to NCL's website. The staff worked really hard but the inexperience showed. They were working 16 hours a day.

[Palmist]

[quote name='dalwhitt']Sounds like some of the same thing we've heard before. I would love to come back from Hawaii and say that I wrong in everything I've said about this ship. That would mean I had a great cruise, up to the standards of my previous cruises. I can hope, can't I?[/QUOTE]

We heard constantly that this was not "NCL" but a different company, "NCL America" so their standards are not going to be anything like what you expected in service or food quality. The entertainment was great and we saw all but 1 night's show. The show we missed was the magician - we were sorry to have missed it as it was suppossed to be terrific. The entertainment shows were way ahead of some of the other cruises we have been on.

Crusing past the flowing volcano at night was the most inspirational and exciting thing we did. Everyone took pictures and the ship turned around and went past the same spot very slowly for a long period of time. The Napoli coast was fantastic and it was so beautiful while we were going by that scenery.

[dalwhitt]

Wow, a crew of 700. The week before it was 800. At that rate it will be down to 500 for my cruise. Good thing I can cook. I may be called into service.

[jkrislc]

[quote name='Jeconk']The interesting thing that I see in the refund is that it is from the Service Charge, but the service charge is not a gratuity and is supposed to pay for the vacation pay of the crew, does this mean that some of the crew won't get their vacation pay??[/QUOTE]

If the POAloha is as short staffed as has been reported by NCL and other posters, then they are collecting too much of the service fee as it is. The math would dictate that if they are collecting say $20,000 a day in service fees (2000 passengers x $10), that money is normally distributed to about 1,000 crew ($20 per crew member), albeit some nonservice crew members do not get money from this service charge. Now, if POAloha is say 15% under staffed, that means they only have a crew of 850. As a result, NCL is collecting an additional $3000 per day that does not or is not distributed to staff.

Further, why should anyone pay a full service charge when the service is less than extraordinary?

[royaloakie]

We sailed on 7/18. We were told by several young crew members that they had put in their required time because of all of the months training on the Sky, and were now leaving on 5 week vacations. Many said they would not be back. The reservation person in one of the restaurants said if you think things are bad this week, wait until next week. More passengers and fewer servers. I think all of us deserve to have our service charges refunded. A drink voucher just doesn't cut it. We went with a positive attitude for this cruise, but I can't begin to tell you how the poor service and poor food choices begin to wear you down after a week on the ship. You shouldn't have to pay more for food you have already paid for. Most of the crew seemed to be trying very hard, but there were just not enough of them and they seemed very tired. We made beds, cleared our own table to sit down by the buffet and begged for water in the dining room. My kids climbed over a sofa bed to get to the bathroom in their cabin. Noone said the third bed was a sofa bed. The sofa bed completely blocked access to the bathroom when pulled out. We never saw a drink server by the pool or in the show theater. There were long waits at the bar to even get a coke. I really wanted to come home and write a positive review on the ship, that is not possible. On the other hand, Hawaii was wonderful and we had a great time off of the ship.

[margu1241]

Judy,
You must have spoken to the same restaurant reservation person I spoke to-he told me that things haven't hit bottom and that he (along with many other trained staff) would be going on vacation the following week. Two of the good waitpeople that we had in the main dining rooms told us the same thing.

About the free drink coupons-we never saw one. Communication from the ship was put in the slot on the door-either it never was put there, or (more likely, in my opinion) someone came down the hall and cleared them all out. We decided not to put up a fuss about it, but I would recommend that NCL reconsider the policy of putting things out in the open on the door and have the cabin stewards put them in the room.

Patty

[dalwhitt]

The problems keep piling up for NCL or NCLA, whatever you want to call it. Based on the reviews and posts, I see no real improvement in the nearly two months that this ship has been in operation. This is a can't-win situation. If you give the crew more time off then the passengers suffer big time. Keep piling things on the crew and they'll just quit ... like they apparently are. I think you'll see more and more people cancelling this cruise in the coming months. Of course, those poor souls who don't have access to Cruise Critic or other boards won't know what they're getting themselves in for. My travel agent is asking me to let her know how things go, as she has a few other customers who have asked her about POA.