I've been cruising over 20 years, with the overwhelming majority of my cruises with NCL. I'm very sad to say that this cruise experience was a disappointment from beginning to end, and has officially marked my final voyage with NCL.

From the start, it was nothing but problems and stress. I booked a last-minute cruise (about a month out) to celebrate my 10-year anniversary. After booking with my cruise consultant via phone, I received notification in my email that he had put us on the wrong sail date - and specifically one a week earlier that would be impossible for me to make with my work schedule. Upon trying to remedy this, I was told there would be a fee associated with the date adjustment because I was "changing my mind," which was completely false. After speaking with multiple levels of personnel, no one could assure me that the mistake [I didn't make] would be properly fixed to get us on the trip I had booked in the first place. Finally with no explanation about 10 days out, the ship date was corrected. The amount of stress and hours I took from work to frantically try to correct this with NCL staff came with no consolation or apology whatsoever, and I did not appreciate being treated this way.

Fast forward to the week before my cruise: there is an huge winter storm predicted in my area of the US. Due to the forecast, it would be impossible for me to make the flight they booked for me with the included airfare offer, leaving mere hours to spare between flight arrival and ship sailing time. After DAYS of trying to reach someone to figure out my options and minimum 45 minute hold times with the NCL air department (which I never got through to a single time!), I finally spoke with a random staff member (the only helpful person during this process) who informed me that he could not locate my air travel details. This seemed like an impossibility to me, as I was looking at my email confirmation of such direct from NCL. I once again wasted more of my time and call American Airlines myself to confirm, only to be told MY RESERVATION DOES NOT EXIST. So to be clear, I would have shown up to a NYC airport at 3am, in the middle of a blizzard, to not only be told my reservation doesn't exist, but that I'd have no way of making it to the ship in time - and NCL had now informed with this snowstorm would be considered an "act of God" and they would have no responsibility whatsoever to refund me or help get me to the ship at any point during the voyage. Over 5 more hours on the phone back and forth and more missed work time, only to find both companies pointing the finger at each other, with again no explanation of what really went wrong. Finally, we were able to get me a flight the night before (and only because NCL had never actually finished booking my flight in the first place), though there was not only no apology AGAIN for this COLOSSAL error, but now I was forced to pay for a hotel suddenly, with no assistance again from NCL - even after I explained all that had transpired to multiple personnel. After more ridiculous hold time on the phone, I finally got through to the “Executive Department” where I was offered a mere $50 onboard credit for my troubles. Though I am grateful for any compensation at all, this doesn’t even scratch the surface for the hours of work and time I’ll never get back. Read more