Cabin Review

You know, I walked into this mid-ship balcony room and immediately saw that the desk by the balcony door was missing. Upon closer inspection, I saw that the picture that should be on the wall over the couch was missing. All that remained were three picture hooks still in place. Well, I didn't want to be accused of stealing the picture or anything, so I casually mentioned it to our room steward. Her answer was "dry dock." Now I can't for the life of me figure why they'd remove a desk and picture in dry dock and not replace it with another desk and picture. Isn't dry dock where they change the oil and scrape the barnacles off the ship anyway? So our room looked and felt more like a three hour hotel room than proper accommodation for a nineteen day cruise, but we'll just basically sleeping here, anyway. Right?

Well, after two nights on that ultra soft bed, my back was killing me. So, I decided to try to unfold the couch and give my back a night on the much harder surface. This extra bed must be where the extra person sleeps... Norwegian has some kind of friend and family benefit were you can bring along someone for no extra charge. Sounds great...but does anyone really want to cruise and bring along a friend? Or family, for that matter? Well, as long as the person is less than four feet tall, I guess it's OK. I'm six feet and my feet clearly hung off of that bed! I had to support them with the little stool that comes with the room. My back gradually felt better, but it had all the feel of a prison bed!

Another problem in the cabin was that the sliding door to the balcony would not fully engage the lock. I didn't think Spider Man would try to get into the room, so it wasn't a big deal, so I didn't mention it at the time.

The safe wasn't user friendly, either. The keypad numbers had to be pressed about a dozen times in order for the digital number to show up. This meant that in order to put your four digit code in, you sometimes had to press the numbers forty to fifty times in order to open the safe! I gave up on Day 1 and we did not use the safe at all.

Another issue we found on Day 1 was that the shower water was not going down the drain as fast as it ought to. If fact, if you stood in there for more than five minutes, it appeared as if the water would breach the barrier and flow onto the floor of the bathroom. We brought this one to the attention of the room steward and she assured us that it would be taken care of. I don't know when or if they came, but the drain flow did seem to improve, although only slightly. We decided to tough this one out and never mentioned it again.

Then there was the funky smell that seemed to emanate from the bathroom and into the cabin itself. No, it didn't appear to be human waste, but it definitely did have a heavy musty smell, similar to a long dead mouse caught behind a wall. We were assured that it had something to do with the drain and that it would be taken care of. In a few days, the odor was gone.

Now, here comes the straw that broke the camel's back: About ten days into the cruise, we noticed a great deal of water on the floor in front of the sink. I got down and took a look. To my amazement, the pipe that leads from the drain in the sink, was completely disconnected from the sink. Yes, that's what I said: Completely disconnected. Both on the pipe and where it had been connected to the sink, you could see a lot of solder, so this had obviously been a problem in the past. Maybe even more than once. We got the steward and told her, but this time we went down to the front desk on the 7th floor in the atrium. I calmly and politely voiced my dissatisfaction and we returned to the room. Seconds later, a plumber appeared and a guy to repair the sliding door accompanied by a uniformed officer. No, it wasn't the captain, but rather a supervisor in the maintenance department. I calmly informed her of the laundry list of problems with the room and she yes-sired me to death. I did tell her that we have come to know and love Norwegian and as platinum members have sailed more than a few times. But honestly, if this had been my first time with Norwegian, it definitely would have been my last.

So how did they rectify this problem? How did they make it right? Extra points? A spa treatment? Dinner for two at Cagney's? No, instead they sent us a plate with a half dozen different chocolates and a cheap bottle of wine.

Anyhow, that's the room story. One other thing: The location of the room is right by the opening to the 10th floor midship lobby, stairway and elevators. I was concerned that there might be a lot of noise in this room, but that was not true at all. For the first few days, though, we were woken up at 2:00am to what appeared to be a neighbor using the hairdryer! To my amazement, though, it was a worker vacuuming the 10th floor lobby in front of the elevators. This one we mentioned to the room steward and it was never an issue again.