I dont know if we just happened to get on a really crummy sailing on Norwegian or if it is always that way but we really dont want to even give them another try. The first mistake we made however was our own fault. We chose the S/S Norway. YUCK! It started off that we used their airfare program because it ended up being cheaper than doing our own. When we got our tickets we figured out why...we took our 2 kids (the 5 year old wasnt born yet) and had a red eye flight from Utah to Miami. With 2 kids that was unacceptable so we fought NCL to get them to give us better airfare. In the end we lost (naturally) and had to pay a fortune to upgrade our tickets to a semi decent flight time. WHen we booked the air portion the NCL agent assured us that we would NOT be on a flight that left Utah later than 4 pm but we ended up on a "promotional" flight that left Utah at 12:30 am and got into Miami at 6:30 the next morning. They did put us up in a really nice hotel near the port but that was about the only good thing for us. WHen we got to the port we checked in our luggage with the porter, gave him his rudely expected hand out tip (about 40 dollars worth)which we didnt plan on spending 40 dollars on a tip but he kept putting his hand out and demanding more and more money (I know these people dont work for the cruiseline specifically but it was ridiculous) and walked onto the ship. It took us almost 2 hours to get registered because they conveniently forgot to come to our hotel that morning and pre-register us. By the time we got onto the ship the buffet was nothing more than a few rolls and some ham and cheese. We kept checking our rooms for our luggage and by 9pm it still hadnt arrived. Seems they didnt load on the one metal crate that had all of OUR luggage in it along with several other people's luggage. They then charged OUR account the $$$ incurred by them to ship our luggage to the first port and would NOT refund it for anything. We ended up disputing the charge with our credit card company and got out of paying it but it was a huge hassle and no fault of ours. When we booked and got our documents it informed us we had early seating which with small kids was ideal. Turns out that was also false because when we went to go to our dinner that first night there were other people at our table and they basically told us first come first serve so we ended up on late seating. We only made it once and the rest of the time we just ate at the buffet on deck. The ship was full of very old people and nothing to do but lay by the pool or gamble. Their kids club was non existent per se and had very limited hours that the kids could visit. The counselors were terrible with the kids and we met another family while at the buffet who had the same experience with rude counselors. I know my kids arent perfect but they were horrible to my kids and actually made my dd cry. I think it was one of the worst sailings we've ever been on.
These were the main reasons we probably wont consider sailing on NCL again. There were many other "little" things but these were some of the big ones.
HTH
Heidi
These were the main reasons we probably wont consider sailing on NCL again. There were many other "little" things but these were some of the big ones.
HTH
Heidi
