On Sunday 1/12/2014 we arrived early and boarded the Dawn after regular procedures. Everyone promptly received their bags and lounged around the pool all day. We did not receive our bags. I entered our Stateroom which was dirty from the previous tenants. The mini bar was not stocked as noted from the previous tenant's consumption of it. I personally cleaned our cabin, including picking up trash from the floor and a filthy luggage plastic sheet which went across the bed and had to scrub the shower also. I called the Steward and asked him to stock the mini-bar he agreed to do so, as we did not want to be charged for the previous people’s consumption. Day turned into night and we still had not received our bags and we missed a whole day at the pool with our fellow cruisers. We went to dinner and after dinner while walking back to our cabin we found our bags aft in front of other persons Staterooms, nowhere close to our cabin. We dragged our bags to our cabin which was at the bow of the ship. As you can see, we are off to a very bad start.
When we returned with our bags, the mini bar was still not stocked as promised, and never was during the course of the entire trip with the contents of beer and soda to which the previous tenants consumed.
The next day we asked to play shuffleboard with an older group and the attendant instead stopped the older group’s game and locked up the contents of the game to which we did not understand and we apologized to the older group for this action. We then went to the jewelry store and I asked an attendant the price of a certain ring, he said he would be right back and never returned. I bought a spa package for the week. After swimming and taking a very hot sauna I undressed in the ladies room where an unannounced male Supervisor in Full uniform entered and stopped to gawk at me motioning with his hand over his mouth going "Oh" as he walked through to join two other female Supervisors in full uniform including heels and full jackets who were sitting in the hot sauna enjoying a gossip session. There was no excuse for this breach of privacy or this entire scene. If this male wanted to join his female companions in the sauna, he could have gone through the men's room. More lack of respect on NCL's employees part.
Hygiene wise, I found it completely unprofessional that NCL Supervisors intentionally soiling up their uniforms only to afterwards address the passengers in this state for the rest of the evening. It was a real eye-opener for your employee’s lack of disregard for hygiene and guarding the health of the passengers and themselves. It made me contemplate if other employees of NCL in the food area also had such a disregard for guarding good health measures and fighting bad bacteria that can so easily spread around the ship causing sickness among the passengers as we have all read about on other Cruises.
In regards to this entire scene, it was completely unnecessary, unprofessional, infringed on my privacy, and easily could have been avoided if NCL had a professionally minded staff. This scenario was inexcusable. My husband then returned to the cabin and found me quite distraught over the situation to which just took place,. I told him of this latest incident in tears which prompted him to have a meeting with the hotel manager who offered us “a free dinner" to add insult to injury.
We had prepaid for an excursion to "Boat Blast and Beach" on Costa Maya. We took the long bus trip to this beach and were put on a non-working boat. Three other boats also returned to shore due to non-working boats. Those people were accommodated with less-than-sufficient, but running boats. We were then put in a second non-running boat as the others in our group circled around. We were again taken back to shore and given a third boat. This third boat ran and ran fast and then began making a non-stopping ascending winding sound to the point where we thought the engine was going to blow up. My husband is a more than experienced Boat Captain and out of desperation to stop the boat before it blew up pulled the red emergency stop which resulted in NOTHING as all safety controls for the drivers use were disconnected and removed. The boat to our astonishment continued in an upward winding sound and scared us to death. If you had another person manning this boat who was inexperienced in driving boats, you would have had some serious consequences on your hands. In such a whirlwind my husband managed to get this third boat to shore, and we were given a forth boat to which could not even get out of its own wake to reach the others. We gave up and asked for a refund. The Attendant said that we would have to take that up with the ship and brought my husband tortilla chips and salsa to "make up for it" and then tried to charge us for a day at the beach. The Canadians that we befriended said that their boat broke down twice while in the ocean and that it could not keep up with the group.
All of this made it apparent that NCL did not and does not monitor the quality of excursions that by NCL's own hand endorse. Before NCL authorizes a Shore Excursion it is to your best interest that you enlist quality control tactics against the outfit that employ to carry out the excursion. NCL must assess the liability to which the company holds if the outfit is non-compliant to safety standards, such as the removal of the emergency stop on the boat. This directly reflects the disregard for safety upon NCL as my husband actually pulled the Emergency stop Key- which was disabled. There is no excuse for this either. Our situation could have resulted in serious injuries to us or others. The disabling of the safety emergency stop on the boat is a recipe for disaster for all, producing yet even more negligence.

Upon return to the ship, my husband went to the same shore excursion woman for a refund for "Boat Blast and Engine Blowup” She kept arguing that he drank the alcohol which was asinine. She stated that it was against her better judgment and reluctantly refunded our money for the "Boat Blast" that never was.
There is no question that we should have been refunded without these constant hassles.

The conglomeration of all of these avoidable situations made it apparent that your staff members had a disregard for seeing it through that our trip went smoothly.
I personally was never addressed for the negativity that I experienced on this cruise, and I should have been. We worked hard to fund this trip and drove from Virginia to Tampa and back to experience a great time. My letter concerning the matter was never addressed and ignored

It sounds horrible. Sorry for your awful experience. I have heard of excursion subcontractors for Costa being bad but never for NCL.

I do find somethings you said hard to believe like supervisors "intentionally" soiling their uniforms. How do you conclude that? Also you said personnel were in heels and jackets gossiping in the sauna. Who goes to a sauna in a jacket? Kinda hot don't you think for that.

Again sorry to hear of your disappointing experience.

Best of luck with future cruises.

Larry.

It is what it is,and that is what happened. I found the whole scene hard to believe also. I opened the door to the sauna and asked them who that man was coming through the ladies room. I guess these supervisors wanted privacy, so they were sauna-ing and soiling up in their full uniforms, full jackets (long sleeved, navy blue, with 2 thin gold stripes on the sleeves), heels hose.. the whole nine yards.... bizarre..... This sauna was extremely hot.

How long were they in there?

Also did they answer your question?

If your cabin was not clean when you arrived, why didn't you ask your steward to clean it instead of cleaning it yourself? Did your steward leave you the cleaning supplies to scrub the shower?

A) I wasnt timing them,I left before they left and addressed the spa desk with the situation b) Yes, they said it was another supervisor and that they would talk to him about cutting through the ladies room. c) I asked husband to get cleaning supplies off the cart in the hall way. Steward was not around.

So why did you not call the steward to clean the room?

By the way are you a first-time cruiser? All you have to do is pick up the phone and press a button for your cabin steward to come to your room .perhaps you did not know that.

No I am not a first time cruiser, nor have I experienced anything like this cruise. It is not my job to tell them TO DO THEIR job.. do it right the first time so that I am not in the position of writing a review like this!

I think you had to at least give them the chance to clean the room. So they missed something,but that does not mean you have to clean it yourself.

As for the luggage well put it this way. There were probably about 3-4k pieces of luggage so some getting misplaced is bound to happen. Too bad it happened to you.

I am sorry you had a bad time.

Still trying to understand why fully uniformed staff went into an "extremely hot" sauna to gossip. Very weird indeed.

Did you ever mention the condition of the room to the steward or ask him to find your bags? It is disconcerting to find things in bad shape, but I think I would have said something early on. Your whole trip was off though, so perhaps your cruise was short staffed or just had a run of bad luck.

That shore excursion with broken down boats was really bad though - and scary. Did I understand correctly that your husband actually took over control of the boat, and drove it back to shore himself, and the person in charge of the boat let your husband do that? Do you remember the name of the company that operated that excursion? I would want to make sure not to use it, especially if taking kids with me. Besides, I would have no clue how to operate a boat that was in trouble.

I fully sympathize with album with her misadventures and feel bad for all the things that went wrong on their cruise.

I have been accused of jumping all over new OPs on their venting, especially on new and first time posters; and I had compared them to seagulls: flew in, crap all over and then disappear and never be seen again. I think I will take her side this time for a number of reasons.

First off, her issues were very specific, and not a general statement that service was lousy. She cited examples. Although I have not seen service that bad, but I did come close once. We had a pretty bad cabin steward one time but we figured out real quick on day 2 that he was a brand new employee. We saw the supervisor inspecting his work and pointing things out to him. It was a 7 day voyage and it was a comedy of error every day, nothing really big or bad, mind you, but enough to be annoying. Forgot to replace the glassware one day so we have no clean glasses when we return to the cabin, no toilet paper on another day, missing hand towels on another day, melted water in the ice bucket (no fresh ice); you got the idea. He was also very slow and room was not done even after lunch. DW felt sorry for him and wanted to tip him extra. I am guessing that the steward for her cabin was either a newbie, or without a helper, or were given way too many cabins. We called for our steward and the purser's desk and it took a few hours before someone showed up with a roll of toilet paper. I was tempted to go to the public washroom and grab one from the cubicle.

The "Boat Blast and Beach" incident was intriguing. I have heard a story similar to that but the people I knew were rescued after their boat broke down in the middle of nowhere and waited more than half an hour before a second boat got to them and get them back to safety. It wasn't as bad as album's story with one failure after another.

We had bad excursion experience as well. One time, either the guide or the driver locked up the bathroom in the bus and claimed it was out of service. It was a long bus ride. Someone was desperate enough and force it open (breaking the lock accidentally) and found out it wasn't really broken at all so it appeared someone did not want to clean it.

After we got back to the boat, the person who broke the lock complaint to the excursion desk and the ship investigated. Everyone on that bus that they can identify got 50% refund on their excursion. It was kind of funny as the couple who complaint and got the money back go around and found people that were on their bus and literally drag them to the excursion desk and got the refund for them. I am not sure how many people got money back in all but we did receive ours.

Larry, I agree the sauna story is a bit out there but I choose to believe her. Maybe they were looking for a secret rendezvous spot and did not expect to see passengers there. There is no excuse for male (employee or not) passing through a female change room even when it was an accident. The exception would be if there was a sign up and the area was being cleaned.

And the final reason that I took her side, she came back and answered questions. Give her credit for that.

I have posted elsewhere (I think it was on Sass's OP) that we stopped cruising with NCL quite a few years ago (and a few other cruise lines too) and the reason for not cruising with NCL was inconsistent quality of food and service, so you never know what to expect and we didn't like that. That's why we stopped going to certain restaurants or hotel chains. When you pay decent money, you have a certain level of expectation and when that expectation was not met, you spend your money elsewhere.

If truth be told, it has always been the classic case of you get what you paid for, Not that you are guaranteed good quality by paying more money, just that you will have a better chance of getting consistent quality when you go more upscale.

I just hope that album won't get turned off from cruising by this one bad experience. Here is my motto: A bad day on a cruise ship is still better than a good day in the office. The only exception is, of course, when the ship sunk ... sorry about that Costa

I do have a question for album: did you have any fond memory or good experience on this vacation at all that put a smile on your face? Just remember that and forgot about the bad stuff. You'll be much happier. Years from now, looking back, you will laugh about it and it will a story to tell for the ages.

Cruises have become cheaper and cheaper - while decades ago a way for elite people with money to travel, now everyone can cruise, often for less than a land-based hotel. It is not reasonable that for less than $100/day one can get cabin, tons of food, ship activities. So food, service has declined - and cruise lines "nickel and dime" passengers at every chance.

Too bad - our first cruise was 20 years ago and wish there was now a middle ground between expensive lines and the mainstream cruiselines that have become like sailing Motel 6. But as long as enough passengers search by price, this will continue.

If I were to take a cruise today I would keep reminding myself that you get what you pay for - but with cruises, like airline travel today, there is not a way to get middle ground in fare and service, just high end (first class air) or Motel 6.

E I too agree with most of what the OP said and give her credit for answering questions. However the sauna thing seems far fetched though I suppose stranger things have happened. It's just that it seems more likely that if two people had some juicy gossip to share and need to talk for a while as most gossipers do that they would pick a locale more suited to their attire.,JM2C

I believe the room needed cleaning but deciding that if it wasn't done right the first time you must do it I don't agree with. Just call them first and let them do their jobs.

gail you are spot on! I more or less said the exact same thing in so many words on another thread. Your comments on what is it all about these days.

Larry, they must have thought the sauna would be a good hiding spot. AS you know, there is no privacy on a cruise ship for the crew as the common areas are monitored, and the crew quarters are cramped. What better place to hide and have a rendezvous than the sauna? No video camera there! They probably did not expect people there. If the sauna wasn't on, it could be quite cozy for whatever the 3 of them was planning to do other than just "gossip".

As to cleaning the cabin themselves, I can be impatient when I am in a hurry and I don't mind getting myself dirty and just get things done and over with. I have stayed at some high end hotels that were poorly looked after. I called and complaint that the tub is draining slow, and it took them forever to get there and fix it.

And of course, you are in a hurry, need to get showered and changed and go to a meeting or show or whatever, so I just simple unscrew the drain plug, use my zip-lock bag as rubber glove, pulled the clump of hair that was stuck there clogging the drain and the problem solved. I kept the zip-lock bag with the clump of hair and dropped it off at the front desk when I check out, in full view of everyone else and shamed them. Yes, I know I can be a bit as an donkey's rear end at times.

I mostly agree with Gail about the first class and motel 6 analogy. However, I believe there is middle ground. I am not going to name all the cruise lines but they do fall in categories, just like you have your better airlines, and discount no frill airlines and chartered flights to holiday destinations etc.

You have the Regent and Silversea on the higher end, just like higher end hotels like the Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton's of the world. You have the Cunard, HAL, Celebrity and Princess which is more like the Hilton's and Holiday Inns, with NCL and Carnival etc. more like the Motel 6, using Gail's analogy.

At the end, it is always you get what you paid for. Gail quoted $100 per day for cabin, food and on board activities. I have seen and paid half that for much better cruise lines than NCL, and I am not stuck in an inside cabin or a cabin with a porthole window.

Last but not least: I have friends who cruise with NCL all the time and never have any complaints and swears by it rather than swore at it. They thinks NCL is the best cruise line there is. As to us, we had a couple poor experience in a row with them years ago and we stopped checking their itinerary.

E the OP did say however that it was "exteremly hot" in the sauna so apparently it was on in full force. .

Personlly I would not have judged them as not doing it right the first time. Maybe they missed it. It happens so give them a chance at least to correct it. Also the OP said the cart was in the halway so its possible the steward was in another room and about to get to her cabin. In any case give them a chance to clean it. JM2C.

I agree that Cunard and Celebrity would be mid-tier, but I question the comparison to Hilton or Holiday Inn.

Our experiences on both were far superior to all but high-end Hiltons and to any Hoilday Inn I've stayed in over the past 30+ years of travel.

jacketwatch- I have nothing to gain by telling a fabricated or falsely-enhanced story about the Spa and sauna experience.. so be assured that this is "how it went down." As for not giving the steward a chance to reclean the room.. I am just like Eschew. I wanted it corrected immediately and wanted to lay stuff on the bed so I started with cleaning the plastic luggage sheet and went on from there. That is how I handled that part. We did call him to address the minibar being unstocked by the previous tenants consumption. It never did get restocked adding frustration as I finally called the front desk and advised that we have repeatedly asked for the restocking and the front desk finally said that the ship was out of stock of the items that were consumed by the previous tenants and they assured us that we would not be charged for those items.We also came to realise that there was a major language barrier between us and the Steward, which resulted in misunderstandings and not getting needs met. Later during the week, our Steward did a thorough job on cleaning... he also was consistently very pleasant and gracious and we cash tipped him in addition to our daily added fee for his gratuity for his services. Answers to sassafrass- we called numerous times to Guest relations/front desk concerning our bags. They seemed overwhelmed. We did not see the Steward until later, and that was our initial addressing of the minibar, and I did advise him that we wanted an effort to be made to have our room in a cleaner state during the course of our trip and I went over with him verbally him of what I had cleaned, and physically showed him. ESCHEW- That is good advice concerning forgetting the bad stuff. I wanted these issues addressed by Norwegian , as I wrote them a MONTH ago, yielding ZERO response until 4am this morning as they responded and failed to mention or address the boat situation and made the cabin situation a priority, which was petty but annoying to me. I previously bragged about Norwegian, recommended this line to all people who had never cruised, and have been a rewards member. Before this experience, I had decided that I would be using Norwegian as my priority cruise line because I have been pleased with their standards. Well this trip was nothing but a slap in the face and a regretful use of our vacation funds, needless to say, still without suitable reconciliation on Norwegians part.
On the other side of the coin, we did bring back some fond memories of this trip. We loved all of Norwegians employees from India. they ALL were nothing short of superb. I rescued a turtle in Cozumel, caught a bat fish, and we had a few awesome snorkle experiences.