Norwegian Bad?

MissChampagne · February 5, 2009

Hi all, we are going on our second cruise with the kids and when i called our agent to tell him we found a good price on the Norwegian Dawn, he said to keep an open mind about the service and staff, that the cruise line is having troubles and that is why the prices are so low,(one persons low is another persons "i screwed up the budget" low!). what gives? are they really in financial trouble? any info would be really nice...thanks

cruisingcats · February 5, 2009

We were on the Norwegian Star in 2007 and found the staff and service to be pretty good. Mind you this was our first cruise and had nothing to compare it to. I think you have to go into it with an open mind.

Haven't heard anything about them being in trouble but I haven't check to see what is going on lately either. Alot of cruise lines have low fares right now.

Good luck in what ever you decide to do.

jacketwatch · February 6, 2009

I don't have an inside scoop about any troubles though they did cancel their newest ship, the F3 or F5. There is a reason why the cost is low I think. It seems to me that NCL is in the lower rung of mass market lines along with Costa and MSC. My opinion only here. People I know who have taken NCL say they would not take them again though in all fairness we are talking about the Pride ship that does the Hawaiian route which seems to have its own set of problems. If you look at it as a cheap way to cruise, be at sea and see some islands then you should be OK but I would go with lower expectations. JM2C.

DebbieandJerry · February 7, 2009

We gave NCL three tries. What's that expression? Yep, they are out.

The first trip was our very first cruise so we had nothing to compare it to. We fell in love with cruising. Had no clue if the ship was good, bad or indifferent.

The next cruise was our first 7-day Eastern Caribbean. The itinerary was perfect. The ship's service and food wasn't. If something ran out, "oh well, too bad". There were a number of times where I specifically asked for water to drink and never got it. They advertised a "chocoholic bar" which was a huge selling point for us. This was a 1-hour, one afternoon only on a port day (not even on an at sea day).

The last time was our 10-day Hawaii. This was NOT a Pride ship. This was a foreign registered ship. The attitude of the staff was the worst that I had ever experienced. They just didn't care. Since I don't remember any of the food (good, bad or indifferent), I will have to say not remarkable.

We like to think of ourselves as easy going and not too hard to please. But we will not travel with NCL again.