Worst Cruise Line Experience After 40 Cruises

by Eric
(El Dorado County, CA)

I am a very experienced cruise passenger. When I was younger, I swore that I would never do a cruise because I didn’t think it was not a good fit for me. I liked traveling to places and really exploring.

A fluke incident happened. A vacation I had scheduled had to be canceled due to a hurricane.
and my travel agent talked me into taking a cruise with Norwegian Cruise Line. I was hooked.

What a great way to be able to see a lot of places on one trip! If I found a place that I really liked, I could go back and spend a lot more time there.

I was self-employed for many years, so I was able to go at a moment's notice, which allowed me to grab some very inexpensive trips. This is how I was able to take so many cruises.

Norwegian Cruise Line was my go-to cruise line, since I cruised with them first and that’s where I had gotten hooked.

During my fifth and sixth cruises, Norwegian started to have many big issues. They were having a lot of mechanical problems on the ships I was on. In one case, the air conditioner wouldn’t turn off in our cabin and there was no other cabins, so I literally had to sleep under everything we could: towels, blankets, etc.

I began to try other cruise lines. I’ve cruised with Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Holland America, Costa Cruises, Princess Cruises and a couple of smaller cruise lines that are no longer in existence. During that time, we managed to see many many places, especially in the Caribbean.

Due to financial limitations, I had to take a break from traveling for a while. For our anniversary last year, I decided to go ahead and book a cruise for my wife and I. I was very selective in trying to find a cruise that went to ports that we hadn’t been to before, so we could see some new places and that’s pretty hard to find now for us.

Coincidentally, on Norwegian Cruise Line, I did find such a cruise. There were four stops: two ports that we already had been to and enjoyed, and two that we had not been to so we were excited for that. I had a long conversation with the booking agent, told him about my prior experiences and some of the service and mechanical issues. He assured me that they had really tidied up their operations and that everything ran smoother now.

So I took the chance and I booked the cruise. We were supposed to leave in late July 2022.

About 45 days before the sailing date, they sent me a notice that they had canceled the two stops that were new to us and that they were not going to substitute additional ports. I immediately contacted them and said I would like for them to cancel my reservation. They refused to cancel it. Then I asked if they could credit what I had paid towards a different cruise in the future so that I could perhaps find something that would be more exciting. They refused to do that.

Needless to say, I was extremely frustrated and tried to contact management without success.

Shortly before our scheduled cruise, our daughter was involved in a very serious accident and lost part of her arm. I immediately notified Norwegian through their customer service email since nobody would answer the phone and no one responded with any kind of information for me. I then also sent more emails and requested to add my daughter to our trip so that she could go with us and rehabilitate at sea. They did not respond to us in any way, shape or form.

I just finished paying off that trip, and that’s what triggered me to write this review. I have sent emails to every department of that company up to and including the offices of the vice president and president. Not one time have I received any kind of response whatsoever.

As a result, I will be warning other people not to book trips with Norwegian Cruise Line. I have since discovered that this is a very common practice for NCL. They routinely put out cruises that appear to be very unique. Then once they get a lot of bookings, they cancel the more unique stops. If you are planning a cruise anytime soon, please book with anybody else, but do not spend your precious money and your vacation time with NCL.

Thank you for reading my boring story. I hope you have a wonderful week.