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Norwegian Dawn Dec. 13-20
To All,
My wife and I sailed on the Norwegian Dawn Dec. 13 to Dec. 20. I came away with less that a favorable impression. The first day we dined at Le Bistro. The food was good but if you wanted lobster, there was a charge above and beyond the normal charge. When we returned to our suite we assumed we would find our last piece of checked luggage. Instead I found a nasty letter from the luggage police. I proceeded to the room where they were holding my luggage hostage. When I walked in I was asked which piece of luggage was mine. I pointed to it and was instructed to put it on the table, open it, and step back. The cop saw plastic beer bottles in my luggage and said "here's the problem, you cannot bring beer on board". I responded with "those bottles are filled with wine, my wife does not want glass bottles in our checked luggage". He then said "I will have to charge you a $15 corking fee". I paid it and sprung my bag. I found out later that NCL charges $15 for each bottle of wine you bring on board, whether you consume it in you stateroom or at dinner. We are Royal Caribbean cruisers and have bought wine at ports of call and brought it back to our stateroom without a hassle. Other things that soured us is: If we ran out of ice in the afternoon, we had to fetch our own. If you bought liquor at the port, both lines will confiscate it. RCL would bring it to your room on the last day of the cruise. Usually around noon. NCL holds your liquor until 9 PM on the last day and you have to go get it yourself. RCL delivers luggage tags on the last day. NCL forces you to go down to the desk for your tags. RCL excursion desk is staffed all day, NCL 6-9 PM. The toilet in our room did not work until 11 PM the first day and broke again 2 days later. Our knowledge of RCL is a year old. If any of you have been on a RCL cruise and the above recollections have changed, please respond to this post. Thanks in advance, Tom M. |
#2
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Norwegian Dawn Dec. 13-20
Tom M. wrote: To All, My wife and I sailed on the Norwegian Dawn Dec. 13 to Dec. 20. I came away with less that a favorable impression. The first day we dined at Le Bistro. The food was good but if you wanted lobster, there was a charge above and beyond the normal charge. When we returned to our suite we assumed we would find our last piece of checked luggage. Instead I found a nasty letter from the luggage police. I proceeded to the room where they were holding my luggage hostage. When I walked in I was asked which piece of luggage was mine. I pointed to it and was instructed to put it on the table, open it, and step back. The cop saw plastic beer bottles in my luggage and said "here's the problem, you cannot bring beer on board". I responded with "those bottles are filled with wine, my wife does not want glass bottles in our checked luggage". He then said "I will have to charge you a $15 corking fee". I paid it and sprung my bag. I found out later that NCL charges $15 for each bottle of wine you bring on board, whether you consume it in you stateroom or at dinner. We are Royal Caribbean cruisers and have bought wine at ports of call and brought it back to our stateroom without a hassle. Other things that soured us is: If we ran out of ice in the afternoon, we had to fetch our own. If you bought liquor at the port, both lines will confiscate it. RCL would bring it to your room on the last day of the cruise. Usually around noon. NCL holds your liquor until 9 PM on the last day and you have to go get it yourself. RCL delivers luggage tags on the last day. NCL forces you to go down to the desk for your tags. RCL excursion desk is staffed all day, NCL 6-9 PM. The toilet in our room did not work until 11 PM the first day and broke again 2 days later. Our knowledge of RCL is a year old. If any of you have been on a RCL cruise and the above recollections have changed, please respond to this post. Thanks in advance, Tom M. Dear Tom, Sounds like the Norwegian Dawn people have started the "cost containment" measures for real. Did they charge you $15 per beer bottle full of wine? I wonder what would have happened if you had used water bottles? Did you say "Hello" to your steward with a $10 or $20 bill in your hand the first day and remind him/her that you liked afternoon ice service? I've found that method works wonders, and for all kinds of other special requests. NCL is fighting to stay "alive" and this type of service will certainly not be a help. Cheers, John in LALALand (On the Left Coast) |
#3
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Norwegian Dawn Dec. 13-20
J Carnaghie wrote:
Tom M. wrote: To All, My wife and I sailed on the Norwegian Dawn Dec. 13 to Dec. 20. I came away with less that a favorable impression. The first day we dined at Le Bistro. The food was good but if you wanted lobster, there was a charge above and beyond the normal charge. When we returned to our suite we assumed we would find our last piece of checked luggage. Instead I found a nasty letter from the luggage police. I proceeded to the room where they were holding my luggage hostage. When I walked in I was asked which piece of luggage was mine. I pointed to it and was instructed to put it on the table, open it, and step back. The cop saw plastic beer bottles in my luggage and said "here's the problem, you cannot bring beer on board". I responded with "those bottles are filled with wine, my wife does not want glass bottles in our checked luggage". He then said "I will have to charge you a $15 corking fee". I paid it and sprung my bag. I found out later that NCL charges $15 for each bottle of wine you bring on board, whether you consume it in you stateroom or at dinner. We are Royal Caribbean cruisers and have bought wine at ports of call and brought it back to our stateroom without a hassle. Other things that soured us is: If we ran out of ice in the afternoon, we had to fetch our own. If you bought liquor at the port, both lines will confiscate it. RCL would bring it to your room on the last day of the cruise. Usually around noon. NCL holds your liquor until 9 PM on the last day and you have to go get it yourself. RCL delivers luggage tags on the last day. NCL forces you to go down to the desk for your tags. RCL excursion desk is staffed all day, NCL 6-9 PM. The toilet in our room did not work until 11 PM the first day and broke again 2 days later. Our knowledge of RCL is a year old. If any of you have been on a RCL cruise and the above recollections have changed, please respond to this post. Thanks in advance, Tom M. Dear Tom, Sounds like the Norwegian Dawn people have started the "cost containment" measures for real. Did they charge you $15 per beer bottle full of wine? I wonder what would have happened if you had used water bottles? Did you say "Hello" to your steward with a $10 or $20 bill in your hand the first day and remind him/her that you liked afternoon ice service? I've found that method works wonders, and for all kinds of other special requests. NCL is fighting to stay "alive" and this type of service will certainly not be a help. Cheers, John in LALALand (On the Left Coast) John, I was charged $15 for 1 bottle of wine. In reality I had the equivalent of 3 bottles. We did not see our steward until the third day. You see tipping is automatically added to your account on a daily basis. There is no need for the steward to introduce them selfs to you. I called the front desk on the first day, I was told that the stewards do not work between 3-6 PM. Cheers back at you, Tom |
#4
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Norwegian Dawn Dec. 13-20
In article , J Carnaghie
wrote: Did you say "Hello" to your steward with a $10 or $20 bill in your hand the first day and remind him/her that you liked afternoon ice service? I've found that method works wonders, and for all kinds of other special requests. There is no need to bribe the cabin attendant in advance to get service. If one desires ice in the afternoon it should be fulfilled. I am unclear though if the OP requested afternoon ice service or just expected it because that is the way it is done on Royal Caribbean. -- Charles |
#5
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Norwegian Dawn Dec. 13-20
In article , Tom M.
wrote: I was charged $15 for 1 bottle of wine. In reality I had the equivalent of 3 bottles. We did not see our steward until the third day. You see tipping is automatically added to your account on a daily basis. There is no need for the steward to introduce them selfs to you. I called the front desk on the first day, I was told that the stewards do not work between 3-6 PM. Every steward should introduce themselves the first day I agree there was no need for you to tip in advance for service. If you require something when the steward is off duty you should call the housekeeping office. They have staff on duty when the stewards are off duty. -- Charles |
#6
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Norwegian Dawn Dec. 13-20
Tom, how was the entertainment on the NCL Dawn? How was the food in the
buffet and in the dining room? I was not pleased with my last cruise on NCL, so I have avoided them since then. It was right after Katrina, I believe. Becca |
#7
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Norwegian Dawn Dec. 13-20
On Fri, 02 Jan 2009 12:58:21 -0600, "Tom M." wrote:
RCL delivers luggage tags on the last day. NCL forces you to go down to the desk for your tags. On the Sun in October, there was a reason for that - we got to choose our own debarcation time, which we did by picking up labels for that time. I thought there was an option to have the tags of your choice delivered to your room, but I might be mistaken. If you didn't go pick up your tags, they would have had to deliver at least four of every tag to every room, or they would have had to ask for everyone's preferred departure time and then distribute tags accordingly. The former would be inefficient and confusing, and given the problems cruise lines seem to have with paperwork, I wouldn't want to try the latter. I much prefer NCL's way to the other method I've seen, which is for the cruise line to assign a time at random without asking what I want. RCL excursion desk is staffed all day, NCL 6-9 PM. I think the hours vary by cruise or by ship, but excursion staff is certainly not there all the time, and that's not good. |
#8
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Norwegian Dawn Dec. 13-20
Becca wrote:
Tom, how was the entertainment on the NCL Dawn? How was the food in the buffet and in the dining room? I was not pleased with my last cruise on NCL, so I have avoided them since then. It was right after Katrina, I believe. Becca Becca, We found the entertainment to be alright. As for the food, the buffet was the same quality as RCL. The dining room was sub par to RCL. Tom M. |
#9
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Norwegian Dawn Dec. 13-20
Jack Hamilton wrote:
On Fri, 02 Jan 2009 12:58:21 -0600, "Tom M." wrote: RCL delivers luggage tags on the last day. NCL forces you to go down to the desk for your tags. On the Sun in October, there was a reason for that - we got to choose our own debarcation time, which we did by picking up labels for that time. I thought there was an option to have the tags of your choice delivered to your room, but I might be mistaken. If you didn't go pick up your tags, they would have had to deliver at least four of every tag to every room, or they would have had to ask for everyone's preferred departure time and then distribute tags accordingly. The former would be inefficient and confusing, and given the problems cruise lines seem to have with paperwork, I wouldn't want to try the latter. I've always liked NCL de-barcation better than RCI - as a matter of fact that was the worst thing about RCI IMO. They not only had no coherent explanation of what the various colors meant, or the schedule for them (you had to wait for your color and number to be called with no way to keep track of how much longer you might have to wait), but they kicked us out of the room at 8 am. NCL let us stay there until we were called. HAL let us stay there and had a color schedule on the TV so that we knew in advance what time we'd be getting off. I much prefer NCL's way to the other method I've seen, which is for the cruise line to assign a time at random without asking what I want. RCL excursion desk is staffed all day, NCL 6-9 PM. I think the hours vary by cruise or by ship, but excursion staff is certainly not there all the time, and that's not good. HAL was staffed at different hours. I don't remember RCI being there all the time but I don't think I had much occasion to deal with them. The NCL excursion desks have had hours in addition to 6-9 pm, and I've walked up as they were getting ready to close and booked a tour for that afternoon without any complaint on their part. |
#10
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Norwegian Dawn Dec. 13-20
In article , Rosalie B.
wrote: I've always liked NCL de-barcation better than RCI - as a matter of fact that was the worst thing about RCI IMO. They not only had no coherent explanation of what the various colors meant, or the schedule for them (you had to wait for your color and number to be called with no way to keep track of how much longer you might have to wait), RCI usually puts out a sheet with the colors and what they mean that they put in your cabin the final day. The show the order, that some color are early debarkation or express debarkation and some are for groups. They even put out the times. Also never had a problem changing colors on RCI at the pursers desk. Actually the worst I have found is Princess. On Princess you can't figure out from the colors the time and you never know when your color will be called. The colors are by deck but they don't call the decks in order. They skip around. And if you go to the pursers desk to request a change of colors they won't change them easily. They give you the third degree. -- Charles |
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