On Saturday, 12th March, my wife and I set sail on our first (and probably last) cruise with Norweigan Cruise Line departing New York for the Caribbean. Regretably, this cruise in no way lived up to ‘the best cruise vacation you’ve ever had’. Bearing in mind the excessive response time a number of disgruntled passengers have experienced, I wrote direct to the CEO (Mr. F. J. Del Rio) at their Corporate Office in Miamai on 29th March detailing the seven matters we were most unhappy with. An extract from my letter detailing these is as follows:.

(1) Norovirus. This outbreak was most unfortunate but the stated number of cases is vastly below the number we believe is correct. We understand there was a smaller outbreak on the preceding cruise and this was the root cause of our outbreak and not the drinking water in San Juan, as advised by the Captain. Surely if this drinking water was the cause, then ships visiting this port at the same day as us would also be affected to the same extent and yet nothing like the Norwegian Gem outbreak was reported. The apparent re-occurrence of this virus on Norwegian Gem may well explain why we were refused entry into St. Martaan which we understand is an extremely rare occupancy.

(2) Accommodation. Our cabin steward was generally courteous and polite. However, on a number of occasions, our cabin was not made up until 2pm even although we had left the ‘Please Make Up This Room’ sign when we left for breakfast at around 8am. There was a crack in the basin and the toilet did not immediately flush on at least 5 occasions. Maintenance had to be called once to rectify this fault. Neither our balcony window or sliding door were cleaned at all despite written assurances this would be undertaken. Read more