After much consideration we booked our first non-dcl cruise on the Escape. The price was right, hubby was encouraged by the District brewhouse and DS17 by the all-night wing availability. We were determined to go in with open minds. We LOVE dcl, but the price is so prohibitive, the only question to ask was…are we cruisers or are we Disney cruisers?

My first contact with NCL was through their central reservation centre. I have to say, that while the reps were very friendly and courteous. I didn’t “trust” them after awhile. I had a situation that required the agent to rebook us, which they said they did. I called back a month later, they had not. I then asked a bunch of questions about booking the day spa pass. I knew from Cruise Critic that the only day I could purchase was a port day and only if available, but the res agent said that was incorrect, and I could go to headliners as soon as we board to do that….ummmmm…ok…maybe that’s a policy change ( the liquid carry on policy changed for us between booking and embarkation) We were boarding group 3 , went to headliners, nope go to Guest services, get to guest services, nope, go to the spa, at this point I feel like No one knows what they are doing, so I gave up. Also we needed to book our comedy stuff since we couldn’t access the app in the terminal. We tried that at headliners too, nope go to the Box Office. We tell the guy we want to book everything that requires a reservation ( we already booked the 2 main shows online prior) He writes it down on a piece of scrap paper and assures us he will take care of it when the system is available…ummmmm ok?

As many of you have, no doubt, heard, the weather was not the best for us. We had rough seas ,rain and high winds for a few days. I feel like most company’s perform well when things go as expected but the real test of a company’s mettle is when things go sideways and how it is handled. I have to say my biggest issue with NCL is lack of communication. When the weather turned and the shows got cancelled there was no way to know the trickle down affect it had on every other show and venue. At one point we went to see a comedian and after lining up were told that the show had been reschedualed (trickle down effect, I guess) Even the NCL staff person there didn’t know – he was asking us. With the app and interactive screens, surely there must be a way to flash that on a screen somewhere. Ok, so that’s my beef about communication. Read more