I was looking forward to this cruise because i always had the impression that Norwegian was a high quality cruise line compared to others. I have to say that after one trip with them, I much preferred Royal Caribbean based on service alone. I was truly disappointed in the service that Norwegian provided, it was hard to find people when you needed them, no one went out of their way to help ever, and most of the time they seemed annoyed and gave me the impression they didn't enjoy their job.

We quickly realized that this trip was sold as a College Spring Break cruise which I was not notified of upon booking. My friend and I are in our 30's and while we tried to keep an open mind, it was pretty awful. I got the impression that because most of the ship was spring breakers, the staff didn't care to impress any of us. The trip started off poorly when we arrived for embarkation, we were later than we wanted to be but well within the window we were given. I guess most people were on the cruise already because the staff seemed utterly annoyed with us. They rushed us an told us we only had 10 minutes at the door, and made us walk a long distance to bring our bags to a gentleman who made little effort to assist to us. All he did was write our cabin number on a tag, attach it to our bags then promptly said "Would you like to tip generously for the handling of your bags?" That really took me back and made me completely uncomfortable, as if he would mishandle our bags if we didn't. As I was checking in after this ordeal i asked them how much longer people could check in and they responded "about two hours". I couldn't believe how nasty everyone was outside and how stressed they made me saying we only had 10 minutes, when in reality we had 2 more hours.

I hoped once we got on the boat the staff would be better.. wrong. In addition to all that, there was a leak and our floor was wet and the room smelled very musty. I will say that they tried to remedy it by leaving us a bottle of wine and chocolate covered strawberries which I did appreciate. I also found it odd that they were doing maintenance on half of the pool deck for the entire cruise while 2000+ spring breakers crowded the one side that was available. Poor timing to redo the deck floor. And finally, as if it couldn't get worse when we arrived home my friend's credit card was charged $100 that she did not authorize. After going back and forth with Norwegian, they reported that it was for two bottles of liquor.. bourbon and vodka which neither of us drink. They insisted that her credit card was swiped which is impossible unless someone stole it. This trip had the beverage package included with unlimited drinks, we had no reason to purchase two bottles of liquor. I also found it interesting that when the receipt was at our door the morning we left, only my receipt and charges were there. They conveniently did not provide a receipt showing this additional $100 they charged to my friend. They refused to refund it causing her to dispute with her credit card company. I am completely blown away at how terribly this company treats their customers. We were not spring breakers, and we paid a lot of money, only to be treated like second class citizens. If customer service is important to you, cruise with Royal Caribbean.