Passenger Revolt on Norwegian Cruise Line.

Passengers on Norwegian Cruise Line’s ship, Norwegian Sun, revolted forcing the captain to address ongoing issues negatively affecting all passengers. The ship, currently in the midst of a Miami to Los Angeles cruise via the Panama Canal, is due to go into dry dock for refurbishment after completion of the cruise. Apparently, in an effort to minimize time in dry dock, the company decided to start refurbishing during the cruise. As a result, several venues and activities have been closed at different times. Crews are hammering away refurbishing one of the restaurants, sometimes late into the night, causing passengers to call to complain the noise is keeping them awake. They are also refinishing several walkways on outdoor decks using heavy duty grinders to grind off the old deck toppings down to the metal. Then they are resurfacing the deck using a substance that, according to a passenger who is a chemist, is toxic and hazardous. The Deck 6 jogging deck has been cordoned off several days because of this. Muster stations were even blocked off, thus creating a potential safety hazard. Several passengers have gone to the ship’s doctor seeking relief from respiratory problems only to be saddled with medical charges in excess of $5000. All in all, passengers who paid a lot of money for this cruise are not getting their money’s worth. None of them expected to pay thousands of dollars for a once-in-a-lifetime vacation only to walk into a construction zone.

There were so many registered complaints that the captain was compelled to address the situation in front of about 300 passengers. He did not handle it well. He said it was a company decision to do this and he couldn’t do anything about it. When people started asking questions, he took offense and walked out to a loud chorus of boos. There were many people recording the incident on their phones, so I expect this will easily go viral - as it should. Subsequently, there were two passenger meetings to discuss the situation. Attendance grew to more than 400 people. Folks are angry that NCL used their precious vacation time to refurbish the ship. There was a letter from NCL in our stateroom last night apologizing for the “inconvenience” and offering a credit of 25% of the amount we paid for this trip toward a future cruise. The offer was good for one year. Personally, I’m not interested in that offer. I don’t want to give my business to a company that would do this in the first place. Read more