I had taken this cruise before, ten years ago, and it was wonderful. American Airlines caused us to not land in Honolulu until 6:15 p.m. We had time to make it to the pier by 7:00, but the ship sent a rep from a tour company to console us (and others) rather than taking us to the pier. We found out later from another cruiser that the ship actually left port early and was already gone by 6:15. They left early with full knowledge that we and others were going to be cutting it close because we (and others) called and notified them 8 hours in advance. American Airlines provided us with a hotel room in Honolulu and flew us to Maui the next morning at 5 a.m. where we had to wait for two hours because the cruise port wasn't open yet. When we finally arrived at the ship, nobody apologized. Nobody even acknowledged our ordeal. Nor did they offer anything in the way of recompense (onboard credit, a dinner in one of their restaurants, free alcohol, etc.) When we got to our room, we looked at our shore excursion envelope and found that 3 of the excursions we had booked would not accommodate for our walkers...even though this stipulation wasn't mentioned in any of the descriptions on the NCL website...which we had read carefully and never would have booked if they had said this. Why would people with walkers book excursions that state in writing that they will not accommodate walkers? And, rather than apologizing for our continued disappointment, the shore excursion agent on ship claimed that the website did say this, basically accusing us both of lying. She claimed that it states that all excursions above activity level one said this. But, they didn't. They said that it may require significant walking with steps and uneven terrain, which I can handle with my all terrain walker. She did manage to get us on two of the excursions by "calling in favors". But, we had to change the others at more expense. She claimed that this rule was because of liability. But, we realized that it was actually a space issue. All of the excursions that utilize large busses with storage compartments will accommodate walkers. The excursions that utilize small vans that have no storage refuse to accommodate walkers. So, at the end of the day, it was about profit...about packing as many bodies as possible onto those vehicles.

The Aloha Buffet was a nightmare for both of us. It was crowded and unorganized which is to be expected, but made worse because there was no designated area for disabled persons with space to park walkers and wheelchairs. Rather, there were "disabled only" tables scattered around close to the walkways. We actually had an employee come and tell us that we would have to move our walkers out of the walkway. Where did he expect us to put them? Plus, there were no employees walking around to go get things for people or refill drinks, etc. which is common on other cruise lines. I actually saw one older lady with a cain fall down because there was water on the floor. My co-traveler is allergic to onions. There was no information at the buffet about what ingredients each dish contained. When she got tired of eating hot dogs, hamburgers, and making her own "onion free" sandwiches out of whatever she could find, we ultimately gave up and started going to the dining room whenever it was available (but it often didn't open early enough for breakfast before our excursions). And, the waiters in the dining room didn't know which options were onion free. Rather, they had one "allergy" waiter who covered both dining rooms to help those with allergies make the right choices. He, of course, couldn't do it well because he was only one human being trying to service two large dining rooms.

Every evening, we would try to use the hot tubs after returning from our excursions. Around 6:00 pm, employees would start stacking up the chairs and closing down the poolside bars. When I asked about this, the staff member with insignia said that they had to do that in order to sanitize the deck, which was required by law. When I pressed about why this was being done so early, she admitted that it had to be done while the swing shift employees were still on duty; basically because they didn't have a night shift crew anymore. So, we were being denied use of the pool deck because NCL didn't want to pay late night workers to clean it after cruisers were asleep. Also, hot tubs are supposed to be "hot" by definition. We only encountered one that was actually hot one time during our cruise. And, cruisers didn't have access to the temperature controls. I brought this to the staff's attention twice but nothing was ever done. It's the same old corporate greed that I see everywhere. They're all laying off workers and pretending that they can provide the same service with fewer workers who are being paid poverty wages. It was obvious that, at some point, NCL made the decision to sacrifice service for the sake of profits...and it shows. I would not recommend this cruise to anyone over the age of 60, anyone with mobility issues, or anyone with food allergies. If you have no health issues and don't really care about service, then NCL is the cruise line for you. Several days after we returned home, I checked my credit card online and found that NCL had refunded about 2 grand from my card, which I appreciate. But, it would have been nice if they had indicated that they were going to do this. Perhaps, I could have enjoyed the cruise better if I had known that some money was going to be refunded to make up for being left behind. My attitude would have been much more positive if, when we finally made it to the ship in Maui, someone from NCL had met us outside with a complimentary drink, a bellman to take our luggage into the ship, and an apology. But, it appeared to us that nobody cared at all about our ordeal. Total lack of professionalism.