We booked this cruise a year in advance with life-long friends to celebrate our 30th anniversary and their 25th. We live about 1500 miles apart now, but we got together last year and booked the cruise on speaker phone to assure we were getting the rooms, etc we wanted for this special occasion. We booked connecting rooms with the NCL phone rep, and these were confirmed in emails, etc. When we boarded, we found out we were at opposite ends of the ship, both parties adjoining with strangers. Customer service on the ship told us there was nothing they could do to attempt to remedy the problem and after getting the run around between representatives, we were offered $100 for our “inconvenience”. This was the trip of a lifetime to Alaska for both parties, for which we paid close to $6000 per couple, before excursions. We had booked specifically with NCL and had turned down all room upgrade opportunities, so we could be together, yet we were met by a basically no one cared attitude, which we were told came from corporate.

In addition to this issue, there were others that marred this trip. We felt much of the entertainment was of poor quality, compared to other cruise lines. The Havana musical, was performed with a good deal of inappropriate language and unfortunately, the actors presented with what sounded like Russian accents, taking away from the Hispanic setting story line. The Levity Comedy duo, also had difficulty with such dry humor, and appeared to fall flat with the audience when grouped together. The Jersey Boys musical included wonderful singers, but again, the use of inappropriate language really stood out. Our stateroom also presented difficulty as there was an odd, round steel support beam directly outside our door, making entrance and egress difficult due to its poor engineering. The ship itself, although brand new, was plain and contained very little art or other decorations you would expect to see on a ship of this caliber. I point this out as this type of “eye candy” has always been a big part of the overall presentation on all our previous cruises with Royal Caribbean. This lack of visual interest made for an overall dull on board experience.

The electronics and energy saving devices on board, although commendable, such as needing to insert your room key in a slot to keep the lights on in the cabin, the manner in which to increase the water temperature and/or pressure in the shower, or even the buttons required to access the public restroom spaces around the ship, were a bit of a mystery and not at all explained. If you weren’t familiar with travel outside of the US, these aspects could be confusing. At one point, I found myself yelling directions through the door of one of the public use restrooms in order to help a gentleman who was stuck inside and could not navigate his way out. In another instance, while on the observation area, a fire alarm went off and continued to blare for at least 15 minutes. No one communicated what to do or what was happening, just the high pitched sound. When asked, we were told that this happens “all the time” by the wait staff serving drinks. In that same observation room, there were sofas and chairs that are used by everyone onboard, dirty feet/shoes, food, and drink droppings included. When we booked, we choose the beverage package that included alcholic drinks, for which we prepaid all gratuities, and yet, we were charged for beer tastings, an additional tax while in Seattle waters, and then when we asked for glasses of water with which toreturn to our cabin, had bartenders on more than a couple occasions who rolled their eyes or handed them to us with an attitude. Read more