we had 7 days inner passage cruise from Vancouver to Seward. It was our first cruise and we were very excited about it. We had a party of 5 people and booked two staterooms. According to our more experienced friends Norwegian is the best cruise line so we decided to go with them, what a mistake...it is probably our last time with Norwegian.
Let me start with the booking process. Since we had family flying from Europe, we booked our staterooms in January, and got two staterooms with the porthole. Around April, the price dropped and we were upgraded to a balcony stateroom which was nice. However, two weeks before the cruise, the price dropped even further and the balcony stateroom was cheaper than the window room we originally booked. I called Norwegian and asked if they can give any on board credit, since the price difference was around $2,500 (total or five people). However, Norwegian refused to provide any credits claiming that I already received one upgrade and no more adjustments would be made. I wrote customer support team and didn't receive any response. After a week of waiting I reached out directly to a VP of customer relationships and within two hours received a call from a rep, who apologized for not responding to an email and offered $40 on board credit for it, but no credit for a price drop. The lesson to be learnt is to wait two weeks before the cruise if you are sailing off season and the ship is not sold out.
The cruise experience itself was ok, the rooms were fine, the balcony is definitely a plus. The quality of food, was mediocre but perfectly edible. We didn't go to the specialty restaurants as we didn't feel like paying extra money for ship food. Also, I believe that the food in Tzar is not cooked on board but rather reheat.
The balcony cabin we had, was nice and allowed us to spend time watching glaciers in our stateroom, while avoiding the crowd on the deck
Waste of time, stopped by a tiny waterfall and waited for a bear for 40 minutes
Embarkation was a mess. we were waiting two for a check-in in by Norwegian crew.
nice view of the glaciers