For my mother's 60th birthday, a few family members and I got a 2-bedroom suite on the Epic, sailing to the South Caribbean. Since my mother's family is Dutch, I chose an itinerary that visited some Dutch-speaking islands. About a month before the cruise, Norwegian eliminated Bonaire from the itinerary, scheduled for my mother's birthday. The day of embarkment, it took so long to get to the port, we ended up walking the last mile, rolling our luggage over a half-gravel path. We arrived to hundreds of people (if not more), standing in a long line that zig-zagged randomly into the street. I asked the porters if there was a different line for Haven guests. No one knew. There were no Norwegian employees in sight, and no signage anywhere. Another porter I asked said if we tipped him, he'd get us to the front of the line. We did that. While waiting, though, the first NCL employee we saw pushed out a trolley containing two cambros filled with water. Because he didn't pull the trolley, it tipped over when he hit a pothole, knocking my mother to the ground and injuring her. I asked each employee we encountered to report this accident and to see the nurse. Each employee said to speak to someone different.

Finally, our concierge attempted to get in touch with the nurse, which turns out was only available from 6 pm to 7:30 pm. We were told the nurse would get in touch with us, nearly 3 hours later. After not getting the nurse's call, I called the nurse multiple times without success. Finally, I called 9-1-1 onboard, and got an operator who spoke with the nurse. She said the nurse would open the doors if we went now. When we got to the nurse's room, no one answered the door, and this time calls to the operator would fruitless. Infuriated, I walked and my mother limped to the guest services desk. There, the supervisor pulled as aside from the other guests. She told us three things: 1) no one could get in touch with the nurse; 2) we needed to realize that the nurse is "not our primary care physician" and 3) she was not allowed to offer medication, but she had a bottle of ibuprofen, which we would purchase for $15.

To make a long story short, our concierge was able to finally get in touch with the nurse at 9pm, six hours after the accident. The doctor thought it serious enough to take x-rays, and prescribed an anti-inflammatory and a pain killer. The security lead asked questions like if my mother was drinking, if she was wearing glasses, if she had ill-fitted shoes, etc. None of those things applied. The security lead said he would interview other witnesses, which never happened. In the end, my mother's 60th birthday cruise was spent limping around with large bruises (see photo). She got apologies from the concierge, butler and room steward, but that's about it. Read more