Our suite was definitely the highlight of our cruise. Our Owner’s Suite with two balconies (one right over the bow) was gorgeous, well-appointed, we’ll-maintained and a pleasure to spend the whole week in. Our room steward - Efrin - and butler - Charina - were both excellent, pro-active and did a great job taking care of our needs. However the ship itself seemed utterly mismanaged in almost every other respect.

Despite almost daily pre-cruise communications , none of the information we were provided turned out to be true once we actually arrived at the ship. Prior to embarkation were told that we would need to provide proof of vaccination and proof of a negative antigen or pcr test dated 24 hours prior to boarding. However when we arrived at the ship at the hour of our appointment we were greeted by an hour long line in the middle of the parking lot with no protection from the sun or explanation for the long wait. The Athens sun was strong, but no one from the ship had thought to provide any water to their guests. I had to go to the ships officers to suggest they might want to provide water to their guests sitting out in the hot sun. Once we got to the front of the line we were told that we would have to take a new antigen test and a pcr test (necessitated by our visit to Israel) and that we would be charged an additional $125 per person for the on-site test. Everyone complained about this development as none of this information was provided to us prior to arriving for embarkation. The young woman giving everyone the bad news apologized for the lack of accurate pre-cruise information and promised that the issue of the additional charge was being raised with senior staff in Miami. Ultimately there was an additional $250 charge for the test on our shipboard account.

While we all can understand that Covid makes travel more complex and stressful, there’s little to excuse NCL’s lack of preparation for the embarkation of this cruise or it’s general disrespect for their guests. It was truly the worst way to start a cruise. Read more