My wife and I chose this cruise because a visit to the Holy Land had been on our bucket list. The staff on the ship generally were competent, the excursions well run however their front desk staff were on a couple occasions aloof and dismissive. We had a metal ventilation grate fall off the ceiling 2 nights in a row and hit the floor adjacent to the bed. The HVAC system in our cabin was noisy so it took us longer than usual to fall asleep and fortunately neither of us are light sleepers. Also one of our destinations was cancelled (Patmos) on short notice. However, none of these issues is the main concern we would like to address with this review.

It seems their standards of customer service have dropped during the covid period. This is evidenced by the erroneous communication regarding covid testing requirements and subsequent charges totalling $300 for PCR tests to get on the ship that we were specifically advised were not necessary if an antigen test was presented at embarkation. Out of 20 people on our bus 8 were in the same situation as my wife and I. We pointed to their web page which indicated an antigen test was sufficient to board the ship but were barked at by the NCL rep saying that no PCR test no embarkation. We were forced to sign a paper that we would pay. In subsequent dealings with customer service upon our return they stonewalled us and refused to acknowledge the contradiction between the testing instructions on their own website and what they coerced from us at embarkation. My wife and I felt like we'd been treated very unprofessionally.

Having spent 40 years working for a large corporation myself, I recognise all the signs of an organisation in distress. It is my experience, when times are tough accountants start making decisions that negatively impact product quality, in this case customer service. We bear no grudge against most staff who are only following policy passed on to them from senior levels. Out of curiosity I've looked at recent NCL reviews and compared them to older reviews from several years ago. There is a clear trend to much worse reviews recently. Read more