I apologize for the length of this post; this review is mostly a PSA for other passengers about a very unpleasant, more or less vacation-ruining experience that I fear others with children may encounter on this ship. However, I should start by mentioning that our stateroom attendant (Rhaman was amazing, loved the towel animals), the waiters, bartenders, and other service people were on the whole lovely and helpful. We also enjoyed the entertainment onboard (the house band is great and we enjoyed the karaoke), and of course the views of Alaska were stunning. Food was overall reasonably good, some of it very good, and there was plenty of it, overall about par for cruise ship fare. Embarkation was very slow and unpleasant, but this may be better now with the recent COVID rule relaxation. However, prospective passengers should be aware of the episode I describe below even if they don't plan to bring children, because the serious behavior of this NCL employee is not only alarming, but I got the impression that this is something that she does habitually without repercussions. I should emphasize that this story while bizarre, is not exaggerated in the least.

On the second or third day of our cruise, several well-behaved children (my 2 daughters, 2 nieces, and 2 children of friends we had met on the ship) were shouted at by a NCL representative and her male companion (I presume this was a co-traveler or loved one?) and told to leave. This NCL employee and her companion were evidently upset that the children were playing in the pool which they felt was meant to be a designated adults only pool and proceeded to very belligerantly verbally assault (not hyperbole) my wife, my sister, then me when I arrived to the area of the conversation. For reasons I cannot fathom, the employee’s companion shouted about how we should leave and how poorly-mannered our children were an inch or two from my face in French very rudely (and evidently unaware that I can speak French until I began to reply), while simultaneously the NCL employee herself was shouting loudly and rudely at my wife (in English, if that matters). My nieces are adopted children of African-American race, and the French-speaking companion mentioned their blackness in his tirade (which fortunately they could not understand). This female employee (who was wearing a NCL name badge but not a uniform for whatever reason) was not quietened or corrected by security or other personnel who were there but the other NCL employees seemed deferential to her. This employee stated that our "travel agent should have known that this boat is not for kids" and proceeded to shame my wife for having the poor judgment to join a NCL cruise with children. We did not book through a travel agent and never have on our many prior cruises and one subsequent cruise. Embarrassed, my family ultimately left the pool area. This same pool had signage at that time (visible from where the employee was accosting us) stating that it was allowed for children under 12 with adult supervision (I was literally in the pool with the children and all other parents were at poolside or nearby, along with a grandparent). For what it is worth there were no other passengers in the pool nor anyone else very close. Of note, we had also previously asked Guest services which pool was for children and were directed to this pool. Later we learned that the daily itinerary mentioned in small font that there was a different pool as designated for children for that day (apparently this varies from day to day?), at the time of our children going to the pool, by checking both the signage and asking guest services to be sure that we were not putting children in an adults-only area, we had done considerably more due diligence than should really be required. It gets even more bizarre that we were run out of the pool when we looked at the NCL website FAQs and saw that the definition of an “adults-only pool” online is a pool that requires adult supervision for any children under 12!

This episode ruined much more than just a nice, enjoyable family time in the pool; our party, especially the adults, felt very anxious and self-conscious throughout the rest of the cruise… we worried especially that they would be rudely assaulted again just for being children on a boat, and we were hyperconscious of the rude NCL employee and her party until we left the ship 3-4 days later for the last time. It was tremendously fortunate that the 4 children in our party (my daughters and nieces) are exceptionally well-behaved and relatively quiet children who enjoy reading and are capable of sitting still, but even still we spent the cruise in constant vigilance to avoid the rude NCL employee and her party, and in constant fear that our children would again be accosted. Just as bad as the episode itself was the almost complete lack of support we received from other staff, who seemed afraid to confront this employee. A few service staff who witnessed the episode later discretely told us that they were sorry for what happened and that it was wrong how we had been treated, but this was essentially all of the support we received from any staff, including guest services. In fact, the most concrete action we saw in response to this was that a hand-written sign was taped up near this pool which explicitly forbade access to anyone under 18, covering up the previously noted signage that stated otherwise! We made a complaint to the Guest Services desk, and a Guest Services representative did speak to the NCL employee. Little came of it. Guest Services simply relayed back to us the (blatantly untrue) version of this episode that the NCL employee had given, such as our children being unmonitored and poorly behaved etc., that we confronted her first, that we were the ones shouting, etc. etc… Her story would have been easily contradicted (and ours corroborated) by a brief review of the camera footage of the pool area, or else by an interview of any of the many security personnel, bartenders, other guests, etc. who witnessed it. This evidently was not done. Guest Services also mentioned that the NCL employee reportedly offered to meet with us to apologize, but we declined, in part because the fact that she was lying about the whole story to Guest Services belied the authenticity of any putative apology, and in part because we were desperately trying to relax and enjoy the rest of our cruise rather than relive, or worse, rekindle, this confrontation. Read more