My sister and I have travelled on numerous cruises together and this was our first time trying Norwegian. We are comparing our experience on Norwegian with our experiences on multiple Carnival cruises as well as with Holland America. We are in our late 40s. We decided to take a family Christmas cruise with our parents (who are in their 70s), and my 2 teenage children to celebrate several milestones such as a 50th birthday, an 18th birthday and a 50th wedding anniversary. Here are our recommendations in no particular order:

1) DO NOT book your flights through Norwegian, no matter what "deal" they advertise!! They do not stand by their bookings, nor are they available when travel is cancelled or delayed by the carrier. Our parents’ flight was booked by Norwegian and instead of booking a direct one-hour flight from Oakland, CA to San Diego, CA, they instead booked them from Oakland to Salt Lake City and then from Salt Lake to San Diego. While en route to Salt Lake, the connecting flight to San Diego was cancelled and Norwegian couldn't have cared less. They passed off our parents to Delta to "figure it out with the carrier" and the ship set sail at the normally scheduled departure. My parents were one of at least 6 passengers in the same scenario. All 6 were left to fend for themselves with ZERO support or assistance from Norwegian. Needless to say, our parents did not get to spend Christmas or celebrate the milestones with their children or grandchildren and Norwegian made no attempt to help in any way or to make our trip any more enjoyable.

2) DO NOT cruise with Norwegian if you want clarity about what you've paid. On multiple attempts before the cruise we asked for a summary of charges and upgrades. We finally had to get a supervisor involved because not one representative we spoke with could provide us with this simple request. Read more