Norwegian Escape, Mediterranean
4
Cruise overall was essentially disappointing..
Transfers arranged were originally set to Private but after a lift and shift seemed this was put on a shared but we was not informed and this was not expected so wasted tme onto customer services whom said essentially ... you will not change, you will follow what we have set for you.
Onboarding was slow, disappointing and not correct. Slow due to having haven was due for fast lane but that lane seemed slower then normal lane. Disapointing due to we expected Fast access and lounge access but this was not in Rome. Had this been explained I may have not turned up on time and waited so long.
After boarding we could not use the "Haven" elevator (for embarkation day only) as our card didn't was not haven related, however after operator checked it was, this was changed (after an hour wait, man the queues with issues was not resolved quickly), NCL need to
throw more people at this ..... be this CS or Haven seems people had a lot wrong once they boarded.
To be brief ... we caught covid into the cruise and this was when measures were more strict and we was told "ship flu" we brought home tests and they indicated we more had "wuhan flu"... and the funny thing our tests results defined in 15 minutes ... on board medical ... was 5 minutes ... but informed to wear a mask in public areas.
We wore masks and did not venture out too much, I believe NCL preferred not to report the numbers, by the end of the cruise more than 70% were wearing masks
So whilst we had the a few days as soon as day 4 people were masking up. To be honest this should have been a indication we should have taken into account. Seems "Ship Flu" was common.
I will say the staff on board was lovely, Restaurant staff, my issue is related to how they dealt with the case of what we believe was Covid.
We did enjoy what we could, we did isoloate to a degree obviously more than others with "ship flu" but it to be blunt ruined our cruise.
We did speak with NCL and get a FCC (Future Cruise Credit) towards something in the future, I am not sure things have been addressed to be honest and whilst we are NCL silver members and cruise with NCL more than other lines
Entertainment was ok/good.
Casino smokers seemed to smoke in non-smoking areas and this was not checked. Whilst some smokers were thoughtful even in smoking areas some people seemed to be on the offensive whilst you past, I am an ex smoker and whilst I appreciate you are allow to smoke, some seem to make it a mission to bloke smoke towards everyone whom was passing.
I would like to hope our next NCL will be better but I am glad I am not doing a One in a lifetime cruise with them until I gain trust. Had it not been for Transfer, Covid and Smoking we may have actually enjoyed but NCL didn't seem to want us to.
Stuart
Post Date: 03/02/2023
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