Horrible customer service

[Chelle]

Had the worst experience on the Norwegian Encore and the only answer we get from them is too bad. My mother-in-law spent her entire life savings to take her only son and his spouse and a couple family members on a vacation. We have only been on 1 other vacation 13 years ago.

They gave away her disability assessable room and left her unable to use the balcony and her bathroom. They told her to travel down 2 deck floors whenever she needed to go to the bathroom. Absolutely Unacceptable! We spent the first 4 days in our room,after canceling our excursions, trying to figure out how to build her a ramp or find a hospital commode chair in any of the upcoming ports, at our expense. We didn't even have our room cleaned in that time. My husband had to walk more than a mile, each way, from the boat into Skagway to pick up a commode chair from a wonderful doctor's office. On day 5 they told us that they had an empty assessable room from someone who never made the boat, five floors down. Unacceptable! They didn't know how to deal with food allergies properly and they kept taking away food I could eat and almost killed me once with something I definitely couldn't eat. They lied about what needed to be declared on the customs form and had us escorted off the boat to the customs agents and questioned, embarrassing and anxiety inducing. 

Horrible experience all around and Norwegian doesn't care. I will never stop talking about the WORST CRUISE LINE EVER!!!

[PaulB]

This is shocking. Absolutely shocking. In today's age, how can any company believe this is acceptable. What were they thinking the outcome would be. But nobody in these companies cares. They couldn't care less. They will no doubt apologise which is nothing as your holidays have been ruined. They may even give you some monies back, but again this means absolutely nothing because you have already spent a load being on the worst cruise. They have still made money on your misery. I'm sorry for your experience. 

[Kendall James-Vargas]

@Chelle This is one of the many complaints I have seen on Norwegian Cruise Line lately. 

Overall this is one of the worst and most horrifying reviews I have read about the line and its customer service. I don't understand how you could promise a room and not have it available, but to top it off, change the room type in such a way that the guest doesn't have access to the bathroom. I actually find that inhumane and very unjust that the cruise line would be able to dismiss this situation. It's completely frustrating to hear you had to come up with your own ramp accommodations, to find out that there was a vacant accessible room available throughout the entirety of the days you spent trying to make things work. 

I can tell that your post isn't hypercritical and seems very genuine and sincere. Some guests nitpick the little things like the food repetition or lack of seating at the pool, but this scenario has me pretty appalled. It's unacceptable for something like this to be overlooked.

[PaulB]

It certainly doesn't send the right message about wanting to sail with them. It disheartens me to see such customer service. It appears to be getting worse lately

 

[Cruising Caribbean]

@Chelle This is certainly an extreme occurrence, but poor experiences like this do occur. There are often hiccups and glitches that occur including common human error, but if there is no one interested/available to correct those errors that's surely when things start moving south quickly. Reviews like this one occur because someone dropped the ball and no one else is willing/interested to pick it back up. Instead of making your case a priority, the cruise line chose to dismiss you to the point of extreme disappointment.

[davidE]

Sorry you had a horrible experience on your family cruise. It sucks when you get treated like that, paying a big chunk of money too. This sure seems like they violated your legal right to an accessible room. 

[Kendall James-Vargas]

@davidE This is just one of the many NCL mishaps I have read lately, but this one is likely one of the worst. Not offering accessibility options as initially promised it depriving someone of basic needs, such as using the bathroom. Reading this made me very upset that the cruise line ended up having an accessible stateroom all along for this passenger but neglected to notify the guest sooner. It's such a shame! 

[PaulB]

I agree with many of the posts on here, a few teething problems and issues do occur, and in general you can overlook little things, however when it seems to be the norm and no companies care about these teething issues, that is when as a consumer, we have every right to feel niggled and angry. Some companies don't look at the bigger picture, and they don't seem to care that we are spending our hard earned money with them and deserve to be treated with more respect.

[LukeJ]

@PaulB I do tend to agree with what you're saying. I can forgive silly little teething problems that happen, it's only natural. But if the companies don't learn and continue and don't even care, then that is something that we shouldn't allow to happen.

[Kendall James-Vargas]

@LukeJ I do support you on this one! Despite these sad customer service stories I have been reading lately about Norwegian Cruise Line, the line is still growing in popularity. I find it bizarre, but I guess the cruise line is still doing something right. NCL's second Prima-class ship, Norwegian Viva, recently announced its Godfather, Luis Fonsi. The amount of next-level ships being added to the fleet is significant. I wonder if the cruise line's customer service will continue to decline as the fleet grows and the service becomes more and more diluted. 

[PaulB]

It also baffles me that as @Kendall James-Vargas you say that NCL is growing in popularity. How can a company that treats guests with so much disrespect get bigger and popular? Is it because we now accept that this lax customer service is now the norm?

[Chelle]

Sent many letters to all levels at their head office and got a reply from the Vice president of guest services. He admitted fault with everything but said that "policy" is they will give a $100 credit to cruise again. It must be used within 1 year. After more letters they bumped it up to a $300 credit. That's absurd! Talked to a consumer rescue group and was told that they have been firing a lot of there people and "are not in bankruptcy yet, but are being looked at by the Pennsylvania district attorney", so there is nothing they can help us with. This seems to be their way of saving money, screwing their customers, (we are definitely not their guests). I feel bad for all the people that will lose money if they do go bankrupt. No integrity whatsoever. 

[3Sisters]

@Chelle You really did your due diligence here! I'm actually impressed you made it as far as you did in terms of attaining a reply from the Vice President of guest services. I wasn't expecting you to reach the $300 credit opportunity. That just goes to show not giving up can certainly get you somewhere. I would imagine it took a very long time to receive any sort of response. Turnaround time must have been dragged out. I do agree that the line hasn't been keen on customer service lately. What's so wild is that people still book with NCL all the time. I guess you just have to learn the hard way. Once something like this happens to you; you can't go back to booking with the line again. 

[Ralph]

We just got back from the Alaska cruise on NCL Bliss.  What a horrible guest service and security departments they have.  We are both on the Sapphire Latitude level so you can see we’ve been loyal up to point.  We paid for our son to join us as he hadn’t been able to afford a vacation.  During the cruise his cabin toilet became plugged up so naturally he reported it.  Soon thereafter a Security Officer shows up and point blank asks him “what was in the plastic bag that plugged up the toilet “.  Mind you his toilet system is connected to 50 other cabins.  The officer was aggressive and insinuated that there was an illegal substance.  My son and girlfriend both vehemently denied this insinuation.  Guest Service was not sympathetic to to this issue!  Finally after both my wife and I intervening did they indicate they would consider the matter.  What did NCL do?  Give them a cheap bottle of wine.  Our son will NEVER sail with NCL and neither will we.  Our son is telling everyone what a rotten cruise line they are.  Yes NCL does not care!!!  

[Kendall James-Vargas]

@Ralph I'm so disappointed to hear that the NCL Bliss guest service and security departments treated your family this way! It's just such a bad taste in your mouth for you to have to encounter this insinuation and have to handle it on your end while trying to have a relaxing vacation. I have been hearing of many negative occurrences recently about NCL and its customer service. This surely is a shame. Have you cruised with any other lines in the past? There are so many other, wonderful options out there. I hope you continue to cruise on with other lines! 

[Ralph]

Txs.  Royal Caribbean Line is now our preference.

[3Sisters]

@Ralph I'm glad you are moving on from this horrid NCL experience. RCL is going to be such a better fit, with itinerary options galore. It is a bummer you had to endure this upsetting event onboard your last NCL cruise, but if anything you are committing to sail with what I consider a much better cruise line! With all of RCL's new ships, you really can't compete with the cruise prices or quality. Not to mention the guests onboard definitely know how to have a good time!