Ship Review: We did a Land and Sea cruise with Holland American (HM) our second and probably our last. Land first starting at Fairbanks then boarding Veendam a week later at Haynes. Our flight to Fairbanks arrived at 1:00 AM so we had paid $132.79 each (which we thought a rip-off ) for early check in and were charged for it knowing we would arrive very late. When we arrived at Fairbanks Airport others with early check in were given their hotel keys and bused immediately to the hotel. Not us. They had no record of our reservation even though my showed them a valid reservation number. HM said it was the hotels problem.
When we got to the hotel about 2:00 AM we stood near the back of the line of about 30 while a lone clerk checked people in. The folks in front of us got a room for $100. The clerk had no record of our reservation and blamed HM. Our room cost $160? The clerk blamed the problem on HM. We got to bed about 3:00 AM. Remodeling work in the room next door started at 8:00 AM sharp. The next morning we tried to resolve the problem with the hotel manager without success but later they decided to refund the $160 and go with the $265.58. We thought we should be charged $100 like the folks in front of us as we had not received any early check in benefits.
We have tried very hard to resolve this but HM thinks that we got what we paid for, early check in. The thing you can concluded from this is that HM has no problem screwing someone who has spent thousands with them for $165.58. An interesting fact is that the cruise line owns the hotel so the finger pointing is just a ruse to get you to go away. We rate their customer service as zero!

Ship Review: Last year I was planning to write a review about my bad experience with Norwegian Sun during my cruise to Alaska but later decided not to do it. This year I took another cruise with NCL on Norwegian Dawn to the western Caribbean. It was the last trip of Norwegian Dawn before the multimillion dollar renovation and it came as no surprise that the ship was outdated and stained. But my review isn’t going to be about that, just let me mention that we did not use the pool and jacuzzis because they were old and dirty. Hopefully these problems will be fixed during the renovation, so there is no need to mention them.

But the renovation project by itself brought up another completely different problem normally not encountered on other ships. NCL decided to save time and money and start renovation during the cruise by performing some work at sea. It was very inconvenient and annoying having piles of plywood stocked on decks, workers removing old paint and repainting, and so on. Some of the passengers reported workers entering their cabins to perform work on their balconies.
Lesson learned: do not book a trip on a ship right before it is scheduled for dry dock.

Now on to things that can’t be fixed by renovation. First of all, I could not stop comparing this ship to a Norwegian Sun. Even though the Norwegian Sun is smaller than the Norwegian Dawn (78,309 GT vs 92,250 GT) inside, the ocean view and balcony cabins on the Sun are bigger than on the Dawn. Our tiny oceanview cabin was entirely occupied by the bed, leaving us no room for any movement other than going in and out.

The cabin service was almost nonexistent. On the sixth day of our cruise we ran out of soap - both hard soap and body wash. We discovered this only when we returned from the offshore excursion, and it took three phone calls to the Help desk and a lot of waiting to get the supplies.

The entertainment was boring even compared to the Sun and the TV on board the ship was running same the movies all 10 days.

We all know Latitudes Rewards Program is not the best in the industry. For example, as a silver member on Cunard I receive one free hour of Internet, and I do not have to buy any of their Internet packages. As a silver member on NCL I receive only 30 minutes free and only if I buy the 250 minute Internet package. But when I bought the 250 minute Internet package on Norwegian Dawn I did not receive my Latitudes rewards. I tried to talk to several people: the Internet manager, Help desk, and the Hotel manager without any results. The Internet manager I talked to first was very rude and did not listen to my complaint at all.

To be objective I should mention a few good things about this cruise. First and foremost the food was not bad at all. We loved the Le Bistro and Modesto restaurants and the food in the main dining restaurant and buffet was OK.

Of course buffet could have had more variety, and some improvements could be made, like advising the waiters not to grab plates without asking permission.

The ports of calls we visited during this cruise were also good. In my opinion it was a very good combination of exciting destinations to reach in one cruise. But this brings me to another matter often discussed on various forums by fellow passengers: not enough time in port. Even when our ship was scheduled to be in most ports from 8 AM until 5 PM the real timeframe for the passengers to be offshore was from 8:30 AM until 4:30 PM. In most ports sometimes even less. This is definitely not long enough to enjoy time offshore in a new port. Sometimes the distance to the next destination dictates a short time period that the ship can stay in port. Not in our case. Four of our ports of calls where in very close proximity to each other, sometimes less than 200 miles
(the distance from Costa Maya to Cozumel) but we still did not stay in port long enough. I wish Cruise companies will reconsider their position on this matter.

Ship Review: We wanted to share our recent cruise experience to Alaska on the Crown Princess, May 6th thru 13th.
We have been on several cruises in the past and never have we experienced such disregard for the passengers. There are several things that went wrong with this Cruise: customer service was rude and condescending, the food was cold and nasty, and the ship was dirty on decks. This was Just an overall horrible experience. This cruise line started out bad and continued to go downhill.

We got to the cruise ship terminal early and went thru 2 customs lines; the entire procedure to get on board took about 5 hours. Which lead to a 4 hour delay in departure! Days and hours changed, times lost and wasted to the itinerary. Princess thought it was a good idea to come into Juneau from 2:30 to 11:30, would have worked, but changing us to come in on a Sunday (Mother’s Day) the town shut down at 7:30, wasting 4 hours in port.

Most of the food staff we’re rude! If you wanted something hot and fresh you have to fight with them to make that happen. Every food line you’re forced to use the hand sanitizer and if you didn’t they wouldn’t give you a plate. You think the food would have been fresh and hot. On most day’s we found the food to be undercooked or had been sitting out way too long. This was a reoccurring theme throughout the cruise. This is why I was extremely sick and retired to our cabin the first day.

The ship was dirty in areas; our cabin had stains on the pillow. The hot tub in the rear of the ship was not maintained, very dirty, with bottles, glass, trash, used towels, and the staff had the nets rolled into a ball were it could be tripped over. The crew painting near the food line, the smell of oil based paint was so strong and so close to the food eat made it hard to eat. We tried to enjoy the movie under the stars, but when we arrived there were no clean blankets but plenty of dirty blankets lying around. The blankets finally arrived 30 minutes into the movie.

On our way back home to Los Angeles we completed the survey received from Princess Cruise line. On the 18th Kyle from Princess called we went over the trauma we had experienced on the boat, all the memories lost and things we missed in Alaska. Kyle said there is nothing that he could do, they don’t have any control of what happens at the ports and that we signed paper work saying that we (Princess) has the right to change the itinerary and the only thing they would do for us if we travel with them again, is that they might be able to give us $100.00 each on board credit or a free meal. My husband laughed and said he would follow up with a letter and post on several travel websites about our experience. Kyle seemed a bit cavalier about it and said “that’s your right, go ahead.”

We followed up our letter to the president and customer relations department of Princess Cruise and Kyle return or call and offered us 250 pp discount on a future cruises. Which was still laughable and we haven’t heard back from there president yet.

We planned this trip months in advance. We took the time looking into things like cost, itinerary, towns, excursions, flights, hotels, rentals and of course the ship. Only to have it all change on you in a moment. Memories and experience gone. If you’re planning on taking a Cruise to Alaska, I would not recommend Princess Cruise line for TRUE Alaskan experience.

Ship Review: Ship is wonderful with a lot of new special features. North Star, the Skydive, the Bumper Cars.
One of the best places is Two70.
A lot of restaurants.
Very good for family holidays.

Ship Review: Ship in good condition. Restaurants are to smal for the new amount of passangers (after adding some cabines). Food qualiti is good, but variation of food could be better (at buttet and main restaurants). Servis of baverages is much to slow, especialy at the buffetrestaurant and the bars on the pooldeck.
Excursions are not very well organized and often ther is some chaos on departure.

Ship Review: Great ship had a lot of fun. Staff and Food were excellent. Entertainment was great. Plenty of room to relax. Enough variety of things to do to keep everyone entertained.

Ship Review: Sixth trip on the Sensation and it never disappoints.

Excellent staff great food great entertainment enough room for everyone.

Ship Review: Just completed a cruise on the Norwegian Escape on March the 12th. I read many reviews before I booked and was unsure of what awaited my wife and I on this BIG ship. We were worried there would be too many people to really enjoy this trip. This is our first long cruise (7days) and we worried about boredom also. I’m happy to say that it was a great experience! The only bad thing I have to say is getting around in Miami is an issue. From the time we arrived at the port and saw the ship, the trip was smooth as silk. Even getting our first drink at the bar while in port was easy with no waiting. For the entire trip we had no more than a 5 minute wait for anything, even the popular restaurants. We had a balcony near the aft end on deck 11. It was a great room and our steward, Rohan, was the most attentive and accommodating service person we could wish for. The rest of the staff were also very friendly and service oriented, from the wait service at the restaurants to the bartenders. We were treated like royalty, even without being in a suite or the Haven. Many of the service crew recognized us by name when they saw us and that just made the trip even better. We have been to several all-inclusive resorts, and this ship had more quality amenities than they did. We got the beverage and dining package, and it was better than most all-inclusives. There were very few beverages we couldn’t get, and if you really wanted Hennessy XO or J. Walker blue, you just spent the difference! The food at all the restaurants was outstanding, even the free ones. I would definitely recommend this cruise for anyone, even seniors (my wife and I are in our 60’s).

Ship Review: So in fairness, this review is about Princess and not the Ruby Ship. This is becasue our cruise never happened! Let me explain.

We (my wife and I along with my parents) have been long-time cruisers with Princess and very happy until a recent unfortunate cancellation of our cruise (Ruby ship departing LA, 01Oct 16 Cruise #R638). The cancellation was described to us as simply being "redeployed" but in actuality was cancelled because they were not profiting enough from this 7-day cruise (verified on March 15 when I called one of their Customer Service Rep), and they simply cancelled it at the expense of their customers who already planned and booked their holidays!


This is the first time they have done this to us and the last. Their only reply was that they notified us well in advance and that we now have $15 each in additional cruise credits if we rebook. The issue is not in the notification, burt in the way they terated us as "loyal" customers. This to me is simply not a way to treat long-time customers. I mention this here that we will never book again with Princess as there is absolutely no guarantee that they will do this again to us or anyone else for that matter, not to mention their inability to understand that a $15 pp cruise credit is simply insulting. I would understand if it were for reasons beyond their control. But to cancel for profit reasons and lay it on their customers is simple "wrong". Never again and bon voyage as we and my parents will never do business with them again - ever.

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