Dear NCL Management - About Our cruise to Hawaii??

This was from our Norwegian Cruise Lines or NCL Cruise to Hawaii in 2007. Destination was amazing, you can't go wrong visiting Hawaii on any day...but getting there was another issue. Please take a look at the letter I wrote to NCL, it makes for an interesting read. I was offered two $500 vouchers, for another two passengers to cruise but it was dated and expired in a year. There is no way we were taking another expensive trip, on a cruise line we didn't really care for, within a year. Needless to say they were unable to "buy" us back, as I think there attempt was half-hearted anyway, and we have never been back to NCL. We would like to go on another Hawaiian cruise or trip, but we'll have to find another way, and we since been on an additional 5 cruises and now have children to take, and took two new passengers with us.

Dear NCL,

My name is Kathy, my husband and I were passengers on the December 10 – 17, 2007 cruise to Hawaii, reservation #13964007. I would like this opportunity to address some serious concerns we had during our vacation aboard your ship, during that cruise.

We are avid vacationers who particularly like cruising; the cruise to Hawaii was our 12^th cruise together since 1998. Hawaii was on our list of destinations and as itineraries go, NCL was the only cruise line able to offer the Hawaiian cruise vacation we wanted. We normally cruise with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCCL) but we were open to trying NCL and knew that we could expect some differences.

Check in and boarding was a long process, however that is sometimes the case with cruising. Once aboard the ship we were not let into the corridors leading to the rooms, because they were “still being cleaned”. We took our carry-ons with us as we waited up top, at a table by the swimming pool and I noticed immediately that the crew was all American. I engaged in conversation with crew member – Jenn (a hostess of sorts, she answered questions and pointed people in the right direction). She explained to me why it was all American, divulged some information on the wages and working differences between American and International crews and I began to understand why this cruise was so much more expensive.

I am a Recreation/Travel and Tourism Major from Arizona State University, with 10 years experience in customer services, special events, conferences and recreation; so I was uniquely interested in this and enjoyed the time she took to talk with us. I was then interested to see what differences I would recognize in service and standards aboard this ship. Because I learned our fare was paying American wages, I felt better about the added expenses. After traveling to Europe, I was sure that this cruise would not only meet my expectations but in an “All American” (i.e. Burger King - "You can have it your way") fashion would be a great accommodating experience. 

After a couple hours, we were then allowed to our room. To our disappointment our luggage was not at the room and it appeared as if no one had cleaned it yet. Although the bed was made, the towels were not completely re-stocked and the mini bar was missing items, apparently from the previous passengers. I noticed that my state room attendants’ information was on a note card on the desk and before dinner I called to report those issues. I was told at that time, that “our attendant” was at dinner (or on break) but that the message would be relayed.

Before dinner, I also scheduled a pedicure at the Spa for that evening. I waited 20 minutes, and then I was taken back to an area where they did the pedicures. There were no pedicure thrones; I sat in a regular chair as I waited for my technician to fill a mobile foot bucket. Using a hose, she filled the bucket, added some bubbly stuff and chatted casually with another technician. Although, I enjoyed talking with her, I found that her conversations about work, her family and her supervisor to be a little inappropriate. I recently had a back injury and was very uncomfortable in the chair and could not relax as I tried to keep my feet up on that rolling bucket. The whole experience was very awkward, distracting, and did not meet the expectations I had of a relaxing pedicure. My suggestion is, don’t offer services you are not properly equipped to handle and do not charge spa rates for substandard services.   

Later, we ate at the main restaurant and then attended the show, we returned to our room sometime around 10pm. Our luggage was delivered but we were very disappointed to see that not only had our room NOT been turned down but that my request had gone unanswered. Before calling housekeeping again, I began to inspect the room; I found that most of the silver fixtures still had fingerprints on them, the mirrors were dusty and smudged and the top of the TV and shelves were dusty. I finally called to complain and I was then told that I my state room attendant was "not on this cruise" and that we had been assigned another crew member and assured that someone would be there in the morning to clean and make up the room.

In the morning, we stopped for breakfast (at the buffet) before we left the ship for our excursion (Hilo). Besides our state room, one of the first things that really concerned me was that there was a line of people waiting for coffee. I couldn't believe it, on this huge ship full of people on vacation, it was NOT an option to run out of coffee during peak breakfast hours. Apparently, it had never occurred to the crew to walk around with coffee pots and pour coffee for customers; instead one crew member stood by as the coffee took 15mins to brew - stood there! The next thing I found to be tacky for a cruise ship was that there were no labels on the food items, some steamer trays were empty and that the silver ware was in a large bin, which everyone was touching and digging through to get their own utensils. It appeared as though the breakfast rush had surprised the crew and they were consequently unprepared.

We then set out on our excursion, which we enjoyed that day (Hilo); the Volcano and Rainbow Falls. We returned to our state room about 6:00 pm to find that it had once again, not been serviced at all. I called down to housekeeping and was assured someone would be up within the ½ hour to assist us. Once the steward arrived, he apologized, told us he would return after he finished his “route” and we left for dinner.

We ate again in the main restaurant, we had a different wait staff and he appeared aggravated and rushed. A different waiter/busser approached the table and poured our waters in silence, when our waiter arrived he set down the basket of bread and he asked if we wanted anything else to drink. I asked “Who are you?” and suggested that when he approaches a guest, he properly introduce himself and offer us some menus. He continued to serve us in silence and in a hasty manner. As I would soon find out, to be a “trend” among those serving us on your ship, we felt as though we were a “nuisance” to service providers and did not feel welcome most of the time.

When we returned to our room, it was now no surprise that it had not been services yet!! I called housekeeping, this time for a “manager” and as I waited for them to arrive, still discussed with the room, I began writing down this list of awful experiences. I demanded that the entire room be deep cleaned; if the mirrors weren't wiped off, I was left to imagine what else wasn't cleaned! I also made it clear that I expected to have service every morning and night and not have to call to get it. The floor manager (her name escapes me) apologized, promised that the state room would be serviced without further problems and told us that she would deduct the two days of tips off of our bill. We had no further issues with the steward services. However there would other issues regarding our room.

Note: on our way to dinner, after speaking with the floor manager, about two floors up on the starboard side we noticed a room attendant standing with his cart in the hallway, talking on a cell phone!

Although, I had addressed the mini bar items with the floor manager and left a note for our newly assigned room steward to re-stock it, the mini bar was not restocked. So, I called the housekeeping to ask them to bring up the missing items – plus extra items, like bottled water, that I knew we would be using (as a convenience, I suppose). I was told by housekeeping to call guest services, I was told by guest services to call room service. I made it very clear that I wanted the items for the mini bar. I contacted room service and they told me to contact housekeeping, I almost completed the circle again, when I finally settled on buying the items from room service, as no one else was able to assist me! Just a note: Guest Services and Room Services should be all inclusive departments and “transferring” or forwarding a phone call should not be an option. 

Have you ever stayed on this ship? Have you ever had a secret shopper? It was only the second day and I had encountered problems with; luggage, housekeeping, dinning staff, guest services, the spa, room services and later the photo services, an on-board shop and our excursions!

The next day, I was already exhausted from dealing with services but was not expecting it to get any worse. This day (Maui) our excursion was the Rainbow Falls and Grotto, and Sunset Cruise. As we embarked on our tour and approached the pier, a NCL photographer offered to take my picture. I typically love pictures and always buy them, so I stood with my husband and smiled. He lowered the camera and asked that he take a picture of only me, I said “No, that’s OK, I want him in the picture”. He then waived at my husband again and said it was for individuals. Totally disturbed by his refusal to take our picture together, I asked “We can’t take one together?” and he said “No.” Needless to say we walked away, happy to take our own pictures at no charge. By the way, “No” is not something customers like to hear.

The Sunset Cruise was eventually cancelled due to a large automobile accident on the main highway; our bus turned around and returned us to the ship, it was disappointing but I don’t think there was anything NCL could have done to prevent that situation.

The next day in Maui, we had an exceptionally early departure time for our excursion (Summit Lavender and Winery Tour), so we left early for breakfast and then hurried to the bus stop. We waited about 30 - 45 mins waiting for our tour called and before someone asked what we were waiting for. Even after we told them, they did not mention the tour was cancelled. Why hadn't anyone sent a note to our room or been looking for us to arrive, to tell us that the tour had been cancelled? Once an hour passed we approached a small stand that said excursions on it, the man (Mark or Matt?) there was able to call on radio to find out, the excursion was cancelled. We were very disappointed again, however the man was very helpful and able to credit us, and sign up for the Skeet Shooting Excursion. The Skeet Shooting Excursion was so neat and we had so much fun it almost seemed to rejuvenate our spirits. We really enjoyed the driver/range employee, the scenic road, the beautiful and remote Skeet Range and I highly recommend keeping that unique adventure among your excursions.

We returned from the excursion a little early before dinner and we took the opportunity to lounged pool side and relax. While sitting in the hot tub I run into other people who had similar situations and “run-in’s” with unsatisfactory service. One woman with a family of four complained that they did not have a turn down service since they arrived and consequently had to retrieve their own bucks out from the ceiling and use deck/pool towels for the shower. One other couple stated “We hate this boat! We love the stops.” 

The next observation I made is that the poolside service staff was very scarce. I ordered one drink from a roaming waiter, the rest I resorted to going to the bar for service. On a Royal Caribbean Cruise (to any destination) you will often find that there is an abundance of people waiting to serve you. And these crew members not only sell the products but they sell themselves. They learn your name, they learn your drink, they make it fun and the follow up with refills. I believe that this RCCL strategy is not only so customers will feel important (what a concept!) but so that waiters can increase sales. I can imagine the sheer volume of drink sales your wait staff misses out on because they don’t interact and involved the customers, yet alone come around twice.

That evening we tried to make reservations at the Italian restaurant but the woman on the phone told us, that reservations could only be made the night before. She instructed us to go to that restaurant and place our name on the waiting list. We went to the restaurant but the host told us it was full. Instead we went to the Mexican Food restaurant and waited only 15 mins to be seated but our dinner took over an hour to be served. So far the “Freestyle Dinning” was not something that appealed to us, because it was inconsistent and time consuming, at least on this ship. I also missed the cruise dining experience; the caliber of food, the presentation and the service that comes from regular dinning on other ships.

That night in our stateroom we tried to order a movie on the TV but the TV stated that “Options” was “unavailable”. (Movies and other TV “Options” would inconveniently not be available till our fifth night).

The next day in Kona, we again enjoyed our excursion and the destination. That evening we decided to eat in the main dining room and arrived around 8:00pm. We had made arrangements to meet up with a couple from the cruise at 9:00pm in one of the lounges. To our fulfillment we were seated almost immediately, was served our meal in an apt amount of time and arrived at our meeting place, just before 9:00pm, however our guests were about 15 mins late. They apologized and contributed the wait to the “slow” service in the main dining room. Having just come from the main dining room, I confirmed that they had in fact just eaten there. They claimed that they did not have reservations, so they conceded to eating in the main dining room. They arrived at 7:00pm, were seated sometime after 7:30pm and had just finished eating when they realized it was 9:00pm and time to go. The one thing I expect from customer service is that it is equal, consistent and satisfactory, and that seems to be something missing from all of your guest services, especially dinning!

The one place we enjoyed eating and after all, did not mind paying the extra $20 was at the steak house. The manager (who soon knew us by name) would be the first person to treat us like customers; he acted as the Matradee, he sometimes hostess, answered phones, toke reservations (even in person), would stopped by a table to serve something or ask how the meal was or acted the “one stop shop” manager; your other department heads could learn from. He was well spoken, respectful, kind and appeared as though he was there to do his job and he did it well. Even the wait staff was consistent in his style and we ate there three times. I thanked him and applauded his management.

(If you thinking reading about our experience is exhausting, try living through it!)

Eventually, I would have an unpleasant experience with a woman in the gift shop, literally ignoring the elephant (customer) in the room and another with a sales person in the photo shop over making an additional print. Our overall customer service aboard this ship was abysmal and thanks to the many many many unpleasant encounters with had with a variety of staff will not consider traveling aboard a NCL again. You have lost two very important, potentially loyal cruisers because of this experience. We not only travel often but in big groups and consistently encourage new cruisers (8 over the last 10 years), so you can imagine that we will not be recommending NCL to anyone either or planning any family/group vacations aboard any of your ships. I only hope that this letter helps you to improve your customer service and guides you in a direction of consistency, so that service is the same in every department, aboard every ship and in every destination. You need to develop a better training mission, something that your employees can embrace and work by. I understand the fundamental differences between training in the US and among other countries, however there are universal ways to engage your employees, and checks and balances to manage each ship, each fleet and the company as a whole. After all there are MANY American based or all American staffed "travel and tourism" companies that do a great job at customer service and exceed my expectations every time (i.e. Marriott).  I believe that the majority of people we came in contact with were dealing with issues of poor management, they seemed unhappy, undirected and in some cases had poor moral, among poor work ethics. When in reality you’re selling the “experience of service” to people on vacation and customers should never know the grief behind it. I paid $1,400 to NOT care, because every other day of the year I do.  I have worries and problems of my own, I don’t want to be bothered with your employee’s problems when I am trying to forget mine, I want an experience and I expect my money’s worth!

Redevelop your standards and higher your expectations of staff, I think you’d be surprised. My supervisory motto is: Excellence breeds excellence. Have excellence at every level, have excellent and extraordinary leadership and the rest will follow by example. Best wishes!

Kathy Worrell, Mesa, AZ