Comments on: NCL Pulls Second Ship From Hawaii

By: john w.walker jr

john w.walker jr — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:10:45 +0000

Sorry to here you lost both ships in this market, nice place, nice ship but from my wife and I the experience we had for the week we rode on the Pride Of Aloha, To say the least you were experiencing labor problems. We tried to speak with someone from NCL several times, never got a call or reply. I’m sorry to say we have spent our last penny with NCL. Our travel agent and my wife have been told to never book me a NCL trip again or the cost is theirs lost and I am not going . Very bad experience. On check out day 3 lines were checking out and leaving that were literally cussing the checkout girls for their experiences. The crew in several areas were extremely rude and mouthy.

Hope this gets to NCL, someday
John W.Walker Jr.
Flat Rock, NC 28731

By: Anne Campbell

Anne Campbell — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:33:32 +0000

Thanks so much for your feedback! Yes, the problem is finding Americans who will work for minimum wage for 12 hours per day on a cruise ship. And for NCL, the expense of hiring Americans means they couldn’t be competitive price-wise with other cruise lines sailing in Hawaii.

I’m delighted to hear the food improved!! NCL is investing millions on upgrading food and bedding on all ships in the fleet.

By: Annie Peterson

Annie Peterson — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 18:36:31 +0000

Feb. 2-13, 2008 was our first cruise on NCL, going on the Pride of Aloha–11 night itinerary. Itinerary was great and the ONLY!!! reason we chose NCL. We did not change our minds about NCL as being a cruise line we would opt for again. The American crew are NOT like the Asian crew we have had experience with on numerous HAL ships–we are devoted fans of HAL. We are not fans at all of FREESTYLE, but realize the younger generation and the “WALMART casual” like this way of cruising. However, we loved the stage show acts, on board guest lecturers and lounge entertainers, and found most of the food quite good–the best ever French Fries in the 11 aft lanai buffet–And we found FREESTYLE worked if we were in the Dining room of choice early and having found a “wait” staff duo that were superb, getting to their table 7 of the 11 nights, it was a good experience. The sore spot was that we could not make a “reservation” for those tables, because we were only 4 persons, not 5 or more. Our Phillipino waiter, with NCL 13 years was transferred off ship to NCL Jade,mid cruise, and our delightful young American was only doing a 5 “fun” month stint in Hawaii and returning to college. He was on the ship less than a month but loved his job, people, and doing a job well. A loss to future NCL cruises, for sure. American youth are not trained to work hard and long hours and just won’t. When have they ever had to make a bed or wash a dish at home??? The “older” American crew and some from humbler backgrounds seemed much more obliging. We heard very positive remarks about up-charge dining rooms, altho’ we did not opt for one. We refused to pay the 10$ a glass for wine so had a “dry” cruise.