Our First Cruise-Norwegian Dream
Written: Feb 05 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: freestyle dining, staff, activities
Cons: some staff, some flow of activities, utilization of ship space
The Bottom Line: We will cruise NCL again, and maybe on the Dream, but now know some things to expect.
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| accobend's Full Review: Norwegian Dream |
A great first time, but mixed experiences from the different departments. We will cruise with NCL again, we just now know what to expect.
Embarkation was great. For the amount of people moving through, our time was minimal. The Port Authority persons can be a bit short, but the NCL team was great. We boarded a bit early, so it gave us a chance to explore the ship and begin to figure our way around.
Throughout the cruise, every staff member we passed greeted us with a "Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening, How are You Doing?...". The hospitality was outstanding.
The same cannot be said for the restaurant staff. We found the wait staff to be non-committal/unexcited to be there. Wait times between courses sometimes got into the 15-20 minutes range. The hosts/hostesses were hit or miss. One would be happy to see you where another at the same stand could not be bothered to acknowledge your presence. We found out, the hard way, that "sharing" a table can be an inconvenience. We waited for 30 minutes after being seated before we finally flagged down the server to ask if we could order coffee for breakfast. She then informed us "sharing" means we wait on another couple to join us before we order. At another restaurant (with the same server, no less), we were told there is no such requirement. The food is middle of the road with some items being stellar and some that fizzle. We enjoyed the option of being able to eat whatever our whim was at that time.
We purchased the unlimited Coke package. What a great package. I have not consumed that much cola since I was a kid. You can get a drink from any of the bars and servers.
The flow throughout the ship is a bit staggered. The show times are very close together and it can be a bit of an effort to enter or exit the showroom during these times. Seating in the showroom is as if someone took a few hundred chairs and tossed them into the room. I had to leave between shows and return to my seat in the center of the room. I believe I stepped over 20 people on the way. There is just not much room to move. By the end of the cruise, we had become masters of moving about the ship, but it took the week to learn it. It is easy to get jammed up behind other passengers as you move about the ship.
The Chocolate Buffet is the perfect example. I do not believe it is wise to have the event for 1 hour and overlap a show 15 minutes into it. Then route everyone down to line up, wait in line for 15 minutes, push through buffet and sit down to watch the break down of the buffet. The Chocolate Buffet was an exercise in semi-controlled chaos. Most items were out and slow to be replaced. Several items had no serving utensils (makes for sticky fingers by the end). One of the power cords was sticking up enough to trip everyone as they walked over it. There were 4 tables with no symmetry, so you had to cover all 7 sides, which threw you out of line with your travel mates. It was worth going to, but NCL might want to evaluate execution...or maybe not, where are you going to go?
The casino is a bit small and extremely understaffed. Since they still use tokens, the hoppers sometimes run out. After wait times of 10-15 minutes for an attendant to show up to even acknowledge the service light, you could figure on at least that long before they reappeared with their bags of tokens to refill the hoppers. The selection of machines is slim as are the denominations, but will work for the size of the room. I think we were up about $5 for the week and had a good time getting there, so it is not the worst casino we have been in.
For the most part, our room was cleaned every day. Although not within NCL's posted time. They say between 0800 and 1200. We had a couple days when we returned to our room around 1300 for pit stop, change of clothes, restock of supplies, etc to find our room untouched. I was all excited to see the "animals" I had heard so much about from other cruisers. Sadly, we only got one for the week. I tried to keep it around to savor it, but after a day needed the towels. The last day was the biggest disappointment. I had been saving the daily notices as keepsakes and the cleaning staff decided to take them. We did go down to reception and get the whole week's worth, but I am still flustered as to why they would take them to begin with.
Ninety percent of the crew/staff are fantastic, but we found the other ten percent. In addition to the lackadaisical server staff, a few of the "cruise staff" require some basic reading and comprehension classes and one of the Assistant Cruise Directors as well as a Casino Host needs some instruction in how not to talk to passengers. The Executive Staff were very friendly and funny. You came away with the feeling they enjoyed hosting you. During the "Profile Program", you got the impression even they knew this was an older ship, but wanted you to have a good time and were going to do everything they could to make sure you did.
Overall, we had a fantastic time. We met some great people, ate like there was no tomorrow, took advantage of everything the ship could offer and left with no misgivings about going. We just know now that, like everywhere else in the world, there are happy people and not so happy people-and some of them work on cruise ships.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
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Epinions.com ID:
accobend
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Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
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