Thoughts about water hotels
Seven days in a hotel on the vast ocean
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Cruising through an water hotel
The cruise I went on with Norwegian wasn’t great and there were a lot of parts that left a bad impression on me. There were some good things from this cruise but this blog is giving you the worst first. You can stay tuned in another blog for what I enjoyed and want more from cruises.
But for now creepy men at the pool bar and the lack of care in maintenance.
During the beginning of the pandemic, there were cruise lines that held passengers due to the virus. Norwegian cruise line docked in the Bay Area. I had only been on one cruise before, in a past life and I don’t remember it well. After hearing of the cruises that were docked, I began thinking of cruise ships as petri dishes of bacteria.
Before the cruise, the passengers got a message about the cleanliness of the cruise. I didn’t learn this until the end of the trip but the passengers are disembarked as quickly as people are being onboarded. The cruise wasn’t as clean as they stated because there was a quick turnaround for each trip. How can they clean and sanitize the ship, while disembarking passengers entirely before they were boarding new passengers on? Pretty sure they don’t.
There’s an emphasis on over cleaning but everything still smells unclean. Then there's a faux luxury experience from some sad memory of yesteryear that someone should always be seen cleaning.
One man was using a towel with water to spread around the germs. Sir, that is not the same as cleaning. No spritz bottles, just the towel to wipe everything. There were times when I walked by buckets of water and saw no cleaners or carts nearby.
When some ring broke in the shower, I went to the front desk and they said they would send Maintenance to my room to fix it. Maintenance never arrived. When I later emailed the corporate office, they didn’t offer consolation. They simply said they didn’t know about it and essentially. “That’s too bad.”
If you all aren’t cleaning and maintaining our rooms, what are you doing in our rooms? I’m not saying all service staff are doing anything shady. But this cruise felt especially sus…
Travel tip: Put the do not disturb sign on the door and decline cleaning service. This is especially important if there’s no safe in the room large enough for a laptop.
There are specific cruises designed for families. But this cruise was off balance and presumed that families are one size fits all. If you’re a solo traveler and want a large room, be prepared to pay for double occupancy regardless of if you are a solo traveler or not. Why don’t cruises want us to travel alone? Is it not safe for us?
Guests in the family suites with balconies overlooking the ocean, had a Queen sized bed and a cot. The luggage was taken to the room and left in front of the door. However, if travelers are in the statesrooms, below deck, they are boarding and then need to forage through the hallway full of luggage that wasn't taken to the room.
This is also after customs rummaged through our luggage looking for whatever they claimed from some 1980s international laws determined to be unsafe to transport.
Heaven forbid you bring an orange from America to a country that is making their business from this cantaloupe racket.
I learned this cruise and some others have passengers who live part time on the top floors— which is curious for the number of men sitting at the bar near the pools. The pool that was designated for 21+ was taken over by teenagers. Sounds like a good time for underage drinking because the bartenders weren’t checking identifications.
Then the cruise charges extra for separate internet packages for usage. In the day and age we live in, modern technology has moved so fast that we are all carrying computers in our pockets, why is this cruises internet package running on dial up? I also found it interesting they were selling behind the scenes tours for $139 per person. Why would I need to buy what school children get for free on planes? And isn’t the entire cruise navigation on autopilot? Doesn’t that also require the internet?
The lack of accessibility for wheelchairs and the disabled on the cruise was disappointing. There was only one bank of elevators for the entire cruise ship and narrow halls that couldn’t fit a large scooter or wheelchair. Most activities and dining are located on the main two middle floors with bars, slot machines and some gaming tables.
The cruise line could do better to create more activities on higher floors however, I learned this cruise has passengers who live part time on the top floors. I wonder if that explains why there were so many men sitting at the bar near the pools?
There was one pool that was designated as 21+ but it was taken over by teenagers. Sounds like a good time for underage drinking because the bartenders weren’t checking identifications. The one “children’s center” for children 10 and under and arcade showed me that this cruise line doesn’t understand what kids of today enjoy although I’m not sure that any entertainment industry does right now.
For example, I noticed on there weren’t enough water stations to fill reusable water bottles. Many companies have started including branding buzz words “sustainability” and “reusable” into their messaging. While I didn’t see any of that on Norwegian’s website, not having refillable stations for passengers to have water not from plastic water bottles is probably a good giveaway.
Melon is the only fruit you find. It lasts forever because no one is eating it. I saw it in every breakfast, lunch and dinner plate across the entire cruise. Can you tell that I'm irritated by cantaloupe? I’m not going to look up the reason why but it’s odd that this is the most sustainable fruit for a 7 day cruise.
Like I said at the tippy top this was my rant this cruise line was a disappointment because it didn’t understand how to have clean and quality service as part of their regular practice. The lack of cleaning turnaround time before boarding new customers should be a red flag. This is especially true after the 2020 pandemic’s shut down created the dent that impacted cruises and tourism in the first place.
The lack of quality service isn’t acceptable now that some of us consumers have learned to live without them for a number of years. Not understanding that families and family vacations come in different forms comes at a very high cost.
Norwegian either doesn’t know what to do with the spaces that it has or it doesn’t know who their customer. I suspect both can be true at the same time when the nickel and dime tactic of customer service is employed.