The Norwegian Spirit

This is my second time on the Norwegian Spirit. The first was my first cruise in 2010 - the big family cruise out of New Orleans and cruising to the "exotic Caribbean". The ship had undergone an overhaul the year before so it was new and fresh. This trip? Not so new and not so fresh. 

First let me tell you about what I didn't like on this ship. 

The food in the cafeteria was tired and boring. While there were decent selections available each day, it's as if they rotated those selections. Monday / lunch - fried pork rice. Tuesday / lunch - fried chicken rice and so on. The flavors overall were just ok. 

The dining rooms have changed a bit too. In all previous cruises the two main dining rooms (a big one and a smaller one) had offered different "Chef Specials".  Traditionally one side of the menu stayed the same the entire cruise ( say the left side) while the right side changed every day and each dining room had something different. That was not the case this time. They still had the left side remaining the same throughout the cruise, the appetizers and salads changing up some, but the right side now stayed the same for both dining rooms. Which I guess makes sense from a business perspective, but from an variety for your guest perspective, not so much. 

Still the food in the dining rooms has been delicious. There's enough variety that I don't find I'm bored with the options available. And the service is always exceptional. The wait staff is very attentive and present when you need them. 

We tried two specialty restaurants; Cagney's Steak House and Teppanyaki.  The service on Norwegian has always been, in my opinion, outstanding. And this trip has been no different. Our experience at Cagney's was top notch. Fantastic steaks and an excellent experience. We walked away stuffed - as one would expect. The price was a bit more than I remembered, but it was worth it. 

The Teppanyaki was an entirely different experience. Let me be clear here, though, the food was outstanding. It was everything leading up to the food that was off. 

They tell you when you sign up for this restaurant that it's imperative you be on time. They have tight schedules to get guests in and out and need to make sure if your reservations are at 5pm that you're there at 5pm.  Janet and I, naturally were there on time. There was a couple sitting across from us and we nodded to them. The next couple came in and the lady (we'll call her Ethel because she reminded me of an Ethel) put her wine slip on the corner of the table, as did the gentleman. Then I asked if we could move to another seat because our seats were off to the side and we'd not get to see the action clearly. The head waiter said he needed to check to see if there was a party of 4 that would fit better in the front seats. Odd, since when did that take precedence? I figured first come first serve really. 

So finally he checked and sure enough we could move. So Janet and I moved to be front and center. Then the head waiter came in and asked the first couple (whom we nodded to) if they were sure they had reservations for 5pm because another couple had showed up with those reservations. He had a piece of paper, the waiter did, that showed their reservations for 8pm. The couple were sure they made them for 5, but didn't have their reservation slip because they had made it online. So the head waiter asked them to leave because his sheet showed they were to come back at 8. Needless to say, they weren't happy. 

Side note: turns out they came back with their reservation slip and sure enough they had it right, they should have been there at 5pm. More on this later. 

So by this time, Ethel still hasn't found her wine slip. None of the waiters seemed concerned when she said, "Can you check with the other guy to see if they picked it up?" And this, I tell you, went on and on. 

By now it's about 20 after 5. The remaining party of 4 still hasn't showed up. 

By 5:30 ish a mom and a son show up and announce that actually it's a party of 5 and they need to make the adjustment somehow. So they stuffed one more place setting and scooched all of us over so we were essentially on top of each other. Janet introduced herself to Ethel's companion and said she  might as well give him her name since she'd be sitting on his lap. 

Then the chaos really begins…

Dad and two teenage girls come in and plop down with the mom and son. They're from Israel we later found out. Finally the wait staff start to take our orders. We'd been sitting there forever and this girl needed a drink. 

The dad of the Israeli family said he'd order for everyone…and since they weren't there when they explained how the menu worked, the waiter had to go over it again. Then came the, "Well, what's in that because we can't have x, y and z." Finally the dad ordered for everyone and the waiter got to the rest of us. 

10minutes later the chef came in and started the show. The Israeli dad all the while I was barking orders to the wait staff. His soup was too cold and needed more spice. Snap of the fingers.  I need more water. Snap the fingers…and so on. I had the son to my right and by then had been poked in the arm with a chopstick and bumped a dozen times with his pointy elbows. 

The chef show went on without many problems. The chef was paying a LOT of attention to the Israeli family and barely looked or spoke to the rest of us. 

Then as the 7pm hour got there, we were barely finished with our desserts and the head waiter leaned down between Janet and I and said that he needed us to leave so they could start the next dinner. 

Um, what?

YOU started late because YOU allowed guests to be late and now YOU want me to leave …oh I was miffed. 

Ethel was none too happy we later found out either.  The second couple that got sat, the woman had just ordered a new drink when they asked us to leave, so she basically had to slam it. 

Janet and I pondered over this and finally decided we needed to tell someone we were unhappy. 

On the main floor there's a "Dear Armando" box which you either put comments or complaints in. Janet and I picked up two slips and off we went. Our complaint about the teppanyaki was very factual and to the point. I also did a different slip to cover the good customer service we had received up to that point. We had a toilet that wouldn't flush. In fact, one night Janet and I were sitting reading and suddenly the toilet flushed with neither of us having been in there for about an hour. We just looked at each other and broke out laughing. The second issue was I had an enormous lump in my mattress and asked for a new mattress. Instead they put egg foam on it. In both cases, they called and followed up with us.

So we put our slips in the Dear Armando box about 3pm and we forgot all about it. 

At dinner that night, it was about 8pm when we finally got sat. And this guy in uniform came into the dining room and bee lined it right to our table. His name was Martin and he managed all the restaurants. He heard from his friend Armando that we had had an issue with the teppanyaki restaurant. He proceeded to apologies profusely to us and was going to be taking the charge off our bill.

I was blown away with how quickly they responded to it - frankly I didn't expect to hear from them at all. And the fact that he knew right where we'd be and made a point to come talk to us. Impressed to say the least. 

So at the end of it all, while we didn't have the best experience there, Norwegian, again, showed they had excellent customer service. The ship could use an overhaul again, but otherwise, everything was great.