Well, women, we're not the only ones disgusted with NCL. Here's the link to the article in this morning's NY Times about someone else's really bad experience- and NCL's substandard response to their concerns:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/your-money/12haggler.html?scp=2&sq=the%20haggler&st=cse 

We received a survey from Olivia asking our opinion about this cruise. We were very honest about our experience (we haven't received a response). I agree that being able to relax and be ourselves was a wonderful experience but the cruise itself was not. The food was not good. The soda cards that we purchased were worthless because the soda was almost always flat. Our cabin steward was wonderful but overall the staff didn't seem very happy to be there. I thought that there might have been some sort of compensation offered for missing our last port even though it was beyond their control. I'm sorry if I am being negative but this cruise just didn't compare to other less expensive cruises that we have been on. I understand that we have to pay more for the "exclusive" experience but I think next time we will save some money and just go to Seattle instead.

On the bright side.....we werent on carnival on the way to the mexican riviera...................................................

As I said before, if you have a comment or concern, please do let Olivia know.  I did...and I got a reply this morning.  They are very aware of the issues, but would like everyone to please be sure to voice their opinions to them, and not only to this board, as has been mentioned in the past: Olivia staff does not monitor these boards.

As for PSLGIRL37's comment about getting sick...I did too...on our last night on the ship...and it was most certainly the food I had ordered that evening as my stomach became upset during the meal...which I not only did not finish, but ate far less than half of it and did not order a dessert.  Also mentioned in this post was the price of a bucket of beer...for which we were charged varying amounts for the same type of beer every time..anywhere from $19 (once) to almost $30 (several times, but never the exact same $ amount).

Yes, being on a vacation where I can hold my partners hand or put my arm around her and not have to pay attention to what part of town I'm in, was very nice.  Yes, the shows I made it to were entertaining.  Yes, the islands we made it to seemed to be pretty gay-friendly.  But, we happen to live in Seattle.  If we had taken a week off to stay at a hotel in our own city, order room service (that actually arrived), eat at a 5 star restaurant every night and taken in several shows, we could have saved quite a bit of money.  Because we are lucky enough to live in a fairly gay-friendly city, it wasn't necessarily the Olivia experience WE were paying for.  It was the curiosity of an Olivia vacation combined with a cruise - two things to knock off the bucket list.  

I understand many women were paying for the relaxed experience of vacationing with Olivia, and I'm not trying to minimize that experience for them in any way.  But, we had major issues with this vacation and our money could have been put to use in a much less stressful vacation if we had chosen to go on "stay-cation" instead.

The one thing I will miss the very most about the cruise is standing on my balcony in the warm ocean air looking out at the never ending horizon.

Jess  

BIG STEP for sure. Reality hit all of us that were on the same shuttle, as it stopped to pick up "people" from other ships that also were going back to Orlando. BIG BIG reality check.

This was our first cruise and it was wounderful..I didnt meet anyone rude everyone was very friendly. I think they could have more activitys planned for out to sea time. Out side,,,,maybe scavenger hunts in different groups and stuff seems like they only had a few pools games but nothing ongoing.   It was wounderful being in our perfect world with nobody to judge us and that was why i cried my heart out when we had to leave cause as they said it is a BIG step when you leave the boat.

Hi all,

Thought we'd add our two cents here.  Since we were first time cruisers, we thought it was amazing!  Now of course we thought we were just idiots with no sense of direction because we had to look at the ship's floor plan constantly.  To hear that others were also a bit perplexed by the maze makes us feel better.  For us, the experience of being with Olivia and all the amazing women far outweighed anything else.  The entertainment was fantastic and we laughed and laughed at the comedians.  Can anyone tell us more about the other cruise lines (chartered by Olivia of course) that you have found to be more to your liking? 

Thanks,

Lisa and Taea 

 

 

I cruised with Olivia three times. Twice with Holland and this last with NCL. Holland was by far a LOT better. The food, the staff and the ship was superior. I guess a good comparison in terms of the food would be school cafeteria vs. a really good restaurant. Not ALL of the time, but when it was not good, it was NOT good. This did not ever happen on HAL. In fact, I had some of my best meals ever on that ship (maybe that is sad....?!) NCL was just blah in comparison. I ate it, believe me. There were some meals that were actually really good. But on HAL, ALL of the meals were fantastic. They have great chefs, I guess. The desserts on HAL were GREAT. NCL--even the chocolate buffet was not so good. It tasted bland, and all the same. The staff were hit and miss. Our cabin steward Fernando was GREAT. So friendly and so very very nice and helpful. Some staff were clearly unhappy to be there while others were ok. HAL staff clearly went to the same training camp as Fernando. They were all so very nice and just great..all of the time. I never really thought that kind of thing would matter at all..until NCL. I heard one staff refer to a woman at the next table as "sir". Were they NOT told that this charter was an all lesbian type? If not, shame on them (ncl) if so, shame on the staff. HAL was just...better. Seemed cleaner, newer, much better food, more activities, better staff......Like I said, Olivia rules. I will go again...but NOT if its NCL chartered.

To put it nicely, never again.  For the people who were not lucky enough to experience Holland America, try it again... this was the worst cruise line that i have experienced.  I Loved hanging with all of the passengers on the ship, but as far as my past experiences, I would never ever do it again, alot of the comments were homophobic and it was way over priced.  Usually on Holland America it costs 18 for a bucket of beer, and on my last cruise I did not experience any sickness, I was not sea-sick it was something i ate......................not good.....

Hi all,

Thought we'd add our two cents here.  Since we were first time cruisers, we thought it was amazing!  Now of course we thought we were just idiots with no sense of direction because we had to look at the ship's floor plan constantly.  To hear that others were also a bit perplexed by the maze makes us feel better.  For us, the experience of being with Olivia and all the amazing women far outweighed anything else.  The entertainment was fantastic and we laughed and laughed at the comedians.  Can anyone tell us more about the other cruise lines (chartered by Olivia of course) that you have found to be more to your liking? 

Thanks,

Lisa and Taea 

terceslil- well said and i agree. i'm not trying to be a downer or dwell on the negative, but I think that it's helpful to be constructive about what worked well and what didn't work well on the NCL Sun Cruise. I'm guessing this was a learning experience for the Olivia staff, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that they were perfect or that some of my disappointment is outside the realm of their control. Someone started this thread to talk about the overall not so well-received experience on the ship, so the thought that no one would have any feedback about Olivia itself is kind of misguided a bit. We all love Olivia, I'm sure we all had a great time and appreciate all that the Olivia staff did. But if we don't talk about what didn't meet our standards, how can we expect it to get better?

let me start with the good stuff first, because i feel there were some great things about norwegian and this cruise. I had a wonderful experience with the cabin stewards, though I can only remember one of their names (Walter). They always said hello to me by name and asked how my day was, if I was having a good time, etc. They were fantastic and I think superceded the stewards I had on HAL last year (which was my first cruise). For the most part, the NCL staff were polite and nice. On Olivia's side, I was super impressed with how the staff hussled that extra day at sea to come up with activities. And of course, the staff were great and it was wonderful to be on a boat with so many awesome ladies. I liked that there was a country open dance hour and that there was space for fitness and dance classes. i thought the appetizers in the main dining room were using pretty good.

That said, I leave the cruise not being a fan of NCL either. I loved that there was food avaiable somewhere 24-7, but the food itself was super hit and miss, mostly miss. Strange consistencies, poorly named dishes, less refined than i'd expect from a cruise. The buffet at least was fairly consistent. Someone mentioned this, and I too felt like they were just trying to make extra money at every turn - charging for juice after breakfast, to always having jewelry on display and ads in the rooms, changing the price of bingo, extra charges for the restaurants, etc. I also really didn't like that smoking was allowed in the staterooms - maybe this is allowed on HAL, but I didn't notice. One place in our hallway literally smelled like an ashtray. yuck! I was also really disappointed/frustrated with the shore excursion process. Anyone who had an active excursion had to go down to the shore excursion desk, wait in line, fill out paperwork, wait for them to review said paperwork and then get a ticket. They had some issues with my waiver so I actually had to go back to fill out more paperwork and wait for approval. That took 45 minutes, which I just found infuriating. While my room stewards and a lot of the staff onboard were nice, I encountered some really rude people - particularly one woman who worked in the main gift shop. And seriously, that ship was a total maze.

 I think the Olivia staff did a great job overall, but I was disappointed that no one made an announcement about Melissa Ferrick until the very end of the cruise. It felt very much like the Olivia staff were trying to sneak it under the rug and hope no one noticed that she just didn't perform on her scheduled day. Things happen and I definitely get that, but I felt it was unprofessional to not say at the show the night she was scheduled to perform, hey something came up, Melissa Ferrick can't perform, we're so sorry. Making an announcement on the last night of the cruise kind of made me roll my eyes cause, yeah, we had all figured out that she wasn't there. 

People paid the same amount for past cruises on a better line with better, more well-known entertainment, so I feel like the price point for this cruise wasn't worth the value. Same cost for poorer standards. Maybe if the cost had been less expensive I wouldn't care as much.

 Like I said, I'm sure this was a learning experience for the Olivia staff and I'm guessing they're hearing all of us loud and clear about the dissatistfaction with NCL.

 I, for one, am really excited to be back on HAL for the mexican riviera cruise (and hoping they book another biggish-name musician).

Fremontster wrote: the swaying hips of women dancing to salsa music on the pool deck...fill in your favorite image here.  

I was one of those pink wrap skirt wearing swaying ladies....now that was fun!  We dont get much salsa here in NC...

The dam ships rule over NCL....my first cruise to hawaii 8 years ago was with NCL I loved it didn't know any better....since then its been dam ships for the last 4 so I now know the difference...I did have a chance to talk with judy on the ship and she is well informed even the olivia staff had made comments about the ship and service....Judy will only use NCL when the dam ships aren't available did you know that for Hawaii for example Dam ships don't sail there....but its olivia and the women I go for and the experience of a lifetime we are so lucky and its only money you can't take it with you so spent the ***....cheers uk

Time to move forward and focus on my future vacation with Olivia.

Fremontster and maggiefeb4,

Very well said. I tryed to convey the same sentament as you both did but am not as elegent with writing such as you both did.

I was only going to leave the commet I had left earlier but just couldn't keep my mouth shut after some of what I read. Miss understood or not.

As for booking this vacation even after reading the reviews I booked for the Olivia experence nothing else. The women of Olivia rock...

Do not misconstrue what I wrote.  Never did I say that Olivia should not have made a profit.  I quoted someone who said that they expected more for what they paid.  Folks here say they are echoing the complaints that had previously been made about the ship in cruise reviews, and are entitled to do so; but on the other hand the same people are completely satisfied with Olivia.  If it was such common knowledge of these terrible reviews and that the ship had such a bad reputation, why would Olivia book it?

Additionally, if Olivia had such knowledge that the ship had poor service, terrible food, the aroma of sewage, no activities, and intentional billing miscalculations that benefited NCL, shouldn't they have conveyed what their standards were higher than the reviews reflected and demanded that their expectations be met prior to booking the cruise?  Did Olivia do their homework prior to booking the cruise?  So many say that Olivia represents their the Ladies of Olivia, so it seems that they would have researched the ship prior to booking the cruise.

Surely Olivia knows that their clientele have certain standards and should have represented their standards and expectations to Norwegian.  I fail to see how Norwegian is solely responsible for your experiences aboard the ship, yet everything I hear sounds like everything NCL did was bad and everything that Olivia did was beyond perfection.  I am glad that I did not have the experiences that many of you say you had.  I didn't have any problems, and was fortunate to encounter NCL staff that went above and beyond what was asked of them.

So many times I was told by others in these forums, "It's vacation, get over it."  I was even told to lighten up.  One person went so far as to say that I had a chip on my shoulder.  Where are these light-hearted folks now?  Certainly not debating why Olivia with her high standards would book a ship that was commonly known to have bad food and bad service.  Then again, if everyone knew it was a terrible ship, why book the cruise in the first place?

Il est ce qu'il est