Norwegian Cruise Line is getting an earful (and eyeful) of complaints from Norwegian Sun passengers. They're angry that a Panama Canal cruise that departed Miami on March 16 was disrupted by construction work. And, they've set up a Facebook page called Panama Canal Sun to vent about it.
The construction on the Sun involved a deck refinishing project. The work (which began shortly after departure) required a lot of sanding, grinding and application of chemicals. Workmen wore protective equipment. But, passengers who wanted to escape the dust and fumes had to simply avoid affected areas. (Several venues were closed, as well.)
Retreating to cabins was not necessarily effective, though. Passengers posted pictures online of metal shards accumulating on their balcony railings. Other photos show vats of chemicals stored on decks.
A number of passengers complained to the Sun's captain and staff about respiratory problems during the cruise. Here's a comment from one passenger, Sandi Nystrom, who posted on the CruiseLawNews blog yesterday.
"My husband and I were on this cruise. WORST experience!! Between the fumes, noise, construction, insulation, paint particles, etc. my husband (who has serious health issues) couldn't leave our cabin often."
Other passengers did acknowledge on social media that crew, food and entertainment were all top-notch.
Norwegian Cruise Line provided TravelPulse with this official response to the construction issue:
"At Norwegian Cruise Line, we continuously aim to offer the best vacation experience for all our guests. As part of our Norwegian Edge program, Norwegian Sun is currently undergoing enhancements to better serve our guests. The program is a significant investment designed to ensure every ship across the fleet delivers a consistently high-quality experience to all of our guests."
"While we do our utmost to minimize any impact on the guest experience when these enhancements are taking place, we recognize that in this situation our guests experienced some inconvenience. As a gesture of our gratitude for our guests' patience and understanding, we have extended a future cruise credit of 25% of their cruise fare paid, which can be applied towards another cruise of their choice from now through March 31, 2019."
The response may not be enough. Passengers are fired up and show no signs of letting this go.
One of them, Annie Barber, posted today on the Facebook page that the 25 percent cruise credit is "totally unacceptable."
"We will be looking for a refund of our entire so-called holiday-cruise fare, all flights and transportation costs. We would also expect some compensation for the ruined holiday of a lifetime, the stress and discomfort that this work created and now the amount of time that we are having to spend dealing with all this. We are also concerned at potential long/short term health problems passengers may suffer due to inhaling and ingesting these unknown chemicals and substances throughout the entirety of this cruise," said Barber.
She added,
"This was not the holiday we had been led to believe that we had booked. No one in their right mind would book a holiday on a building site. The noise, the filth, chemical smells and closure of a large part of the ship was completely unacceptable."
TravelPulse will follow any future developments on this story.
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