Monday, September 19, 2011

Norwegian Offers New a La Carte Sushi Menu Fleetwide

September 18, 2011
Norwegian Cruise Line is rolling out its a la carte sushi menu fleetwide. Previously only available on Norwegian Epic, the menu is now or will soon be offered on all ships except for Norwegian Sky. The extensive menu, which features sushi, sashimi, light appetizers and desserts, will also be offered as a lunch option on embarkation and sea days. The pricing is per item with dishes averaging $4.
Sushi was previously served as a menu option in the Asian restaurants onboard the ships. Now, the sushi bar will be considered a separate restaurant and serve the new a la carte menu. Appetizers include edamame, miso soup and sesame seaweed salad. Sushi selections include the Godzilla Roll, a roll with sweet shrimp, mango, avocado, caramelized cashews and coconut, and the Dynamite Roll with yellowtail, salmon, green onion, and maki tempura style. Also offered are sushi and sashimi of yellow fin tuna, octopus and salmon.
The sushi a la carte menu is available on Norwegian Dawn, Norwegian Jade, Norwegian Jewel, Norwegian Star, Pride of America, Norwegian Gem, Norwegian Pearl and Norwegian Spirit. It will be available on Norwegian Sun on Oct. 5. For more information, call the Cruise Outlet at 203-288-1884
 
 
 
 
 

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Royal Caribbean Apologizes for Stranding Passengers in San Juan September 07, 2011

By Theresa Norton Masek
Royal Caribbean International President and CEO Adam Goldstein, in his blog, apologized to passengers who missed their ship in San Juan after it was forced to depart early due to Hurricane Irene. As the storm approached, the Port Authority in San Juan ordered Serenade of the Seas to depart early and 150 people missed the ship. Royal Caribbean assisted those passengers that had booked the lines Choice Air, but others were on their own to find hotel accommodations and flights to the next port of call. A similar situation befell Carnival, which found hotels and flights for its 300 passengers, leaving Royal Caribbean open to widespread criticism. In his blog, Goldstein wrote: Although our standard position for weather-related disruptions is to encourage guests to work directly with their air carriers in reaching the ship, in the case of Serenade of the Seas in San Juan, we should have recognized immediately that the forced departure of the ship, albeit out of our control, created an out-of-the-norm situation. Although more than half of the 150 guests who missed the ship in San Juan were able to join Serenade in Aruba, earlier recognition would have resulted in us providing the best and fastest alternative travel arrangements to reach the ship and also providing more support in San Juan and/or over the phone for hotel and other arrangements. Goldstein said all guests who missed Serenade of the Seas in San Juan received compensation equivalent to the number of days they missed of that voyage. Although we have heard from very few of the affected guests, I apologize on behalf of Royal Caribbean that our situation awareness was not at its customary high level, he wrote. We have learned some valuable lessons for the future

Friday, September 2, 2011

Royal Caribbean Changes Course, Compensates Stranded Passengers

Royal Caribbean International has changed course and now will compensate passengers who missed their ship in San Juan due to an early departure forced by Hurricane Irene. The company now says it will give each guest who missed the Serenade of the Seas, but boarded later, with a future cruise certificate for 30 percent of the cruise fare paid for their sailing "as a gesture of goodwill."
The company also said it was contacting guests who completely missed their cruise to offer an undisclosed compensation, saying it "would prefer that the impacted guests learn of the amount directly from the line before it is disclosed publicly. We are compensating these passengers because we understand that this was an unusual situation, and we want to provide our guests with another opportunity to sail with Royal Caribbean International in the near future."
The incident occurred Aug. 21 when Serenade of the Seas, which was scheduled to depart at 8:30 p.m. was ordered by the Port of San Juan to leave at 5:30 p.m. in advance of Hurricane Irene. Therefore, 145 guests who had not re-embarked were left behind. Royal Caribbean provided 15 of the passengers, who had booked their air travel via the line, with hotel accommodations in San Juan for Monday evening, as well as a flight to Aruba on Tuesday, where they re-joined the ship. The cruise line also notified the 130 passengers who paid cruise-only fares and booked their air separately of hotel availability in San Juan, but said the expense was their responsibility, since it was a weather-related event. They also were responsible for their own air to re-join the ship.
"Since this decision was made by the Port of San Juan on Sunday while the ship was docked alongside, there was no way to notify our guests of this change in departure time," Royal Caribbean said at the time in a statement.
Meanwhile, Carnival Cruise Lines’ Carnival Victory was forced to depart San Juan about four hours ahead of schedule, stranding about 300 passengers at the port. However, about half were able to meet up with the ship at its next port call in Barbados. For those who were unable to board ship, Carnival provided a complimentary, two-night hotel stay in San Juan and complimentary air transportation to Barbados. Guests who did not have passports in their possession could not proceed to Barbados and missed the full voyage.