We went from being HAL fans from our first experience on NYC to Caribbean cruise in 2007 to vowing we will not use HAL again as a result of the non-service oriented HAL management on this past cruise from Oct. 31 to Nov. 18/09 to Chile.
We had requested pre-boarding due to a disability. When we boarded Oct. 31st, the port staff did not handle boarding of disabled passengers well. In fact, their process was downright confusing & difficult for the disabled to keep up with: they were lost among the able-bodied moving past them.
On board, the cabin assignment appeared to be ok, until we saw the lanai cabin friends had. This would have been a much better option for someone with Parkinson's disease than having to get out the cabin door, move through the hallways and then push the heavy door to access the deck. Who overlooked that obvious accommodation of a disability?
We were on 6th floor, port side with a window view. It was ok, we had a tub; however it was noisy up above us and the air conditioner started spitting out black grit.
We had none of these problems on the Noordam.
We had problems with NCL prior to that on Hawaii Circle cruise - the cabin had not been cleaned properly and there was leggo and dust and other articles under the bed when we went to put our luggage away.