Taking advantage of kids at the spa
My two kids and I went on a cruise out of Hawaii in 2025 summer. I allowed my two teenagers to go up to the spa for some treatments. Unannounced to me or to my two teenagers they gave products to them without telling them what they were charging. They thought they were getting left over treatment items, and that's how they represented it to me. After we got off the ship they sent the statement where I noticed about $1000 in different products that they were given. When I question the kids, they told me that they gave them two receipts and they asked why there was two receipts and they said oh don't worry about it just sign and keep them. It turns out the second receipt was the items that they put into the bags for the kids. When I complain to the company, their response was we don't manage the spa. It's a separate company and that you'd have to contact them directly. This was the only communication I received from the cruise line. When I contacted the spa operator, they never responded. This is obviously a method for them to run up the profits on their spa. To do this to kids knowingly is a violation of the trust that we put into the company. I've been on three different cruise lines several times and two now with NCL. The one thing that is clear is after Covid the service is not the same. There are individual Service members that stand out as being a good representative of the company, but I believe there's more that don't care about the service. I asked something of my cabin Stewart that was never done throughout my cruise. This has solidified for me that cruising is the last choice of travel for me. The only time I would think that the cruise would be the only way to go would be in a situation like the Panama Canal or I'm too old to get around on a land tour. Every time I've cruised, I have the feeling of being part of an ant farm. People everywhere pushing to get into the events or food options. Just take the fun out of travel. It's so much more pleasurable to be on land visiting the local tourist sites and staying in the community that you're visiting. Being around the locals and going to the most popular spots for entertainment and food is much more desirable for me.