Norwegian
Cruise Line said it will once again allow passengers to take food to their
cabins from dining venues, reversing a month-old policy.
Norwegian
President Andy Stuart said the decision was made after getting considerable
customer feedback from a number of channels. In
particular, the issue became subject of in-depth discussion on the website
Cruise Critic, where a thread attracted more than 65,000 views.
Passengers
also called and wrote Norwegian and discussed the change on social media.
Stuart said
the ban came about after new Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings CEO Frank Del Rio
toured one of the ships and observed piles of dishes and trays lining corridors
and passenger spilling food on their way back to their cabins. It roughly
coincided with the adoption of a new room service menu and a $7.95 delivery fee.
Stuart said
the idea behind the ban on restaurant food going back to the room was never
about revenue, but rather about cleaning up the corridors and improving the passenger
experience.
“We’re
changing the policy,” Stuart said. “We’re still going to fix the issue because
the issue is the same,” he said.
So instead of banning food, Norwegian will
have more frequent inspections of the corridors so dishes get removed quickly.
“It’s
another good example of how we listen to customer feedback and act on it,”
Stuart said. “We picked the wrong solution."