Norwegian Cruise Line reverses ban on taking food to cabins

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."