Woman Sues NCL, Alleging Preferential Treatment to Upscale Passengers

Challenging the perks given to its upper category guests, a California woman sued NCL Corp. over not being able to get reservations in its specialty restaurants due to upscale passengers taking all the seats.

The suit alleges that NCL marketed its cruises in large part on its Freestyle Dining concept of having many different restaurants to choose from, but did not disclose to passengers that making reservations in the specialty dining rooms “might be impossible to get, in part because the cruise line gave priority seating to those who spent more money buying a cabin.”

“The rest of the passengers are effectively disenfranchised from effectively participating in the freestyle program,” the suit added.

The suit, which was filed in Fort Lauderdale by attorney Paul Hoffman, is seeking class action status on behalf of passengers that have booked standard cabins on an NCL cruise since April 2005 who were “unable to make reservations to eat in a specialty dining room of their choice while on their cruise.”

Eva Gularte, the plaintiff in the suit, seeks all costs related to a cruise she took on the Norwegian Star.