"I bought 2 Marcus Glenn's 2 days ago (the last Friday of the cruise). I also bought the frame upsell.

"I attended the auction, was told how much to "bid", I "bid" that much and someone came by to make an appointment for later (5PM). At the meeting Annsofie closed the deal and upsold the framing. She also "gave" me another Marcus Glenn print and upsold the framing on that. As I write this I can't imagine how I was so willing to go along with this.

"They said that Marcus Glenn was one of the hottest artists out there and that he was "just about to break wide open on the American scene."

"They pounded home the fact that you "would never see prices like this anywhere off the ship."

"I had my chance to get out of it when my credit card application was declined. I've had some identity theft problems and GE asked to speak to me to verify my identity. Oddly enough, I couldn't pick any one of the five addresses they asked me about.

"But instead of grabbing my chance, I allowed them to put it on my credit card. Instead of taking my credit card, they charged it to my room (same difference, right?).

"Well, the card I was using has a $17,000 credit limit. When I left a week ago, it had a balance of $10,000. My room bill was around $2,000 and the "artwork" was $3,000.

"On the day of departure, I was stopped at disembarkation. They kept my passport and told me I had to settle a bill. So I went back to the credit desk. They presented me with another $415 bill and said that the charge was declined. Even today, looking at my statement online, I can't figure out why.

"Nonetheless, I saw it as another opportunity, (and message from the ether) that this was not a good purchase. So I asked them to take the artwork off my bill. After screwing around for about 15 minutes, they put me on the phone with the auctioneer. She said the paperwork was gone and she could not rollback the sale. She actually suggested that I pay one credit card off with another. When I laughed at her, she told me to contact Park West in Florida and cancel the sale.

"The ship would not let me leave until I settled my bill. I was risking missing my flight, so I gave them another card. That was yesterday.

"I intend to call my card company tomorrow. This is third-party billing. I happen to know that this is a serious no-no with MasterCard and VISA and I don't understand how Park West is getting away with it.

"I'm also pretty upset about the extortion by the cruise line.

"As mentioned by some of your other complainants, it is cost-prohibitive to go online to research them. When I did get my hands on the internet, I was chagrinned to find my thousand-dollar painting offered on eBay at $269 (that's not even the starting bid, that's the "Buy Now" price!

"Internet time is $.75 per minute. I would have spent the money but I thought it would be a waste since Norwegian was endorsing these folks. I have a long history with Norwegian and it never crossed my mind that Norwegian wouldn't stand behind any problems I might have."

"They charged it to my room. It was billed on my MasterCard through NCL - they don't even do their own credit card billing."

"On October 1 they attempted delivery of the free print. I refused delivery. They have since tried to deliver the two other paintings and I refused delivery."

"It was just a gut feeling, that little voice. What I will never understand is why I overrode it in the first place. The next morning, when I went to disembark, my credit card was declined for $250. It was an omen. That card had plenty of room. But that little voice was not under the champagne influence and it was now screaming at me. I asked them to take the artwork off and Annsofie gave me this lame excuse that the paperwork was already in. Impossible. She also told me to call Park West on Monday and cancel it. Those were her exact words. I put up another credit card in order not to miss my plane. If I had it to do over again, I would never have left the ship. Of course, Park West would not cancel on Monday."

"I found one piece on eBay for $269."