"yet you always have something to whinge about."
Maybe it's because it is deserved.
I have given praise when it deserved as well but, of course, you choose not to see or remember those things, along the lines of, "an inconvenient truth".
How many times have you seen people drop off in the short stay car park? I can't say I've seen anyone and the taxis certainly don't do it.
As you say, there is competition and how do you know all those many people living in between don't choose NCL but another one?
The idea when running a business is not to see others doing something (ie charging for dropping off) and then just doing the same. They should be doing things to make the inbetweeners choose NCL.