alwalaska

I just received my cancellation notice for Feb 8, 2025 Australia to NZ sailing. It says everything from Feb 8 - Nov 23 is gone. I am so upset. I've been worried since NCL starting randomly screwing around with itineraries all over the place and now it has happened. At least I don't have flights and all yet and I haven't paid for new credit cards to work on points for air, but still, a lot of planning down the tube.

Try using an Ingocnito window in Chrome or a private tab in Edge. Sometimes if a Cookie gets stuck, I get problems like this on other sites. I also sometimes try a different browser or computer if that doesn't work.

Yes, I was fine last February, but who knows what the next time will hold.

I found the list, it is at the link below, but unfortunately, it simply says 50 standard photos. My guess is that they are the printed ones, but, I remember on one cruise (can't remember the cruise or cruise line) not only were the special studio photos not included, some of the ones that are printed larger, had other pictures around the main photo, etc were not considered "standard". I'd drop by the photo area when you first get on board and check with them. Please post back here and to the Codes thread so that others will be aware of what it actually means.

That's frustrating. I feel your pain. I hope it all works out great for you. When I booked almost 2 years out, I decided that I would be happy no matter what happened with the price because I wanted to lock in a good cabin for this major bucket-list trip. Now, we'll see if prices drop drastically if I will be able to convince myself that I really meant it and not get mad at my former self. 🙂

I would be very tempted to take my refund from NCL and see if I can find a comparable cruise on a different line for a similar price to what the Spirit cruise was. I know the contracts are all in favor of the cruise line and that all cruise lines do the same thing, but that doesn't make it write. NCL contracted with you for a specific cruise at a specific price. I agree with you that they should offer comparable cruises at the same price and timing as your original cruise. Many people had additional coupons when they booked the original cruise and NCL isn't honoring those coupons on the new cruises either, unless you want to not use your not-so-generous 10% discount.

There is a post somewhere here where they keep a list of codes and what they mean. If I can find it, I will come back here and post, but you may want to look it up on your own as well. If it isn't there yet, maybe they will add it if they can find anything. The code does not look specific to a particular TA.

That is interesting. Most of mine worked this past Feb on the Dawn, with multiple nights in the same main restaurant, but there was one night when I couldn't book what I wanted. I don't remember if it was one of the repeat locations, but that could explain it. An email to my TA about options, and the next thing I know it was booked with the response, "NCL had problems at first getting it to book as well, but all is good now." I wish they could be consistent and put explanations with things when something odd like this becomes a policy.

If it is such a big deal, then they need to have a disclaimer when you add your credit card to the sign-in information that the card must be your legal name. I would never have thought that my credit cards have to be in my full legal name. Most of my credit cards have my middle initial, but some forms don't allow you to put a middle initial in. I would be irate if they let me put my cruise on a credit card and then refused it once on the ship, a day or 2 into sailing, because it does not have my full legal name on it.

I booked through a TA from the beginning and then called WP to upgrade my cabin. No difficulties at all, except that certain cabins for the initial booking were not eligible for the group promotions that my TA had, so I booked a slightly lower interior and was given options of slightly lower balconies to choose from, but the one I really wanted was at the level offered.

Thanks. Our problem was that we only had one FAS and 2 fixed-price places where we wanted to dine. We're going to run into the same thing next cruise because we didn't get the FAS with our booking. We opted for the more flexible OBC, but that limits reserving both dining and shore excursions early, so I'm not sure if I chose wisely or not. I'll be happy going to Cagney's twice (what I'll reserve online) if we can't get a decent time for Tepanyaki once onboard.

They weren't the same on my Feb cruise on the Dawn. Luckily we learned about it before we went to eat. With the FAS, we were offered an appetizer, a salad, an entree, and 2 sides at Cagneys. The people next to us had a Lattitudes voucher. They were offered 1 item from appetizers and salads combined, an entree, and only 1 side. I don't know about the other 2 restaurants because we used our 2 latitudes vouchers at fixed price locations. The problem with fixed price is that you can't reserve ahead and not pay unless you have enough FAS vouchers to cover it when reserving. 😞

Thank you. That link was very helpful. As I clicked through different articles I also saw that nothing except for commercially bottled water is allowed to be taken off of the ship. I was hoping that I would be able to take commercially packaged cookies or something for if we have a long bus ride so that we don't get motion sick. We are doing one way, Sydney to Auckland with stops in Eden, Melbourne, and Burnie before our first stop in NZ.

Thank you for your information. We are doing the opposite direction. If you haven't heard already, I've read several reviews where you pass through a mini-customs experience at your first stop in Australia. I've ready reviews that said it was quick and easy and others that said it could take up to an hour because they do ship excursions first, then by deck # of your cabin. I hope you have a great cruise.

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I pick up lots of paper on a cruise and try to throw most of it away either before heading home or immediately upon unpacking, so I totally understand.

Thanks for the info. They have info from 2022/2023 season though, so it would be nice if they listed something.

@ziggyuk Do you happen to have a picture or pdf of the excursion paper that lists all of the tours available for your cruise? I can't find much of anything listed on the NCL general shore excursion page and it is way too early for them to show up in my planner.

Thank you so much! It will be nice to have the general names and price relationships even though I am sure the actual prices in 2025 will be much higher. I totally get that the shore excursions aren't showing up in our planners, I just wish that at least some were available at Shore Excursion Search | Norwegian Cruise Line (ncl.com) like so many other ports and itineraries.

Thank you both. I understand clearing customs at the end of the cruise, but from what I heard, the cruises from New Zealand to Australia, all passengers have to show their passports and customs cards on the first port day in Australia, before they can do their excursions. I haven't heard the same things about New Zealand. The US is like Austalia where if the cruise originates in another country or you visit another country and then make a port of call in the US, the customs officers come onto the ship and everyone has to show their passports before going ashore. I'm trying to decide if we need to schedule in extra time before our private tour in our first New Zealand port.

Thanks for reporting in. I think the new wording is a CYA in a post COVID world and to have wording to cover people who do it so frequently that it causes a burden on the WP staff if a lot of people keep doing it. There are some travel insurances I saw when I was looking that would cover redeposit fees, but not the loss of the points.

I know things are always changing and it is off-season, but when I go to the shore excursions page on NCL.com, not inside my cruise planner, but the generic one, there are no shore excursions other than Melbourne for any of the ports. In fact, when you pick Australia and New Zealand, all cruises for the entire world still show up. Does anyone know what is wrong? Does NCL no longer have pdf files with a sampling of excursions that could be available for each port? Does anyone have screen shots or any information about excursions from their cruise? I'm trying to put a reasonably correct budget together and knowing what is offered would really help with the planning. Thanks.

I have read that if you are sailing from Auckland to Sydney, that every passenger must clear Australian customs before going about their day. Does anyone know if the reverse is true when you sail from Sydney to Auckland? If yes, I am sure that experiences vary, but how much extra time should we allow before our private tour start time?

That could have been at the same time that NCL cut 50% of the housekeeping staff on all ships when they went from 2 to 1 cabin make-up per day. I would assume they would rather keep current staff than bring on the newly trained that still have much to learn on the ship itself. Or, POA could be going back to a non-US flagged ship and sailing other itineraries. Who knows.

Do you mean that only the smaller ships have these signs, because that is what I was on? I believe I saw them in every dining location. What are the requirements on the larger ships?

Thank you very much for your help. I'm sure it will be a great trip. I only have 400 and some odd days to wait. Ha ha.