jaapie

Last September I booked two cruises, one for April 2020 and the other for October 2020. At this time I have only paid the deposit on my October cruise. My PCC at NCL said I can use the FCC from this month's canceled cruise to pay the balance on my October cruise. After consideration I decided to request a refund for the cruise I should have been on now as it is unsure if the October cruise will take place. It is also unclear what the rules might be for the over 70s. Both cruises are transatlantics (Dawn and Escape). Might have to wait until 2021 before I can cruise again when I have a cruise booked to Greenland, that one is not with NCL.  

Yes, received the same email this afternoon

I should have been on a cruise right now but it was of course cancelled. On April 13 I requested a refund. Prior to requesting the refund I spoke to my PCC and he said he would apply the FCC to a transatlantic cruise I booked last year for October of this year. But I decided against that, not only because the October cruise may not happen, but also because being over 70 it is unknown what restrictions there might be for us seniors.

12 minutes ago, CaribbeanJen said:

 

AND?

 

Are you that strapped for cash that you can't just be patient about this?  It's not like you can take ANY kind of vacation right now.   YOU SPENT THAT MONEY.  

Fortunately I am not cash strapped because I don't have a job to lose as I am retired and on social security. But that is totally irrelevant to the way NCL operate.

12 minutes ago, MoCruiseFan said:

By the way, it is up to 90 days not at least 90 days.

Wrong. This is what it says on NCL's website:

Guests who prefer to not take advantage of a future cruise credit can elect to receive a lesser refund to the original form of payment 90 days after submitting the Refund Form below.

So AFTER, not UP TO.

1 hour ago, Cruising Lynne said:

Love the adult only solarium on Celebrity and Royal, but do prefer freestyle dining on NCL. 

Both Celebrity and Royal have the option of freestyle dining. When doing online bookings, if freestyle (called Select dining on Celebrity, MyTime dining on Royal) is showing as already booked up, I do not complete my online booking but call an agent and tell them my cruise reservation is contingent upon getting freestyle dining at the time of making the cruise reservation and of course they always find space in the freestyle option. Once when making a cruise reservation on Royal and the freestyle spots were no longer available, I was told to speak to the maître d once on board the ship to get moved to freestyle. I did speak to him on day one and he said he waitlisted me but never moved me so I learned my lesson and now only will accept freestyle as part of my original booking. 

I agree with paulajj. We have been on both Breakaway and Equinox several times and would be happy to go on either. We enjoy Syd Norman's on the Breakaway but the food on the Equinox is far superior to the MDR on Breakaway. Usually Equinox is more expensive than Breakaway so because for the cruises you are looking at the Equinox is cheaper I would in this instance choose the Equinox.

32 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

It's not even a remotely similar process. There's no choice involved. You just get your stimulus rebate ...it's not as if the IRS has to be told whether you want the money or a future credit and then manually input that decision into their system. Everyone gets the money . Writing a program to do it should have been relatively simply.

NCL shouldn't have given anyone a choice between FCC or a refund. Just refund everyone in 7-10 business days for cancelled cruises. That is the appropriate thing to do. It pees me off having to wait three months for the refund I requested yesterday for the cruise I was booked on that they were forced to cancel. NCL is very wrong to not have the ability to pay us back within 7-10 business days. 

Just tried to request a refund for my Dawn April 19 cruise. Tried both directly on NCL's website and using the link in the letter. Was able to complete all fields except the dates after April 11 are grayed out.  

17 minutes ago, krittykat said:

NCL insurance (even the standard) has a clause that it will cover if the company files for bankruptcy so that is covered

I had no idea about this clause. NCL cancelled my April 19 cruise and I am debating whether to take the FCC or refund. I paid for standard NCL insurance. Are you saying that both FCC or refund are protected by NCL insurance if NCL go belly up?

8 minutes ago, ziggyuk said:

I will leave you budgie smuggler fans to it.

 

LMAO (but not sure most in the US will understand your comment)

12 minutes ago, nhtravels said:

We have 4 cabins booked for 5/31 Bliss.  I think DH and I will take the FCC, as we already have a So. Caribbean booked for May, 2021, but the other 3 cabins are hoping for a refund.  Maybe DH and I will make it to Alaska this year for his 50th, maybe we'll end up somewhere else this year.  But we will cruise again!  

We have a cruise booked for October for which we have only so far paid the deposit. Can we use our FCCs to pay the balance of that cruise or is the FCC only for new bookings? If only for new bookings, then we will request refund instead of taking the FCC for our cruise for this month that was cancelled.

4 minutes ago, coastcat said:

How odd. I read the update on their website and see here that others received email notices. My April 19 cruise was booked directly through NCL. As of this moment I have not received an email notification and the cruise still shows in my NCL account albeit with all the payment wiped out (it shows as on hold but also shows me as 100% checked in).

 

Has everyone else gotten their email notification or might NCL be sending them out in batches? 

My April 19 cruise (Dawn TA) was also booked directly thru NCL. Today at 4:29pm CST I received the cancellation email from them.

13 minutes ago, Murph269 said:

So, looks like we have to wait 2 more weeks until we can request a refund, and then wait up to 90 more days to receive it?

Not UP to 90 days, on NCL's website it says AFTER 90 days!!!

Guests who do not prefer to take advantage of a future cruise credit will receive a refund to be payable after 90 days from completion of the Refund Form below. Refund requests must be submitted by April 27, 2020 for all suspended sailings.

2 minutes ago, LS6Caddy said:

My question is how big of a max exodus is there going to be for the cruises over the next monthish and whether that forces them to start canceling cruises.  I would think there has got to be some sort of threshold of number of passengers where it does not make sense for them to sail.  

Or perhaps condense two cruises with similar dates/itineraries/departure ports into one cruise, i.e. seven day cruises from Miami and Port Canaveral, cancel one of them and move the people from both ships who don't cancel onto one ship. Same for the transatlantic cruises leaving NY in April.

It was on TV on CNN. The governor of Florida and leaders from the cruise industry were stood with him when he made the statement.

Mike Pence just made an announcement on TV that changes are coming in 72 hours to how cruise lines handle cruises for the American public. We currently have three cruises booked so wondering what changes are in the pipeline.

21 minutes ago, susanf31 said:

I would do a beach day in St Thomas and then to the excursion to The Baths in Tortola.  

Agreed. For a beach day on St Thomas we prefer Sapphire Beach to Magen's Bay.

19 minutes ago, chrisdar1 said:

 

What about sailing out of New Orleans?  8 hours on the Mississippi until you hit the Gulf and then still have to get into international waters?  That could be a lot of $$$ in drink taxes...  🙂

Yes, NCL charges you the tax while sailing down the Mississippi until out in the Gulf. 

It depends on the cruise line whether or not local sales tax is passed on to the customer while in US ports. For example, Celebrity does not charge customers tax on drinks while in US ports, NCL charges customers.

1 hour ago, Pduaime said:

We are taking a 7 hour Veragua Rainforest & Tortuguero Canals tour in Puerto Limon in February.  I thought at one time I had read to wear long pants, I assume to protect against bug bites, but now I see the tour description just says comfortable clothes and shoes.   I expect it to be hot and humid, so I'd rather wear shorts.  I'll have insect repellent.   Does anyone have personal experience with this type of tour?  Were the bugs awful?  

Two years ago while on a cruise on the Star we took a NCL excursion to the rain forest in Costa Rica. I was also concerned about bugs but wore shorts and used bug spray and fortunately no bites. I found crossing the rope bridges more scary than the bugs!

Thank you for the info mking. Yes, ncl. We had thought about going back to LGA on the Sunday morning to get a shuttle to the cruise port but instead will opt for a ride directly from hotel to cruise terminal. 

We are arriving at LGA on a Saturday evening (flight is already booked) for a cruise from the Manhattan cruise terminal on the Sunday. We intend staying at the Hampton Inn near LGA on the Saturday night. To get to the cruise terminal on Sunday morning we would like to take a shared shuttle van as we have done from EWR in the past, but we are wondering how realistic this idea is because of all the construction at LGA. If we have to we will use Uber but not keen, definitely don't want to use public transport like a train or bus (we are 70 year olds). Any advice on which shuttle services offer transport to the cruise terminal would be appreciated.

1 hour ago, TeeRick said:

I guess if you are not having a rewarding experience even on premium/luxury lines then probably I would agree with you that other vacation choices might be better for you.  I am no where near that point.  I love to just walk on a ship.  Still gets me excited.  I honestly do not really care if the food was better 10 or 20 years ago.  I am cruising and enjoying it now.  Why focus on the past and what your perception of it was?  Why start with that and be continually disappointed? Just enjoy today!  You are on a cruise!

I feel just like you do when I "just walk on a ship", nothing better. Sure I like all the bells and whistles, good food, etc, on some cruises I have had them and some not (my first cruise - a solo - was in 1971 and since then I have taken many, many more, sometimes on my own, sometimes not). Yes, some cruises are better than others but bad ones are still experiences, and to me experiences are way, way better than things.