timcahill98

Totally agree! There seem to be a core group of "Princess Apologists" on this thread who seem to want to victim shame the people who've been adversely affected by the cancellations to date, rather than address the core fact that Princess screwed people at the last minute (comments like "why didn't every single person have travel insurance", "you should have understood the risks", "real cruisers would know to never sail on a ship in the first 2-3 months", etc.). Again, this last cancellation with 4 days to go before the cruise is completely unacceptable, as Princess HAD to know the ship wouldn't be ready weeks ahead of time (probably at the same time they canceled the first cruise). I wonder how many of these Princess Apologists are actually Princess employees simply trying to mitigate the bad press they're receiving. At the very least, these people seem to lack any sort of empathy for those affected.

Then what was your point about complaining that everyone should have had insurance. You can't have it both ways....

Perhaps they did. But like me, my travel insurance doesn't consider a cancellation by the carrier to be a covered loss. So please don't assume that "travel insurance" covers all expenses or situations.

Another interesting aspect to the story....I'm scheduled on the Feb 28th sailing and today I got an email from Princess about booking shore excursions. That's normal. But in prior emails the voyage was entitled "10 Day Grand Mediterranean," but in today's email the voyage is tagged as "Europe - Southern." I checked the itinerary on my account page and it's still the same, but I wonder if they plan on completely changing the itinerary and not announcing it beforehand....?

The original poster never said they were a "cruiser." Doesn't matter anyway - their point is still valid. I would bet money that if there are any first-time Princess cruisers booked on these sailings, they'll just dismiss Princess, not use the FCCs, and move on to another cruise line. I sure would! As an Elite status passenger with Princess, if they end up canceling the 28th sailing, which I'm supposed to be on, I will NEVER cruise with Princess again. I'm also booked for the Sun Princess on the October 19th Caribbean sailing and I will also cancel that booking. This rollout has been a complete fiasco and I no longer trust Princess.

According to cruisemapper, she's still sitting in the shipyard and it's almost Wednesday there now (19 minutes from this writing). Wonder if it has actually been handed over yet....

Well, it's now February 12th and still no hand-over. And the first cruise is supposed to depart in 6 days?!?!? I really don't like how Princess is handling this. No promo cruises? No shakedown cruises? It's actual first sailing will be with paying passengers - so different from how RC just rolled out the Icon OTS. I'm supposed to be on the Feb 28th sailing and I'm still not confident mine will go off....

Thanks, @DCGuy64 and everyone else for your responses. No, I didn't get any explanation, as I didn't bother calling. In retrospect, I should have logged in again as though I were going to book a new cruise and taken a screenshot of the advertised itinerary. Then I'd have something to show the media or whoever wants to investigate these things. But I just decided that if this is how they treat brand new customers and my first experience with them is a lie, then I'm just not going to cruise with NCL again and move on. I've enjoyed my cruises with Princess and Celebrity, so I think I'll stick with them going forward.

They sure are! On February 12th I booked an 8-day Bahamas cruise from New York, departing on March 18th, that was advertised with an itinerary of New York - Orlando - Great Stirrup Cay - Bermuda - New York. That was the EXACT itinerary that was being advertised when I booked. But then as soon as I made my payment (paid in full) and had access to my cruise page, the itinerary showed as New York - Orlando - Great Stirrup Cay - Nassau - New York. *****! I don't believe the itinerary could have been changed in that exact split second it took me to pay. And I PURPOSELY booked that cruise because I have never been to Bermuda and wanted to go. Turns out, after reviewing the cruise critic forums, I found the itinerary had actually been changed all the way back in November! So they continued to falsely advertise this cruise for 3 months after the official itinerary change. As a first time NCL cruiser, I can say this is also going to be my last NCL cruise. I feel like they literally robbed me.

So I'm curious Pete - when they cancel a port stop, in addition to getting any excursions refunded, have they told you they'll also refund the port fees and taxes you paid upfront? I know Princess and Celebrity do, but I've heard that NCL doesn't. Can you confirm that? Otherwise, in effect, they're stealing money from every passenger when they cancel a port stop.

And another plug - I sailed on Celebrity Summit back on the October 31st run in the Caribbean. I really enjoyed it and had no complaints about the ship or the crew. Highly recommended!

Wish I had seen this thread before I booked my cruise yesterday. I would not have chosen to sail on Norwegian if I knew this ahead of time. This will be my first and last cruise with them. I've also heard they just took on over a half billion $$ in debt and have forced their room and entertainment staff to take pay cuts (in addition to cutting some of their production shows, namely Kinky Boots). So anyone who doubts NCL is making this move to save money, think again.