Ozmodiar

On the recent Star sailing that left from Trieste and stopped in Venice, the tender time was about 90 minutes each way from shop to shore, as they took us all the way to the original cruise terminal. From there, it is a bit of an effort to get to the main sites in Venice especially for those not familiar with the area. The tenders were large but people were packed in pretty tight - on the way back many of us had to stand, and in bad weather the top open deck would not have been pleasant. I believe they had hoped to tender people to St Marks square area, which would have cut the tender time almost in half. They reissued the tour tickets the night before with much earlier meeting times to account for this. Also, no water taxis were meeting passengers at the cruise terminal, as I suspect they might have if they had known people would be getting dropped off at that point. It all seemed very last minute, like plans had changed. I think that Venice as a tender port is untenable if they need to go all the way to the cruise terminal. Actually busing or using the train from Trieste to Venice might be a better option - a bit longer overall, but probably easier.

So, I just completed check-in this morning for my next cruise and I naturally thought about this thread when the check-in steps got to the point where you are asked about adding transfers to and from the ship. Anyway, no idea if this is happened in this instance, but.... I could see someone indicate during check-in they want a transfer, and depending on how the system handles payment or an attempt to unselect the transfer, how either the customer or the system could get confused - because, 1) Does it ask for payment for that immediately? A step or two later you add in your credit card for your onboard account - could someone think that CC entry will take care of the payment? 2) If you say "yes", but see the price and decide not to purchase, what happens if you don't clear that step and reset it to "no", can you go on to the next steps in the process and not realize that has triggered a pending transaction? So was curious if anyone added transfer at check-in - if so do you recall if it opened up another window for your cart or ask for payment then and there before you could continue or go back to another step in check-in? If you see the price and change your mind, does it warn you to reset that to "no" transfers and keep going?

I believe they wanted to auto-cancel reservations that were not fully paid so they weren't blocking people from booking a cabin they hadn't actually sold. Which is likely what happens 99.9% of the time. The unintended part was that someone who had paid for their cruise could have everything canceled with an add-on being left unpaid. I doubt that was their intention as that policy makes no sense, but it is how it ended up being implemented. I think it is a major leap to go from them warning TAs that this will happen due to how the system has been programmed (which I suspect this scenario was not accounted for when the programming was scoped) to saying "our new policy is if you try to add something and that payment is declined/missed, we take all the money you have paid us". I agree that it should have been resolved immediately and that it wasn't was a shame. But I personally think assigning malice of intent when incompetence is more likely is not helpful. Neither are good, but one is worse.

At risk of being labeled an apologist, I think it is unfair to assume that NCL only resolved this to fend off negative PR, or to imply that this policy was some scheme to purposely rip people off instead of an unintended consequence. It sometimes takes a while for a new, unique issue to make it up to a level where someone can make the right decision in large organizations, especially if the people responding to it initially don't have the authority to make the right decision themselves and the situation is something out of the ordinary. To the extent that publicity helps things like this get to the right people's attention and not lost, sure that matters - and people shouldn't have to go through hoops to get things to happen - but it is a lot easier for me to believe that the higher-ups didn't even know this was going on, or that the people dealing with it may have been in a position where they had to stick to the policy until they heard back from someone who had authority. Not that everyone at NCL thought this made sense and was fair.

I agree with this - it seems likely to me that they automated the cancelation process which previously may have had a human review or check along the way. Most likely the goal was to ensure that unpaid cabins were canceled ASAP in order to return those cabins to available inventory for others to purchase, instead of a delay which meant they had an unsold cabin blocked from being sold as they resolved payment issues. Looking at the list of things that would trigger the cancelation, all of those things are non-ship based (transfers, land tours) and likely are expenses that go directly to NCL "corporate" and probably fall under a single tracking/accounting/billing system. Most (not all) of the rest are ship-based expenses - and it seems likely those are kept in a separate accounting/billing system internally as the money is, in an accounting sense, transferred to the on-board account - this is likely why refundable on-board credit gets cashed out before you leave the ship instead of going back to your payment method. So I'd guess the system had an algorithm added that automatically cancels anyone with a non-zero balance on the corporate accounting side, and it isn't sophisticated enough to tell the difference between an account that has paid $500 in Cruise Next on a $10,000 cabin and one that has paid $5,000 on a cabin and owes $200 for an add-on. Canceling the first case for non-payment makes a lot more sense than the second and are clearly not comparable scenarios. They may have already fixed this or are working to have it be a bit more forgiving for a slightly longer time frame. It certainly seems to ignore the possibility of a payment not going through immediately due to legit issues, like fraud protection on the credit card side of things declining it, or someone loses their internet connection mid-process, or maybe they just wanted to price the transfer cost like a mock booking? We don't know 100% what happened here, but zero tolerance automated systems regularly fail to account for legit issues that fall outside the intention of the issue being addressed. The problem for me is the inability to fix an instance like this by the human customer service folks - assuming the customers still wanted to take the cruise, or at least a cruise, then there were still options to consider from finding a cabin on-board if not 100% sold out, to credit for a future cruise, that doesn't cost someone $5,000 for what was likely an honest clerical/process error or a policy being triggered that was not planned to cover an instance like this.

I was on the Getaway in February that was a 5-day to Bermuda (2 days, 1 overnight) that ended up in Nassau, Bahamas for 6 hrs (from 9:00 PM to 3:00 AM). Essentially a cruise to nowhere, but at least was able to go ashore and get some conch fritters and a couple of Sands' beers. Halifax weather was also going to be bad, and 0 degrees Farenheit, so south we went. I would book a Jan-Mar Bermuda cruise again, but it would need to be a 7-day with 3 days, 2 overnights planned for Bermuda, so if the ship did have to divert south there would be time to get somewhere. The 5-day just doesn't have time for a good alternative itinerary.

Once you book a shore excursion for a port, the system blocks you from seeing any shore excursions for the same port that have a time conflict with the booked excursion. Likely that was why you saw the drop for Antigua. Which is good in that it keeps people from overbooking (or I suspect booking more than one excursion in advance with the intention of canceling), but it does result that if a new excursion is added, you may not see it.

When I did a transatlantic in Nov, they added a couple of headliners for the main theater - a female trio who did two shows, a magician who did two shows, I think there was one other person who did two shows - plus the usual theater shows with the house performers like Rock You Tonight. This was one of the older ships so no Braodway-esque show anyway. In any case, none of those extra performers were advertised prior to the cruise.

I've done two tours through the ship multiple times. 30 minutes is the minimum, and an hour is better, as the gap between. Most recently I had 45 minutes, the first tour got back almost 50 minutes late, so I hopped on the next bus which was waiting just a few minutes for me. I assume they would have left without me if it was a much longer (as they should, no need to delay the other passengers), but also they may have been in communication with the shore excursion staff to know my ETA (they were holding the bus for me). I haven't had to reboard the ship between tours, just find the shore excursion team staff members that are at the pier and they will direct you. About the only time this may be an issue is a tender port, if the tenders are not going to a single point on land, which becomes the de facto pier where the staff are, so you may need to return to the ship. I will also note, you get the $50 off per tour (or at least I have), so as a solo traveler it can be a great deal to do two half-day tours instead of a full-day. I also like it as you often get a different guide, so a different perspective during their spiel/overview, while on the bus.

The Sushi bar should be open for lunch, at least it was on my last sailing, and you can use your specialty dining there for four items from the a la carte menu.

Nevermind then! I don't really pay attention to Vibe but thought the passes weren't available until after boarding, my mistake.

Two questions/thoughts - Any chance they have "chartered" the Vibe section for the duration of the cruise? That might fit with having private events, with limited access, on the pool deck, etc, without taking over other parts of the ship. Since they don't pre-sell those passes (right?), no one would know prior that it won't be available. I doubt NCL will divulge any information about a limited group/semi-charter being on a sailing, as they know that some passengers might cancel for that reason, and their goal is to have you get on board.

I have had that happen at a couple of different international airports when flying back to the US - I think it depends a bit on how secure the airline (and maybe TSA) feels the airport really is, or what the policy is for that country - it is possible they would have allowed liquid through the main security if it is not restricted on flights within the country/region. So if the US policy is more strict, they need to do a second check.

Was on the Getaway two weeks ago. Places that seemed quieter included: The area between Cagney's and Modernos when the Prime Meridian bar was not open - so morning and mid-afternoon at least. Bliss was quiet as it rarely had things scheduled during the day and the bar was not staffed, so few people were in there. I suspect many folks never even noticed it. There is some seating just forward of the arcade area on Deck 16 that is a little bit of an enclave from the larger outdoor deck space. There are a few nice chairs on deck 8 in the corridor between the Atrium and the Sunset Bar - people will be walking through but not much "activity" noise.

Having discovered in November that I did not like 5 straight sea days on a transatlantic, I am not sure what I would have chosen if I had the option on the day before of: A) Cancel and get 75% of my fare back under NCLs travel protection plan (I think that would have been an option). B) Go understanding I was getting 20% of my fare as FCC and $200 OBC. I think what NCL offered was fair and have said so and probably would have chosen B, but also think the most customer friendly option would have been to give people information as soon as possible to make informed decisions. By the time you are in line at the port, there really isn't much of a choice to be made. As noted, they may not have been able to figure out all the details prior to departure morning, so will give them some benefit of the doubt here.

That's a fair point - I was just looking at the weather forecasts, from what I could find the wind was going to be much worse the days we needed to dock (consistent 25 to 30, with gusts in the high 40s, and looking at times to be perpendicular to the dock) than before or after, and the seas getting to the island reflected that stormier weather. So I chalked that up to bad luck. If someone can point out that you can almost never dock in February that would be helpful to know, but things seemed much calmer on either side of the scheduled days. I don't know what the "odds" are for smooth seas and docking in February - is it possible 90% of the time, 10% of the time? I would think NCL would know better than try at all in Bermuda if the odds are truly bad.

I actually liked the idea of going to Bermuda now because I was most interested in things like the Bermuda history museum, the caves, the aquarium, and wandering a bit - so being there when it was less touristy and crowded was ideal, and if it wasn't going to be beach weather I didn't care as I wouldn't do that anyway. So off-season Bermuda had a lot of appeal to me. Overall, this was a hard cruise to judge the ship on I feel. I suspect any of the megaships at full capacity will feel crowded on sea days when the outdoor activities are not available or appealing - just too many folks in limited space - and it just became much more noticeable given it was 4 straight days of essentially that. I also wonder about the impact on the crew, who naturally get a bit of a respite when the passengers are ashore - not time off but just less people to serve - having to deal with "busy" times for 4 straight days. In particular I could see this impacting the MDRs, which I used more in these four days than I would on most 14-day cruises with a lot of ports.

I certainly knew Bermuda at this time of year was riskier, but it should be noted that I think the ship could have gotten there and docked no problem a day or two earlier or later. So just bad luck, which can happen anytime. No one is really to blame. I think the one thing NCL might want to consider if trying this again next winter is only scheduling 6-day cruises, direct to Bermuda for 2 overnights - that would give them more flexibility to adjust, either add a sea day before or after, or hit Newport over or back, or if needing to head to the Bahamas, allow 24+ hours there. The short duration provided no good options to adjust, and I do think when scheduling they ought to have a contingency figured out.

Are you saying that since something like the Shore Excursions were charged pre-cruise by corporate NCL, that is likely separate from the on-board accounting system? I hadn't thought of that but can see that makes sense, the on-board system may not know how I paid for those Excursions, just that I have a credit to cover the excursions that has been passed through to them, while everything else on board is done using the card (or cash) provided at check-in.

I recall visits to the table to ask how things were from a manager at both specialty restaurants, once at the Tropicana during dinner, and at least twice at Taste/Savor for lunch. I tend to hit the dinner venues early/at the opening, so did not have the delays others reported. Maybe a little more time than normal between courses but not too bad. But I could see, like any backup, that it tends to get worse as it goes along, and maybe at that point the managers are dealing with the backlog.

The Syd Norman's show I attended on day 4 was a different show than The Prom (80's), more 70's/80's stuff. I'll note that the underused Bliss Lounge was pretty quiet at times, and the area around Cagney's/Moderno was also quiet during the day as well it seemed. Another observation about crowding - the Atrium space is not helped by the relatively bulky chairs - slightly more streamlined seating would probably add some much-needed capacity. I agree about explaining the OBC better to folks. I ended up buying a couple of watches and some macaroons from the bake shop to bring home. I mentioned the lack of clear communication about why the run to the Bahamas, same with the OBC - what it could be used for being more clearly spelled out would have helped some I am sure. One thing that did surprise me was: one family member had remaining refundable credit from canceled shore excursions, and instead of simply refunding to the credit card, we got pulled out of line at disembarkation to be given cash. Not sure I get that from NCL's perspective. I misunderstood the message left in her cabin about it, I thought if she wanted cash (as compared to a refund to her credit card - my incorrect assumption), to go to the desk prior to disembarking, not that cash was the only option.

Mini-review! Not going to complain about the loss of Bermuda, as disappointing as it was - I am not a "sea day" person so a Cruise to Nowhere is pretty much at the bottom of my preferred travel list. Even though this was not a cruise I would have booked, it is what it is, and I enjoyed it for what it was. (Ironically, I signed up for this cruise because my Transatlantic in November on the Sun skipped Bermuda... so 0-2 for Bermuda for me the last few months.) I felt a bit worse for folks who don't cruise a lot and this may have been a bigger trip for them (and a bigger disappointment), but I didn't hear nearly the grumbling I thought I might. Some grumbling, but reasoned grumbling... (As an aside, I do question the lack of explanation about why the ship went to the Bahamas as being bad communication on NCL's part. I am sure many folks on board are unaware of the need to hit a foreign port and that a true CtN is not allowed, and while weather was cited for avoiding Bermuda, they don't go into any specifics such as winds being too strong to dock, etc. I don't get why they won't explain these issues just a bit more for the passengers, provide some of the reasons behind the decisions, like how Halifax was out of the question due to weather as well, or even that the Bahamas were another 300 miles each way as compared to Bermuda and the ship couldn't make better time, and what not). The things the crew could control, such as the food, the service, the Cruise Director stuff in the Atrium, the music and entertainment - I was happy with all of that. In particular, I thought Ocean Blue was great, possibly the best "specialty dining" meal I have had on NCL. Howl at the Moon was fun, and the one Syd Norman's show I got to was good as well. I did feel like they were maybe one or two house entertainers down - some of the bars/venues I would expect to have some live music for a couple of hours every night had an hour here or there as they moved folks around, and they had almost nothing in Bliss at all. I tend to prefer the smaller ships, so first time on the Breakaway class - I generally liked it, was a little crowded as the outside spaces went unused on two of the days due to weather so folks congregated inside more. Casino takes up a lot of space, as does the spa, neither things I care about. Lots of options though overall. (Why they don't run the "Broadway" shows 3 or 4 times a cruise so they can accommodate everyone confuses me, not sure what the cast is doing the other days anyway - why not a "matinee" on a sea day for instance.) Main thing I did not like is no true observation lounge, I missed not having a Spinnaker to relax in. And some spots, like Syd Norman's and Headliners, don't feel like a cruise ship, which is not a plus for me either - if I feel like I could be on land in some hotel "themed" restaurant it isn't the cruise ship experience for me. I thought the 20% FCC and $200 per cabin OBC was fair - we did miss the only port, but NCL had to put about 600 extra miles on the ship and the food and beverage consumption had to go up without 30 hrs in Bermuda for people to be eating and drinking elsewhere.

All-aboard (passengers) was 2:45, crew was 2:00 - my guess is everyone was back early so they got going early - I'm not positive but the two tourist bars seemed to be preparing to close at midnight.

I went into Nassau, it was pretty quiet to be sure - there were a few bars/restaurants open, so did get some Conch Fritters and a couple of Sands (local Bahamian beer) at one spot (Sharkeez) so at least had a bit of local flavor, which was kind of fun. Some government buildings are nearby the pier so walked around those and got some pictures. There were a few police around, no shops opened up, got some local currency from an ATM. Was nice to see the ship at night from the shore.

I am in my early 50's and last year did an ACL Ohio River cruise (with my Mom, who always wanted to do such a trip). As noted, you will be about a generation younger than the majority of the passengers - I am pretty sure I was the youngest on board. Having said that, it was still a fairly active group, retired in late 60's and early 70's. Most of the people I spoke with were experienced travelers so fun to discuss where people had been and their careers and so on, and many had done multiple ACL cruises. The ship was a faux-paddle wheeler which was one of their older ships - personally I liked it because it added to the ambiance of a slow cruise down the river. You will get to know other passengers as it will likely be under 200 of them and ACL has communal dining with no fixed seating (at least on mine) so you can meet different people each meal, or plan to sit with some regulars, up to you. I liked that they had a lecture on each port which connected the dots and added some context. Tours were pretty good I thought. Entertainment was fine - keep in mind the common spaces are not that large, so solo acts or duos/trios are about as big as it will get, so more like being at a local bar or town auditorium than a "big" show. I enjoyed it, but it was a little slow for me - very relaxing but unlike ocean cruises which are fairly "efficient" in terms of distance covered and time in port, the distances between the ports are only a few hours drive most of the time, and in a few towns not their long enough to do more than a tour (which were all good I thought). If you haven't been to the Mississippi river area before, I would suggest one of the itineraries that start and end in two different cities. New Orleans is worth a couple of days, as is St Louis or Memphis, so give yourself a day or two before and after in those places.