sailandcruise

I finally got a response on December 3, roughly two months (nine weeks) since my initial request. :mad: It was a terse response signed by D. Knoxl from the Latitudes Reward Desk, with no phone number to call with questions.

He/she stated that they do not give credit for Orient Lines cruises -- which is not what we were told on the Marco Polo in December 2007. :confused: I guess I have to find some documentation that this is what were were promised, send in another request, wait another 9 weeks, and see what they do.

I was trying to go back through my correspondence and see if I had an auto acknowledgement from NCL and I am pretty sure that I did.

 

This makes me think that your initial inquiry did not go through.

 

If nothing else, the NCL rep on board your next cruise can check on this for you.

 

Here is also the email address that I have used. Maybe try that as well.

LatClerical@ncl.com

 

Finally, do you have a rep that you book NCL through? Perhaps, they could help.

 

FYI: NCL did hire additional people to assist with the backlog. Not sure if they are still there or not.

Thanks again for the constructive suggestions. Much appreciated. :D

I think I used the email address you provided above, but I'm not certain. Actually, I can check because if I did, I would have a record in my "Sent" folder. If I didn't, and I just used their web form, then I would not have a record.

I think that what I'll do is:

1. Send another inquiring to the email address you just provided.

2. If I don't receive an acknowledgement within several days, I'll contact the TA I used to book my upcoming cruise and see if he can help.

3. And if it's still not resolved, I'll bring the documentation with me on my upcoming cruise

Since it has taken you five years to inquire, six weeks does not seem very long. Also, consider a registered letter where you will at least receive proof that it has been received.

I just noticed the mistake recently when I was booking my most recent cruise.

But I think you're comparing apples and oranges. ;) Certainly I can wait for the additional credits, which is why I'm not upset or complaining that they haven't researched this and corrected it right away. What I'm inquiring about here is whether I should continue to wait or whether I should contact them again because my inquiry might have gotten lost somehow.

I'm happy trying again electronically assuming that something went wrong with my initial contact; I don't think I need "proof" at this point that I sent them the inquiry that would require sending a registered letter. I can't imagine that they're deliberately not acknowledging an inquiry because they don't want to grant the missing credits. :rolleyes:

jdvmd,

Thanks for your response and suggestions. I'll give it a try, using one of the other ships on which I have sailed as the selection.

I do have another cruise coming up before the end of the year, but the missing credits won't make a difference in my level -- which is why I haven't worried about this for six weeks. I don't think that six weeks is being "in so much of a hurry" -- in fact, I think it's an extremely long time not to hear back from a customer service inquiry.

Most organizations have an automated response that at least acknowledges a request has been received. Even allowing for the possibility that they couldn't predict the overwhelming increase in service requests to the Latitudes Department when they revamped the program, I'm surprised that they didn't implement an auto-acknowledge feature when they realized that there would be delays. Not only would such a feature provide reassurance to customers, it would also benefit NCL by reducing the number of repeat requests from customers who have no idea if their original request was received or not. I also wonder why, once they realized the increased demand on this department, they did not add additional staff, even on a temporary basis, to clear the backlog. One would imagine that providing excellent service to repeat customers would be a high priority for them.

I emailed NCL over six weeks ago to correct a missing cruise on my Latitudes account and have not received any response or even an acknowledgement. :mad: The Latitudes Rewards Cruise History web page does state that it may take up to 2 weeks for them to respond as quoted below, but six weeks seems excessive. When I called the phone number they provide on the web site, I was connected to a reservations agent who told me that there is no phone number to call the Latitudes Department. :mad: I did have to send a general email rather than one specifically using their "Report a Missing Cruise" link because the latter requires that one specify a Norwegian ship on which the missing cruise occurred, and my missing credit was for a cruise on Orient Lines' Marco Polo. (This cruise was in December 2007 after NCL had announced that it was selling Marco Polo and shutting down Orient Lines, and that credits for this cruise would be applied to our Latitudes accounts.) While I understand that it may take some time to research the correction -- even though I did provide them with my reservation and ticket numbers -- they should have at least sent me an acknowledgement by now that they have received my request and are working on it. Has anyone else had to wait this long? Should I email them again or would that move me to the bottom of the queue? Is there any way to verify that my request has been received? Obviously, hearing nothing is very frustrating. Why hasn't NCL set up an automated response just to acknowledge that they received a message -- as do almost all customer facing organizations?

Due to an overwhelming response to the new Latitudes Rewards program, we are experiencing delays. Response time to your inquiry can take up to 2 weeks. Please do not resubmit your request. All inquiries will be addressed in the order they were received.

It was $2.30 per person for a round-trip ticket when we were there on January 9. However, I think that the real price is in the local currency (4 aruba florins) and the $ price is adjusted depending on the exchange rate. so easy and inexpensive -- no reason at all to take a cab if you can walk across the street from the port to the bus terminal and possibly stand on the bus if it happens to be crowded.

Right now Celebrity Summit's six night October 23 sailing from Cape Liberty to San Juan has inside cabins for $379, a single supplement of only 127% over the double occupancy fare of $299.

I just booked with Maine Windjammer Cruises http://www.mainewindjammercruises.com/ for a three-day in early June. They pick the vessel from their three -- Grace Bailey, Mercantile, and Mistress. Has anyone used this company and been on either of these three boats?

Yes, I enjoyed the Jewel both times I sailed on her. Two different cruises -- 11 nights New England and Canada from NYC in October 2005 with my wife and 5 nights Western Caribbean from Miami over Thanksgiving week 2007 with my son. Different demographics -- many retirees on first criuse, all ages on second. Different Captains, cruise directors too. But same atmosphere -- a service oriented "happy ship." Would definitely sail her again.

I just got a great up-sell for a balcony (only 80$ total to get from an inside to a balcony on a 14-day cruise).

 

I am SO HAPPY, it will be my first time in a balcony cabin. The room they gave us is 8020 (deck 8 forward) and is located right above the Stardust Theatre. Do you think this will be an issue? Is the theatre only used for main shows and at what time does it end? or are there other events for example in the morning that could disturb us?.

 

I’m very excited about the good deal but I hope I’m not in a bad cabin.

We had 8026 and there was no noise from the theater at all.

In case Gixer doesn't respond for a bit, I'll tell you what I learned last year. As of January, 2008, there were *zero* ATMs in Port Stanley. I found the most convenient way to purchase pounds in advance, at least for US residents, is through Wells Fargo Currency Exchange. They had the best rate and lowest fees I found.

When I was there in December 2007 the shops accepted US$. Prices were posted in both pounds and dollars.

I think that most ships will also exchange currency, although I've never used this service and don't know about limitations of amount, frequency, etc.

Not really on the cruise, but on the charter flight back from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires they served us something that was like a jelly roll with spam inside. It appeared to be made by spreading spam on sponge cake, rolling it up. and then slicing it crosswise. Absolutely disgusting.

Chairs were hard white plastic, right on the sand. The staff would wipe them off before you needed one. Somewhat difficult to get up from, especially after many drinks. ;) I found myself preferring to stand to watch activities such as beach volleyball than to use the chairs. But Playa Mia is a place for those who are active, not those who lie around in the chairs that much anyway. The sitting chairs in the restaurant areas were fine.

Just got back from the cruise.

There were 3 other ships in Cozumel with us on November 20. We shared the Punta Langosta pier with the Carnival Victory. It was on the interior side of the pier closer to the shore and the Jewel was on the outside. Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas and Radiance of the Seas were at the International Pier.

The ship's tour to Playa Mia had an 8:30 am meeting time, so we disembarked at 8:15 am and got a taxi to Playa Mia for $15. The taxi driver was careful to explain the three packages offered by Playa Mia to us. When we arrived he got out and told the gate agent which one (the all-inclusive "premium") we had selected. They charged us $46 per person instead of the posted $49; I'm not sure why but I didn't argue.

We were among the first guests there. They were still setting up some of the beach chairs but the bars were open and the water sports staff was checking out kayaks and pedal boats. There were two hobie cats on the beach, one rigged and the other without a sail. We requested the hobie and were asked to wait for about 10 minutes. We signed the waiver form -- the same one for all the watersports -- and an another watersports attendant arrived to help us launch the boat. We were instructed to stay out of the swim area and to go no farther north or out into the channel than a large white buoy and no farther south than the Playa Mia pier. We were also asked if we knew how to sail -- apparently many people who've never sailed before take out these craft. (Lumping the hobies in with the free "water toys" probably encourages people to view them as something they can do with no experience, although if Playa Mia didn't put the hobies in this category they might end up charging extra for them, which I would obviously not prefer.) We sailed out and then paralleled the beach on a reach back-and-forth several times -- probably exceeding their boundaries in all three directions -- until we decided to return after about an hour or so. By then the cruise tour busses had arrived, but there was no one waiting for the hobie.

While we were out we noticed another hobie cat that appeared to be from the beach immediately north of Playa Mia, which is Paradise Beach, although it may have come from the one north of that, Playa San Francisco. Neither of these two beaches mentions hobies on their website. I asked the watersports attendant at Playa Mia where the other hobie came from, and he smilingly replied, "the enemy." He then told me which one, and I think it was Paradise Beach, but am not 100% sure.

We took the hobie out again in the middle of the day for about 45 minutes. Just as we were starting to return to the beach, the staff came out in the motorboat to ask us to come back because another guest wanted to use the hobie. They never did rig the second one, though; the one craft seemed to be enough for the demand.

We remained at Playa Mia until about 2:30 pm, after some of the cruise ship tour busses had departed (including the one for our ship, but not for the ships that were departing later) and the "crowds" had thinned out.

Our total cost was $46 per person admission, plus $15 (plus tip) each way for the taxi, or $61 per person overall. This compares with $56 for the NCL tour that was 5 hours including travel time; we got 6 1/2 hours total, and the difference was worth it.

I haven't gotten an answer from Playa Mia or anyone else. I'm planning to try to get off the ship as early as possible and take a taxi to Playa Mia to beat the bus tours and be the first one to use the hobie cat that day. If I get a chance to sail again later during the day that would be great, and if not I'll take advantage of the other facilities there. I'll let you know how it works out when I return.

I emailed them a week ago (9/30) and asked specifically about hobie cat availability. I have not received any response and it's been almost a week. Has anyone else tried to get more information by email from Playa Mia about this or any other topic? How long did it take for them to respond? Thanks.

I'm planning to be in Cozumel in November and would like to go to a beach club or all inclusive resort that has small sailboats (e.g., sunfish, hobie cats, etc.) available. Playa Mia is the only one I've found that lists any of these (hobie cats) on its web site. Does anyone know if other beach clubs have small sailboats available? How many does Playa Mia have? Are there enough for everyone who wants to use them? (I'll be in Cozumel on a crowded day with at least five ships, more than originally scheduled due to the re-routing from Costa Maya.) Should I take a taxi to the club/AI resort and try to arrive before the buses from the ships?