susanf31

Awesome that they are finally going to let those who paid with FCC get their money back.  They have been holding on to my daughter's money since March, 2020.  They would really like their money so they can opt for a different vacation if our cruise gets cancelled again.

7 minutes ago, TNcruising02 said:

I am on that cruise too, but if it's cancelled I will get a refund and enjoy a week in Florida.  Hopping on another cruise might be an option if that line lets people do it close to sailing.

We are also considering renting a beach house for the whole family if our cruise gets cancelled. The problem with that is it's high season here and add that in with so many "cancelled cruisers" looking for last minute beach houses, and you will find a supply/cost issue.

That is why we are more likely to try and get on a different ship first.

Here's our Plan B.  If NCL cancels our 1/15 Escape sailing out of Port Canaveral prior to 1/14, we are just going to book a different cruise last minute.  I'm seeing about 23 other ships (Carnival, Royal, Disney, MSC, Celebrity) sailing from Florida on either 1/15 or 1/16 that we could book last minute.

We will already have our Covid tests in hand.  We are already vaccinated. People we are sailing with will have already flown in so why would anyone get on a flight and return home when they could just book a different cruise and still go?

I understand that people who were sailing on FCC might not be able to afford to do that, but those of us who paid for the cruise and would be getting a refund, the cost would be about the same.

Am I wrong with this logic?

This thread is now 28 pages long.  I'd like to make what I think is a reasonable request that will be the most helpful to everyone.

Please name the ship/route that you were sailing on.  Example, "NCL Escape 1/3/2022 sailing to the eastern Caribbean."

Name how much you bid on each cabin that you bid on.  Example, I bid i won was $1000 pp for a 1 br Haven suite".

It would be helpful for others when placing their bids.

It seems that a lot of people dance around the hard numbers, when its the hard numbers we are all looking for.

Thank you and Happy New Year!

We are also on the 1/15 Escape. See you there! We have no plans to cancel. We are actually looking forward to it MORE knowing that the ship probably won’t be very crowded.

35 minutes ago, disneykins said:

We are concerned about the same. We are driving from Canada, about 20 hours drive, not bad split over 2 days. If we test positive at the pier, we will turn around and drive home. Will we be allowed to stop at a hotel overnight? Eat at a restaurant on the way home? Buy gas? If that's the case, who is policing this? Wouldn't we also be able to stop at a nice hotel on the beach for a few days? Not that we would, but how safe is this "quarantine" if no-one is policing it? Couldn't we also just find a nice beach side hotel and quarantine there for 14 days, its still better than being at home for those 14 days, lol.

Hypothetical questions, we're really hoping we can cruise, its been 2 years.

Tony

You don’t say what state you are driving to, but Florida is absolutely open and free. You will not be required to quarantine here. You would be more than welcome to rent a room on the beach and hang out for as long as you wish.

8 hours ago, vacationut said:

It's been almost 4 hours and they never called me back. Now that I've had time to think about it, I wonder if instead of a FCC if my Chase Sapphire Reserve would force a refund since the CDC is now advising against cruise travel. 🤔 

No, they absolutely will not. If your cruise is still sailing then they have met their terms of your purchase. You CC will not help you.  
 

When NCL was being crappy about refunding my money for a cruise THEY canceled, I took it to my CC they didn’t even help then!  Capital One - who are usually outstanding but not in this case.

Yes, it would suck to be put in quarantine, but the odds are tiny.

And with everyone cancelling, the odds of it happening are going wayyy down. So please keep cancelling. I can’t wait to have this ship all to myself.  🙂. (J/k - I hope everyone goes and thoroughly enjoys their vacation).

We are sailing 1/15 and will NOT be cancelling. In fact, we are more excited now. The thought of a nearly empty ship with few kids sounds wonderful.

We’ve lowered our expectations of what ports we will actually visit and plan the make the best of this adventure.

We went to Universal Studios last week. It was packed. We were nose-to-nose with tens of thousands of people. We were fine.  Omicron is a cold. Everyone has had a cold and will get more colds for the rest of their lives and we have never cancelled vacations before because of it. If we constantly tested people for the common cold, there would be billions of cases all of the time, just like Omicron.  The media, in my opinion, is overblowing omicron.

In March of 2020, we had a big, family wedding planned on an NCL cruise.

One member of our party cancelled themselves 3 days before NCL cancelled the cruise.

They only got FCC and did not have the option of getting their money back.

For the rest of us, we had the option of a full refund or FCC +25%.

Is it anywhere in writing that if you get a negative PRC test on your own taken no more than 96 hours before sailing, and then test positive at the port, that you will receive a refund?

I was told that over the phone by a NCL cruise consultant, but can't find it anywhere in writing.

Thank you!

We sail on Jan 15 and have a villa at Silver Cove booked for our family of 7.  If you aren't cruising before then, let me know what questions you have and I will answer them when we return.

"If masks are so worthless let your surgical team go in maskless next time. Just because single layer cloth masks are not good does not negate all others."

That is a completely false analysis.  Surgical masks during surgery are to keep bodily fluids, like saliva, out of open wounds.  The masks are not intended to keep virus particles, that spread through the air, out of the surgical room.  If they needed to do that, they would wear hasmat suits that keep exhaled air  fully contained.

I'll repeat what CNN Medical advisor, Dr. Leana Wen said just this week.  "don't wear a cloth mask. Cloth masks are little more than facial decorations. There is no place for them in light of Omicron...."

CNN's medial analyst, Dr. Leana Wen - one who said that she thought that vaccines should not only be mandatory, but forced upon the unwilling - just said on CNN this week, and I quote "don't wear a cloth mask. Cloth masks are little more than facial decorations. There is no place for them in light of Omicron...."

Masks are worthless unless N95 or more are used.  Otherwise, it's just theater.  

What is total BS is that they are closing the ENTIRE outdoor sports complex. Basketball, putt-putt, etc...  Those things don't all need repair/maintenance all at the same time. Again, they had 1.5 years to do that maintenance and the ship has only been sailing a few weeks.  No way it could be down for wear and tear.

Which means that it has to be a staffing issue. You'd think you'd want everything outdoors fully open as it's the safest place to be.

Closing the outdoor sports complex really is a big deal to many families - especially those with teen boys who spend a lot of their day playing basketball other outdoor sports.

Masks are a big deal to many people.  Many booked this cruise because masks were not required.  Those who are adverse to masks could have just booked a vacation in Florida instead of a cruise as Florida has no mask mandates anywhere.

It's all a CF and horrible customer service on NCL's part. If they are going to change the rules of the game 3 weeks before a cruise, they should give options so IF these issues are important to some cruisers, they can make other plans.

And to the posters who say "you shouldn't care about this."  Stop telling other people how they should feel!!!  You don't know their family or their expectations for THEIR vacation. Just because it doesn't matter to you, it could absolutely matter very much to others!!!!

Dear Valued Guests,

Thank you for choosing Norwegian Escape for your vacation at sea.

We continuously aim to offer an enhanced experience for all our guests, and we strive to provide a world-class product consistent throughout our fleet. As part of this commitment, Norwegian Escape Sports Complex, including The Ropes Course and other activities, are undergoing maintenance to better serve our guests, and therefore will be closed during your cruise. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.  

We remain at your service and cannot wait to welcome you aboard for a vacation of a lifetime.

Agreed. We are also on the Jan 15 sailing of Escape. We went with NCL because they didn’t require masks. Now they are closing down things when they had almost 1.5 years in cold storage to do maintenance????  Of course it’s a staffing issue.  I’m not even looking forward to our trip anymore.  If we weren’t traveling with others who cannot cancel, we would cancel.

None of this makes sense.  If you book a "Guarantee" cabin, they can give you any cabin within the category you booked.

But if you pay slightly more to CHOOSE your cabin, and they can STILL move you to any cabin within the category you booked??  If they do that, then they have basically downgraded you to a "guarantee" and you should receive compensation for the price difference.

I can't believe they are being like this. The ship is not full.  They moved you from a cabin you paid MORE for so you could choose it to a less desireable cabin. They should be putting you in a suite with a nice ship-board credit for the inconvenience.

Actually, I do believe it based on the way NCL treated me when they cancelled our 2020 cruise last year.  This is very poor service on their part.

That's a bummer. Tortola is a fantastic stop - The Baths on Virgin Gorda are a must-see!  We sail on the Escape on Jan 15th and hope this doesn't happen to us.  

It's a good question. If airline passengers have to have a negative test to enter the United States from a foreign country, will cruise ship passengers also have to test negative to disembark the ship in the USA after having visited foreign countries???

1 hour ago, kenzie said:

Having read some posts, are NCL changing the blind bidding to a live bidding system?

 

I was almost going to say I love this idea, but then I realized that NCL could then manipulate the bidding by throwing bids in to raise it.  Kind of like *some* eBay sellers do when they get a lot of bids on something they are selling. They drive the price up with their own bids from friends/family/bogus accounts.

47 minutes ago, 20165 said:

It goes a long way for us knowing that anyone we talk to on board is vaxed vs. playing the guessing game on other lines.  All my opinion so go easy on me...

This has me very concerned that people are believing that everyone onboard will be vaxxed. There is a huge market out there for fake Vaxx cards. There is no way of verifying if vaxx cards are real.  My 7 year old could make a fake vaxx card using OfficeMax card stock and it would look exactly like my "real" one from Walgreen pharm.

Are there people out there who really believe that "anyone we talk to on board is vaxxed"?  There will be many people onboard each ship who are not fully vaxxed and if that's a game-changer for you, you might consider not cruising.

I'd also like to add that you are kidding yourself if you think everyone on the ship will be fully vaccinated.  Have you seen the vaccine cards?  Lots of fake ones out there and there is absolutely ZERO way for the cruiseline to verify if cards are real.

If you aren't willing to accept the risks of travel right now, please don't travel.

Why would anyone book a cruise or any kind of travel if new variants are going to cause them to not want to go?  This is exactly what ALL viruses do - they mutate. That's why they can't cure the common cold (also a Covid virus), flu, pneumonia, bronchitis...because the strains are constantly changing/mutating. Deep down you KNOW that.

You know when you book a cruise that you will be in close quarters with thousands of people who have traveled from all over the world to get to the ship. You also know you'll be stopping in several countries where people from all over the world have traveled to, either by land or by sea, bringing a cornucopia of infectious bugs and viruses with them that you will be exposed to.

Enough. If you are still fearful, please stay home, wear your mask, take as many jabs as the billion dollar pharmaceutical companies tell you to.  Stop asking corporations to give you money back because you are afraid of a variant that you KNEW would come. Stop booking trips in the middle of a pandemic if you aren't willing to accept the risks of traveling during a pandemic.  We all KNOW viruses mutate.  We have to live WITH Covid-19. It's not ever going away.  So book your travel and have fun, but please stay home if you are expecting companies or fellow passengers to cowtow to your fear.

I questioned the person on the phone over and over again because I didn't believe it either - and he told me that it is buried DEEP in the paperwork but it's there.