ridleykj0

Thanks guys! We had two cabins drop out of the group over NCL frustrations, but glad to have the worst behind us.

Did you check out the Epic 11/24-12/5 out of Orlando or the Breakaway 11/25-12/6 out of NOLA? Not sure what your original price and perks were but both those sailings have the take all five offers plus latitude bonus and obc. If Ncl gives you 10% off those look like a great deal.

Thank you for the recommendation! While we have already sailed on the Epic before, we are moving ahead with the 11/24 sailing out of Orlando. In my initial searches we had shrugged it off having been on it before, but see it already has been refurbished.

Many reasons why. Perhaps the ship has been partially chartered. I’ve been on a sailing that was over half chartered and it wasn’t ideal. Regardless of the reason the ultimately did it because they can and they did it for profit. They’re currently selling a Jade cruise for the med while also selling it as an advertised music charter with conflicting dates and ports. These things happen because charters make the corporation big $. It doesn’t seem right to be selling folks their dream vacations that Ncl knows isn’t going to happen but I guess they have their reasons.

 

The most fair solution in my opinion would be a choice of a few similar sailings with price and perk protection and some meaningful obc for the troubles. $25/$50 is not meaningful. And also give booked customers an option to book any sailing within a certain time frame at a meaningful percentage off if price protection alternatives don’t work for displaced passengers. I’m all for a corporation making $ but at the same time I don’t see what the hardship is in stepping up and taking care of displaced passengers. Just build the loss into the profit of the replacement sailing and save the brand name/keep customers in the process.

 

When I’ve talked to the displacement department in the past I found that some reps had a little more experience and ability to save my vacation than others who simply read the instructions and have zero desire to help you salvage the vacation.

Well said! I would happily deal with the new itinerary if the price hadn't doubled, or swapped to a different ship if I could have kept all of my existing promotions/pricing perks. Instead I am having to start over closer to sailing when prices are trending up, and the 10% discount offered doesn't make it worth it for me.

Ncl redeployed about half their fleet in 2016. Some passengers were given price and perk protection and just paid port fee difference. Some not so lucky. Back then the perks were udp with many passengers having unlimited speciality dinners, gratuity included in the ubp, lower dsc, various obc pkgs, $75 shore excursion credits instead of the $50, some had free dsc as a perk... I don’t recall how many ships had same dates different ports and how many were simply switched around but there’s several threads on the subject of various lengths and hundreds of pages on the major redeployment. Some people got the standard back then of $50 obc up to mini suites and $100 obc if their Haven full suite booking was cancelled, if they chose a new sailing at the new pricing and perks. With thousands of passengers who had vacations canceled, It was luck of the draw who got what but some ultimately got a great replacement deal. At the time I read the entire cruise contract for Ncl and other lines. They all have basically the same wording and can cancel, change sailings and need only give you your $ back. At the time I looked into it I found that all lines do this to some extent, mainly with charters. Nobody is usually happy with it but some lines really step up and try and keep the canceled passengers happy. Ncl has recently given some valid good will offers that seem to coincide with the newly formed public relations department. I would think a persistent, polite and reasonable, replacement request would be granted.

Thank you for the very thorough reply! I apparently wasn't using the right words in the search function to find those threads.

It saddens me that price protection is not being offered at all (only a 10% discount on cruises that are much more expensive than the original booking). I am now in the tough position of trying to find a comparable cruise cost wise for 6 cabins (very tough this late in the game) on a different cruise line for the same dates, or cancelling the family trip all together.

The NCL dedicated customer service department for this cancellation would not budge on honoring any of the original promo perks or coming close to the original price. If you have any tips or advice it would be greatly appreciated. Cheers!

They can and they do. I actually read the contract in it's entirety and all the cruise lines have the ability to do the same thing. Sometimes they will price protect for another sailing around the same dates. The 10% off offer is certainly better than the previous standard, we canceled your cruise, here's $25 obc if you want to re book an alternative sailing.

This is the exact same ship just hitting different ports on the exact same dates for the same duration. Are you saying Norwegian has reconfigured an itinerary completely and in the process making everyone rebook/reprice the the same ship for the same dates? I personally have never heard of such a thing, and the $25 OBC example you gave implies you have dealt with something like this before?

Same situation here with the cancelled cruise and the higher prices on the new itinerary. I have been emailing the senior vice president, who sent us the letter, daily. Her secretary has responded via phone but I am not giving up and would encourage others to do the same. The 10% discount does bring the price close to what it was. Also, the are not honoring my Taxday promotion.

Post to their Facebook page! Don't give up. Someone tried to tell me that the doubling of my balcony cabin fare was due to the toll for entering the Panama canal. It is 148 per cabin and does not come close the the extra 3k they are asking for. Further most of my promotions were no longer honored as well.

I agree, it would have been nice if the reason for cancelling could have been shared. As for a charter, it would be unusual. Normally, charters are booked much further out, at least 9 months. I wonder if we will ever know the answer?

ok, so now we read on and learn they did not cancel the cruise. I have never heard of changing the itinerary, raising the price so it is totally off the wall and just cancelling everyone's reservation. I wonder why the increase in price except for maybe the added port charges and taxes as some ports do charge a lot more, but that would not be a huge increase.

Pricing is finally available and the it has basically doubled for my balcony. I am done with NCL if they think it is OK to treat me like this I will take my business (and the other 5 cabins we had booked elsewhere).

Did NCL actually give the option to those already booked to retain their reservation, with the revised itinerary, without raising their fare?

Unfortunately they actually cancelled everyone, and will not be honoring prior pricing. I won't know the total cost increase until I reach their "dedicated support line" on Monday, but I am confident with all the prior perks the price is only going up. I am disgusted with NCL, we had a total of 6 cabins booked and this is likely going to significantly change the per person rate.