NCL Officially Announces Cancellation of Dawn's 11/29 Cruise

[Uniall]

What's with the whining and sniveling? Did you forget what to do with lemons?

 

NCL has one of the most liberal "make the customer happy" attitudes in the cruise industry. What would you have them do, sail a ship with temporary repairs that might be dangerous?

 

Hats off to kkokeefe (one Irishman to another: McNeal to O'Keefe) and a cruise mate of mine (not a CCer) who took quick action to go forward with his cruise vacation and will still enjoy the benefits of NCL's recompense offer.

 

In the past, I've had two NCL cancellations for shedule changes (not, God forbid, mechanical problems) and without boring you with details, NCL more than made up for it. In fact, it was those two occasions that switched me over to a loyal and committed NCL cruiser.

 

Uniall

[Samstress]

You couldn't pay me enough money to be 'manning' the phones at NCL right now. These people are on the front line and they have my utmost admiration!

And a huge SORRY to all of you whose upcoming cruise plans have been affected.

I know nothing about ship repairs but it would make sense to head for the nearest docking facility to assess the situation wouldn't it? Passenger safety and comfort being the most important issue of course.

Cheers,

Sandra

[Partyatsea]

chuckdogg jump on our roll call! Glad ta have ya!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=920549

[kosoffj]

thanks all for your suggestions, i am on the b2b leaving 12/4, i tried to hold the pearl as a replacement but ncl has w/d their 3 day hold in place of a 2 hour hold. duh i didn;t consider holding a different cruise line :rolleyes: shows how much we like ncl lol.

 

but i think we will find a backup non ncl and put a hold on it in the am and then see what happens.

 

incidentally i called ncl and my online cruise broker and the supervisor i spoke too (who was awesome) said the folks at cruise critic often know things before they do, and she's right :)

[DMH15]

There are a lot of classy people on this board, too many to mention by name. So many of the were affected personally and others with well wishes and concern. Wow, great to see people pull together when something unfortunate happens.

[fin]

Does anybody but me sort of find themself slyly wishing Sailor Jack had been aboard?

[SDTraveler78]

Ruby red-- good for you getting placed onto a different ship.... that is what has upset me...we called at 6am this morning when we landed in San Francisco (from San Diego en route to Miami) and they said there was no availability on any other cruises....what time did you call this morning to get your new cruise booked??

 

Let me vent a bit here folks.... I would have traded 7 days of good cruising with 2 days no power/water with a 75% refund and 50% off next cruise versus cancellation of cruise w/ refund, 50% off next cruise-- I am out 160 dollars of baggage fees, a week of blown vacation at work, 400 dollars for hotel rooms that were beyond their cancellation cut-off, almost 1000 dollars of airfare for my party of 7 just to get back to their respective homes..... folks who say don't get upset--- put yourself in this situation and have the NCL customer service reps treat you like crap.....

 

Here is my original posting on our unfortunate Saturday travels that we have been looking forward to for months:

I really wish Norwegian would have cancelled this cruise sooner to give customers more than a 24 hour advanced notice.... the SEVEN of us completed our first leg of flights to miami in San Francisco...I turned my phone on and had a recorded message from NCL stating that the cruise had been cancelled. We are now in San Francisco trying to figure out what to do from here....two parties left back home for Texas... two others decided to divert and plan a totally new trip to Hawaii.... and the last 3 of us are here in a hotel room devastated. We had the garden villa- 30th birthday celebration complete with limos to and from airports/ hotel in miami, etc etc. Not to mention the week of vacation everyone took. The kicker was the HORRIBLE customer service provided by NCL when I called- a supervisor by the name of Ken at ext. 6373 was beyond rude. His lack of professionalism, empathy for the situation, and downright rudeness was shocking. His comments such as "there is nothing i can do for you- there are 2500+ people in your situation.... quit trying to coerse me into something I can't provide you" left me speechless. This man has no idea what the meaning of customer service is and should be demoted or fired. I have raved about NCL to friends and family and until today was sincerely loyal to NCL. We shall see how the company will handle this situation in the future days to weeks- this will be the true test in determining my future loyalty to NCL.

I am sorry to all of the fellow cruisers that had their vacations cancelled. Hopefully we shall meet on a future cruise :-)

 

Pete

[njhorseman]

Ruby red-- good for you getting placed onto a different ship.... that is what has upset me...we called at 6am this morning when we landed in San Francisco (from San Diego en route to Miami) and they said there was no availability on any other cruises....what time did you call this morning to get your new cruise booked??

 

Let me vent a bit here folks.... I would have traded 7 days of good cruising with 2 days no power/water with a 75% refund and 50% off next cruise versus cancellation of cruise w/ refund, 50% off next cruise-- I am out 160 dollars of baggage fees, a week of blown vacation at work, 400 dollars for hotel rooms that were beyond their cancellation cut-off, almost 1000 dollars of airfare for my party of 7 just to get back to their respective homes..... folks who say don't get upset--- put yourself in this situation and have the NCL customer service reps treat you like crap.....

 

Here is my original posting on our unfortunate Saturday travels that we have been looking forward to for months:

I really wish Norwegian would have cancelled this cruise sooner to give customers more than a 24 hour advanced notice.... the SEVEN of us completed our first leg of flights to miami in San Francisco...I turned my phone on and had a recorded message from NCL stating that the cruise had been cancelled. We are now in San Francisco trying to figure out what to do from here....two parties left back home for Texas... two others decided to divert and plan a totally new trip to Hawaii.... and the last 3 of us are here in a hotel room devastated. We had the garden villa- 30th birthday celebration complete with limos to and from airports/ hotel in miami, etc etc. Not to mention the week of vacation everyone took. The kicker was the HORRIBLE customer service provided by NCL when I called- a supervisor by the name of Ken at ext. 6373 was beyond rude. His lack of professionalism, empathy for the situation, and downright rudeness was shocking. His comments such as "there is nothing i can do for you- there are 2500+ people in your situation.... quit trying to coerse me into something I can't provide you" left me speechless. This man has no idea what the meaning of customer service is and should be demoted or fired. I have raved about NCL to friends and family and until today was sincerely loyal to NCL. We shall see how the company will handle this situation in the future days to weeks- this will be the true test in determining my future loyalty to NCL.

I am sorry to all of the fellow cruisers that had their vacations cancelled. Hopefully we shall meet on a future cruise :-)

 

Pete

 

 

While I understand why you're upset about your cruise being cancelled and all the associated aggravation, what in heaven's name did you expect NCL and its customer service rep to do for you? Did he say "quit trying to coerce me into something I can't provide you" because you indeed were coercing him? He can't put you on another cruise if they don't have any space. Perhaps if you had just accepted the reality of the cancellation, as unpleasant as it was, you might not have gotten the reaction you did from customer service. Put yourself in his shoes. You weren't the only customer today asking him to do the impossible. Customers with unrealistic expectations are impossible to deal with.

 

By the way...your complaints about some of your out-of-pocket expenses are a good example of why you should consider buying trip cancellation and interruption insurance.

[SDTraveler78]

NJ-

I expected being placed on another cruise as others had been... if there wasn't availability on NCL, then they should put their customers on other cruise lines, as the airlines do when they are overbooked or have technical difficulties. I have never had such a thing happen before, so I don't know what could be done.

There is a manner in which a supervisor should deal with customers. While I appreciate your candor, I do not think your comments help fellow cruise critic members deal with a difficult situation such as this. Have a heart- put yourself in the situation and we'll turn the tables and see how you would react...oh wait, you weren't put into a situation such as this, so I presume you cannot justifiably comment on it.

 

Pete

[zqvol]

NJ-

I expected being placed on another cruise as others had been... if there wasn't availability on NCL, then they should put their customers on other cruise lines, as the airlines do when they are overbooked or have technical difficulties. I have never had such a thing happen before, so I don't know what could be done.

There is a manner in which a supervisor should deal with customers. While I appreciate your candor, I do not think your comments help fellow cruise critic members deal with a difficult situation such as this. Have a heart- put yourself in the situation and we'll turn the tables and see how you would react...oh wait, you weren't put into a situation such as this, so I presume you cannot justifiably comment on it.

 

Pete

 

 

Simply unreasonable expectations.

[coffeecat]

I really wish Norwegian would have cancelled this cruise sooner to give customers more than a 24 hour advanced notice.... the SEVEN of us completed our first leg of flights to miami in San Francisco...I turned my phone on and had a recorded message from NCL stating that the cruise had been cancelled. We are now in San Francisco trying to figure out what to do from here....two parties left back home for Texas... two others decided to divert and plan a totally new trip to Hawaii.... and the last 3 of us are here in a hotel room devastated. We had the garden villa- 30th birthday celebration complete with limos to and from airports/ hotel in miami, etc etc. Not to mention the week of vacation everyone took. The kicker was the HORRIBLE customer service provided by NCL when I called- a supervisor by the name of Ken at ext. 6373 was beyond rude. His lack of professionalism, empathy for the situation, and downright rudeness was shocking. His comments such as "there is nothing i can do for you- there are 2500+ people in your situation.... quit trying to coerse me into something I can't provide you" left me speechless. This man has no idea what the meaning of customer service is and should be demoted or fired. I have raved about NCL to friends and family and until today was sincerely loyal to NCL.

 

 

Pete-

I am so very sorry for you and your group as well as the other passengers booked on this sailing! It is so unfortunate. Yes, there are worse things and yes, this isn't the end of the world but it is a huge bummer. It does sound like you are all trying to come up with alternate arrangements for your holiday and I do truly hope these work out. Whatever you end up doing I hope it rocks-big time!

 

For what it is worth, booking THE villa (ie garden) on any NCL ship would be a major deal. I know it would be for me. I am sure you worked your ass off for it. It would be a dream come true and the I am just so sorry that this trip was cancelled for you.

 

As the eternal optomist, I hope that you can snag an even greater trip in one of these rooms in the future.

 

Please let us know how all this turns out. I hope for the best for you all!

 

Coffecat

[alwalaska]

we were supposed to be on the 11/29, luckily from this board- I knew last night that there were problems and so I looked into other options. I had my TA hold rooms on RCCL leaving the next day for 5 days and was able to switch our return flight as soon as the cancellation was announced. Had I not had the CC notice I would have been scrambling. Luckily we were able to get a room in Miami tomorrow night, add a day to vacation- and now my biggest worry is packing some more dressy clothes as it doesn't sound as though RCCL is as "freestyle" as NCL.

 

If you are still around, you can always go to the buffet if you don't want to take those extra dressy clothes, but on a 5 day cruise, there will be one formal night in the dining room and more dressy clothes are suggested. Also, jeans are not officially permitted in the dining rooms on RCCL. Have a great cruise.

[rich40245]

I leave in about a month for a trip on the pearl.

 

If NCL were to call right now, or for that matter, a week before we were to leave and offer me the choice of the following 3 scenarios, I would take 2 or 3 in a second.

 

3) Cancel our trip but give us 50% off a future cruise. We already have air to Miami, but we could jump on any ship in port, with any cruise line on a last minute deal price.

I could be wrong here. Doesn't the Dept. Homeland Security require ship's passenger manifest to be submitted 24 hours before departure? If true, then number three would not be an option.

 

Rich

[SPMorrissey]

Good morning PE - interesting reading after a couple too many beers last night.

 

How does/would NCL handle those passengers like myself who don't fly - kinda hard to get from San Juan to Miami by train. That would be my biggest stress if this were to happen on a cruise that I am on.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

Valium and a few shots.

[alwalaska]

Well, I got a happy ending. And I'm not talking about the kind you get at the Asian massage parlor either. After spending nearly the entire day on the phone with airlines, hotels, car companies, and NCL, everything is cancelled. I spoke with a super helpful lady at NCL got me set up to sail on the Pearl next Saturday for a 7 day cruise with a much nicer itinerary than the 5 day that I was scheduled for on the Dawn. I was a little sour earlier, and I apologize for that. BTW for anyone who is curious, the 50% discount is not 50% off the cost of your next cruise. They refunded the entire cost of my original cruise, and then gave me an additional 50% of the cost of that cruise as a credit for this one. There was a small difference in price after all of the calculations (in my favor), which they are refunding to us. All in all, it worked out. I've also heard that the Pearl is a nice ship.

 

On another completely unrelated note, does anyone know which Miami hotels offer a free shuttle to the cruise port? Thanks!

 

Although we haven't stayed there yet, the reviews for the La Quinta Miami Airport east has a shuttle and has good reviews.

[Uniall]

Ruby red-- good for you getting placed onto a different ship.... that is what has upset me...we called at 6am this morning when we landed in San Francisco (from San Diego en route to Miami) and they said there was no availability on any other cruises....what time did you call this morning to get your new cruise booked??

 

Let me vent a bit here folks.... I would have traded 7 days of good cruising with 2 days no power/water with a 75% refund and 50% off next cruise versus cancellation of cruise w/ refund, 50% off next cruise-- I am out 160 dollars of baggage fees, a week of blown vacation at work, 400 dollars for hotel rooms that were beyond their cancellation cut-off, almost 1000 dollars of airfare for my party of 7 just to get back to their respective homes..... folks who say don't get upset--- put yourself in this situation and have the NCL customer service reps treat you like crap.....

 

Here is my original posting on our unfortunate Saturday travels that we have been looking forward to for months:

I really wish Norwegian would have cancelled this cruise sooner to give customers more than a 24 hour advanced notice.... the SEVEN of us completed our first leg of flights to miami in San Francisco...I turned my phone on and had a recorded message from NCL stating that the cruise had been cancelled. We are now in San Francisco trying to figure out what to do from here....two parties left back home for Texas... two others decided to divert and plan a totally new trip to Hawaii.... and the last 3 of us are here in a hotel room devastated. We had the garden villa- 30th birthday celebration complete with limos to and from airports/ hotel in miami, etc etc. Not to mention the week of vacation everyone took. The kicker was the HORRIBLE customer service provided by NCL when I called- a supervisor by the name of Ken at ext. 6373 was beyond rude. His lack of professionalism, empathy for the situation, and downright rudeness was shocking. His comments such as "there is nothing i can do for you- there are 2500+ people in your situation.... quit trying to coerse me into something I can't provide you" left me speechless. This man has no idea what the meaning of customer service is and should be demoted or fired. I have raved about NCL to friends and family and until today was sincerely loyal to NCL. We shall see how the company will handle this situation in the future days to weeks- this will be the true test in determining my future loyalty to NCL.

I am sorry to all of the fellow cruisers that had their vacations cancelled. Hopefully we shall meet on a future cruise :-)

 

Pete

 

 

NJ-

I expected being placed on another cruise as others had been... if there wasn't availability on NCL, then they should put their customers on other cruise lines, as the airlines do when they are overbooked or have technical difficulties. I have never had such a thing happen before, so I don't know what could be done.

There is a manner in which a supervisor should deal with customers. While I appreciate your candor, I do not think your comments help fellow cruise critic members deal with a difficult situation such as this. Have a heart- put yourself in the situation and we'll turn the tables and see how you would react...oh wait, you weren't put into a situation such as this, so I presume you cannot justifiably comment on it.

 

Pete

 

Clearly, you are not thinking clearly. Your two traveling companion groups dealt with the situation in a more clear headed manner. The first returned home to Texas and the other diverted to Hawaii for a fun time. You, by your own admission, are moping in a San Francisco hotel room and making unreasonable demands on NCL staff.

 

You need to get hold of yourself. Maybe have a double single malt whiskey and have a family council to decide how to have a nice time in SF or follow your friends to Hawaii. I can hear the bells of the cable cars or the siren call of the uke and the hula girls.

[uneamie]

This was supposed to be my first cruise. I've been on hold with NCL for the last 52 minutes trying to get more information. I am so upset - there was *so* much planning we had to make to be able to take this trip. I've been counting down the days so insanely excited - this just feels like a bad dream.

 

damn I needed this vacation... :(

 

I soooo feel for you. How upsetting this must be...especially for your first cruise. If it is any consolation, this is not the "norm".

 

Every time we cruise we have to go thru a ton of "bells and whistles" before we can actually book a cruise. Work agendas, pets, and an elderly disabled "defendant" parent. This cruise as well as our last one that we had to cancel due to my x-husband dying of cancer...is also in jeapordy due to a dear friend also dying of cancer and a sick pet.

 

Once you do have things in order ...it is hard to swallow the cruise line cancelling your very well planned vacation due to ship maintanence..............you sort of have a "false sense" of believing that all of those "ship issues" are fully taken care of before you take off. dah! Stuff happens, this I know....so I am always on guard for "things not going as planned"...but that does not mean I am not fully pissed off about it if it dosen't .

[BIG_Steve]

NJ-

I expected being placed on another cruise as others had been... if there wasn't availability on NCL, then they should put their customers on other cruise lines, as the airlines do when they are overbooked or have technical difficulties. I have never had such a thing happen before, so I don't know what could be done.

There is a manner in which a supervisor should deal with customers. While I appreciate your candor, I do not think your comments help fellow cruise critic members deal with a difficult situation such as this. Have a heart- put yourself in the situation and we'll turn the tables and see how you would react...oh wait, you weren't put into a situation such as this, so I presume you cannot justifiably comment on it.

 

Pete

 

Hey Pete,

You have my sympathy brother. I understand all the reasons you're upset. Especially when you asked to be put on another cruise earlier than others asked, and were told there were none only to hear others got booked. I never had any reason to know if a cruise line would call other cruise lines on your behalf. Since hotels and airlines do this, I see it as a perfectly acceptable request. If it's against their policy, then they can say no. I appreciate that supervisors predicament. But no matter how frazzled he was, no matter how confused he may have been with (perhaps) no direction coming from his bosses, his job was to smooth the situation over as best he could. Customer service skills have been lost to most companies in the last 25 years. If you find a company with good skills, stick with them.

 

I used to frequent a vacation group specific to Las Vegas. The way folks reacted to folks in your situation was similar to this group. Some sympathy, and lots of blame towards the victim.

 

I hope you can some how make lemonade from the lemon you were dealt. You're in San Fran, that really is a great city............

[zqvol]

I could be wrong here. Doesn't the Dept. Homeland Security require ship's passenger manifest to be submitted 24 hours before departure? If true, then number three would not be an option.

 

Rich

 

No, the manifest has to be submitted one hour prior to sailing.

[SDTraveler78]

Clearly, you are not thinking clearly. Your two traveling companion groups dealt with the situation in a more clear headed manner. The first returned home to Texas and the other diverted to Hawaii for a fun time. You, by your own admission, are moping in a San Francisco hotel room and making unreasonable demands on NCL staff.

 

You need to get hold of yourself. Maybe have a double single malt whiskey and have a family council to decide how to have a nice time in SF or follow your friends to Hawaii. I can hear the bells of the cable cars or the siren call of the uke and the hula girls.

 

UNIALL-

Clearly you dont know my situation and I said nothing about making unreasonable requests to the agent-- my requests were perfectly reasonable. I also was not going to spend thousands of dollars to go to Hawaii for the 4th time- the 2 members of my party have never been to Hawaii and found a good deal.

If you want to say something negative, know the situation you are commenting on.... if you don't have something supportive or informational to say, then please spare me with your criticism.... again, turn the tables and let me see how you would feel or react if you were in the situation.

 

Thanks,

Pete

[njhorseman]

NJ-

I expected being placed on another cruise as others had been... if there wasn't availability on NCL, then they should put their customers on other cruise lines, as the airlines do when they are overbooked or have technical difficulties. I have never had such a thing happen before, so I don't know what could be done.

There is a manner in which a supervisor should deal with customers. While I appreciate your candor, I do not think your comments help fellow cruise critic members deal with a difficult situation such as this. Have a heart- put yourself in the situation and we'll turn the tables and see how you would react...oh wait, you weren't put into a situation such as this, so I presume you cannot justifiably comment on it.

 

Pete

 

So you know what situations I've faced. You're sure that I've never had my vacation plans go in the tank and have to be cancelled at the last minute for one reason or another. Amazing. Please let me know how you found all that out about me.

[G'ma]

Good morning PE - interesting reading after a couple too many beers last night.

 

How does/would NCL handle those passengers like myself who don't fly - kinda hard to get from San Juan to Miami by train. That would be my biggest stress if this were to happen on a cruise that I am on.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

Well, if you refused to fly, what with Puerto Rico being and island, guess you'd have to take up residency.

[G'ma]

Ruby red-- good for you getting placed onto a different ship.... that is what has upset me...we called at 6am this morning when we landed in San Francisco (from San Diego en route to Miami) and they said there was no availability on any other cruises....what time did you call this morning to get your new cruise booked??

 

Let me vent a bit here folks.... I would have traded 7 days of good cruising with 2 days no power/water with a 75% refund and 50% off next cruise versus cancellation of cruise w/ refund, 50% off next cruise-- I am out 160 dollars of baggage fees, a week of blown vacation at work, 400 dollars for hotel rooms that were beyond their cancellation cut-off, almost 1000 dollars of airfare for my party of 7 just to get back to their respective homes..... folks who say don't get upset--- put yourself in this situation and have the NCL customer service reps treat you like crap.....

 

Here is my original posting on our unfortunate Saturday travels that we have been looking forward to for months:

I really wish Norwegian would have cancelled this cruise sooner to give customers more than a 24 hour advanced notice.... the SEVEN of us completed our first leg of flights to miami in San Francisco...I turned my phone on and had a recorded message from NCL stating that the cruise had been cancelled. We are now in San Francisco trying to figure out what to do from here....two parties left back home for Texas... two others decided to divert and plan a totally new trip to Hawaii.... and the last 3 of us are here in a hotel room devastated. We had the garden villa- 30th birthday celebration complete with limos to and from airports/ hotel in miami, etc etc. Not to mention the week of vacation everyone took. The kicker was the HORRIBLE customer service provided by NCL when I called- a supervisor by the name of Ken at ext. 6373 was beyond rude. His lack of professionalism, empathy for the situation, and downright rudeness was shocking. His comments such as "there is nothing i can do for you- there are 2500+ people in your situation.... quit trying to coerse me into something I can't provide you" left me speechless. This man has no idea what the meaning of customer service is and should be demoted or fired. I have raved about NCL to friends and family and until today was sincerely loyal to NCL. We shall see how the company will handle this situation in the future days to weeks- this will be the true test in determining my future loyalty to NCL.

I am sorry to all of the fellow cruisers that had their vacations cancelled. Hopefully we shall meet on a future cruise :-)

 

Pete

 

I'm sure the next time they plan on a serious problem with a ship adrift in the sea, they'll call all the passengers first to ask them what they should do.

 

The travel insurance you purchased should reimburse you for all out of pocket expenses.

[Uniall]

UNIALL-

Clearly you dont know my situation and I said nothing about making unreasonable requests to the agent-- my requests were perfectly reasonable. I also was not going to spend thousands of dollars to go to Hawaii for the 4th time- the 2 members of my party have never been to Hawaii and found a good deal.

If you want to say something negative, know the situation you are commenting on.... if you don't have something supportive or informational to say, then please spare me with your criticism.... again, turn the tables and let me see how you would feel or react if you were in the situation.

 

Thanks,

Pete

 

Ok, I'll tell you what I would have done. I would have shown my family the time of their lives in San Francisco.

 

Then, I would have gone home and written a courteous letter to NCL's chief of passenger service, explaining the special circumstances of my loss and suggested a reasonable way to make me whole. (e.g. give you a cruise at at a discounted price, including air fare in a Villa for your entire party for 7 days if a 5 day was unavailable)

 

But you seem to be wallowing in self pity and anger. My intention was to give you slap on the back of your head to clear your mind. Obviously, your venting isn't helping and only making things worse for your family. But as they used to say: "different strokes for different folks."

 

Good Luck

Uniall

[Budget Queen]

NJ-

I expected being placed on another cruise as others had been... if there wasn't availability on NCL, then they should put their customers on other cruise lines, as the airlines do when they are overbooked or have technical difficulties. I have never had such a thing happen before, so I don't know what could be done.

There is a manner in which a supervisor should deal with customers. While I appreciate your candor, I do not think your comments help fellow cruise critic members deal with a difficult situation such as this. Have a heart- put yourself in the situation and we'll turn the tables and see how you would react...oh wait, you weren't put into a situation such as this, so I presume you cannot justifiably comment on it.

 

Pete

 

Why didn't YOU look at other cruises?? Simple, just go on line, and lists come up, by dates. Would have been a lot more efficient, to just book yourself. There is last minute space available, I just looked.