Do you think NCL owes them anything?

[DiploTraveler]

If you buy a 7-day cruise and don't get it, then NCL owes you the missing portion. This is why cruise lines divert itineraries... so they can still meet their cruise obligation to the customer without having to refund everyone.

 

The weather is not NCL's fault, but the weather is NOT the passengers' fault, either. Let NCL get weather insurance... why force it on us?

[peg013]

If you buy a 7-day cruise and don't get it, then NCL owes you the missing portion. This is why cruise lines divert itineraries... so they can still meet their cruise obligation to the customer without having to refund everyone.

 

The weather is not NCL's fault, but the weather is NOT the passengers' fault, either. Let NCL get weather insurance... why force it on us?[/QUOTE]

 

And how would NCL having insurance help you get to the port if your flight is cancelled? or if you get sick and need airlifted from the ship? or God forbid, someone in your family dies while you are out of the country. Travel insurance is not ONLY for bad weather!:rolleyes:

[DiploTraveler]

If you buy a 7-day cruise and don't get it, then NCL owes you the missing portion. This is why cruise lines divert itineraries... so they can still meet their cruise obligation to the customer without having to refund everyone.

 

The weather is not NCL's fault, but the weather is NOT the passengers' fault, either. Let NCL get weather insurance... why force it on us?[/QUOTE]

 

And how would NCL having insurance help you get to the port if your flight is cancelled? or if you get sick and need airlifted from the ship? or God forbid, someone in your family dies while you are out of the country. Travel insurance is not ONLY for bad weather!:rolleyes:

No, travel insurance is not just for bad weather. There are some very good uses for it that cover personal events. However, I don't agree that the consequences of bad weather should be pushed on to the customer.

 

If you get sick on a cruise and have to go home, it's nobody's fault, but you leave, essentially canceling the vacation. Therefore, your insurance (or self-insurance) covers it. If bad weather hits, it's nobody's fault, but the cruise line cancels the vacation. Therefore, they should be responsible and they can protect themselves with insurance if they'd like.

 

Both cases are nobody's fault and both scenarios involve cancellations to keep people safe. Unfortunately, the way things are now is very one-sided.

[goodml]

If you buy a 7-day cruise and don't get it, then NCL owes you the missing portion. This is why cruise lines divert itineraries... so they can still meet their cruise obligation to the customer without having to refund everyone.

 

The weather is not NCL's fault, but the weather is NOT the passengers' fault, either. Let NCL get weather insurance... why force it on us?[/QUOTE]

 

And how would NCL having insurance help you get to the port if your flight is cancelled? or if you get sick and need airlifted from the ship? or God forbid, someone in your family dies while you are out of the country. Travel insurance is not ONLY for bad weather!:rolleyes:

 

More apples and oranges.:rolleyes:

[DiploTraveler]

 

More apples and oranges.:rolleyes:

I realize how people might get confused over my "insurance" comment.

I should have quoted the post, but I was responding to someone who said something like: "NCL owes nothing... that's what trip insurance is for!"

 

Well, trip insurance is really for personal events that force you to miss or shorten your cruise: health, job loss, missed connection, etc. It shouldn't be to cover the cruise lines when they can't sail their ship. The distinction I'm trying to make is that you insure yourself for when you can't make your vacation. The line should cover when the line can't provide the product for which you have paid.

[goodml]

I realize how people might get confused over my "insurance" comment.

I should have quoted the post, but I was responding to someone who said something like: "NCL owes nothing... that's what trip insurance is for!"

 

Well, trip insurance is really for personal events that force you to miss or shorten your cruise: health, job loss, missed connection, etc. It shouldn't be to cover the cruise lines when they can't sail their ship. The distinction I'm trying to make is that you insure yourself for when you can't make your vacation. The line should cover when the line can't provide the product for which you have paid.

 

I actually agree with you. I was intending to quote the person who quoted you. Should have deleted your earlier quote.:)

[njhorseman]

I am on board too as previously stated. However, I do insurance since I travel with my mom. But I do think missing a port and missing a day are apples and oranges. Didn't I just read that pax on the Spirit are going to miss 2 days and will receive refunds for 2/7 of their fare in the form of OBC. WHY WOULD THESE TWO CASES NOT BE TREATED ALIKE?

 

BTW, I would be fine with the OBC because I am sure It would be less than my bill anyway.

 

 

I can only assume that NCL learned from the mistakes it made in handling the situation on the Gem. It's still not too late for them to come back and do something additional for the Gem passengers. Royal Caribbean eventually changed how it handled its own problems when a ship had to leave San Juan early due to the same hurricane.

[extremez]

We just returned from our Gem sailing today and having read CC today I can't help but be irritated by what's happened/happening.

 

I haven't sat down to write our review yet. Not a bad one by any means.

 

Talking to other folks in Bermuda from another ship, I was told Celebrity guests received $300 off their sailing. And now I read where the Spirit passengers will receive 2 days refund based on their fare.

 

We were given the $100 credit for the 1 day lost and it just irritates me that now others that were inconvenienced are now getting more.

 

Does anyone else feel this way about this situation? I'm not trying to sound selfish but this may seriously sway my decision to sail NCL again.

[njhorseman]

We just returned from our Gem sailing today and having read CC today I can't help but be irritated by what's happened/happening.

 

I haven't sat down to write our review yet. Not a bad one by any means.

 

Talking to other folks in Bermuda from another ship, I was told Celebrity guests received $300 off their sailing. And now I read where the Spirit passengers will receive 2 days refund based on their fare.

 

We were given the $100 credit for the 1 day lost and it just irritates me that now others that were inconvenienced are now getting more.

 

Does anyone else feel this way about this situation? I'm not trying to sound selfish but this may seriously sway my decision to sail NCL again.

 

Many who have posted here about the situation, including a number of long-time loyal NCL cruisers, feel the same way. You're not sounding selfish at all.

[DMH15]

I can only assume that NCL learned from the mistakes it made in handling the situation on the Gem. It's still not too late for them to come back and do something additional for the Gem passengers. Royal Caribbean eventually changed how it handled its own problems when a ship had to leave San Juan early due to the same hurricane.

I hope your assumption is correct. I agree with you.

[emcelh]

I can only assume that NCL learned from the mistakes it made in handling the situation on the Gem. It's still not too late for them to come back and do something additional for the Gem passengers. Royal Caribbean eventually changed how it handled its own problems when a ship had to leave San Juan early due to the same hurricane.

You're right, it's not too late. How about a letter of apology admitting they made a poor decision and offering a future discount?

[Becca1979]

Knowing the havoc IRENE has caused thus far, delay and extensions for others, but do you feel those whose cruise is shortened by (1) day should receive something from NCL?? (OBC etc.???)

 

Afterall it is chance you take sailing during Hurricane season.....

 

What are your thoughts???

 

I can't believe how many of you think the cruise line has no obligation. I understand cruise contracts are terribly one-sided. And I understand that you are all big fans of cruises. But if I pay for 7 nights in a hotel, or 7 nights of meals, and 4 ports, and I only get 5 nights and 2 ports, I am not getting what I paid for (including the port fees at the unvisited ports) and I expect a refund for what I am not getting as a result of the cruise company canceling a portion of my trip. In our case, the Spirit is in port Monday night and isn't even loading passengers until Tuesday, allowing the current pax one more night on the boat (at my expense?). Let's take it to the extreme, what if the storm was really bad and they just let us board the ship Saturday and returned on Sunday, even if I paid for a 7 night cruise? And then just gave me 6/7 as onboard credit to spend in 12 hrs on the ship? Its absurd.

 

If I have an airline flight or a hotel reservation and the airline or hotel is unable to provide the service because of damage from a storm, they refund me. I expect no less from a cruise company. And onboard credit is not a refund. We are owed about $800 for our Spirit cruise between port fees and a shortened cruise by 2 nights. Yes I know I 'could' spend that much onboard in 5 days, but I don't PLAN on spending that much and never did - and its not even a real refund - when you charge $8 for drinks and $25 for a $10 meal, its just funny money to NCL because its like shopping in the company store, you are stuck over paying. I just want my money back for the missed days. Not for the entire trip, just the portion of the trip NCL isn't providing. Its not their fault that there is a storm, and I am sure they also have corporate insurance to cover their losses (and if they don't, they should). And for those who immediately post "you should've bought travel insurance", well, I am sitting in my home in Houston, I had no additional travel expenses associated with this delay, just the loss of two ports I wanted to see and the loss of two nights on the ship. My understanding is that travel insurance wouldn't help me here (unless they will buy me a last minute plane ticket to Roatan and Belize and book me in a hotel there). Anyway, that's just this first time cruisers thoughts on the situation..

[ispooks]

I also just returned from the shortened Gem cruise... while we had a great time on vacation, the $100 OBC does not come close to the cost of our room for the night, either...

 

I was not happy at all when I read that the passengers on this newly shortened Spirit cruise will receive 2 nights compensation...

 

They need to treat both situations the same - this would seriously impact my decision to sail with NCL again - and I have sailed with them numerous times.

 

They cannot treat these 2 situations differently, as they are caused by the same reason!

[rikatine]

I also just returned from the shortened Gem cruise... while we had a great time on vacation, the $100 OBC does not come close to the cost of our room for the night, either...

 

I was not happy at all when I read that the passengers on this newly shortened Spirit cruise will receive 2 nights compensation...

 

They need to treat both situations the same - this would seriously impact my decision to sail with NCL again - and I have sailed with them numerous times.

 

They cannot treat these 2 situations differently, as they are caused by the same reason!

 

It really is a no brainer. Hope they step up for us, but if they don't, it is a lesson learned. We always knew we could miss ports etc, and that the destination we booked could be substituted, but a whole missed day is totally different. We would have to consider this very strongly when booking again in the future. This was an expensive cruise, even for a balcony room, so I may choose to spend my vacation dollar differently in the future.

[DiploTraveler]

Really?

 

This is about personal responsibility of buying travel insurance during the height of hurricane season. The cancellation was caused by a hurricane, how would you propose NCL avoid the cancellation, race right through the hurricane to meet their"obligation" to fulfill your vacation and risk their ship and the crew and passengers lives? I can only imagine the outcry here if they did that. :confused:

I'm not saying they made the wrong choice in avoiding the hurricane. Obviously that's the right thing to do. But they need to take responsibility. It's no more the passengers' fault that it happened.

 

It's the same thing if a flood or blizzard prevented me from meeting the cruise at port because the highway was unsafe. The blizzard caused me to miss the cruise and cancel, but I didn't make it, so I cover the costs... even though it was out of my control.

 

I just don't agree that all risk falls on the customer. It goes both ways as I stated before.

[Rumncoke]

If it's not the cruise line's fault and it's not the passenger's fault, why do you feel the cruise line should compensate the passenger?

 

That's what insurance is for, plain and simple.

[smeyer418]

If it's not the cruise line's fault and it's not the passenger's fault, why do you feel the cruise line should compensate the passenger?

 

That's what insurance is for, plain and simple.

Insurance is if you can't get to the port. if the ship can't get to the port for a complete cruise(in number of days not just missing a port), its the cruise lines responsibility and they should bare the risk. IMO...plain and simple. No cruise line ever before has made the passenger pay in this situation, as far as I can determine and no one has contradicted me on that comment.

[denas]

I have read through a lot of this thread. While we weren't scheduled to be on a cruise during hurricane Irene, we were scheduled to be at the beach. We had passed the point where we could get a refund on our hotel reservations. However, when it became clear that Irene was going to hit VA beach, we called the two hotels and were able to cancel our reservations without the normal penalty and received refunds since we were no longer staying in the hotels due to a hurricane.

 

To me, this is the same as the cruise lines responsibility - you can't charge someone to stay in your accomodations, when you weren't able to provide those accomodations. Also, NCL didn't pay the port fees if they didn't dock in those ports, so they can't collect that money from passengers and not return it. I am sure NCL lost money. The Marriot and every other hotel in VA beach also lost tons of money. The difference is, the Marriot didn't continue to charge people for rooms they weren't staying in while NCL did. You can defend NCL all you want, however, I think it is pretty poor corporate practice and NOT the way other land-based resorts deal with hurricanes.

 

As an aside, about 10 years ago ,we were scheduled to do a Holy lands cruise on Princess. About 2 months before our cruise (which included a stop and overnight in Israel), the war in Israel errupted. ABout 4 weeks before our cruise, it became pretty obvious the cruise would NOT be going to Israel - a huge part of the "Holy Lands" itinerary. We chose to continue to cruise (we could have cancelled and lost our $500 depost but saved the thousands we were spending on the cruise).

 

The cruise line owed us nothing, however, when we boarded we were informed we would all be receiving a $100 per person credit. We also received a few stateroom gifts and a thank you letter from Princess stating that they knew we were disappointed but glad we had decided to continue sailing with them (we ended up doing 2 extra stops in Greece in place of Israel). To me, that is a good customer service plan.

[halos]

, why do you feel the cruise line should compensate the passenger?

 

.

 

because these people paid NCL for a 7 day cruise...simple as that.

[Zeno]

I have been following this thread with some interest. Normally I am usually pretty "rah, rah NCL" BUT I do think on this one they could have done better. These cruisers expected and paid for a SEVEN day cruise. They got a SIX day cruise. To me this means that they should get 1/7th of whatever cruise fare they paid as a refund. No more is necessary but less is really NOT adequate. This is just my opinion.

[searoses]

family member on the veendam for the same period said she got a $100 obc for the cabin and 15% off next cruise-not that she would touch hal again....

[gail-s]

I must start by saying, I think in good will NCL should make a gesture to the people whose cruises were shortened due to the storm, however, I think most of you are nuts.

 

Sorry if I can't be all riled up over something like this. Hurricane Irene hit Massachusetts. I had a 80' tall tree land on my house causing at least $20,000 worth of damage. Yes, I have insurance, but I also have a deductable and I have to wait along with everyone else for the claims to be processed so that we can fix the holes in the brand new roof that we put on last year, not to mention the new deck that has to be completely rebuilt and damage to the breezeway we built last summer. Oh yeah, and over 80' of fence that is damaged beyond repair.

 

We lost power Sunday and it was not restored until Thursday night. We were lucky, they were quoting Sunday night for restoration time on Wednesday. I lost hundreds of dollars in food because I was afraid to keep the generator running with no one home, and gosh darn, I actually had to show my face in work because I deal with Hospitals. You know those places that never close because people need them.

 

And I feel lucky. I feel lucky that I still have a roof over my head. My parents have a small cabin in Vermont and we are extremely lucky that it is on top of a mountain and it is still standing. There are people in Vermont that are still isolated. They have no food, no power, no medicine and no way to get help in to them. Roads are destroyed, homes are destroyed, lives have been destroyed. When you look at pictures of Vermont you think "oh those poor people" and I think "hey that's the road that Ben lives on" or "Oh my gosh! That's the bridge across the river where we used to swim". When I see the people riding ATVs 50 miles to get milk and supplies I know what those trails look like because they're using the snowmobile trails that we ride on every summer - and let me tell you, they're not easy covered with snow that has been smoothed over by a groomer - they're even worse in the summer. But these people have to take these risks because they need to survive.

 

But what are you going to say? The people in Vermont should have known better than to live there? Vermont hasn't been ravaged like this since the 1920s when the last Great Flood happened. No one ever thinks of a hurrican hitting Vermont. They were too worried about Manhattan and barely mentioned that it was going to wipe through the Green Mountains. Main roads and infrastructure are destroyed and it is unknown when they will be rebuilt. The devestation is beyond words.

 

But that's okay, you go on crying about being stuck on a cruise ship for an extra day or that you didn't get enough drinks at the bar. I've got friends in the real world that I need to worry about with REAL problems.

[swedish weave]

I must start by saying, I think in good will NCL should make a gesture to the people whose cruises were shortened due to the storm, however, I think most of you are nuts.

 

Sorry if I can't be all riled up over something like this. Hurricane Irene hit Massachusetts. I had a 80' tall tree land on my house causing at least $20,000 worth of damage. Yes, I have insurance, but I also have a deductable and I have to wait along with everyone else for the claims to be processed so that we can fix the holes in the brand new roof that we put on last year, not to mention the new deck that has to be completely rebuilt and damage to the breezeway we built last summer. Oh yeah, and over 80' of fence that is damaged beyond repair.

 

We lost power Sunday and it was not restored until Thursday night. We were lucky, they were quoting Sunday night for restoration time on Wednesday. I lost hundreds of dollars in food because I was afraid to keep the generator running with no one home, and gosh darn, I actually had to show my face in work because I deal with Hospitals. You know those places that never close because people need them.

 

And I feel lucky. I feel lucky that I still have a roof over my head. My parents have a small cabin in Vermont and we are extremely lucky that it is on top of a mountain and it is still standing. There are people in Vermont that are still isolated. They have no food, no power, no medicine and no way to get help in to them. Roads are destroyed, homes are destroyed, lives have been destroyed. When you look at pictures of Vermont you think "oh those poor people" and I think "hey that's the road that Ben lives on" or "Oh my gosh! That's the bridge across the river where we used to swim". When I see the people riding ATVs 50 miles to get milk and supplies I know what those trails look like because they're using the snowmobile trails that we ride on every summer - and let me tell you, they're not easy covered with snow that has been smoothed over by a groomer - they're even worse in the summer. But these people have to take these risks because they need to survive.

 

But what are you going to say? The people in Vermont should have known better than to live there? Vermont hasn't been ravaged like this since the 1920s when the last Great Flood happened. No one ever thinks of a hurrican hitting Vermont. They were too worried about Manhattan and barely mentioned that it was going to wipe through the Green Mountains. Main roads and infrastructure are destroyed and it is unknown when they will be rebuilt. The devestation is beyond words.

 

But that's okay, you go on crying about being stuck on a cruise ship for an extra day or that you didn't get enough drinks at the bar. I've got friends in the real world that I need to worry about with REAL problems.

 

Your post does a good job of putting the priorities in the correct order !!!

[njhorseman]

As was said, in the quote that you chose to edit, this is what travel insurance is for. The responsible people that brought travel insurance, for a cruise in the height of hurricane season, would now be the ones getting screwed. Should NCL have repay them for their cost of travel insurance?

 

Sorry, but that's not what travel insurance is for. I've done a bit of searching around, and it appears that Travel Delay (or Trip Delay) coverage generally no longer provides reimbursement for a percentage of the fare you paid if the start of the cruise is delayed. All it covers is additional reasonable traveling expenses you incur because your trip was delayed. In other words it covers things like the cost of a hotel room, meals and any additional transportation expenses...not the proportional value of the lost cruise day(s).

 

This may be of relatively recent origin. Apparently the travel insurers tightened their policy language as a result of the havoc caused by Iceland volcano's eruption. I don't have any pre-volcano policies to review, so I can't say exactly how the language may have changed.