Norwegian Cruise Line - Unfair - Read before you Make a Decision

[rickpipes]

Six of us from Connecticut sought to cruise for the second time on Norwegian. After much discussion, we settled in on a Western Caribbean Cruise in October and made our reservation.

 

NCL cancelled us, not once, but twice - pulling two sucessive ships out and instead chartered them for private cruises. Yes, two successive ships.

 

We were told to rebook and for our troubles, they offered a measly $50 onboard stateroom credit.

 

Well, here's the thing - now airfares have jumped and now our airfare will run us, oh, around $400 more per couple.

 

We sought redress from the Corporate Offices but was told not once but twice -- too bad, for you. We have no obligation and you get no more than $50 per stateroom.

 

I can understand the choice to charter the ships but, honestly, is it fair that NCL to make more money - screws over folks with confirmed reservation and then hides it head when told of the extra costs now being incurred by three time cruisers? I think not.

 

I faxed a letter to the CEO today but, honestly, I expect no real help from a Company that does not care.

[johneeo]

Six of us .....

NCL cancelled us, not once, but twice - pulling two sucessive ships out and instead chartered them for private cruises. Yes, two successive ships.

 

We were told to rebook and for our troubles, they offered a measly $50 onboard stateroom credit.

 

Well, here's the thing - now airfares have jumped and now our airfare will run us, oh, around $400 more per couple.

 

We sought redress from the Corporate Offices but was told not once but twice -- too bad, for you. We have no obligation and you get no more than $50 per stateroom.

 

 

Book with another cruise line.

[paul929207]

Yes, have you switched to another cruise line? However, I am not sure you would get much more satifaction from other lines in the same situation

[6rugrats]

 

NCL cancelled us, not once, but twice - pulling two sucessive ships out and instead chartered them for private cruises. Yes, two successive ships.

 

We were told to rebook and for our troubles, they offered a measly $50 onboard stateroom credit.

 

Well, here's the thing - now airfares have jumped and now our airfare will run us, oh, around $400 more per couple.

 

We sought redress from the Corporate Offices but was told not once but twice -- too bad, for you. We have no obligation and you get no more than $50 per stateroom.

 

 

I faxed a letter to the CEO today but, honestly, I expect no real help from a Company that does not care.

 

Yes, have you switched to another cruise line? However, I am not sure you would get much more satifaction from other lines in the same situation

 

This is my experience with Windstar cruise line.

 

I have had this happen twice in a row to me on Windstar. Cruise booked, I purchased airfare for two people, and then they chartered the ship. I was out $300 in airline change fees when I used my airfare credit to book flights for a land vacation. Windstar offered us a generous amount per person off a fare for another cruise and more OBC, and they protected our original price for a cruise in the Caribbean or Costa Rica. They did not pay the airline change fee.

 

We rebooked and then this cruise was also cancelled because the ship was being refurbished. Again, we incurred another $300 in airline change fees. This time, Windstar actually refunded our airline change fees for both cruises in full. We received a large amount off our next booking which we may use on any ship or sailing. Our OBC is protected.

 

I am a little burned out after cancelling two vacations and disappointed, but feel Windstar handled this well, and appreciate the amount of work our cruise consultant at Windstar did for us.

 

I have found the customer service at NCL to be absolutely horrible and would never cruise them because of an incident I had several years ago with them. As a side note, I did get the CEO involved when they refused to admit their error. It was mostly resolved, but I remain unhappy with them to this day.

 

Some cruise lines value their customers, and some do not. Best of luck to you in the future, but chartering happens with all cruise lines and it is a pain.

[Friend100]

Haven't cruised with NCL yet, but I have also read some pretty good customer service stories in the NCL board. Norwegian Cruise Line does read CC and they post there.

[njhorseman]

The OP had posted this earlier on the NCL. Presumably the typical response of "sorry this has happened to you, but any cruise line can cancel a cruise for a charter" wasn't sufficiently sympathetic, so now they've cross posted in an apparent attempt to stir the pot as much as possible.

 

The OP is not out one dime...apparently they had not yet booked airline flights, but somehow they feel entitled to get some compensation because airline fares are higher now than they were when they booked the cruise. It's a completely nonsensical argument, simply because they hadn't booked airline tickets at the time they booked the original cruise. Do they really think the cruise line is going to protect them against price increases for airline tickets they hadn't purchased?

[6rugrats]

If they haven't purchased airfare, agree that their comment is ridiculous.

[Anthomaniac]

Agreed, if they had already purchased airfare, then they would definitely be entitled to just recompense....if not, sorry you are out of luck!

[Krazy Kruizers]

This happens with all the cruise lines. We had the same thing happen in 2010 for a cruise we wanted to take in the fall of 2011. Each cruise we booked -- HAL changed the itinerary within a month or so giving a choice of only a couple of cruises where we would get a tiny bit of shipboard credit and they would lock in our cruise price. Unfortunately their new dates didn't suit us. So we just booked another cruise and sure enough -- cruise changed. Selected another cruise and it was chartered.

 

We never made out on any of that mess.

[sparks1093]

is it fair that NCL to make more money -

 

Yes, it is fair for them to make more money, that's what business is all about;). Look at it this way, if you had booked the cruise and a week later decided to cancel what would you owe NCL?

[6rugrats]

Agreed, if they had already purchased airfare, then they would definitely be entitled to just recompense....if not, sorry you are out of luck!

No, according to the cruise contract, if they'd purchased airfare and the cruise changed, they'd be out-of-luck. It's unfortunately the way it is.

[gerryl12]

I think a $50 credit is not bad if you are not out of pocket for other expenses. Yes it is too bad that airfares are rising but that was going to happen whether the cruise was cacelled or not. If you are realy upset with NCL, then don't sail with them in the future.

[knitlady037]

We booked our airfare very far in advance of our cruise. For an extra $10 per ticket, I purchased travel insurance which would have covered the charges if we had to rebook another flight or had to cancel the reservations.

[bbwex]

I disagree that if you book a cruise and they cancel you are simply out of luck. While it is technically true that you are not due any funds, it is pretty lousy customer care. The cruise line advertised the cruise, they took reservations, the passenger paid a deposit. Folks, in my mind, they have a contract. They might be allowed to break it, but considering that people start to plan and actually might look forward to such a thing, the cruise line should do more.

 

I have tried to book hotel rooms for a convention, but if there are not enough rooms available when I start to plan, they won't do it. (I know, they will do it in Las Vegas and cancel rooms for people who have reservations!) If the ship has been booked, then the cruise line ought to do more to convince a passenger to take a different trip.

 

I am not arguing about the one-sided, adherence contract that you have to agree to, but it is an issue of taking care of your customer.

 

Particularly by the second cancellation, give the customer a break! If it were me, I would never sail on that line again. And I would likely blast the line on CC for having been so unconcerned about their customer.

 

Perhaps it's me because I am in a customer service oriented business, and always have been. I'm not saying they don't do it, but if it were my company, I would do more for my customers. After all, bad customer service gets you a bad reputation. (And speaking of those hotels in Las Vegas, the word gets out not to plan events there!)

[I_heart_vaca]

Why would NCL have any responsibility for airfare rates? When I booked our cruise I paid a few bucks extra for travel insurance that would cover airfare fees if cruise itinerary changed. If as mentioned above you had outlaid monies on flights and had to pay to change flights you might have a customer service leg to stand on, but its hardly fair to blame them for fees you didn't incur. How do they know you wouldn't have waited to book the flight and paid more anyway? Silly really.

[dolittle]

I had C.C.L. cancel a baltic cruise in 09 and got not even a phone call , they did cancel the credit card bill right away which is how we found out.When we called they said it was an oversight and were sorry for not calling us , but they did not offer us anything to re book or help with a new cruise . We alredy had the airfare booked so we went with N.C.L. We took are business else where

[SunSeeker27]

While I agree that's poor luck, they are under no obligation to give you anything unless you booked your air through them.