Norwegian: Gives Military Discount and Cancels! (Reveiw of Horrible Customer Service)

[mom1980]

We did stay and we had a great time on Oahu! It was great to be able to explore the island in depth. We'll be returning to check out the other islands another time for sure. Most likely on a different cruise line though ;)

[ldlewis45]

OP, have you checked your spam folder in your email account? Sometimes, the cruise emails get routed there. Also check your trash folder to see if an email was accidentally deleted without you or another family member noticing.

 

I'm not saying that NCL didn't screw this up, because they obviously bungled helping you find out what was going on when you were at the port. That said, the cancellation may not have been an intentional act by someone at NCL. Sometimes, all the data systems don't sync up immediately, so if the ship sold out right before you booked, one system may have allowed the booking even though the ship was sold out, and then automatically cancelled the cruise when the system "realized" that the ship was overbooked. If I were in your shoes, I would keep asking NCL for an explanation of what happened, since you (hopefully) kept your confirmation emails and a screenshot of your bank account showing the charge and then the refund.

Edited March 2, 2015 by ldlewis45

[karoo]

Just adding. Whenever I pay NCL the CC charge is usually pending for up to 3 to 4 days before it becomes an accepted payment. So I am assuming NCL did accept their payment, but it was still in the pending stage. I'm thinking that maybe what happened was a few last minute bookings came in at the same time meaning they were overbooked. Unfortunately they failed to notify the OP. Incidentally I am a 10 hour flight away from Hawaii in Australia and cellular data charges, phone calls etc are very expensive. I turn my cellular data off when overseas and only access free wifi in hotels, cafes etc. wifi is often slow, can't always fully open attachments etc. trying to checkin can be a nightmare as the connections often drop in and out. I believe the OP and realise how upsetting it must have been for them believing they were going to be on a cruise. I have done over 20 cruises with NCL and obviously love cruising with them, but unfortunately mistakes can happen. One of my bookings was lost in the system somehow, but fortunately I realised when I went to login to my account 3 weeks before the cruise so I managed to get it all sorted out as I had confirmation, emails, reservation numbers and was dealing with the Miami office direct. They could trace my booking back to a certain date. They didn't know why it had disappeared, they just said it was a computer glitch.

[KeithJenner]

Just adding. Whenever I pay NCL the CC charge is usually pending for up to 3 to 4 days before it becomes an accepted payment. So I am assuming NCL did accept their payment, but it was still in the pending stage.

 

The OP has confirmed above that the charge was refunded, rather than "dropping off".

 

That would suggest that it was a complete charge that then got reversed.

[NLH Arizona]

 

 

They may not normally email cancellation notices. I'm not sure, but "Jason" did tell me that I should have received a cancellation email immediately when it was cancelled, I was just taking his word for it on that one...additionally, isn't the whole thing non-refundable if I had cancelled it on my own??

 

Thank you for your update. I would guess by now, you have had the time to call NCL and see what the deal was. What was their reasoning for the cancellation?

[aimish]

That plain old sucks OP! Sorry that happened to you. This is such a huge fail, that telling you to give NCL another chance just sounds ridiculous!

 

Glad you had a great time in Hawaii despite your horrible NCL experience. I don't know what I would have done in your shoes, but I know I'd be 'harassing' NCL daily until I got the answers I needed!

 

Just curious, did you book one cabin or two? Was the payment that went through for the full amount of your entire reservation?

 

A few months back I booked a cruise right before the PIF date, on a sold-out cruise on a different cruise line (3 cabins, so 3 reservations). Paid the deposit for all the reservations and then a few days later went on-line and PIF for all 3 reservations. I got a confirmation email for all three transactions. Since I'm a little bit of a control freak, as soon as the on-line transaction went through, I checked my bank account to make sure the money had been debited. Only payment for two of the cabins had been debited. When I went back to cruise website it showed I still owed the balance for one of the reservations. I tried to pay a second time and again it didn't go through according to my bank, despite there being enough money in my bank account to cover the transaction.

 

I was freaking out because it was the PIF date and if I lost that cabin, there were literally no other available cabins for us. Called the cruise line and after they investigated they saw that their computer system had automatically cancelled the payment for that cabin because, despite it being within their policy for me to book the cabin for my kids, since there were two children (under 18) in the cabin with no adult, the cruise line automatically cancels payment. They were able to manually put the payment through while on the phone with me. So stressful, and had I not checked my bank account, I wouldn't have realized it since I did get a confirmation email.

 

Obviously, that couldn't have been exactly what happened to you since your payment apparently did go through, but just wanted to point out to the doubters that it is possible to get a confirmation and think everything is okay with your reservation and that it is paid in full, when it is, in fact, not okay!

 

OP, I hope you get the answers you're looking for!

[Shawnino]

Two thoughts on the logistics:

 

1) This looks more and more like an error with a credit card processor (whether it's NCL's, or OP's bank's, I have no idea). For NCL to reverse the charge, it would require a conscious decision by a human being, one there would be no logical reason to make. From OP's side, I don't think cardholders can simply reverse charges. On rare occasions I've seen items on my statement I don't understand. The item might take a week to be explained, and if I want to dispute the charge, the process takes months--but the charge stays on the card in the interim.

 

That leaves the middleman, or middlemen, the processors. I worked in a small company that depended on hundreds of credit card transactions daily, as might any retailer. Every few thousand transactions there would be a processor error. When such errors occurred, they were usually cleared up to everyone's satisfaction. When an error occurs on a last minute cruise booking, it must be a lot harder to make both NCL and passenger whole in a timely fashion. And that really sucks.

 

2) Here's something else that sucks: Shore staff not being empowered to fix a situation. Without bringing up my own situation again and re-convoluting this thread (take up my case in my thread if you like), I've seen this happen with Ship staff last month. In our automated age, there really ought to be someone on Shore or the Ship who can quickly get a complete view of a situation and make the fix/determination within an hour. This "it's all up to Miami" stuff is unacceptable. If NCL doesn't have someone on Shore or Ship with the authority to solve problems, NCL needs to put someone there.

 

It might have been that OP's ship was full and there was no way to accommodate her, period. Bad as that would be, it shouldn't take her hours to find it out. NCL needs a Solutions Officer on every ship, whose longest workday is embarkation/disembarkation day in port.

 

 

A final thought for the OP: Congratulations on handling this difficult situation with grace. I'm really glad you made the most of Oahu. You taught your kids how to make lemonade from lemons, and that'll stay with them.

[hawkeyetlse]

1) This looks more and more like an error with a credit card processor (whether it's NCL's, or OP's bank's, I have no idea). For NCL to reverse the charge, it would require a conscious decision by a human being, one there would be no logical reason to make.

The reservation was cancelled either by someone or by some computer program doing validation immediately after the OP booked and sent payment. So NCL received payment for a booking that did not exist, and I can imagine they have things set up to automatically refund money that they can't do anything with.

This "it's all up to Miami" stuff is unacceptable.

It's fine as long as there is actually someone in Miami. Without minimizing what you went through, at least you had a couple of days for them to go back and forth with Miami and get your original booking restored. What I find unacceptable is that they have cruises departing at all hours of the day all around the world, so they know that these kinds of last-minute emergencies can come up at any moment. But evidently NCL only answers the phone during Miami business hours, and by then, yuor ship may have sailed…

 

As much as I agree that NCL dropped the ball here, I also have to agree with other posters that said that the OP must accept some responsibility for the predicament. Booking super last minute means you have that much less time to catch and fix any problems that come up, and you have to make that much more effort to check that everything is OK. If that means paying overseas roaming charges or going out of your way to find an internet connection, so be it. The statement that by the time they got a hotel with WiFi, it was too late to do on-line check-in, so they didn't bother even logging on to MyNCL just to make sure that the reservation was there in the first place, boggles my mind. They would have noticed right away that the reservation wasn't in fact in the system, and they would have had all night to contact NCL from the relative comfort of their hotel room. I don't know if it would have been possible to actually get them a cabin on the ship by that point, but it would have at least saved them the frustrating hours at the cruise terminal for nothing.

Edited March 2, 2015 by hawkeyetlse

[AngAndBoys]

The reservation was cancelled either by someone or by some computer program doing validation immediately after the OP booked and sent payment. So NCL received payment for a booking that did not exist, and I can imagine they have things set up to automatically refund money that they can't do anything with.

It's fine as long as there is actually someone in Miami. Without minimizing what you went through, at least you had a couple of days for them to go back and forth with Miami and get your original booking restored. What I find unacceptable is that they have cruises departing at all hours of the day all around the world, so they know that these kinds of last-minute emergencies can come up at any moment. But evidently NCL only answers the phone during Miami business hours, and by then, yuor ship may have sailed…

 

As much as I agree that NCL dropped the ball here, I also have to agree with other posters that said that the OP must accept some responsibility for the predicament. Booking super last minute means you have that much less time to catch and fix any problems that come up, and you have to make that much more effort to check that everything is OK. If that means paying overseas roaming charges or going out of your way to find an internet connection, so be it. The statement that by the time they got a hotel with WiFi, it was too late to do on-line check-in, so they didn't bother even logging on to MyNCL just to make sure that the reservation was there in the first place, boggles my mind. They would have noticed right away that the reservation wasn't in fact in the system, and they would have had all night to contact NCL from the relative comfort of their hotel room. I don't know if it would have been possible to actually get them a cabin on the ship by that point, but it would have at least saved them the frustrating hours at the cruise terminal for nothing.

 

I do not understand why so many people find it imperative to blame the victim. Is it a crime to book a last minute cruise? Is it unreasonable to believe that everything is a go when you get a confirmation? NCL screwed up and then compounded the mistake with poor customer service. It shouldn't be necessary for the customer to babysit their booking. If the company confirms it, you should be able to count on that. I don't even understand how anyone could logically believe the OP did anything wrong here.

[hawkeyetlse]

Is it a crime to book a last minute cruise?

Who said or even suggested that?

Is it unreasonable to believe that everything is a go when you get a confirmation?

No, and sending the confirmation before all the validation checks were complete, and then not rescinding the confirmation when the reservation was cancelled 16 minutes later, which is what NCL apparently did in this case, is not acceptable.

It shouldn't be necessary for the customer to babysit their booking.

No one will ever care more about your booking than you do, and if anything goes wrong, no one will suffer more than you. So whether it is necessary or not, whether you should or shouldn't have to do it, I would recommend that everyone at least log in to their NCL account one time before sailing just to make sure that their reservation actually shows up there… Would you consider that babysitting?

[hypercafe]

I often wonder why people that have major problems post them here so other people who have no idea what happened can make judgements on who is at fault.

 

Sent from my SM-T320 using Forums mobile app

[ColinIllinois]

A lesson to be learned.

 

From NCL Frequently Asked Questions:

 

What time do I board the ship on embarkation day and in ports of call?

 

Arrival at the Cruise Terminal:

For your comfort and convenience, we recommend that guests who have not completed their Online Check-In arrive at the cruise terminal no later than two (2) hours prior to the scheduled embarkation time printed on your cruise documents. Guests who have completed their Online Check-In should arrive at the terminal no later than one (1) hour prior to the scheduled embarkation time printed on your cruise documents. We STRONGLY recommend guests complete their Online Check-In at least four (4) days prior to sailing.

[AngAndBoys]

Who said or even suggested that?

 

Well, you, for one, in the first two sentences of your second paragraph.

 

No, and sending the confirmation before all the validation checks were complete, and then not rescinding the confirmation when the reservation was cancelled 16 minutes later, which is what NCL apparently did in this case, is not acceptable.

 

Glad we agree.:D

 

No one will ever care more about your booking than you do, and if anything goes wrong, no one will suffer more than you. So whether it is necessary or not, whether you should or shouldn't have to do it, I would recommend that everyone at least log in to their NCL account one time before sailing just to make sure that their reservation actually shows up there… Would you consider that babysitting?

 

I would consider it prudent, but not required when you have a paid confirmation and know you won't be checking in online. You should not expect to need to recheck when they told you it was confirmed.

 

See responses above. I think we may have to agree to disagree on some of this. I don't believe the OP shares any blame for this going wrong. I think she fulfilled her full responsibility to reasonable expectations. Anyway, I'm getting weary of the debate. I don't believe we'll change each other's opinions even if we go round and round all day.

[newmexicoNita]

Ok just a few thoughts and I will keep my mouth shut on this one:

 

1-OP, I am so happy you made the best of a bad situation and had a chance to spend time in Oahu. There is so much to see and do there. I do hope you get a chance in the near future to see the rest of the islands. If you haven't arriced home yet, have a safe flight.

 

2-hypercafe: I agree, people post on these forums and we all give advise: none of us really know exactly what happened and we do only hear the one side. I have a problem understanding why we all (including myself) think we have the answers.

 

3-for those who think some of us have no empathy that is just plainly not true. Most of us do, but we also know there is more to any story than we usually get.

 

4-here I go again, but it does appear, regardless as to who's fault this was, cut and dry, the OP didn't have a reservation.

 

ok, now I am out of here!!!!

[bambione]

Thanks for the reply. I was reading this thread and all I could think about was you having to hang around at the port with young children. Having traveled with young kids before who are really excited to be going on vacation I know how stressful hanging around waiting for something to happen can be.

I hope you can get this resolved with NCL so at least you know what happened.

Karen

[zacdilone]

Something smells really fishy here.

 

 

 

Oh, wait...turns out my wife is making tuna salad.

 

Sorry, my bad.

[mickeysgal]

OP, have you checked your spam folder in your email account? Sometimes, the cruise emails get routed there. Also check your trash folder to see if an email was accidentally deleted without you or another family member noticing.

 

.

 

I recently booked a cruise on another line and put a full deposit on it. I booked on the phone with an agent and got my reservation number. Never got an email, nor did the booking show up online. Called the cruise line and they had a typo on the email account which explained why I never got an email. No one could explain why it never showed up online either.

 

What a mess for the OP...hope she gets a full explanation as to why it was cancelled.

[SissasMomE]

Thanks for coming back and posting. It makes more sense now. Wow - what a horrible situation. I'm glad you guys were able to make the best of it, and enjoy your vacation, but still .... NCL should have handled this better at the pier. I can't imagine not having an answer when you are standing there ready to board.

[nyc12345]

Could it be that NCL overbooked the rooms and was hoping for last minute cancellations? I know Princess does it all the time and they offer moveover to the customers to solve this problem.

 

I don't understand why they didn't give the OP a room assignment when the agent told her there's four rooms left. If they have four rooms, why not assign one and book it as a GTY instead. :confused:

[NLH Arizona]

She better have all her proof as far as whose fault it is, if she is going to go all over social media.

 

I remember the mother who was kicked off a United flight because her daughter couldn't sit in a seat and was over the age of two, too old to sit on her lap. She got creamed when she went on social media, because the true facts came out about the incident.

[hawkeyetlse]

It's time for these companies to wake up and realize that it's not 1982, and they better be very careful how they treat people.

It's not 1982 for the OP, either. They had internet at home, wifi at the airport, and wifi at their hotel in Hawaii, and not once did they log on to NCL to check on their reservation. That would have been a much better use of the Internet than going on FB and Twitter after the fact to complain about how they allowed disaster to strike their family's vacation by missing multiple opportunities to take this one basic step to look out for their own interests.

 

This is not about withholding sympathy or assigning blame. If someone tells me that their house was burgled, I have sympathy for them. If it turns out that they didn't bother to lock the doors that day because, well, nothing like that ever happened before in the neighborhood, I still have sympathy for their troubles and I still blame the burglars, but come on. Simple steps to protect yourself in an imperfect world.

[maywell]

It's not 1982 for the OP, either. They had internet at home, wifi at the airport, and wifi at their hotel in Hawaii, and not once did they log on to NCL to check on their reservation. That would have been a much better use of the Internet than going on FB and Twitter after the fact to complain about how they allowed disaster to strike their family's vacation by missing multiple opportunities to take this one basic step to look out for their own interests.

 

This is not about withholding sympathy or assigning blame. If someone tells me that their house was burgled, I have sympathy for them. If it turns out that they didn't bother to lock the doors that day because, well, nothing like that ever happened before in the neighborhood, I still have sympathy for their troubles and I still blame the burglars, but come on. Simple steps to protect yourself in an imperfect world.

 

 

Don't forget the wifi at Starbucks in Hawaii along with the internet cafe there or in the country they flew out of. And that's even if the cell phone was not working due to not being activated for international travel - you don't need a cell phone to use the internet cafe. Again, sorry that happen to the OP and her family but there's just something off about whole the situation regarding how it was handled on both sides.(NCL / port and OP's)

[jackson bernard]

It's not 1982 for the OP, either. They had internet at home, wifi at the airport, and wifi at their hotel in Hawaii, and not once did they log on to NCL to check on their reservation. That would have been a much better use of the Internet than going on FB and Twitter after the fact to complain about how they allowed disaster to strike their family's vacation by missing multiple opportunities to take this one basic step to look out for their own interests.

 

This is not about withholding sympathy or assigning blame. If someone tells me that their house was burgled, I have sympathy for them. If it turns out that they didn't bother to lock the doors that day because, well, nothing like that ever happened before in the neighborhood, I still have sympathy for their troubles and I still blame the burglars, but come on. Simple steps to protect yourself in an imperfect world.

 

There is no reason to have to recheck a reservation once it is confirmed.

 

The lady and her family were treated poorly at the terminal. Some say its not NCL fault because they are shoreside contractors. Maybe, just maybe NCL should wake up and have someone from their company there, don't you think? Not having anyone to contact is terrible.

 

All I am hearing are excuses for the company, and others trying to shift blame to the family for whatever reason.

 

Point is, the game has changed. You have a voice, use it. Post your story everywhere, tweet it repeatedly, file online complaint forms, tell everyone who will listen. Create your own web page. Make it a project. Don't just sit there and take it. Maybe, just maybe you will stop the same thin from happening to someone as yourselves.

[jackson bernard]

It's not 1982 for the OP, either. They had internet at home, wifi at the airport, and wifi at their hotel in Hawaii, and not once did they log on to NCL to check on their reservation. That would have been a much better use of the Internet than going on FB and Twitter after the fact to complain about how they allowed disaster to strike their family's vacation by missing multiple opportunities to take this one basic step to look out for their own interests.

 

This is not about withholding sympathy or assigning blame. If someone tells me that their house was burgled, I have sympathy for them. If it turns out that they didn't bother to lock the doors that day because, well, nothing like that ever happened before in the neighborhood, I still have sympathy for their troubles and I still blame the burglars, but come on. Simple steps to protect yourself in an imperfect world.

 

Not once have I even thought of rechecking a confirmed and paid for reservation. At what point do you stop checking? A week before? A few days before? The day of the cruise?

 

To expect a family to run aroun Hawaii looking for wifi just to check on an already confirmed reservation is absurd.

[hawkeyetlse]

There is no reason to have to recheck a reservation once it is confirmed.

Sure, just like there is no reason to recheck your flight status before leaving for the airport. No reason to look out for cross-traffic when your light is green. No reason to double-check what the pharmacist gave you before swallowing the pills.

 

You don't have to do any of these things. You have fulfilled your minimal obligations, so it should be up the the rest of the universe to ensure that everything goes smoothly for you. Don't lift another finger to look out for yourself; you'll need to save all your energy to pour into your noisy social media project after things go wrong and it's too late to do anything about it.

Not once have I even thought of rechecking a confirmed and paid for reservation. At what point do you stop checking? A week before? A few days before? The day of the cruise?

I don't know, maybe just check one time between the time of booking and the day of the cruise?

To expect a family to run aroun Hawaii looking for wifi just to check on an already confirmed reservation is absurd.

The OP said herself that they were sitting in the airport using free wifi for 3 hours. Edited March 3, 2015 by hawkeyetlse