NCL Drops Turkey in 2016

[littlelulu01]

I just checked today and the 14 day B2B are NOT there.

 

Yes. I checked yesterday just after Tricialy posted they were back up and didn't see them. Big box ta is still showing as bookable 14nt but they are also still listing Kusadasi. Perhaps a glitch. Does seem like a harder sell to have two port days in Santorini.

[weloveamerica]

The 14 day is showing on the uk website, its showing kusadasi as a port, however we are on this cruise and our itinerary is now showing us visiting santorini twice.

[jodieh12]

Instead of Istanbul and Kusadasi we've now got Dubrovnik and Kotor, Montenegro which means no tax on purchases on the ship as we are still stopping at a non EU port, win win.

 

Liverpool Jo

[dub237]

Instead of Istanbul and Kusadasi we've now got Dubrovnik and Kotor, Montenegro which means no tax on purchases on the ship as we are still stopping at a non EU port, win win.

 

 

 

Liverpool Jo

 

 

Kotor Will be à very Busy port since they cancel all the call from turkey

[shello20]

Just got our updated itinerary for our May 19th cruise. Istanbul and Kusadasi are being replaced with Dubrovnik, Croatia and Kotor, Montenegro. Here is the May 19th 2016 updated itinerary.

 

Thu 19-May 11:00 pm SHIP DEPARTS VENICE, ITALY

Fri 20-May AT SEA

Sat 21-May 8:00 am Sat 21-May 5:00 pm DUBROVNIK, CROATIA

Sun 22-May 8:00 am Sun 22-May 5:00 pm KOTOR, MONTENEGRO

Mon 23-May AT SEA

Tue 24-May 7:00 am Tue 24-May 5:00 pm PIRAEUS (ATHENS), GREECE

Wed 25-May 8:00 am Wed 25-May 5:00 pm MYKONOS, GREECE

Thu 26-May AT SEA

Fri 27-May 8:00 am Fri 27-May 7:00 pm NAPLES/POMPEII, ITALY

Sat 28-May 8:00 am Sat 28-May 7:00 pm CIVITAVECCHIA (ROME), ITALY

Sun 29-May 8:00 am Sun 29-May 7:00 pm LIVORNO (FLORENCE/PISA), ITALY

Mon 30-May 9:00 am Mon 30-May 5:00 pm TOULON, FRANCE

Tue 31-May 5:00 am SHIP ARRIVES AT BARCELONA, SPAIN

 

We are in the UK and booked the same route as the above but on the 12 June sailing. I only found out by following cruise critic that Turkey was dropped from itineraries, which was pretty annoying, I would have expected to be informed straight away by our travel agent. Worse than that, our travel agent hadn't been informed by NCL either when we called in to explore our options. They phoned NCL who said that Turkey was indeed dropped but that revised itineraries were not available yet and that we should 'wait' to hear from them, no timescale given. Our travel agent promised to keep chasing this for us. I then came home and found this post with the revised itinerary already advised to a fellow traveller. So, our agent phoned NCL again, and was told that if anyone had been issued with revised itineraries it was a 'mistake' and that routes have not yet been finalised. What a complete farce!

 

We chose this cruise because the itinerary included Istanbul and Ephesus, in fact Istanbul was the main focus, so deflated doesn't start to cover it for us. We don't feel that Croatia and Montenegro are anything like an adequate substitution for two world heritage sites and that, for us, the cruise is now completely devalued.

 

Intelligence and safety are cited as the reason for the cancelled ports but, the majority of other travel operators are still offering all areas of Turkey to tourists. If such intelligence does exist, does this mean that the other operators are not in possession of it or worse, are ignoring it? I would venture to suggest that the cruise is not selling well because customers have reservations about visiting Turkey (I do get that) but that profit is the motivation here, not the protection of customers. All European tourist areas are on escalated threat alert but have they withdrawn France from the itinerary, also having suffered more than one attack?

 

We are disappointed that NCL have handled events so badly in our case and, I confess, we have completely lost trust in this company. I doubt that we will take this cruise now, unless NCL seriously redeem themselves PDQ.

[KeithJenner]

Rather strangely, despite cancelling the planned stops in Turney up to next Easter, NCL yesterday announced Summer 2017 itineraries which do include Kusadasi and Alanya. I was expecting Turkey to be omitted from next year as well.

[littlelulu01]

I'm certainly not an NCL champion by any means but in this case I do think they made the right choice by giving the customers a chance to decide what to do in advance. Over on the celebrity boards people are frustrated because they feel it's only a matter of time before celebrity cancels Turkey and Israel stops. Last year many passengers found out upon boarding their Celebrity cruise that the itinerary had changed pretty drastically. People want to know and plan in advance.

 

It may be the perception that Turkey is unsafe thus people are canceling/not booking cruises or it may be an honest concern for safety. It may even be that people are booking other lines because their perks are better and the cost of a balcony on just about any other lines sailing in the med is about half of what NCL is charging. Regardless they are well within their cruise contract rights To change ports and they make that point very clear even in their advertising.

 

I assume the biggest redeployment in history done by NCL with del Rio at the helm in August has not been met with investor accolades. Many of those redeployment itineraries have been changed up, presumably due to lack of sales not to mention the customers who were treated so poorly and simply left NCL in disgust. in the end it doesn't matter how low oil prices are. Those ships still need to sail with passengers in order to make the profits desired.

[julesrules]

I'm Shello's wife, hello!!

 

Whilst our situation is not as bad as those whose itinerary was changed as they boarded, it almost is in terms of us being unable to cancel without penalty. I believe they have cited 'safety' as the reason for cancelling Turkey so that they don't have to allow folks already booked to cancel without penalty, an underhand move. I don't believe for one minute that we are at any greater risk in Turkey than we are at any of the popular European destinations. I agree that there may be a perceived risk which is putting prospective passengers off cruises that include Turkey and so threatening cruise companies' 'bottom line'.

 

They have devalued the cruise, it isn't what I signed up for, my safety is no more guaranteed at any of the other places and so, under their significant change policy, I should be able to cancel it without penalty.

Edited January 27, 2016 by julesrules

[Bocadude85]

We are in the UK and booked the same route as the above but on the 12 June sailing. I only found out by following cruise critic that Turkey was dropped from itineraries, which was pretty annoying, I would have expected to be informed straight away by our travel agent. Worse than that, our travel agent hadn't been informed by NCL either when we called in to explore our options. They phoned NCL who said that Turkey was indeed dropped but that revised itineraries were not available yet and that we should 'wait' to hear from them, no timescale given. Our travel agent promised to keep chasing this for us. I then came home and found this post with the revised itinerary already advised to a fellow traveller. So, our agent phoned NCL again, and was told that if anyone had been issued with revised itineraries it was a 'mistake' and that routes have not yet been finalised. What a complete farce!

We chose this cruise because the itinerary included Istanbul and Ephesus, in fact Istanbul was the main focus, so deflated doesn't start to cover it for us. We don't feel that Croatia and Montenegro are anything like an adequate substitution for two world heritage sites and that, for us, the cruise is now completely devalued.

 

Intelligence and safety are cited as the reason for the cancelled ports but, the majority of other travel operators are still offering all areas of Turkey to tourists. If such intelligence does exist, does this mean that the other operators are not in possession of it or worse, are ignoring it? I would venture to suggest that the cruise is not selling well because customers have reservations about visiting Turkey (I do get that) but that profit is the motivation here, not the protection of customers. All European tourist areas are on escalated threat alert but have they withdrawn France from the itinerary, also having suffered more than one attack?

 

We are disappointed that NCL have handled events so badly in our case and, I confess, we have completely lost trust in this company. I doubt that we will take this cruise now, unless NCL seriously redeem themselves PDQ.

 

This does not make any sense. All you have to do is log into myncl and the new itinerary is posted there in the vacation summary section.

[littlelulu01]

I'm Shello's wife, hello!!

 

Whilst our situation is not as bad as those whose itinerary was changed as they boarded, it almost is in terms of us being unable to cancel without penalty. I believe they have cited 'safety' as the reason for cancelling Turkey so that they don't have to allow folks already booked to cancel without penalty, an underhand move. I don't believe for one minute that we are at any greater risk in Turkey than we are at any of the popular European destinations. I agree that there may be a perceived risk which is putting prospective passengers off cruises that include Turkey and so threatening cruise companies' 'bottom line'.

 

They have devalued the cruise, it isn't what I signed up for, my safety is no more guaranteed at any of the other places and so, under their significant change policy, I should be able to cancel it without penalty.

 

You might want to read the press release from NCL announcing the Turkey cancellations. I think Del Rio said they were going to let people cancel. I would think it will be a few days before they get it figured out but according to the article it may be promising for those who have penalties for cancellations. Not sure what the cancellation fee is in the UK and what your fare was but our sailing on the Jade 14 night lowest priced balcony two people all in taxes, port fees D.SC., and beverage package gratuity is priced at $7653. The exact same dates on Silhouette out of Rome is $4222 for two in a balcony all in with taxes, port fees, beverage package. You can choose perks out of four including unlimited internet for both in stateroom, beverage package with them paying the grats on package, daily tips, or $300 obc (pick two and in the us it's a $25 deposit) . It's visiting Israel, Kusadasi and some other interesting ports.

 

The key is knowing that if you rebook there's a real chance those ports may also be changed. If Turkey is on your must visit list there is also HAL and others who today are still saying no port changes but that is likely to change.

[julesrules]

This does not make any sense. All you have to do is log into myncl and the new itinerary is posted there in the vacation summary section.

We didn't know that until I read it on here. We had relied on our travel agent accessing the information from NCL, which surprisingly they couldn't provide.

[julesrules]

You might want to read the press release from NCL announcing the Turkey cancellations. I think Del Rio said they were going to let people cancel. I would think it will be a few days before they get it figured out but according to the article it may be promising for those who have penalties for cancellations. Not sure what the cancellation fee is in the UK and what your fare was but our sailing on the Jade 14 night lowest priced balcony two people all in taxes, port fees D.SC., and beverage package gratuity is priced at $7653. The exact same dates on Silhouette out of Rome is $4222 for two in a balcony all in with taxes, port fees, beverage package. You can choose perks out of four including unlimited internet for both in stateroom, beverage package with them paying the grats on package, daily tips, or $300 obc (pick two and in the us it's a $25 deposit) . It's visiting Israel, Kusadasi and some other interesting ports.

 

The key is knowing that if you rebook there's a real chance those ports may also be changed. If Turkey is on your must visit list there is also HAL and others who today are still saying no port changes but that is likely to change.

Thanks for this.

I have written to complain and hopefully we will reach a resolution. I just don't feel that the cruise is worth the money now and would rather look at something else which would provide better value even without Turkey.

[littlelulu01]

I was just looking at my dates; September 24 Jade 14 night and see that the switch of Kusadasi for an extra day in Santorini adds an additional 2400 passengers to an already busy day for Santorini. Not sure what the other days in the season entail but for September 28th you now have the following:

 

As of today it looks like four ships will be in Santorini on the 28th (this is the newly added and replaced port for Kusadasi). Aida Stella, MSC Orchestra, Thomson Dream and NCL Jade. With the new Jade addition it makes 8500 passengers in Santorini for the 28th.

 

So far Oct 4th in Santorini (was already scheduled prior to change) we have the MSC Sinfonia, NCL Jade, Oceania Riveria and Windstar Star Pride. That's a total of 6500 passengers in port on the 4th.

 

I think these numbers can change if more ships cancel Turkey or Isreal and if so we could potentially have extremely busy port days.

 

October 4th is looking much better especially since the MSC Sinfonia is leaving port at 3pm and Jade arrives at 2pm. The Riveria is leaving port at 6pm vs Jade's 10pm but the Riveria only has 1250 passengers. The Windstar Star Pride is in port form 8am till 9pm on the 4th but it's only 164 passengers.

 

On September 28th all 8500 passengers ascend/descend about the same port times: 8-4, 8-5, 8-4 and 8-5. That's a congested day! Would be great if the Jade arrived for an afternoon visit on the 28th but for now the port times are 8-5 right along with 8500 other cruisers. September shoulder season for the med just got a little more shoulder to shoulder.

[littlelulu01]

Big box ta is now advertising the Jade September 24, 2016 as departing from Rome . Stops in Livorno, Cannes, Marseille, Barcelona and Naples. They are also showing 14 night but ports of call not available. Hopefully just a glitch.

[cardbucfan]

I just NOW received an official notification from NCL about the itinerary change for our Spirit cruise in May. Thank heavens we have cruise critic and don't have to depend on the cruise line!

 

I think we will have a really good trip with our replacement ports but I did book this itinerary and date specifically for Istanbul so I agree it's been devalued for me. Unfortunately, we have non refundable plane tickets so unless we scrap the whole thing and use our insurance we are stuck.

 

And yes I know, the cruislines always have the discretion to change ports so don't tell me that I should have taken a land trip if I wanted to see one port so badly!

[littlelulu01]

I just NOW received an official notification from NCL about the itinerary change for our Spirit cruise in May. Thank heavens we have cruise critic and don't have to depend on the cruise line!

 

I think we will have a really good trip with our replacement ports but I did book this itinerary and date specifically for Istanbul so I agree it's been devalued for me. Unfortunately, we have non refundable plane tickets so unless we scrap the whole thing and use our insurance we are stuck.

 

And yes I know, the cruislines always have the discretion to change ports so don't tell me that I should have taken a land trip if I wanted to see one port so badly!

 

Well at least it's official. Looks like they have updated websites today too reflecting the changes. 14 night jade now available again with only change being Santorini replaced for Kusadasi. Yes a de-value but thankful it's still on and embarkation/debarkation unchanged.

 

Funny I got an email from NCL titled important information from norwegian cruise lines too however message had no content! Ill go ahead and assume they were officially notifying me of the change. The empty message only contained a disclaimer about how it may contain important confidential information not to be shared.

[nessa14141]

I saw they just replaced Kusadasi with Limassol, Cyprus on the November 28th, 2016 sailing now, too. It's also now a closed loop from Venice (originally ended in Istanbul). Well, i guess just as long as Israel is able to stay on the itinerary, I'll be fine, lol.

[flapbreaker]

Well at least it's official. Looks like they have updated websites today too reflecting the changes. 14 night jade now available again with only change being Santorini replaced for Kusadasi. Yes a de-value but thankful it's still on and embarkation/debarkation unchanged.

 

Funny I got an email from NCL titled important information from norwegian cruise lines too however message had no content! Ill go ahead and assume they were officially notifying me of the change. The empty message only contained a disclaimer about how it may contain important confidential information not to be shared.

 

Received the same type of email today and mine also appeared to be empty but later when I checked my mail from my iPad I can see the content. Weird that I can't from my pc.

[fabnfortysomething]

Well at least it's official. Looks like they have updated websites today too reflecting the changes. 14 night jade now available again with only change being Santorini replaced for Kusadasi. Yes a de-value but thankful it's still on and embarkation/debarkation unchanged.

 

Funny I got an email from NCL titled important information from norwegian cruise lines too however message had no content! Ill go ahead and assume they were officially notifying me of the change. The empty message only contained a disclaimer about how it may contain important confidential information not to be shared.

 

yes I got the same email with no content-wondered whether spam filter deleted a suspicious attachment?!

[Shawnino]

Rather strangely, despite cancelling the planned stops in Turney up to next Easter, NCL yesterday announced Summer 2017 itineraries which do include Kusadasi and Alanya. I was expecting Turkey to be omitted from next year as well.

 

Me too.

Guess they're hoping the muslim terrorism will be under control by then.

I have my doubts, but I hope they're right.

Turkey is worth seeing.

[littlelulu01]

Will be interesting to see what prices do. For the Jade sailings they've been on the steady rise. For dates I'm tracking the Jade price is much higher than Celebrity and HAL so either people liked the itinerary better or NCL is using a different pricing model.

 

That extra day in Santorini vs Kusadasi from 8-5 is an extra day with an extra 8500 passengers in port. Doubt many will research that when looking to book but it was something I took into account when booking the 14 night.

[loubetti]

...or an old WKRP episode?

 

"I didn't know turkeys couldn't fly!"

[littlelulu01]

The updated intinnerary came thru and I see our port time on the Jade for Split is two hours longer. We were scheduled for 11-6 and now we are 8-5. It will be a slow ride to Santorini vs Kusadasi from Athens and looks like instead of the slow ride to Split they gave us extra port time. That's good news. I had a private excursion booked to krka and will now easily be able to spend some time in Split too.

[detroitlions]

That's too bad. We enjoyed our visit to Alanya, Perga, and Aspendos in 2011.

 

That will make it tough on cruises wanting to visit sites in Turkey associated with the New Testament.

Turkey is not a fun place. people that have to get stationed there want out in a bad way I do not understand why they would have Croatia on there either. Ask folks from there that live here if they would ever go back its bad news.

[KeithJenner]

Turkey is not a fun place. people that have to get stationed there want out in a bad way I do not understand why they would have Croatia on there either. Ask folks from there that live here if they would ever go back its bad news.

 

 

There is absolutely no comparison between visiting somewhere for a day and being stationed there or living there.

 

In the past two years, Split, Dubrovnik, Istanbul and Kusadasi have been perhaps my four favourite ports which I've visited on cruises. I have no wish to live in any of them, but that doesn't stop them from being friendly, fun and interesting ports.

 

Have you actually been there yourself?

Edited January 29, 2016 by KeithJenner