What would you have done if this happened to you?

[wishfulone]

Last year in May we booked a starboard midship balcony cabin on the Norwegian Star sailing from Singapore to Venice via the Suez Canal. The itinerary was spectacular. So many ports and so many promises of an exceptional cruise. Our early booking bonuses for this B2B cruise included a free all inclusive beverage package, free gratuities and a great internet allowance.

 

Deposit paid we started to plan and prepurchased some very expensive shore excursions in wonderful ports with access to Kerala, Goa, Mumbai, Petra, Luxor, Valley fo the Kings, Jerusalem, and more.

 

In September 2016 we accidentally discovered that a staff member at NCL Sydney had switched our excellent prebooked cabin to a lesser one and onsold our cabin to people in Dubai.

 

Despite our protests and those of our Travel Agent (from the biggest travel organisation in Australia) the new management of NCL Sydney refused to reinstate our cabin. They admitted the error but weren't interested in finding a satisfactory solution. Instead they offered us lesser and/or guaranteed cabins expecting us to be grateful that they'd found us a place on the ship.

 

A direct appeal to Vivien Ewart, the Manager of Customer Services in Miami got us a dismissive response from a lesser employee.

 

We were devastated at the turn of events and felt we were left with no option but to cancel. What would you have done?

[mrs and mrs]

exactly, what you have done here, name names and shame them.

 

And yes we would have cancelled.

There are way to many stories of woeful business practises emerging lately.

These stories certainly don't seem to be isolated incidences, they are all becoming, Oh so common.

Edited February 11, 2017 by mrs and mrs
additional info

[The_Big_M]

I'd certainly be unhappy, and take action similar to yourself.

 

OTOH, not sure if I'd cancel. I've had a variety of cabins and if it's just a different location, or a standard cabin instead of scoring a special, odd cabin in a certain grade, the bulk of the cruise is still going to give the same experience. And I don't book a cruise just for a cabin - after all, land hotels give much better rooms for the price. The cabin itself isn't likely to make or break the holiday, especially as it sounds like it's still the same grade, not that they've put you in an inside instead of the suite you booked?

 

I might look for some other compromise such as OBC in lieu of the cabin for example.

[diane.in.ny]

I would check first if I could get my money back on the prepurchased shore excursions. If yes, I would have done as you did and canceled and then spread the word as much as possible how poorly you were treated by NCL. Do you have a facebook/twitter/Instagram account? (Just as an aside, my travel agent refuses to sell NCL)

 

If I couldn't get back the money from the shore excursions, I'd probably bite the bullet and still sail.

 

I probably would also ask for some type of compensation but really couldn't advise until I knew what made the second cabin so unsatisfactory. Size? Location?

[Kinkacruiser]

You should have been offered some compensation (OBCs or discounted fare) for their blunder, intentional or not. I doubt I would have cancelled if these were ports I had my heart set on.

I hope you have an opportunity to do the same cruise soon....and perhaps with a different cruise line?

[clairebearinaus]

Like Diane, my reaction would depend on what other cabins were on offer. I wouldn't want to be inside for a cruise of that length.

 

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[OzKiwiJJ]

I would have cancelled, just like you, and spent my cruise budget with a different cruise line. Their attitude is totally unacceptable IMHO. No cruise line should be able to downgrade a booked cabin without the authority of the person who booked, and without an hefty offer of OBC in compensation.

 

Also I would never even consider booking another cruise with that cruise line.

[MicCanberra]

I find it hard to comment as to exactly what I would have done, as I don't know what a downgraded cabin was offered and if there was any compensation for the downgrade. We normally book cruises for the itinerary, timing and price and as such cruise line, ships, cabins are further down our list of requirements. Perhaps I would have cancelled, perhaps not.

[Aus Traveller]

I find it hard to comment as to exactly what I would have done, as I don't know what a downgraded cabin was offered and if there was any compensation for the downgrade. We normally book cruises for the itinerary, timing and price and as such cruise line, ships, cabins are further down our list of requirements. Perhaps I would have cancelled, perhaps not.

I tend to agree with you. If the replacement cabin was a down-grade I would have expected good OBC to make up for it. Then we would still have gone on the cruise and put the difficulties out of our minds so we would still have a good time.:)

[OzKiwiJJ]

There is nothing wrong with a cruise line offering a downgrade, sweetened with some OBC, but I got the impression from the OP's post that the change was done surreptitiously, without any notification or offers. That is just not acceptable.

[clairebearinaus]

I'm not sure we've established if it was actually was a downgrade. Keen for the OP to return and give us more info.

 

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[Brisbane41]

I would have regarded any changes as a cancellation forced on by the cruise line and taken my business elsewhere.

[OzKiwiJJ]

I'm not sure we've established if it was actually was a downgrade. Keen for the OP to return and give us more info.

 

 

That's true. I just thought of that myself. It may have been a free "upgrade", and we all know that what a cruise line thinks is an upgrade may not be actually suit the passenger.

 

Although the OP did say they had changed the cabin to a lesser one. :confused:

 

Edit - I just had a look at the deck plans for that ship and the midships balconies are BA category, which appears to be the best category of the standard balcony cabins.

[joandian]

This is a hard one. Some of the ports you were going to are ones that I always wanted to visit and after a false start, with all port stops in Egypt, Israel and Jordan cancelled, we did finally get to Egypt and Jordan a year later.

 

Putting myself in your position, I know I would be extremely P'd off if it had happened to me but it also depends what Cabin I was moved to and if I could get something extra for the inconvenience. We cruise to see new places the majority of the time, so I may just have bitten the bullet and took the opportunity when I had the chance and made the most of it. I probably would have complained a lot about it though ;)

[wishfulone]

Very much a downgraded cabin for half the cruise and a guarantee to be assigned 2 weeks before sailing for the second half. 35 nights is a long time to be a cabin you're not happy with. NCL's best offer at compensation was to "just suck it up". Exact words.

[wishfulone]

NCL refunded our prepaid excursions almost straight away. Our wonderful TA gave us back the deposit but she was still waiting for NCL to refund it when she retired.

[The_Big_M]

Did the categories change? If so, which category to which? Or just a different cabin in same category?

[MicCanberra]

Very much a downgraded cabin for half the cruise and a guarantee to be assigned 2 weeks before sailing for the second half. 35 nights is a long time to be a cabin you're not happy with. NCL's best offer at compensation was to "just suck it up". Exact words.

Not good at all, and I don't blame you at all for cutting and running.