Lost Cruises and Frustration

[RolandofGilead]

This has been a frustrating couple years trying to take my kids on a cruise. We were originally scheduled to cruise on the Escape in march of 20 (me and 4 kids in a 2 bedroom family suite). I decided to cancel my cruise at the insistence of my business partner for credit. One hour later the announcement was made to allow refunds or credit+. In Oct/Nov of last year I decided to use that credit to book a thanksgiving cruise on the Joy. I believe at the time i had to use the credit by the end of the year prior to the extension so i went ahead any applied all of my credit so that i would not forget which ended up being a little more than 1k short of the total cost. Then in august NCL made the announcement regarding extended vaccination requirements. Here is where i messed up again. I should have just cancelled immediately but still held out a little hope for child vaccination or something. So, i waited until the last minute to cancel/reschedule to a spring break cruise. This did not go as planned however as i incorrectly remembered the fine print. I thought the cancellation date was the same as final payment, it is in fact the day before. 59 days vs 60. I talk to my pcc and and the escalation desk and was told that i had no recourse. Here is the thing though, i caught myself starting to be frustrating and angry towards the person on the phone. I had to stop and remind myself that they do not make the decision, they do not make the policies and they have to deal with way too many of these calls lately where even if they wanted to help there is nothing that they can do. I apologized to the representative i was speaking to for venting my frustration on them and said that i was sorry that they have to be the ones that have to administer these kinds of decisions.

 

I may or may not ever decide to cruise again. Right now it feels like not but i also know how these things work and a year or so down the road my outlook on these things will probably soften. You can see above that this is a large part my own responsibility and regardless of wether or not i felt that NCL should have done better my frustration is no reason to treat another human like crap. So i guess this is just  reminder to treat people kindly.

Edited October 2, 2021 by RolandofGilead
grammar

[complawyer]

ok, for what it's worth,we had a cruise scheduled for march 2020 also. santiago to port canaveral. i cancelled and a few days later ncl canceled. since i cancelled 1st, i could only get a cruise credit. long story short, every cruise i booked after that was also canceled (about 6 all together) meanwhile, there is my almost $10,000 floating around somewhere as each cruise i applied the money was  cancelled.

i finally booked a nov 2021 from athens to rome. this was going to istanbul and 2 ports in israel.

 

since israel was closing it's borders i cancelled also. i now have 4 cruises booked for 2022, the most recent one in jan. also 2 bedroom havens.  keeping mu fingers crossed.

 

while i know it's little consolation, just know that 100's if not 1000's of people were in the same "boat so to speak (pun intended) due to covid, and we all just need to move on. dont give up hope, cruising is a great way to vacation, if  you cant go now, please wait and i'm sure you'll be able to take your kids sometime in the future.  

 

as for the ncl rep, i'm also sure she/he's as frustrated as you are since they have to field calls from a bunch of disgruntled travelers, with more or less the same complaints

[RolandofGilead]

i though i put it in there but it looks like i left out that i lost all of my credit.

[complawyer]

i would try and write to the powers that be at ncl. there is no reason that you should have lost cruise credits, especially when covid has screwed up travel plans for the past 18 months. corporate offices are in miami.

 

i think in this instance the cliche squeaky wheel gets the grease will definitely apply

[lixogab]

Is it possible to pass the cruise to someone else?
May be you can resell it. 
Or, if it’s use it or lose it, change your mind / rearrange the plans and go!
 

[ggTexasGal]

Sadly, it would seem that, in fact, you needed to cancel by 61 days (not 60, and certainly not 59).

Hopefully, others pay attention to what you found-out "the hard way!"

 

Your reaction to the news is completely normal.  But, your ending thoughtfulness to the NCL representative is commendable!!!

 

Best of luck to you and your family!

[ggTexasGal]

Just now, ggTexasGal said:

Sadly, it would seem that, in fact, you needed to cancel by 61 days (not 60, and certainly not 59).

Hopefully, others pay attention to what you found-out "the hard way!"

 

Your reaction to the news is completely normal.  But, your ending thoughtfulness to the NCL representative is commendable!!!

 

Best of luck to you and your family!

I've come back to add, for those who have 120 days to Final Payment/Cancellation, IF you are going to cancel (or alter booking/itinerary), do it by 121 days prior!!!

[classy_cruiser]

Sorry to hear this. I also have a cruise coming up that is completely paid with a peace of mind FCC from a canceled booking. 
 

Best I can tell, you do need to cancel 1 day prior to final payment or else you forfeit the FCC. Peace of mind does not apply to sailings past this month. 
 

 I’m trying to figure out if any travel insurance will cover the value of the FCC between final payment and sail date but haven’t gotten anywhere with yet over in the insurance forum. 
 

With no insurance, the best approach in this case would be to not cancel the booking and pray that the situation changes or NCL cancels. 

[AwesomO]

How old are your children? In the US, kids 5+ may tentatively be able to be vaccinated by the end of October. It will be a super tight time frame depending when it becomes available, but there is a slight chance your child can be fully vaccinated by Thanksgiving. 

[RolandofGilead]

if 5+ vaccination would have been approved I would have been fine (3 6-11, 1 13yr). The timeframe even if approved now would be super tight.

 

Yes, its 61 day prior for cancelation, i subtracted instead of added when relaying my days. Cancelation date was one day before I called on final payment day.

 

I considered paying off the little I had left to pay in case the cruise was cancelled but when I attempted to the price increased 4k.

 

Yeah, its my fault for not reading the contract correctly. My main point was to be kind even when things are crap. you could hear it even in the NCL reps voice that they were kind of desensitized to these calls by now. Especially with everyone stretched so thin in the service industry a fewer number of workers are having to deal with the expectations of the many. I saw a man berate a you lady this weekend at papa john s because it appeared that he called his order into the wrong location and she wouldn't help him beyond giving him the phone number. She had 10 other people waiting in the lobby.

[MsTabbyKats]

@RolandofGileadYou're a very kind person.  I wish more people were like you.  It would make the world a nicer place.

[AstoriaPreppy]

On 10/2/2021 at 2:40 PM, complawyer said:

i would try and write to the powers that be at ncl. there is no reason that you should have lost cruise credits, especially when covid has screwed up travel plans for the past 18 months. corporate offices are in miami.

 

i think in this instance the cliche squeaky wheel gets the grease will definitely apply

 

OP: Don't beat yourself up too much. It's not you, it's NCL.

Having had extensive interaction with NCL's shoreside guest service team, I can say that in my experience, they are arbitrary, capricious, and snide, almost to a fault. The NCL CC boards are filled with many stories that are similar to mine, so I'm not surprised at all that guest services won't offer some level of flexibility to the original poster. 

 

When NCL changed the embarkation port and then canceled our 2020 Southeast Asia cruise four days before sailing, they reneged on multiple promises, forcing many passengers to eat thousands in last minute flight changes. They then offered us a 25% discount on a future cruise, with a one year expiration. Not a one year booking window... a one year sail window. When I explained this was non-usable as no cruises were sailing for the rest of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, NCL guest services could not have been more dismissive, flat out refusing to extend the expiration.

We've been lucky to sail both Celebrity and Carnival this year, and have another cruise coming up in two weeks. We have multiple trips booked for 2022.Every interaction with shoreside guest services on all other cruise lines has been totally normal, even positive. They're tripping over themselves to offer great service, often going above and beyond to rectify issues. If I have the option to cruise with a line that values me as a customer v. NCL which often treats their guests with contempt when issues arise, it's a no-brainer. 

[CanadianKLM]

Thanks for the reminder about possibly cancelling. We had a cruise booked for March 2020. Then March 2021. And currently March 2022, which I'm still waffling about. I have yet to lose my FCC, but have possibly lost the value of our Disneyland tickets and perhaps flight credits. I've tried to remain pragmatic throughout by reminding myself that had we travelled in March 2020 all of that money would be long gone. Maybe we'd have pleasant memories of our trip, but maybe we'd have caught covid and ended up hospitalized.

 

Not taking your frustrations out on the customer service rep (or waitress or cashier, etc) is excellent advice. They have thankless jobs these days as may people are not at their best.

[hmeacham79]

I had a very similar situation happen to me too.

 

We have been trying to do a 7 night sailing on Norwegian Joy since April 2020 and it has been rescheduled twice due to the pandemic. We were hoping to finally go on November 20, 2021 but can not as we are traveling with our son who is 8 years old and cannot be vaccinated yet. We are fine with this policy but when I went to reschedule I was told that we were going to lose 75% of the funds that we have paid because I was trying to reschedule within 60 days of sailing.

 

Norwegian did not give any notice in any emails regarding the vaccination requirement that we were going to be subject to losing a credit if we did it too close to the sailing date.

 

We were waiting as long as possible in the hopes that a vaccine would be approved for our son and we would be able to go on the cruise. I am extremely upset that they are wanting to take 75% of our funds we have already paid and been waiting over a year and a half to use because of a policy that they put in place (which I fully support) but that I don't have control over. We really want to enjoy Norwegian Cruise Line.

[RolandofGilead]

@hmeacham79 we were supposed to be on the same cruise as you. your 25% back offer is honestly better than we received. Is the money they are returning just port fees and gratuities? If you are fully paid you could potentially wait a little bit longer to cancel on the chances that the cruise is cancelled. I think that no matter how close you wait they may give you that back, though judging by my experience in that last month don't trust my expertise. 

[wampuscat7]

I'm so sorry. I once had to cancel a cruise after my husband got laid off, and we lost our deposit. It was really unfortunate. 

 

Right now we have a credit from our March 2020 cruise that was canceled. We just got a call that we need to schedule a trip by the end of December or lose it. I asked if there would be an extension to the booking window because our child cannot be vaccinated yet, and I was told no.