Jewel 3/20 Sailing Cancelled, POA Sailings Through 4/2 Sailing Cancelled

[ktpc2005]

This will be online shortly.....

 

Sailings Update: Thank you for your unwavering support and patience during our recent announcements.  

While we continue to redeploy our fleet worldwide, we are focused on delivering the safest and best vacations. In order to do so, we are revitalizing our vessels and elevating the guest experience on board with new offerings and product enhancements. Unfortunately, due to a significant revitalization aboard Norwegian Jewel, we have had to modify a few sailings and cancel the voyage scheduled for March 20, 2022.

 

As we continue to navigate the fluid public health environment, one thing is certain: delivering exceptional experiences, from ship to shore, requires maintaining the health and safety of our guests, crew and the communities we visit. For this reason, we have decided to delay the relaunch of Norwegian’s Pride of America, which means we must cancel all cruises aboard the vessel with embarkation dates through and including April 2, 2022.

 

Edited January 19, 2022 by ktpc2005

[Rob-Bob]

Unbelievable.  NCL waits until the day after the "final date to cancel with no penalty" to cancel the cruise.  Pure money grab to hold on to your money for 30-90 days.  This is for the 3/20/22 Jewel sailing.

 

I just paid my balance today and now I need to wait to get refunded.

[pghflyer]

wow that is super shady to wait until day after final payment. 

[Rob-Bob]

9 minutes ago, pghflyer said:

wow that is super shady to wait until day after final payment. 

Agreed.  Kind of sours me on NCL.

[amyh13]

This is driving me crazy.  We are booked on the POA for May 20, final payment due Friday.  If I could drive to the port I could wait it out.  But last I check, airfare to Hawaii is a pretty big purchase.  And I am not sure I am confident enough to book flights just to have the hassle if it gets canceled.  I am willing to postpone so maybe that is what I will do.  

[Sugar0802]

When our POA cruise got cancelled, I received the refund within 3 days. 

 

For flights, we booked 4 one-way fares - one to the lay-over city and then from there to HNL and the same on the return flight.  When the cruise got cancelled, we only had to cancel 2 of the flights and instead are doing domestic travel at our lay-over city for the week we were supposed to be gone (Plan B).  American Airlines and Southwest are really good about letting you cancel and reschedule within 1 year from when you purchased your tickets.

[julig22]

2 hours ago, pghflyer said:

wow that is super shady to wait until day after final payment. 

By my calculations, final payment for a cruise on 3/20 is today. Last day to cancel was yesterday.

I had my money back on my cc about a week after getting the notice of cancellation of my cruise.

 

Edited January 19, 2022 by julig22

[Middleager]

I just made final payment for the Jewel 2022.3.20 sailing, and was going to make final payment for the b2b Jewel 2022.3.29 sailing. 

 

I heard NCL will not give you more 10% discount coupons any more, even if they cancel/change more cruises.  We have a 10% coupon from a previous cruise in 2021.  Maybe we should quickly apply that to a future cruise, and hope the 10% from this canceled 2022.3.20 Jewel sailing will still be given to us.

 

We still have to decide whether to go on the 2022.3.29 sailing, and also the flights (we bought NCL b1g1 one-way to Panama for the 2022.3.20 sailing, and it's too late to add that to the 2022.3.29 sailing).

[julig22]

5 minutes ago, Middleager said:

I heard NCL will not give you more 10% discount coupons any more, even if they cancel/change more cruises.  We have a 10% coupon from a previous cruise in 2021.  Maybe we should quickly apply that to a future cruise, and hope the 10% from this canceled 2022.3.20 Jewel sailing will still be given to us.2022.3.29 sailing).

Don't count on it.  From previous experience, the coupon is in your account, even if it's applied to a future cruise.

[Middleager]

1 minute ago, julig22 said:

Don't count on it.  From previous experience, the coupon is in your account, even if it's applied to a future cruise.

That's not good.  The 10% discount coupon we were told to have for the 2021.12.5 Getaway sailing, did not show up in our account.  When I talk to NCL or my TA, they said they see it.  I just asked my TA to apply that to a future booking.  Hope it can be applied.

 

After that, I'll wait to see if this 10% coupon (from Jewel 2022.3.20) shows up. 

 

This Jewel 2022.3.20 cancellation is the second one to us, as we had originally booked Jewel 2022.1.9 and b2b after that.   NCL announced cancellation of the 1.9 but not the next 1.20.  We then decided to cancel the 1.20 booking ourselves and soon after that NCL canceled that sailing.

[PhillyTravelBug]

This is getting ridiculous.

[JT1962]

The best option at this point for any booked cruises is to take a refund, if available. There are still too many unknowns. Things looked great for a few months, then fell apart again. With a refund, you are not tied to any specific cruise line, timeframe or even a cruise. A “bargain” price is no bargain if the cruise keeps getting canceled and they still have the funds.

Edited January 19, 2022 by JT1962

[dexddd]

That will be two years no sailing for POA.  When she does sail, I'd think it would be hard to get crew.

[Rob-Bob]

I still have not received any notification of this cruise being cancelled. No e-mail and my NCL cruise page shows 59 days until sailing.  Where is the notice of the Jewel 3/20/22 cancellation?

[Rob-Bob]

I spoke to a rep at NCL and she said notifications would be going out today.  We will see.  She also said it would be within 7 days to process refund and up to 10 business days for it to hit the card.

[Rob-Bob]

Not an automated refund but needs to be manually entered.  Hopefully no hitches.  She also said that we would get the 10% off our next cruise deal.  Not sure we will use it but I guess it will be good if we do.

[www3traveler]

1 hour ago, Rob-Bob said:

I still have not received any notification of this cruise being cancelled. No e-mail and my NCL cruise page shows 59 days until sailing.  Where is the notice of the Jewel 3/20/22 cancellation?

Operational Update top of the Norwegian's website under Travel Advisory.

[www3traveler]

1 hour ago, dexddd said:

That will be two years no sailing for POA.  When she does sail, I'd think it would be hard to get crew.

By what the Operational Update on Norwegian's website (Travel Advisory), POA should sail 9 April.

[jlseymour3]

1 hour ago, Rob-Bob said:

I still have not received any notification of this cruise being cancelled. No e-mail and my NCL cruise page shows 59 days until sailing.  Where is the notice of the Jewel 3/20/22 cancellation?

It is included in the travel advisory.

 

https://www.ncl.com/travel-advisory

[jlseymour3]

Interesting in that most of the long dated delays are ships in remote locations without the ability to swap out crew with other ships. And the Star, which may be what they're using in the Caribbean to house sick crew members.

[BermudaBound2014]

On 1/19/2022 at 11:28 AM, amyh13 said:

This is driving me crazy.  We are booked on the POA for May 20, final payment due Friday.  If I could drive to the port I could wait it out.  But last I check, airfare to Hawaii is a pretty big purchase.  And I am not sure I am confident enough to book flights just to have the hassle if it gets canceled.  I am willing to postpone so maybe that is what I will do.  

 

I'm on Maui now. Yesterday the Insignia was in Lahaina and let's just say she didn't get a great big  warm welcome. With covid concerns, sustainable tourism issues, and staffing a NCL ship with all USA crew,  NCL cruising in Hawaii has very significant challenges for a restart. I remember last year there was a travel agent on here giving me some grief for suggesting that cruises would not resume in November, but Hawaii is a very unique political and geographic destination and it does not at all surprise me that NCL has postponed thru April.

 

I obviously can't tell you what to do, but I would not suggest making payment on a May departure. 

[chengkp75]

2 hours ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

staffing a NCL ship with all USA crew,  NCL cruising in Hawaii has very significant challenges for a restart.

One of the reasons this is being delayed so much, is crew training and certification.  All crew, from Captain to dishwasher and garbage sorter, need to be USCG credentialed as merchant mariners, unlike the foreign flag ships.  This requires some onshore safety training at approved facilities, which may be limited by covid restrictions, as well as being overloaded trying to certify a whole crew for NCL.  It also requires an FBI background check.  All of this takes time.  And, then, if you have crew who are already credentialed, and want to return (those that haven't found a better paying job that doesn't require being away from home for 4 months, and sharing a room with strangers), do you just tell them to "stand-by" and hope they don't find a better job in the meantime, or do you pay them for staying at home until the ship can be fully manned.

[natefish95]

I have no idea what they have planned for the Jewel, but I call BS on the "revitalization" I was supposed to sail on the Jewel in January from San Diego to Panama. Cancelled. I rebooked on the NYC to Panama cruise in February. Cancelled due "revitalization". They've had two years to do upgrades, but suddenly the ship needs updates? Just seems suspect. What's all the more frustrating is that you can't have more than one of those 10% discounts. I'm looking forward to FINALLY being back onboard NCL in a few weeks, but not impressed with how they've handled things in the past. 

 

Sorry for getting on my soapbox, but I'm still a bit peeved about my two Jewel cruises being cancelled. 

[timf2001]

I was booked on the 3/20 Jewel and despite deciding not to go a long time ago, I held out until last week before cancelling.  The writing was on the wall when they cancelled all the previous cruises, as it made no sense that they would reposition the ship through the Panama Canal empty just to sail right back through with passengers.  The first cruise back was always going to start on the Atlantic side of the canal.  I hoped to get a discount certificate when they cancelled, but in the end it wasn't worth making a financial commitment.

[Middleager]

59 minutes ago, timf2001 said:

I was booked on the 3/20 Jewel and despite deciding not to go a long time ago, I held out until last week before cancelling.  The writing was on the wall when they cancelled all the previous cruises, as it made no sense that they would reposition the ship through the Panama Canal empty just to sail right back through with passengers.  The first cruise back was always going to start on the Atlantic side of the canal.  I hoped to get a discount certificate when they cancelled, but in the end it wasn't worth making a financial commitment.

What's the reason the first sailing back should start on the Atlantic side of the canal?

 

We were booked on the March 20's cruise from Panama to the Caribbeans (wanted to go diving in the ABC islands)  and b2b on the March 29 from Colon to San Diego.  Now the 3/20 is cancelled, we're not sure if we still want to do the 3/29 which involves buying flights ourselves, and getting from Panama city to Colon.   NCL may still cancel the 3/29 cruise.