Gem cruise COVID cancellation: status report

[CruisingComumbus]

Hey all!

 

I wanted to post a status report about the process of getting our refund / cruise credits.  We were supposed to be on 1/9 Gem sailing to the Caribbean.  Had three cabins booked.  One member of our party was sick the prior week, and got tested.  We didn't get the test back until the Friday before the cruise, and it was positive.  Nobody else in the group tested positive.  We also all went to get tests the Thursday before (within the 96 hour window), and it also came back positive for the one person in our group. 

 

We contacted the travel agent who contacted NCL to cancel -- we cancelled all three rooms because we're all a family together, and NCL told our agent that none of us would be allowed (which was fine -- didn't want to have part of the family going without the others anyway).  We were told how to go to the case submission form to request cash refunds (we paid with credit cards, not cruise credits).  I submitted the three forms, one per cabin.  I got confirmation emails that the form was submitted, but heard nothing about being reviewed, being preliminarily approved, or whatever.  So that was on 1/8, and I know that they've been taking 90 days to refund cash.

 

Today, 2/8, we received one email for the cabin with the positive person saying we were getting future cruise credits.  We then got a second email for the second cabin saying "sorry, no refund, no cruise credits -- you knew the policy when you booked."  I'm confused because first, the Peace of Mind policy should cover at least FCC, and second, everyone who actually went on the cruise got a refund anyway, so it's weird to refuse to refund for someone who did the right thing and stayed away to avoid infecting the rest of the ship.  To add insult to injury, the email said that *only* the people in the cabin with the positive patient qualified for cancellation anyway.  That seems weird to me, since NCL *told* us that they would not allow any of us to board if we showed up on Sunday.  We're still waiting for an email for the third cabin.

 

Anyway, I'm not too worried yet, because 1) they may still be processing our refund requests, 2) they may have just made a (or yet another) mistake -- our agent is going to call them and discuss, and 3) we have cancellation insurance (not through NCL) so we should be ok anyway if NCL won't issue any refunds.  But this is certainly a black mark on the customer service record for NCL as far as I'm concerned.  We're gold tier right now, and haven't cruised any other lines, but now they've got me thinking about whether I want to deal with this again.

 

 

[Babr]

Thanks for the update. It is quite a complex situation, but the Peace of Mind policy does say that it applies to family members or traveling companions assigned to the same cabin. There seems to have been some misunderstanding about the other two cabins. They were part of the group but not in the same cabin as the person who tested positive. The problem is with the person who said none could board.

 

I’d be interested to know how the insurance works out if you have to go that route. It seems the people who tested negative do not have a covered reason for cancellation unless you have Cancel For Any Reason coverage.

[CruisingComumbus]

Yeah it's definitely a complex situation for sure, and I agree it sounds like there are some misunderstandings either by NCL or by our agent, or both.  In our case, we live in the same house as the positive patient, so according to my agent NCL was pretty insistent that none of us should show up at the pier.  Obviously that person on the phone may have been mistaken, but that's a pretty serious mistake if so, given that they might now be indicating that they're going to keep $8,000 of my money. 

 

I'm not sure what the insurance is going to say either.  We may need a letter from NCL stating that they weren't going to allow us to board, which I would think is enough to trigger the trip cancellation insurance.  I'm also not sure how age affects the result -- two of the people in the affected cabin were minor children, so I'm not sure how they could expect us to cruise while leaving our minor children at home. 

 

I honestly have no idea what to do if it ends up that NCL is keeping $10k of mine, especially considering that they ended up refunding everyone who *did* go on that particular sailing, so we would have gotten our money back had we gone, *plus* a 50% FCC and a $100 OBC.  I also know that people who got FCC have been able to request cash refunds, so I'm not sure why our case would be particularly unfortunate not to get that either.  But I don't want to panic or get angry yet until we get more clarification.

[Babr]

Best wishes for getting this settled.

[wampuscat7]

When you say you're all part of a family, are all those cruising from the same household? Or are there family members who are adults from different households? Just curious as to how that works and how NCL defines "family members or travelling companions."

 

I hope it is resolved for you. 

[mscdivina2016]

On 2/8/2022 at 6:47 PM, CruisingComumbus said:

Yeah it's definitely a complex situation for sure, and I agree it sounds like there are some misunderstandings either by NCL or by our agent, or both.  In our case, we live in the same house as the positive patient, so according to my agent NCL was pretty insistent that none of us should show up at the pier.  Obviously that person on the phone may have been mistaken, but that's a pretty serious mistake if so, given that they might now be indicating that they're going to keep $8,000 of my money. 

 

I'm not sure what the insurance is going to say either.  We may need a letter from NCL stating that they weren't going to allow us to board, which I would think is enough to trigger the trip cancellation insurance.  I'm also not sure how age affects the result -- two of the people in the affected cabin were minor children, so I'm not sure how they could expect us to cruise while leaving our minor children at home. 

 

I honestly have no idea what to do if it ends up that NCL is keeping $10k of mine, especially considering that they ended up refunding everyone who *did* go on that particular sailing, so we would have gotten our money back had we gone, *plus* a 50% FCC and a $100 OBC.  I also know that people who got FCC have been able to request cash refunds, so I'm not sure why our case would be particularly unfortunate not to get that either.  But I don't want to panic or get angry yet until we get more clarification.

I was under the impression you needed to show up at the pier and then when you are asked the questions about exposed or close contact you check yes and then the refund process happens.

 Otherwise, anyone could just use that excuse to get out of sailing.

 I have 1st hand knowledge of that from a month ago.  Same situation as yours, all living in the same house hold.  Actually they still wanted to sail, but were not allowed.

[Babr]

Peace of Mind seems to be the name of a program that expired in 2021. Cruise with Confidence applies to cancellations resulting from government travel restrictions. The only thing I can find that applies to this case is the cancellation and refund policy which allows cancellation within 14 days of embarkation if someone tests positive, but it address those traveling in the same cabin, not the entire party. I suppose it depends on whether the people in the other cabins were members of the same family living in the same house or, for insurance purposes, insured under the same policy.

Edited February 10, 2022 by Babr

[CruisingComumbus]

2 hours ago, wampuscat7 said:

When you say you're all part of a family, are all those cruising from the same household? Or are there family members who are adults from different households? Just curious as to how that works and how NCL defines "family members or travelling companions."

 

I hope it is resolved for you. 

Thanks.  We had three cabins booked for 9 people, most of whom live in the same household (or were staying in the same house just before the cruise so we could travel together to the pier), and we were mixed up among the cabins.  As far as NCL was concerned, though, we were all together -- they didn't ask for specifics of who lived where.  When our agent called to cancel, she told NCL the situation: that we're all one family and have all been in close contact with the positive patient.  We didn't get the test results until Friday night, and called first thing Saturday.

[CruisingComumbus]

1 hour ago, mscdivina2016 said:

I was under the impression you needed to show up at the pier and then when you are asked the questions about exposed or close contact you check yes and then the refund process happens.

 Otherwise, anyone could just use that excuse to get out of sailing.

 I have 1st hand knowledge of that from a month ago.  Same situation as yours, all living in the same house hold.  Actually they still wanted to sail, but were not allowed.

Our agent called NCL Saturday morning specifically to ask what they wanted us to do, and they said don't show up.  When we submitted for the refund, we submitted copies of the positive tests with patient name, date, and name/location of testing center.  We figured with a positive test NCL wouldn't want us showing up at the pier to avoid contact with other passengers.

[CruisingComumbus]

1 hour ago, Babr said:

Peace of Mind seems to be the name of a program that expired in 2021. Cruise with Confidence applies to cancellations resulting from government travel restrictions. The only thing I can find that applies to this case is the cancellation and refund policy which allows cancellation within 14 days of embarkation if someone tests positive, but it address those traveling in the same cabin, not the entire party. I suppose it depends on whether the people in the other cabins were members of the same family living in the same house or, for insurance purposes, insured under the same policy.

 

The program came and went and came again a few times.  At the end of last year they re-instated PoM.  It's entirely possible that the person who responded to my claim made a mistake so we're hoping to get more clarification, but since NCL told us nobody should show up I don't expect them to stick to their guns and refuse to refund us.  It may just take some prompting from us.  It's frustrating that we have to go through that though.

 

I hesitate to assume anything, but I would think that they would not want any close-contact family members on board even if in a different cabin.  In our case, 9 people in three cabins were all together in the same household before the cruise, so it wouldn't make much sense for them to allow two cabins' worth of people and only disallow the third.  It made sense to us that they wouldn't want any of us to show up when they told us that on Saturday the 8th.

[Babr]

It probably will require a follow-up with more information from you to clarify the circumstances for someone in a position to authorize the cancellation. Your  T A  should be able to help as well. Nevertheless, it is a major stress and aggravation. Hope this is settled soon.

[mscdivina2016]

12 hours ago, CruisingComumbus said:

Thanks.  We had three cabins booked for 9 people, most of whom live in the same household (or were staying in the same house just before the cruise so we could travel together to the pier), and we were mixed up among the cabins.  As far as NCL was concerned, though, we were all together -- they didn't ask for specifics of who lived where.  When our agent called to cancel, she told NCL the situation: that we're all one family and have all been in close contact with the positive patient.  We didn't get the test results until Friday night, and called first thing Saturday.

Were all 3 cabins with the same booking number.

Do all 3 have the same address as shown on a government I'ds.

 

The issue will be the "same cabin"

It again goes back to being denied at embarkation. That's what my friends did and they ended up with FCC.

 

What is the TA doing?

[CruisingComumbus]

18 minutes ago, mscdivina2016 said:

Were all 3 cabins with the same booking number.

Do all 3 have the same address as shown on a government I'ds.

 

The issue will be the "same cabin"

It again goes back to being denied at embarkation. That's what my friends did and they ended up with FCC.

 

What is the TA doing?

Different booking numbers which I'm sure is part of the confusion.  TA is working on it so I'm just waiting to hear back.  I will definitely update this thread whenever I have more information.

[njkate]

Oh wow, I hope it gets sorted out and everyone is refunded.

I love cruising, it's my preferred vacation but until this goes away I'm not jumping through hoops to get on a cruise ship.

 

Going on a land vacation to Costa Rica, only hoop is a cover test to fly back to the US, and hopefully by time I go that will no longer be required.

[CruisingComumbus]

I have updates!

 

Spoke to the TA today. 

 

First off, NCL *was* showing some refunds, and it turns out that they had refunded our non-cabin costs (taxes, prepaid gratuities, shore excursions, etc) very shortly after we cancelled.  It was so quick that it got in on the previous credit card statement, which we didn't think to check because we assumed (you know what they say!) that it wouldn't go that quickly. 

 

So, we did have about 1/3 of the total cost already refunded.

 

The TA and I went through the charges and the refunds, but none of the numbers matched.  The refund amounts were odd amounts.  I don't know how NCL broke it out, but the *totals* matched, so that's what counts, really.

 

One thing that's frustrating is that they took the $500 cruisenext certificate out of the cash refund for the "extras" instead of taking it out of the cabin cost.  In other words, two people in one cabin were $1100 each.  They gave us FCC for the $2200, and then kept $500 of our cash refund to put the cruisenext back into our account.  I think that's not right -- they should have taken the $500 from the cabin cost, since it was a deposit towards the cabin.  But at least we got it back, so there's that.

 

So the current status is that for the one cabin with Patient Zero in it (hehehe) we got FCC, which we're still asking to refund.  For the second cabin, they've refused to give us any refund, but we're still working on that.  And we haven't heard anything on the third cabin yet, but we expect it'll be the same as the second and we'll have to fight them a bit to get the refund.

 

And, we still have recourse through the travel insurance if NCL won't refund. 

 

Progress!

[WYB!]

Glad you found the credit, at least for the 1st room.

Keep us posted.

 

- WYB

Edited February 12, 2022 by WYB!

[mscdivina2016]

19 hours ago, CruisingComumbus said:

 

 

And, we still have recourse through the travel insurance if NCL won't refund. 

 

Progress!

 Did you notify the insurance of a possible claim?

 

If not, there are sometimes requirements to do so. So please check your policy.

[UKstages]

On 2/11/2022 at 10:12 PM, CruisingComumbus said:

They gave us FCC for the $2200, and then kept $500 of our cash refund to put the cruisenext back into our account.  I think that's not right -- they should have taken the $500 from the cabin cost, since it was a deposit towards the cabin.  But at least we got it back, so there's that.

 

glad to hear you're making progress, but i think your expectations on cruise next certificates may be unrealistic. i assume the "$500" cruise next certificate had a cash cost to you of only $250, is that right?

 

if so, why would they have refunded $500 on a $250 purchase?

 

personally, i could rationalize a $250 cash refund, but - according to NCL - you can't refund monopoly money, except to put it in your monopoly money bank... your cruise next balance.

 

the extra $250 has no cash value, except when applied to cruise fare.

 

in fact, the terms and conditions say so: [cruise next certificate] "can only be applied to a new reservation and otherwise has no cash value and is not redeemable or exchangeable for cash."

 

are you sure they "kept $500" that would ordinarily have been refunded as cash... or was it only $250? if it truly was $500 cash that they deducted to replace the $500 cruise next certificate, then you have a legitimate case.

[CruisingComumbus]

On 2/13/2022 at 11:40 AM, UKstages said:

 

glad to hear you're making progress, but i think your expectations on cruise next certificates may be unrealistic. i assume the "$500" cruise next certificate had a cash cost to you of only $250, is that right?

 

if so, why would they have refunded $500 on a $250 purchase?

 

personally, i could rationalize a $250 cash refund, but - according to NCL - you can't refund monopoly money, except to put it in your monopoly money bank... your cruise next balance.

 

the extra $250 has no cash value, except when applied to cruise fare.

 

in fact, the terms and conditions say so: [cruise next certificate] "can only be applied to a new reservation and otherwise has no cash value and is not redeemable or exchangeable for cash."

 

are you sure they "kept $500" that would ordinarily have been refunded as cash... or was it only $250? if it truly was $500 cash that they deducted to replace the $500 cruise next certificate, then you have a legitimate case.

Oh I wasn't expecting a refund of the cruisenext -- sorry if that wasn't clear.

 

My point is that I think the cruisenext should come out of the cabin cost, not the incidentals.

 

In other words, we paid:

$2200 for the cabin (2 x $1100)

$2200 additional for taxes, port fees, prepaid gratuities, excursions, wi-fi

 

When they refunded our "taxes, port fees, prepaid gratuities, excursions, wi-fi", they:

refunded $1700

gave us a cruisenext certificate

gave us $2200 in FCC

 

What I think they should have done was:

refunded $2200

given us a cruisenext

given us a $1700 FCC

 

I think the cruisenext should have gone against the cabin, not against the incidentals / extra cash charges we made.

[CruisingComumbus]

On 2/12/2022 at 5:39 PM, mscdivina2016 said:

 Did you notify the insurance of a possible claim?

 

If not, there are sometimes requirements to do so. So please check your policy.

The travel agent is (supposedly) handling all of that for us.  Though you're correct I should check myself to make sure.  Thanks!

[CruisingComumbus]

A nothing of an update: TA finally got in touch with NCL by escalating through her manager to the manager's business development contact at NCL.  They contacted the TA back and told her to send the details of the case numbers etc. to a particular customer relations escalation email.  So she did.  The auto-reply says expect a response within 30 days.  Yikes.

[JIMESOPUS]

15 hours ago, CruisingComumbus said:

A nothing of an update: TA finally got in touch with NCL by escalating through her manager to the manager's business development contact at NCL.  They contacted the TA back and told her to send the details of the case numbers etc. to a particular customer relations escalation email.  So she did.  The auto-reply says expect a response within 30 days.  Yikes.

Hang in there, we are still fighting too ..received a partial refund within days, then NCL pushed us to the travel insurance folks, they in turn have been sitting on the claim for almost 2 months. Right now, NCL has refunded about 40% and returned our cruise first certificate. They can keep the " CAS voucher ", will never deal with them again. I really don't care at this point if the refund is in $$, gold, bitcoin or FC. 

[CruisingComumbus]

48 minutes ago, JIMESOPUS said:

Hang in there, we are still fighting too ..received a partial refund within days, then NCL pushed us to the travel insurance folks, they in turn have been sitting on the claim for almost 2 months. Right now, NCL has refunded about 40% and returned our cruise first certificate. They can keep the " CAS voucher ", will never deal with them again. I really don't care at this point if the refund is in $$, gold, bitcoin or FC. 

Thanks.  Yeah we also got roughly 40% back (prepaid stuff -- excursions, wifi, gratuities, etc).  They gave us back the $500 cruisefirst, which is fine, but they took the $500 out of the cash refund (as mentioned above) which is annoying.  We're fighting that too.  🙂

 

I have a feeling they'll push us over to the insurance, but it's frustrating because so many people have received their full (or nearly full) refunds having *gone* on the cruise, and we're still waiting and fighting.  Two of the rooms are still being denied even FCC.

 

They have their process for requesting a cash refund.  I don't understand why some people are approved for it and some aren't.  Considering we tried to do the right thing and not go since based on the test, we were exposed (none of the rest of us ever tested positive after all was done), it's a pretty sad way to treat customers. 

 

I'm not willing to say "we're done with cruising" or "we're done with NCL -- NEVER AGAIN!"  We really do enjoy cruising, everyone in the industry is having a difficult time, and I know the employees *on the ships* are wonderful people who really do care about giving guests a great experience.  But they're certainly making it harder for me to want to go back.

[CruisingComumbus]

Another update to this, but not good news. 

 

NCL is flat out refusing to do anything for us.  They have stopped responding to us and our travel agent as well.  They've issued the FCC for the one cabin, but are refusing everything else for the other two cabins.

 

As a reminder, we had COVID tests done within 96 hours of departure (Thursday before a Sunday departure), per NCL's recommendation.  We got the results back roughly 36 hours before boarding (received email results Friday night 8pm for a Sunday departure).  Contacted the TA immediately. 

 

Saturday morning TA spoke to NCL.  NCL cancelled our reservations and told her to tell us not to show up at the pier (which was sensible).  They told her how to have us submit a claim to request refunds, which we did for all three cabins, including all of the information NCL requested we submit (test results, confirmation numbers, etc). 

 

NCL went on to cancel the cruise after missing some ports, and refunded *every passenger* on the cruise a full refund, *plus* gave everyone on the cruise a 50% FCC (this was the Gem 1/9-1/19 Caribbean).

 

We got refunds of our taxes, fees, prepaid gratuities and shore excursions for all three cabins.  We also got our CruiseFirst certificates back so we have three $500 certs on our account.  And finally, we got FCC for the one cabin with the COVID-positive passenger. 

 

NCL is keeping over $8000 of our money and refusing to do anything about it because they are saying 1) only the cabin with the COVID-positive passenger can cancel (even though we are one family and were all in contact), and 2) we cancelled less than 48 hours prior to boarding (even though we didn't have any results until 36 hours prior and contacted them right away -- and were told not to show up). 

 

We are now going to file a claim with our trip insurance after having gotten the run-around from NCL for 90 days.  It's extremely disappointing that they are not doing the right thing by us when we tried so hard to do right by them.  Next time, if there is a next time, we will not bother with any pre-testing and just show up at the pier.  I have a feeling that would have gone much more smoothly had we done that even though we would have been turned away.

 

It's difficult because we love cruising and always have a wonderful time on NCL.  We know that the people *on the ships* will be wonderful.  It's the corporate offices that are a pathetic mess, so we're angry and upset with them, but it's hard to be angry/upset with the so many wonderful employees on the front lines who give us such great cruise experiences.  It's a frustrating time.

 

I'll let you know what happens with the insurance claim -- I really hope we don't have any issues with it.  We have used Allianz for a long time and have had an excellent experience with them in the past for a medical issue internationally.

[CruisingComumbus]

Hello all!  It's been a while since I updated this, but I finally can bring closure to it.

 

We filed claims with our trip insurance company.  Normally they process in 7-10 days, but they told us right off the bat that it would take 30 days because of heavy volume.  They weren't kidding. 

 

But, they've processed claims on all of the rooms and are giving us back all of the remaining money that wasn't refunded by NCL.  So they've made us whole.

 

In fact, I messed up the math on the claim because of how the policies were split among people vs. cabins, but the insurance company figured it out without additional input from me and actually gave me *more* than I claimed -- they paid out the full amount of the policy for the cancellation, when I had missed something.

 

This is the second time that we've needed to file a travel insurance claim, and the second time that Allianz has done an amazing job taking care of us.  I'll continue to use them whenever I need travel insurance because they've proven that they're a great company to work with.