Pride of America Summer 2022

[amyh13]

Did they cancel the summer cruises?  Dates for this year start in November.  We are on May 21 so it just makes me a little nervous.

[ChiefMateJRK]

That's interesting.  I'm seeing the same thing.  We're booked on one this fall prior to that.  NCL's website is still showing that they will take my final payment, so I'm guessing it's still on.  POA bookings have been strange all year.  At one point all the April and May sailings suddenly vanished, but then slowly came back.  We've heard that staffing is a real issue, so it may be that NCL is capping booking right now pending resolution of the staffing shortages.

[amyh13]

18 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

That's interesting.  I'm seeing the same thing.  We're booked on one this fall prior to that.  NCL's website is still showing that they will take my final payment, so I'm guessing it's still on.  POA bookings have been strange all year.  At one point all the April and May sailings suddenly vanished, but then slowly came back.  We've heard that staffing is a real issue, so it may be that NCL is capping booking right now pending resolution of the staffing shortages.

Thant is what I was thinking. Obviously I don't need to book a Pride of America cruise but that seemed strange.

[Bocadude85]

Nothing in the local news here about the POA sailings being canceled, I watched her sail past last Saturday night. On a side note for anyone who is interested the Hilton Hawaiian Village is set to resume its weekly Friday night fireworks tentatively scheduled to restart the first week of June. 

[GeroWA]

I see what you mean - I tried to do a dummy booking for July and the earliest I could get a cruise was December 24th.

 

Something definitely wrong here (at least I hope so) as I am booked  to sail on July 23rd.

Fingers crossed

[LadyBerard]

I'm showing the first availability for 7 nights out of Honolulu as being the end of Nov.  Called and was advised the other sailings are fully booked.  I just find that hard to believe.

[Bocadude85]

5 hours ago, LadyBerard said:

I'm showing the first availability for 7 nights out of Honolulu as being the end of Nov.  Called and was advised the other sailings are fully booked.  I just find that hard to believe.

 
The summer months are our busiest months for tourism, so not that hard to believe that a ship sailing at 50% capacity is fully booked. 

[kchatelaine]

This article says it’s just a way to limit capacity due to staffing shortages. 

https://www.travelpulse.com/news/cruise/ncl-limits-occupancy-aboard-pride-of-america-sailings.html
 

 

[ChiefMateJRK]

2 hours ago, kchatelaine said:

This article says it’s just a way to limit capacity due to staffing shortages. 

https://www.travelpulse.com/news/cruise/ncl-limits-occupancy-aboard-pride-of-america-sailings.html
 

 

Thanks for that!  Confirms what many of us have been thinking.

[4 cruisers]

On 5/17/2022 at 11:42 PM, GeroWA said:

I see what you mean - I tried to do a dummy booking for July and the earliest I could get a cruise was December 24th.

 

Something definitely wrong here (at least I hope so) as I am booked  to sail on July 23rd.

Fingers crossed

I'm hoping yours is a go!  We board as you get off!  Fingers and toes crossed!

[travelmatron]

Another article about cruise line staffing problems.  Cruise lines cap ship capacity, close restaurants due to crew shortages (thepointsguy.com).  This article mentions POA specifically.  POA seems to be cancelling reservations now.  That must be terribly hard on those who were ready to sail!

Edited May 19, 2022 by travelmatron
typo

[BrandenJ]

We have been booked for a July 9th sailing on POA since August of last year. They notified us last week that we were being kicked off the cruise due to staff shortages.

[ChiefMateJRK]

41 minutes ago, BrandenJ said:

We have been booked for a July 9th sailing on POA since August of last year. They notified us last week that we were being kicked off the cruise due to staff shortages.

Wow.  Thanks for letting us know.  We were originally booked in May but punted to October.  It might be time to punt again.  We've had 2023 booked as a contingency since last October.  Hopefully they'll get the ship staffed by then.

[BrandenJ]

They have given us a "100%", refund that didn't include the $900 Travel Protection Plan, and are also supposed to be giving us a 100% cruise fare credit that we can use through 12/2023.

 

Now I'm trying to figure out how to get that $900 for the travel protection plan back. It's crazy they can cancel your cruise, exclude the cancellation protection plan from the refund, and deny a claim against that policy.  

[markkw07]

38 minutes ago, BrandenJ said:

They have given us a "100%", refund that didn't include the $900 Travel Protection Plan, and are also supposed to be giving us a 100% cruise fare credit that we can use through 12/2023.

 

Now I'm trying to figure out how to get that $900 for the travel protection plan back. It's crazy they can cancel your cruise, exclude the cancellation protection plan from the refund, and deny a claim against that policy.  

Did you book direct through NCL or did u book through a 3rd party site or travel agent? 

[BrandenJ]

Direct through NCL

[NikiPinkston]

Amid ongoing POA cancellations this summer, something just occured to me & I'm wondering what others think.  (We're booked on the POA in November after 5 cancellations & I'll be very sad if our cruise is canceled again.)  Since PCC's receive a commisssion on bookings they arrange, do you think NCL is canceling bookings made directly online by individuals first rather than those made through a PCC? I'd be very interested to hear from POA cruisers who've been canceled.  (I really feel for you.)

[Paula_MacFan]

26 minutes ago, NikiPinkston said:

Amid ongoing POA cancellations this summer, something just occured to me & I'm wondering what others think.  (We're booked on the POA in November after 5 cancellations & I'll be very sad if our cruise is canceled again.)  Since PCC's receive a commisssion on bookings they arrange, do you think NCL is canceling bookings made directly online by individuals first rather than those made through a PCC? I'd be very interested to hear from POA cruisers who've been canceled.  (I really feel for you.)

I'm curious too -- we have a POA cruise planned for January booked direct.  Someone on another thread mentioned social media posts for more information.  I followed their directions and was blown away by how many more reports of cancellations there are out there that aren't being reported here on CC.  So far there doesn't appear to be much rhyme or reason to who is being cancelled, but you have a good point.  I have heard several people say they used NCL's 2-fer airfare vs booking direct, but who knows if that has anything to do with it.  

 

[BermudaBound2014]

@NikiPinkston very interesting question. I've been wondering the metric that NCL is using to boot people off booked sailings. I suspect it's price (cheapest cabins go first), but I have no basis for that other than logic (which doesn't always apply). 

 

Another logical possibility (again, logic may not apply) is to bump those who paid with FCC and keep everyone who paid with 'new' cash. NCL already has the monies and they can just extend the FCC date, but 'new' money is hard to come by these days and much more valuable to the financial bottom line than existing FCC. 

 

I think those two scenarios are much more likely than protecting commission of a PCC. 

 

Did you see that they have stop sell on everything thru October? I wonder if all the notifications of those who have been bumped thru October have already gone out? It kinda makes me nervous for your November sailing. I wonder when those notifications will go out? With all the troubles that every line is now having securing staff, and considering that POA is the most difficult ship to staff, I'm not of the belief that the staffing issues on POA are going away anytime soon.

 

“As of yesterday, we have every voyage through the end of October on a stop sell, so you can’t even book this product before November right now.”

 https://www.travelpulse.com/news/cruise/ncl-limits-occupancy-aboard-pride-of-america-sailings.html

 

I am sooooo routing for your sailing to happen! I know how long you have waiting. 

 

[vacation44]

3 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

 

I am sooooo routing for your sailing to happen! I know how long you have waiting. 

 

Rooting for her too!   We were booked on a March 2023 sailing on the POA and I came across a lot of her posts when planning.  

[NikiPinkston]

Thank you so much for your well wishes, @BermudaBound2014.  You make some very valid points.  We booked with "new money" so, hopefully, that's in our favor.  So far, I've heard of NCL canceling individual POA cruises through July, so November is only a few months away.  I know there are much worse things in life than having your cruise canceled, so we'll just have to wait & see, and maybe make some alternate plans.  It's always great to hear your take on things.

[Paula_MacFan]

10 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

 

Did you see that they have stop sell on everything thru October? I wonder if all the notifications of those who have been bumped thru October have already gone out? It kinda makes me nervous for your November sailing. I wonder when those notifications will go out? 

I've read several reports of people with upcoming cruises contacting NCL and being told only June and July cruisers impacted have been contacted so far, and those who could be bumped after August were yet to be notified.  That's not my direct knowledge, just reports read elsewhere by many concerned about their upcoming cruises.  

[NikiPinkston]

8 minutes ago, vacation44 said:

Rooting for her too!   We were booked on a March 2023 sailing on the POA and I came across a lot of her posts when planning.  

Thank you so much, @vacation44. Are you still booked on the POA in March?  Hopefully, by then, things will be much more normal. I hope my posts were helpful. 😊

[vacation44]

31 minutes ago, NikiPinkston said:

Thank you so much, @vacation44. Are you still booked on the POA in March?  Hopefully, by then, things will be much more normal. I hope my posts were helpful. 😊

You are welcome.   And yes, you were extremely helpful.   And no, we switched to the Epic recently.   We are traveling with extended family and it got complicated.   I put so much work into the planning, but as you stated above, there are so much worse things in life and we are still cruising.

[Gracelyn]

We were wondering about these cancellations as well. Doesn’t make much sense either way. But, what’s happening to those booked with FCC with expiry dates this December…cancelled…and no time to pick another cruise? What is happening for them. Are they then having their FCC. Extended into ‘23.? I hope so. 
gracelyn