What nonsense is this? Missed Port

[northwoodsmom]

We are on the Escape and we are still scheduled to dock there - for now on 12/26

[AnitaVacation]

7 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

I think the last time we missed GSC, a $9 credit showed up on our account. We didn't even notice it. Despite what you were told, did you see a mystery $9 or $10 credit?

again....no

[dexddd]

On 12/12/2022 at 8:55 AM, Georgia_Peaches said:

This makes sense and seems reasonable.  But communication to the passenger (customer) regarding such matters, seems like good practice, IMO.  

Exactly.

[dexddd]

On 12/12/2022 at 7:52 AM, hallux said:

So because they didn't specifically tell you that's what they were doing they aren't allowed to do it?  Staying extra time in port costs the cruise line money - they need to pay for shoreside people to support the ship being there, plus fees for just occupying the space at the pier (like feeding a parking meter) - so it seems to make sense that if a port was missed any extra port fees and taxes collected for that port would end up covering a longer stay in another port.

Were you on the TA?  The captain made an announcement..not to hassle Guest Services...  He could have easily included a message about Port fees so people understand what was going on but he didn't.  In the absence of them telling us, none of us know.

[dexddd]

20 hours ago, AnitaVacation said:

again....no

We missed GSC on BA and no credit.

[cruiseny4life]

28 minutes ago, dexddd said:

Were you on the TA?  The captain made an announcement..not to hassle Guest Services...  He could have easily included a message about Port fees so people understand what was going on but he didn't.  In the absence of them telling us, none of us know.

If someone in an authority position tells me not to hassle someone, then I make it a point to do exactly as I'm instructed not to do. There's typically something fishy going on. 

 

EDIT: If said authority doesn't provide an explanation that is plausible/reasonable. 

Edited December 13, 2022 by cruiseny4life

[AnitaVacation]

Got my blah blah blah letter from NCL today in response to requesting a refund of the port fees. They gave me a long explanation (of which I was already aware) of how ships can cancel or change ports at their discretion...

to which my reply was...thank you, but please send me an explanation on why you feel obligated to withhold our port fees on a port that was completely canceled.

I will be surprised if I hear from them again.... 

I'm so over NCL..... 

[Homosassa]

13 hours ago, AnitaVacation said:

Got my blah blah blah letter from NCL today in response to requesting a refund of the port fees. They gave me a long explanation (of which I was already aware) of how ships can cancel or change ports at their discretion...

to which my reply was...thank you, but please send me an explanation on why you feel obligated to withhold our port fees on a port that was completely canceled.

I will be surprised if I hear from them again.... 

I'm so over NCL..... 

Many of us have tried to educate you on this issue. To mix metaphors, the horse is dead and the water trough still full.

 

As you leave NCL, please think about whether if cruising is for you. 

 

The handling of port fees  (estimation of fees for itineraries, collection of fees with cruise payment, and refunding or not refunding if a port is missed) is standard across all cruise lines.

 

If you continue to cruise, the refund or not of port fees will occur again.

[AnitaVacation]

7 hours ago, Homosassa said:

Many of us have tried to educate you on this issue. To mix metaphors, the horse is dead and the water trough still full.

 

As you leave NCL, please think about whether if cruising is for you. 

 

The handling of port fees  (estimation of fees for itineraries, collection of fees with cruise payment, and refunding or not refunding if a port is missed) is standard across all cruise lines.

 

If you continue to cruise, the refund or not of port fees will occur again.

Listen...you don't know me and I don't know you...when it matters, I prefer to get my information/answers from the source. Not from some rando on a cruise board.

We will continue to cruise, but sadly, probably not on NCL... I used to prefer NCL, but they are not coming out on top any longer... communication is bad (if at all), prices are up (and we pay casino prices)... service is down, and honestly, I never comment about the food because it is usually good or above, but this last cruise just about every meal was sub-par ... I am far from being any kind of a cruise snob, but I know how I like to be treated and more importantly, how I don't.

btw...did I share the story about the Decaf coffee?? This is funny... on our first day, I asked our room steward to leave us 6 packs of coffee each day...the first day, he left us 6 packets, all decaf (the green packs)! Flavor-wise it was okay...but I did ask him later that day to leave us 6 packets of REGULAR coffee...he told us 'no problem'.... later that day, we arrive back to the cabin and there, in clear ziplock bags, are coffee pods labeled 'REGULAR COFFEE'...so, I've been around the block a time or two and I'm pretty sure the green print on the pods indicated DECAF.... why would they do that??  why would they not just come out and tell me there was no regular coffee pods?? I could have ordered brewed coffee to my room every morning if I felt it was that big of a deal....anyway, I just rolled my eyes and let them go on with their charade of giving us decaf coffee with the regular coffee label....guess they got one over on me 🤔

[SeaShark]

 

21 hours ago, AnitaVacation said:

I'm so over NCL..... 

 

8 minutes ago, AnitaVacation said:

We will continue to cruise, but sadly, probably not on NCL...

 

Just call me skeptical. I know that when I'm "done" with something, I am "done". There is no "probably not" on the table.  I wouldn't even be posting or reading on an Internet forum about it. Done is done.

[BirdTravels]

20 minutes ago, AnitaVacation said:

Listen...you don't know me and I don't know you...when it matters, I prefer to get my information/answers from the source. Not from some rando on a cruise board.

We will continue to cruise, but sadly, probably not on NCL... I used to prefer NCL, but they are not coming out on top any longer... communication is bad (if at all), prices are up (and we pay casino prices)... service is down, and honestly, I never comment about the food because it is usually good or above, but this last cruise just about every meal was sub-par ... I am far from being any kind of a cruise snob, but I know how I like to be treated and more importantly, how I don't.

A lot of drama over $9. 

Edited December 15, 2022 by BirdTravels

[kirtihk]

On 12/10/2022 at 2:24 AM, julig22 said:

I understood exactly what you meant.  I sometimes book a year or more in advance, do mock bookings periodically to monitor price changes. I don't recall seeing changes to port fees.

Each booking has a fare code price, port fees (“Non-Commissionable Fee", or “NCF”), and taxes.  Port fees are always the same; taxes and fare code price are not.

[kirtihk]

On 12/10/2022 at 8:44 AM, KyleClark said:

So if you cancel your cruise after Final payment and NCL underestimated the port fees, Do they say "sorry, we underestimated our port fees so therefore we are keeping it"? 

If you cancel a cruise after Final payment, a cruise line doesn't refund port fees; it only refunds taxes.

[kirtihk]

On 12/11/2022 at 7:23 AM, Cruisercl said:

Read previous replies in the thread.  The port fees and taxes you pay at the time of booking are just an ESTIMATE.  The port doesn't collect on a per-passenger basis, so NCL estimates the per-passenger rate based on historical taxes and fees paid and historical passenger bookings for that itinerary.  If NCL under-estimated the port fees and taxes, any savings by skipping the one port would then be used to cover the cost over and above whatever was allocated for the remaining ports.

 

Nope, this does not make sense and is not reasonable.

Just because you express an opinion does not make it true. Happens all of the time here on CC, people spreading false information.

Please educate yourself.

Please, no garbage talk.  It started to appear about 3 years ago.  People began to feel offended (around the same time) about almost everything what life "offers" to us and throwing such a statement in the face of an "offender".  Just remember, boomerang effect, please.

 

Voyage, Voyage!

Edited December 16, 2022 by kirtihk

[ChiefMateJRK]

36 minutes ago, kirtihk said:

If you cancel a cruise after Final payment, a cruise line doesn't refund port fees; it only refunds taxes.

Is this true?  I've recently seen it reported that they refund everything except the base fare (i.e. port fees, taxes, FAS gratuities, prepaid DSC, etc.).  I believe that @BirdTravelsjust posted that in the last day or two, and that is a cruiser who has been around this block about 57 times.

[njhorseman]

40 minutes ago, kirtihk said:

If you cancel a cruise after Final payment, a cruise line doesn't refund port fees; it only refunds taxes.

No...I just cancelled two cruises after the final payment due date and was refunded 100% of the amount charged as "government taxes, fees and port expenses" to quote the exact terminology used by NCL to identify these charges, as well as my Free at Sea gratuities.

 

7 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Is this true?  I've recently seen it reported that they refund everything except the base fare (i.e. port fees, taxes, FAS gratuities, prepaid DSC, etc.).  I believe that @BirdTravelsjust posted that in the last day or two, and that is a cruiser who has been around this block about 57 times.

You are correct. See my recent experience (within the last two weeks) outlined above .

[farjar]

We recently returned from a cruise on the Carnival Magic.  The first day of the trip a credit of $ 9.01 appeared on our bill for each of us.  The explanation was "Refund taxes, fees and port expenses."  What was odd was we had no cancelled ports.  I'm assuming there was an OVER estimate of costs.  It certainly wasn't a fortune but we definitely appreciated Carnival's integrity in doing so.  With 3700 passengers onboard they could have pocketed the difference and no one would have known.

[Turtles06]

1 hour ago, kirtihk said:

If you cancel a cruise after Final payment, a cruise line doesn't refund port fees; it only refunds taxes.

 

30 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Is this true?  I've recently seen it reported that they refund everything except the base fare (i.e. port fees, taxes, FAS gratuities, prepaid DSC, etc.).  

It’s not true. Except for the actual cruise fare, NCL refunds all pre-paid expenses: taxes, port fees, FAS gratuities, prepaid DSC, WiFi upgrades, shorex, etc. 

 

Not only does NCL refund those things if you cancel after final payment, it will also refund them if, say, you trip and fall and break your wrist two hours after embarkation and are then medically disembarked after your two-hour cruise to nowhere.  I’m sad to say that I even know this. 🙃

[njhorseman]

1 minute ago, Turtles06 said:

 

Not only does NCL refund those things if you cancel after final payment, it will also refund them if, say, you trip and fall and break your wrist two hours after embarkation and are then medically disembarked after your two-hour cruise to nowhere.  I’m sad to say that I even know this. 🙃

Judith, I'm glad to see you can maintain somewhat of a sense of humor about what happened. Does the 🙃 emoji accurately depict what Eileen saw after you fell? I wouldn't think that you had a smile on your face. This might be closer, even though it's right side up . 😢

[Turtles06]

1 minute ago, njhorseman said:

Judith, I'm glad to see you can maintain somewhat of a sense of humor about what happened. Does the 🙃 emoji accurately depict what Eileen saw after you fell? I wouldn't think that you had a smile on your face. This might be closer, even though it's right side up . 😢

Paul, definitely no smiley emojis at the time. 😊. I’m just trying to make the best of it, it’s such a bizarre thing to have happened.

 

And I’ll add for those reading that NCL refunded all of our pre-paid expenses (except our cruise fare) to our credit card in about two weeks. I was pretty impressed by the speed. 

[hallux]

1 hour ago, kirtihk said:

Please, no garbage talk

I'm trying to figure out who you're replying to with the rest of your post not making much sense.  The post quotes got swapped somehow.

[kirtihk]

1 hour ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Is this true?  I've recently seen it reported that they refund everything except the base fare (i.e. port fees, taxes, FAS gratuities, prepaid DSC, etc.).  I believe that @BirdTravelsjust posted that in the last day or two, and that is a cruiser who has been around this block about 57 times.

I didn't write about prepaid gratuities, shore excursions, and alike - they are refundable, too.  My cruise agent sends me invoices for major cruise lines always displaying port fees and taxes on separate line items, and he explained me that one of reasons is to know what amount would be refunded in case of cancelation after a final payment due date being on the tax line item.  We had to cancel just once after our final payment date, and yes, we automatically received a refund in an amount of taxes ONLY (matching what was on our invoice).

[kirtihk]

1 hour ago, njhorseman said:

No...I just cancelled two cruises after the final payment due date and was refunded 100% of the amount charged as "government taxes, fees and port expenses" to quote the exact terminology used by NCL to identify these charges, as well as my Free at Sea gratuities.

 

You are correct. See my recent experience (within the last two weeks) outlined above .

Perhaps, the terminology differs between "port expenses" and "“Non-Commissionable Fee", or “NCF”" (as I wrote in my reply).  In my invoices I always see Fare Code Cruise Price, NFC, and Tax line items, and only the last item is refundable.  Maybe, in my invoices "port expenses" are hidden in the Tax line item (however, I know for sure that the Tax line on my invoices matches the amount displayed on cruise line web sites as "Tax" at the time of my booking).

[ChiefMateJRK]

20 minutes ago, kirtihk said:

My cruise agent sends me invoices for major cruise lines always displaying port fees and taxes on separate line items, and he explained me that one of reasons is to know what amount would be refunded in case of cancelation after a final payment due date being on the tax line item.  We had to cancel just once after our final payment date, and yes, we automatically received a refund in an amount of taxes ONLY (matching what was on our invoice).

This appears to differ from the recent experiences of many others.

5 minutes ago, kirtihk said:

Perhaps, the terminology differs between "port expenses" and "“Non-Commissionable Fee", or “NCF”" (as I wrote in my reply).  In my invoices I always see Fare Code Cruise Price, NFC, and Tax line items, and only the last item is refundable. 

I think you've confused port fees with this mysterious NCF which I've never heard of before.  Is this just a travel agent fee?

7 minutes ago, kirtihk said:

Maybe, in my invoices "port expenses" are hidden in the Tax line item (however, I know for sure that the Tax line on my invoices matches the amount displayed on cruise line web sites as "Tax" at the time of my booking).

My NCL invoices have a single line item for "Gov Tax/Port Exp/Fees."

[cruiseny4life]

3 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

This appears to differ from the recent experiences of many others.

I think you've confused port fees with this mysterious NCF which I've never heard of before.  Is this just a travel agent fee?

My NCL invoices have a single line item for "Gov Tax/Port Exp/Fees."

NCF = non-commissionable fare. It's a term for those items that travel agents do not currently receive commission on. 

 

Here's an article with additional information, if you care that much. https://www.travelpulse.com/news/travel-agents/norwegian-cruise-line-joins-several-other-cruise-lines-with-new-ncf-policy.html