NCL Air Sea - what if the flight miss ship?

[JacksonShip]

Didn't see this particular case pop up on the topic search so hopefully it's not redundant.

 

A newbie to cruising and first time trying out having the cruise company book the flights for us. Has anyone experienced the flight booked by cruise getting delayed and missed the ship, and how you worked through that situation? Appreciate any experience you can share. I'm probably SOL but good learning for next time.

 

Thanks

[J0Y0US]

Are you talking about right now this is occurring to you? Did you have trip insurance for the cruise at all?

[DCGuy64]

2 hours ago, JacksonShip said:

Didn't see this particular case pop up on the topic search so hopefully it's not redundant.

 

A newbie to cruising and first time trying out having the cruise company book the flights for us. Has anyone experienced the flight booked by cruise getting delayed and missed the ship, and how you worked through that situation? Appreciate any experience you can share. I'm probably SOL but good learning for next time.

 

Thanks

There's a good post about this from a couple of weeks ago. Didn't end well for the OP. I'll see if I can find it. The gist of it is that NCL will fly you to the first available port, but that might not be the very next day (in the case of the thread I mentioned, the first day was a sea day, so he would have had to miss not 1, but 2 days of the cruise). 

[SeaShark]

2 hours ago, JacksonShip said:

Didn't see this particular case pop up on the topic search so hopefully it's not redundant.

 

A newbie to cruising and first time trying out having the cruise company book the flights for us. Has anyone experienced the flight booked by cruise getting delayed and missed the ship, and how you worked through that situation? Appreciate any experience you can share. I'm probably SOL but good learning for next time.

 

Thanks

It really depends on what you are referring to.

 

If you paid NCL to book airfare for you (referred to as NCL's Premium Air service) they will assist you in getting where you need to be.

 

However, if you are referring to the air offered through the Free as Sea promotions, NCL is only purchasing airfare on your behalf....after that, you are on your own.

 

In either case, travel insurance is always available and without it, you are basically assuming the risk yourself.

[Sailing12Away]

We came close once when we were flying to Miami for a short 5 day cruise. Our flight was on time, but when we were boarding the pilot came on and told us all to get off the plane. They were giving it to another flight headed to Colorado that needed it for the high altitude.

 

Back in the terminal, shuffling to another gate. Then waiting, and waiting, no word on when our 'new' plane is coming. More than half the flight was headed to some type of cruise so everyone on the phone with their cruise lines.

 

If you booked through NCL, they know your flight is delayed. The info we got from others on the phone with NCL was that if you miss the ship, you miss the ship, and if you weren't at the port by 3pm for that 4pm departure you can't get on.

In reality what happened was that everyone sprinted to baggage claim to meet the NCL agents and they reassured all of us that if they were still there, the ship would be waiting for us and not to worry. So phone agents were not in synch with on the ground agents.

 

Shuffled quickly onto the buses with a stop first for the Breakaway passengers, then 2nd stop was for us on the Jade. We were at check-in around 3:30 or 3:45. Only 5 of us at the port check-in with 2 agents processing us in with constant back and forth on walkie talkies. We were on the ship a smidge before 4 and pulling away before we even made it to our room.

 

If we had missed the ship, next day was a sea day so not worth it at all to try and catch up on a 5 day cruise. I'll keep taking my chances. If the ship leaves without me, it's something in the universe telling me not to get on anyway.

[hallux]

5 hours ago, JacksonShip said:

Has anyone experienced the flight booked by cruise getting delayed and missed the ship, and how you worked through that situation?

How many days until your cruise?

 

MY best advice - plan ahead, ask for a deviation (can be requested any time before you are 75 days from the cruise) and fly in at least a day early, NCL will allow up to a two-day deviation on the BOGO promotion so as to avoid that situation entirely.  Will it cost more vacation time?  Maybe, unless you fly on Saturday instead of Sunday for a Sunday embarkation.  Will it cost more money to book a hotel room for a night or two? Sure.  But if you have the additional day of vacation time available - USE IT.  Missing the cruise isn't worth the cost savings to not fly a day early.

 

If you are not familiar with the terms of the promotion, you can find them here as a refresher - https://www.ncl.com/about/terms-and-conditions/promotions

 

The deviation possibility I mention is covered there.  Do you NEED to?  I'll answer that with a question - do you want to get up at 3 or 4 AM in Chicago or Upstate, NY, so you can catch a 6 or 7 AM flight to get to Miami or Ft. Lauderdale in time for a cruise, only to need to go to bed by 9 PM because you're so tired?  You don't say where you're flying from/to so we can't say with absolute certainty that you NEED to fly in a day or more early, but unless you're flying Atlanta to somewhere in Florida it's certainly advisable.

[eileeshb]

Even in the circumstances where ncl will make arrangements for you to catch the ship at a port of call there’s no guarantee it will be the first port. A cruise I did early this year there were about 20 folks delayed badly enough that the ship didn’t wait, and they couldn’t get flights to the first port so they wound up getting flown to our second port of call. They got a couple of nights in a hotel on that island while they were waiting for the ship to arrive so it wasn’t all bad even missing the first 2 days on the ship (first day was a sea day). 

[JacksonShip]

Thanks a lot to everyone for sharing your knowledge, this forum is a treasure!

 

More background for interest: I was trying to fly in from Canada using the Air Sea promo, so I guess not much else to be expected from NCL. About ten other passengers on the same delayed flight decided to try their luck and board the plane anyway, while the agent on phone told me to stop and go figure out another way (ie go argue with the airline, ha) to the next ports. In hindsight, I might as well have tried my luck with the plane anyway since the NCL agent's alternative is quite challenging. Lessons learned, one day earlier and additional travel insurance (the basic credit card one wasn't much use), backup ground routes. Very jealous of the folks who live in port cities and can just take a bus!

 

Merry x'mas!