Are NCL selling cruises to ports they have no intention of going to.

[timcahill98]

On 3/13/2023 at 8:01 AM, DCGuy64 said:

Wow, that's crazy. I don't know how they could have continued to show the Bermuda stop if it was no longer available. Did you get any explanation? Do you have any options? I would hope they'd allow you to cancel and rebook for a cruise that's actually going to Bermuda.

Thanks, @DCGuy64 and everyone else for your responses.  No, I didn't get any explanation, as I didn't bother calling.  In retrospect, I should have logged in again as though I were going to book a new cruise and taken a screenshot of the advertised itinerary.  Then I'd have something to show the media or whoever wants to investigate these things.  But I just decided that if this is how they treat brand new customers and my first experience with them is a lie, then I'm just not going to cruise with NCL again and move on.  I've enjoyed my cruises with Princess and Celebrity, so I think I'll stick with them going forward.

[periodic itinerant]

On 3/10/2023 at 4:37 AM, cara-cruiser said:

we are booked at NCL Star for a greenland cruise in 08/23. Currently we have received a itinerary change. Greenland and the scoresby sound will be canceld. "Due to newly imposed vessel restrictions in Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland".

They don't provide a refund or FCC. We are deeply disappointed.

Frankly, I'm amazed large cruise ships were ever able to call at Ittoqqortoormiit. It's a very small village of only a few hundred. I went there on an expedition ship with around 120 passengers, and we overwhelmed the place while "in port." I can't even imagine what a whole NCL ship would do there.

[kitkat343]

44 minutes ago, timcahill98 said:

Thanks, @DCGuy64 and everyone else for your responses.  No, I didn't get any explanation, as I didn't bother calling.  In retrospect, I should have logged in again as though I were going to book a new cruise and taken a screenshot of the advertised itinerary.  Then I'd have something to show the media or whoever wants to investigate these things.  But I just decided that if this is how they treat brand new customers and my first experience with them is a lie, then I'm just not going to cruise with NCL again and move on.  I've enjoyed my cruises with Princess and Celebrity, so I think I'll stick with them going forward.

You'd be wasting your time calling - on my sailing, half the customers received an email notifying them of the port cancellations, and the other half didn't.  People  who didn't get the notification called NCL and the phone reps were telling them they couldn't see the changes.  They posted on the roll calls saying they thought the stops weren't cancelled because that was what NCL was telling them on the phone, so there was a lot more confusion than there needed to be.  

 

I've found the mainstream lines are more similar than different, and really liked Princess (haven't had a chance to sail Celebrity yet) so I think you have the right plan going forward if itinerary matters to you.

[styles27]

20 hours ago, julig22 said:

Recieved notice about 10 days ago that the itinerary for the Sky in September 2023 has been updated.  Bar Harbor replaced by Portland, lost 1 stop in Nova Scotia as well.  Itinerary on the web site does match the itinerary they sent out, changes due to "port congestion" according to the notice.

Interesting. I prefer BH but Portland is a nice port too. 

[DCGuy64]

19 hours ago, timcahill98 said:

Thanks, @DCGuy64 and everyone else for your responses.  No, I didn't get any explanation, as I didn't bother calling.  In retrospect, I should have logged in again as though I were going to book a new cruise and taken a screenshot of the advertised itinerary.  Then I'd have something to show the media or whoever wants to investigate these things.  But I just decided that if this is how they treat brand new customers and my first experience with them is a lie, then I'm just not going to cruise with NCL again and move on.  I've enjoyed my cruises with Princess and Celebrity, so I think I'll stick with them going forward.

Can't say I blame you. I've never been to Bermuda, although my wife has (long ago), so it's on my list. We were supposed to visit there last December on the Norwegian Epic but had to bypass it due to bad weather. (One of our fellow passengers lives there, so no telling how she ended up getting home.) Anyway, I do hope you get to go one of these days. I imagine other lines have Bermuda itineraries, too. 

[s1blumen]

We booked an Australian - New Zealand cruise a few months ago for 12/23. At the time it had two sea days and one day cruising the coast of New Zealand. We received an itinerary change that states we will not leave a Sydney but port there for two days. They are removing two stops and adding a sea day. This was due to no port availability according to what they said, however, they are still selling the original itinerary for the cruise after we return. I can’t find the cruise we are sailing on to see what they are advertising now. I called customer service and was told they are within their rights to make changes and they had no Explanation as to why the ports were no longer available for our cruise but are being advertised for future cruises. We have cruised NCL many times (Diamond members) and some other cruise lines but really love NCL I have another cruise scheduled for 2025 to Europe. I’m seriously considering canceling that one.  This cruise to Australia is with friends and one couple has already purchased their air fare. It’s just very frustrating. If they are indeed advertising ports, they have no intention to keep. This should be considered false advertising not being within their contract rights. 

[dexddd]

3 minutes ago, s1blumen said:

We booked an Australian - New Zealand cruise a few months ago for 12/23. At the time it had two sea days and one day cruising the coast of New Zealand. We received an itinerary change that states we will not leave a Sydney but port there for two days. They are removing two stops and adding a sea day. This was due to no port availability according to what they said, however, they are still selling the original itinerary for the cruise after we return. I can’t find the cruise we are sailing on to see what they are advertising now. I called customer service and was told they are within their rights to make changes and they had no Explanation as to why the ports were no longer available for our cruise but are being advertised for future cruises. We have cruised NCL many times (Diamond members) and some other cruise lines but really love NCL I have another cruise scheduled for 2025 to Europe. I’m seriously considering canceling that one.  This cruise to Australia is with friends and one couple has already purchased their air fare. It’s just very frustrating. If they are indeed advertising ports, they have no intention to keep. This should be considered false advertising not being within their contract rights. 

Maybe due to Sail and Sustain?  That was the line last Fall when they started to cut out ports.

[9tee2Sea]

sailing thru the inside passage can be hit/miss.  Things are starting to thaw out, ice breaking off glaciers and floating around in the passage.  Could it just be that the inside passage was canceled due to ll the ice floats, it makes it hazardous to travel?  My last cruise in April of last year, we could not get to Hubbard Glacier and do the famous turn around.  Too much ice in the channel.  Disappointed, but hey, what can you do.  As for other countries cancellations, the US State Department is always updating the travel warnings, so even though it is on an itinerary now, who knows what will happen by sail away time.  I still see Baltic cruises being sold ( they don't go to Russia), but would you want to travel to an area where there are grumbling of an incursion?  I really don't want to talk about world politics, just saying that things go on behind the scenes that we, as passengers don't know about.  NCL should refund the port fees if they cancel a port, but sometimes they plug in a different port, so the old port fees apply to the new port.

[latebuyer]

Just wondering if more people have seen more cancellations, specifically dominican republic? I’m looking at a cruise that includes puerta plata - cruise is offered 2024-2025 so one would think they wouldn’t cancel. I was thinking of booking in 25 to take advantage of a promo but may not be a good idea if they cancel ports.

 

On the topic of alaska, a lot of people were disappointed skagway was cancelled as they weren’t notified before final payment.

[mpk]

On 2/27/2023 at 1:50 PM, CILCIANRQTS said:

Just because the cruise lines pay lots of attorneys to draft an airtight contract, it’s called a contract of adhesion, meaning you have no say in the terms and cannot modify it in any way.

 

Thanks for this, I learned something today.  I always wondered about the lengthy multi page stuff one has to sign at the doctor's office.  The legal concept of "contracts of adhesion" is very interesting.

[BirdTravels]

3 hours ago, latebuyer said:

On the topic of alaska, a lot of people were disappointed skagway was cancelled as they weren’t notified before final payment.

We called at Puerto Plata on the Encore in April, right on schedule. 

 

Maybe you can you find out and elaborate why Skagway was cancelled? 

[latebuyer]

Sorry i don’t think this affected norwegian or you would have heard about it. There was a rock slide in skagway and it affected one of the docks and meant one less large ship could dock. I think it was quantum of the seas. People were really upset. They felt rci knew this probably was going to happen as dock was damaged and should have informed before final payment. I’m not sure norwegian has large ships in alaska. I believe the ship went to icy strait point instead but people really love the train in skagway.

[Panhandle Couple]

6 hours ago, latebuyer said:

Just wondering if more people have seen more cancellations, specifically dominican republic? I’m looking at a cruise that includes puerta plata - cruise is offered 2024-2025 so one would think they wouldn’t cancel. I was thinking of booking in 25 to take advantage of a promo but may not be a good idea if they cancel ports.

 

On the topic of alaska, a lot of people were disappointed skagway was cancelled as they weren’t notified before final payment.

Have you even looked at other sections of CC before asking off hand uninformed questions?

 

For Skagway, this has been discussed since last winter on the Alaska ports of call portion of CC.

Please read all the way through and review the Alaska port schedule links.

NO cruise line was purposely advertising Skagway simply to switch it with another port.  There was no final determination on the RRF dock being usable until 2nd week of April this year, only a few days before NCL Bliss showed up as the first ship of the year.

 

Alternately, you could have read the dozen or so reviews here on NCL ships in Alaska this season, and seen that NONE of them have missed Skagway.

 

For Dominican Republic, LAST year (2022) an NCL ship scraped bottom on the channel leading to Taino Bay port, and caused minor damage.  NCL stopped using that port for the large ships (based on water levels) because the channel was not dredged (or done improperly) by the Dominican authorities.

 

That has obviously been changed since there has been NO reports of any NCL ship (or any other cruise line) missing that port this year.  Any review of the Escape this year will show that.

 

Also the DR page here doesn't include any posts about missing Puerto Plata.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/280-dominican-republic/

 

 

[latebuyer]

Wow! I just made an off hand comment about skagway and later apologized and said it didn’t affect ncl ships. Someone had a bad day.

 

Thanks for explanation of DR.

[BirdTravels]

3 hours ago, latebuyer said:

Sorry i don’t think this affected norwegian or you would have heard about it. There was a rock slide in skagway and it affected one of the docks and meant one less large ship could dock. I think it was quantum of the seas. People were really upset. They felt rci knew this probably was going to happen as dock was damaged and should have informed before final payment. I’m not sure norwegian has large ships in alaska. I believe the ship went to icy strait point instead but people really love the train in skagway.

There you have an answer. NCL uses the railway dock for their big ships which has been affecting all cruise lines. 

[BirdTravels]

45 minutes ago, Panhandle Couple said:Have you even looked at other sections of CC before asking off hand uninformed questions?

For Dominican Republic, LAST year (2022) an NCL ship scraped bottom on the channel leading to Taino Bay port, and caused minor damage.  NCL stopped using that port for the large ships (based on water levels) because the channel was not dredged (or done improperly) by the Dominican authorities.

 

38 minutes ago, latebuyer said:

Thanks for explanation of DR.

The minor damage was a hull breach after the ship grounded and had to be pulled off the reef. NCL was forced to terminate the cruise and evacuate all of the passengers on charters from the DR back to the states. The ship spent a month in wet dock in Port Canaveral for a temporary patch and more time in dry dock in Europe for a permanent fix. 
 

The channel into Taino Bay is very narrow. We sailed out of Taino Bay in 2022 after the Escape grounding and the captain had the bow thrusters running, trying to keep us in the channel. In 2023, our departure from Taino Bay was delayed several hours because of wind making our journey through the channel impossible. 

[clojacks]

Not exactly the same scenario as the OP is intending to ask about, or is it?? 

 

Posters on this thread have been trying to find out if NCL is pulling a fast one claiming the Ireland Government recently passed rules causing them to completely 100% change on Ireland cruise to almost all Baltics. Yet, the closest anyone has found to finding anything Irish Gov related is a not from a Harbor Master saying that Dun Laoghaire has imposed restrictions limiting their port access in winter. So, is NCL selling cruises they have no intention of visiting? Particularly if the can switch it to a pricier one?

[graphicguy]

Admittedly, I have not read through the entire thread, but unless someone knows better, I’d say their ships have to file some sort of itinerary well in advance of sailing. If for one reason or another, they need to change that itinerary, I would imagine they have to file the change of plans.  So, to answer the question, I don’t think they post itineraries Willy-Nilly!   Those itineraries can and do change, for a variety of reasons.

 

If they were doing the itineraries which would get more bookings, just say every cruise is going to Tahiti  and then change the destinations after the bookings have filled?

[reeinaz]

Is there trip insurance that covers cancelled ports that are announced prior to the start of the cruise?

 

[RocketMan275]

1 hour ago, reeinaz said:

Is there trip insurance that covers cancelled ports that are announced prior to the start of the cruise?

 

Would you explain what  you would expect of this type of insurance?

[SeekingKillerWhales!]

3 hours ago, reeinaz said:

Is there trip insurance that covers cancelled ports that are announced prior to the start of the cruise?

 

I recall someone on a thread mentioning that their insurance paid them $500 for cancelled ports, but I can't remember the thread, and I'm not sure that's a common insurance coverage. I wouldn't want to pay the premiums on a policy that covered that because I think it would be a very expensive policy. And, partially thanks to discussions like this, I will never book a cruise for somewhere I am dying to go, nor one where a single port being cancelled would destroy my cruise. Also, credit cards might offer some protection, but many others on here will be a lot more knowledgeable than I am.

 

I do think you should get a % of your port taxes and fees back for every cancelled/non-replaced port, however. 

[reeinaz]

3 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

Would you explain what  you would expect of this type of insurance?

I would expect whatever coverage the policy states. There are policies that offer a few hundred for missed ports but I’m curious if there’s any coverage when there is a change that is announced prior to the start of the cruise. 

[reeinaz]

1 hour ago, SeekingKillerWhales! said:

I recall someone on a thread mentioning that their insurance paid them $500 for cancelled ports, but I can't remember the thread, and I'm not sure that's a common insurance coverage. I wouldn't want to pay the premiums on a policy that covered that because I think it would be a very expensive policy. And, partially thanks to discussions like this, I will never book a cruise for somewhere I am dying to go, nor one where a single port being cancelled would destroy my cruise. Also, credit cards might offer some protection, but many others on here will be a lot more knowledgeable than I am.

 

I do think you should get a % of your port taxes and fees back for every cancelled/non-replaced port, however. 

It’s been my experience that post-covid, port fees and taxes for missed ports aren’t being refunded. I also haven’t experienced a price change for an announced itinerary change prior to the sail date either. I have had a premium priced “exotic” Caribbean cruise changed to a basic Bahamas and DR cruise. Granted, I didn't compare the taxes/fees to know if there was a difference. 

[omahabob]

Never heard of any insurance that covers port issues/changes. They do have Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) insurance policies. You could use one of those to cancel your trip if you don't like port changes, However, those policies are more expensive, and usually cover only 50-75% of you unrefunded cost. They also don't usually cover you when you're within a few days of your cruise starting.

 

https://www.cruzely.com/explained-cancel-for-any-reason-cruise-travel-insurance/

[Zippeedee]

6 hours ago, SeekingKillerWhales! said:

I recall someone on a thread mentioning that their insurance paid them $500 for cancelled ports, but I can't remember the thread, and I'm not sure that's a common insurance coverage. I wouldn't want to pay the premiums on a policy that covered that because I think it would be a very expensive policy. And, partially thanks to discussions like this, I will never book a cruise for somewhere I am dying to go, nor one where a single port being cancelled would destroy my cruise. Also, credit cards might offer some protection, but many others on here will be a lot more knowledgeable than I am.

 

I do think you should get a % of your port taxes and fees back for every cancelled/non-replaced port, however. 

That may have been me. I had cruise insurance purchased through Insure My Trip on both 2018 and 2019 transatlantics. Both had port changes and I filed claims with the NCL letter as proof. I got $500 each time. I think they were  Nationwide policies but 2019 seems like a different lifetime now.