NCL cancels Epic sailings from 12.1.2023 to 4.9.2024 for "Fleet Redeployment"

[BirdTravels]

12 minutes ago, insidecabin said:

I think they can probably run the ships at a profit just not enough to cover the overheads of the business and debt.

The ship, in the Med, during the winter, had insufficient bookings to operate at a profit. It has nothing to do with covering business debt or paying executives. It has to do with not losing money on every cruise. The cruise line made a decision to pull the plug and cut those losses by moving the ship to a more profitable route (i.e., not the Med). 

 

NCL tried to operate the Epic in the Med during winter once before and had the same result. Insufficient bookings. Cancel the season and move the ship to the Caribbean (at that time). 

 

NCL recently tried to operate the Joy out of Jamaica and had the same result. Insufficient bookings. Cancel the season and move the ship to another itinerary. 

Edited May 26, 2023 by BirdTravels

[BirdTravels]

8 minutes ago, room with a view said:

There is interest to cruise the Med Christmas/New Year .

The Spirit did several before it was moved after refit . The Sun was sold out last year for Christmas/New Year and when we booked the Epic there was limited availability for balcony cabins on 10/11 and 12.

 

The Canaries are warm and sunny (shorts and t shirt weather )...so I don't think it is lack of interest.

There were insufficient bookings to keep the ship profitable in the Med during the winter. One-off cruises does not keep the ship profitable every week. 

[room with a view]

On 5/25/2023 at 2:01 PM, di T said:

 

Epic was too big a ship for the Canary Islands cruises. But it’s a great location for us for some warm weather in winter will see who else is doing those ports at that time of year! I won’t be booking between now and December for Europe as I’ve three cruises booked before the end of the year. There’s only one of interest in April but might just take the refund. Flights are no good on the cancelled cruise so will loose that money no doubt.

We have flights from the UK to Venice and return from Lisbon .  We can "exchange " them for another flight with a charge for flight changes/more expensive flights . The charge is £25 per passenger per flight , because the tickets are one way. ..the charge is £100 . Our flights were booked months ago at a good rate ..prices now are so much higher ...and yes we are disappointed to miss our winter sun.

[SakeDad]

31 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

 The ship will be rescheduled somewhere where it will make $$$.

Or it's a good time for Dry Dock.

[insidecabin]

28 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

The ship, in the Med, during the winter, had insufficient bookings to operate at a profit. It has nothing to do with covering business debt or paying executives. It has to do with not losing money on every cruise. The cruise line made a decision to pull the plug and cut those losses by moving the ship to a more profitable route (i.e., not the Med). 

 

NCL tried to operate the Epic in the Med during winter once before and had the same result. Insufficient bookings. Cancel the season and move the ship to the Caribbean (at that time). 

 

NCL recently tried to operate the Joy out of Jamaica and had the same result. Insufficient bookings. Cancel the season and move the ship to another itinerary. 

The 22/23 winter looked good for NCL out of Lisbon,Málaga doing canaries  full ship when we looked to book.

The late relocation had some good prices but they went up quick which shows there is a market.

 

Where ever they send Epic same issue got to price to sell as a lot of people are sorted.

 

 

 

[insidecabin]

52 minutes ago, room with a view said:

There is interest to cruise the Med Christmas/New Year .

The Spirit did several before it was moved after refit . The Sun was sold out last year for Christmas/New Year and when we booked the Epic there was limited availability for balcony cabins on 10/11 and 12.

 

The Canaries are warm and sunny (shorts and t shirt weather )...so I don't think it is lack of interest.

The other Sun cruises also sold well maybe not super  high prices but they went up a lot.

(When first on sale that Sun Xmas/NY cruise was a steal)

 

Sell to the Brits, Marella and P&O do well, they package with flights which helps.

 

Mind you the fiasco over UK cruises and drinks won't be helping the talk is just another reason not to choose NCL.

 

[roxette]

According to Cruise Radio rumours are that the Spirit has been chartered to China fpr 107 days, give or take.

[room with a view]

10 minutes ago, insidecabin said:

The other Sun cruises also sold well maybe not super  high prices but they went up a lot.

(When first on sale that Sun Xmas/NY cruise was a steal)

 

Sell to the Brits, Marella and P&O do well, they package with flights which helps.

 

Mind you the fiasco over UK cruises and drinks won't be helping the talk is just another reason not to choose NCL.

 

Yes, thanks ... I have looked .Marella uses a old ship for the winter season .

 

P&O have a strange itinerary  where after joining the ship you do not go anywhere just stay in Tenerife for two nights then over the 7 days visit just 3 other destinations .

 

Looking at MSC . 

[fstuff1]

1 hour ago, insidecabin said:

Where ever they send Epic same issue got to price to sell as a lot of people are sorted.

 

yup, empty mega ship and 6months before sail, i expect fire sales

Edited May 26, 2023 by fstuff1

[mking8288]

1 hour ago, roxette said:

According to Cruise Radio rumours are that the Spirit has been chartered to China fpr 107 days, give or take.

Interesting, NCL will have to line up behind Royal Caribbean again as they've announced their re-entry to attract the affluent Chinese middle class.  NCL pinned its hope when they launched the Joy back in 2018 and bailed a year later, without - IMHO, a careful market analysis of this unique market ... among the jokes then was the buffet madness.  

 

Meet the Alora Magic City, China's first domestic built 130,000 ton cruise ship, scheduled or planning to enter service next month ... June 2023, ahead of scheduled after 3 year's of shipyard construction.  

 

A 2nd and larger cruise ship said to be under construction also at the Shanghai shipyard - the staterooms looked remarkable similar to NCL's *Away class ships.   It will most likely not dedicate a lot of space to pools and sundecks, LOL.  

 

 

[mking8288]

46 minutes ago, fstuff1 said:

yup, empty mega ship and 6months before sail, i expect fire sales

LOL, as I wrote earlier, maybe ... maybe, bring her back to NY this winter - the Getaway is lonely and all by herself from this December thru beginning the April.  Epic isn't exactly popular and considered "attractive" for variety of reasons, but - winter/school breaks from February thru March ... reasonable pricing and she'll sail at 110% double occupancies.  Oh, get some casino players onboard with land partners footing the subsidies, that might just be the magic needed.  

[eileeshb]

On 5/25/2023 at 2:08 PM, di T said:

Bird, in the UK most of these flights are non refundable I was on the phone today to one of our airlines and they said we would get 1 euro back! Or we could change at a cost of £100 per person. 

Hmm they should definitely refund you more than £1 unless the UK has unwound the EU regs that require airlines to refund all taxes and charges if you cancel/miss a flight. The airline can only cling onto the fare portion as the other charges and taxes are related to actually taking the flight(s). They usually gain on the cost of the phone call you make to a premium rate number in order to reclaim those fees. 

[SakeDad]

50 minutes ago, mking8288 said:

Interesting, NCL will have to line up behind Royal Caribbean again as they've announced their re-entry to attract the affluent Chinese middle class.  NCL pinned its hope when they launched the Joy back in 2018 and bailed a year later, without - IMHO, a careful market analysis of this unique market ... among the jokes then was the buffet madness.  

 

Meet the Alora Magic City, China's first domestic built 130,000 ton cruise ship, scheduled or planning to enter service next month ... June 2023, ahead of scheduled after 3 year's of shipyard construction.  

 

A 2nd and larger cruise ship said to be under construction also at the Shanghai shipyard - the staterooms looked remarkable similar to NCL's *Away class ships.   It will most likely not dedicate a lot of space to pools and sundecks, LOL.  

 

 

Yes, RCCL Spectrum of the Seas has been sailing out of Singapore, Shanghai and the region the last 4 years (aside from Covid of course) and doing well. 

 

[Mommapadraig]

2 hours ago, roxette said:

According to Cruise Radio rumours are that the Spirit has been chartered to China fpr 107 days, give or take.

The rumor I heard was it was chartered for the Olympics in Europe. It will be interesting if either one is correct!

[Asawi]

4 hours ago, Go2SeaTheWorld said:

It took some time to sort through everything, but we were able to book on the Nov 20-Dec1 sailing, just the reverse of our OG "Rome to Haifa" on the Epic. The 20% off made a huge difference & even saved a bit rescheduling our flights. Now keeping fingers crossed that nothing more happens.

So you were able to book already and get the 20%? It's supposed to be available from June 1st, but I would really like to book an October cruise right now. (I'm not in USA and I do not use a travel agent if that matters)

[amygutman]

4 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

There were insufficient bookings to keep the ship profitable in the Med during the winter. One-off cruises does not keep the ship profitable every week. 

@BirdTravels interesting update from my travel agent - he has been working on re-bookings for this and the Spirit and trying to get some sort of answer from NCL re: what the heck is going on with the Epic. He suspects that NCL will use the "downtime" to refurbish the ship as they have not opened up any bookings for the affected 4 months.

 

His bigger concern (as is mine) is that the Epic's 2024 winter Mediterranean season will also be cancelled due to NCL perhaps taking the Epic out of the Med altogether and he wants to know sooner than later. He said the Epic's 2024 Canaveral sailings have not been affected so he is hopeful after the Florida summer season the Epic will head back to the Med. 

 

I am curious as to your opinion? You always are super thoughtful in your responses and I'll take your experienced speculation to heart.

 

Warmest, Amy

[SakeDad]

13 minutes ago, amygutman said:

@BirdTravels He suspects that NCL will use the "downtime" to refurbish the ship as they have not opened up any bookings for the affected 4 months.

 

 

This was my 1st thought. She's going in Dry Dock before relocating. Dry Dock can take a couple of weeks or a few months depending what needs to be done.

Edited May 27, 2023 by SakeDad

[MichiganBound]

2 hours ago, SakeDad said:

This was my 1st thought. She's going in Dry Dock before relocating. Dry Dock can take a couple of weeks or a few months depending what needs to be done.

I agree.  It seems quite late to be adding new December/January cruises at this point.  I wouldn't be surprised if a drydock refurb is in Epic's future later this year.

[insidecabin]

7 hours ago, room with a view said:

Yes, thanks ... I have looked .Marella uses a old ship for the winter season .

 

P&O have a strange itinerary  where after joining the ship you do not go anywhere just stay in Tenerife for two nights then over the 7 days visit just 3 other destinations .

 

Looking at MSC . 

All Marella ships are hand me downs but the one stop shop is very popular and they are AI prices.

 

When Marella can get £120pppd on the off dates in the winter why can't NCL compete

 

 These routes is multiple embarkation days to spread people out that's why P&O have overnight in port, Marella use Tenerife and Grand Canaries.

 

MSC Euribia Is doing a run(21n/22n) in Jan from northern ports if you don't mid BOB and a  few cold days

[Go2SeaTheWorld]

5 hours ago, Asawi said:

So you were able to book already and get the 20%? It's supposed to be available from June 1st, but I would really like to book an October cruise right now. (I'm not in USA and I do not use a travel agent if that matters)

Yes. It was there on my account. 

[Asawi]

2 hours ago, Go2SeaTheWorld said:

Yes. It was there on my account. 

Unfortunately I don't see mine there yet. I'm just off the phone with NCL and the person I spoke to had no clue and with the horrible sound quality I felt it useless to try to get anywhere. I guess I'll just have to wait and likely miss out on the half-price FreeAtSea off that ends Wednesday (European guests actually buy the FAS with gratuities included instead of getting it for free and pay gratuities)

[di T]

12 hours ago, room with a view said:

We have flights from the UK to Venice and return from Lisbon .  We can "exchange " them for another flight with a charge for flight changes/more expensive flights . The charge is £25 per passenger per flight , because the tickets are one way. ..the charge is £100 . Our flights were booked months ago at a good rate ..prices now are so much higher ...and yes we are disappointed to miss our winter sun.

Totally agree with what you say, As usually happens we are suffering with this in the Uk with high flight prices, little flexibility to change these flights etc.

I can see one cruise which might fit in  but it’s in November and with the 20% off it would be a good price. But the flights are so expensive and as it ends inTrieste Italy I can only get direct flights to Venice.So a couple of nights in Venice to book, that’s no problem we have been many times.But will have to see how is best value to get from Trieste.Just cancelled the last of my hotels in Lisbon, all of this cancelling and looking to rebook takes hours, and I’m busy getting ready for my next cruise in less than 3 weeks! Dianne

[di T]

9 hours ago, eileeshb said:

Hmm they should definitely refund you more than £1 unless the UK has unwound the EU regs that require airlines to refund all taxes and charges if you cancel/miss a flight. The airline can only cling onto the fare portion as the other charges and taxes are related to actually taking the flight(s). They usually gain on the cost of the phone call you make to a premium rate number in order to reclaim those fees. 

This is what I thought, all taxes were refunded.

[di T]

8 hours ago, Asawi said:

So you were able to book already and get the 20%? It's supposed to be available from June 1st, but I would really like to book an October cruise right now. (I'm not in USA and I do not use a travel agent if that matters)

Asawi, I am from the UK and rang NCL Uk to get a quote on the cruise I was interested in, she told me I would have to wait until 1st June for the 20% off,there’s a sale on the free at sea at half price which I believe is only for a few days.So if I wait I will miss out on that! I’m gonna ring again today I might get a different answer lol

[Asawi]

7 minutes ago, di T said:

Asawi, I am from the UK and rang NCL Uk to get a quote on the cruise I was interested in, she told me I would have to wait until 1st June for the 20% off,there’s a sale on the free at sea at half price which I believe is only for a few days.So if I wait I will miss out on that! I’m gonna ring again today I might get a different answer lol

Thanks for the info! Please com back if you manage to get it done! Keeping my fingers crossed for you!