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

[insidecabin]

With UK its worth checking the air credit option on cruises.

We used it to get the flights we wanted on a cruise last year and the total went down

 

50% FAS sale is till 31st May

[SakeDad]

1 hour ago, Asawi said:

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)

Call back again. I have realized "call centers" are actually individuals in their homes not working next to others or with supervision. Call back several times until you get a KNOWLEDGEABLE agent (they do exist). I seem to get better agents if I choose the options of "current reservation working with a travel professional" but that could be coincidence. 

[room with a view]

1 hour ago, di T said:

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

.....and we are packing to fly to Crete . Not much time to sort of this fiasco !!!

[Asawi]

1 hour ago, SakeDad said:

Call back again. I have realized "call centers" are actually individuals in their homes not working next to others or with supervision. Call back several times until you get a KNOWLEDGEABLE agent (they do exist). I seem to get better agents if I choose the options of "current reservation working with a travel professional" but that could be coincidence. 

I managed to find an email address to a cruise consultant that turned out to be very helpful. He couldn't apply the 20% now, but assures me that he can do it  when it comes in. So I let him make the booking. (10 days British Isles in October. Pretty much the only one I could find that works with my "life schedule" and budget. And it also sounds nice!)

 

[eileeshb]

1 hour ago, Asawi said:

I managed to find an email address to a cruise consultant that turned out to be very helpful. He couldn't apply the 20% now, but assures me that he can do it  when it comes in. So I let him make the booking. (10 days British Isles in October. Pretty much the only one I could find that works with my "life schedule" and budget. And it also sounds nice!)

 

I was going to suggest booking and then apply the credit when it appears in your account. I know I've been able to do that in the past. Heck I've even been able to apply extra cruise next credits when a promo has activated to allow multiple credits be applied to studios long after I made my original booking. 

[di T]

Well I’ve booked a 10 night med cruise out of Barcelona, got my 20% off and the half price free at sea applied. Also the agent I booked through said I could use both my cruise next certificates which paid the deposit and knocked a wee bit off final payment.I had paid the 12nt cancelled cruise in full so once that’s back on my card I’ll pay final with Amex and hopefully get£150 cash back on their latest offer😊

Only thing is getting the flights sorted as we like to fly direct and looks like will have to tag a few days each side to make it work! Good luck everyone on getting sorted. Dianne

[room with a view]

11 minutes ago, di T said:

Well I’ve booked a 10 night med cruise out of Barcelona, got my 20% off and the half price free at sea applied. Also the agent I booked through said I could use both my cruise next certificates which paid the deposit and knocked a wee bit off final payment.I had paid the 12nt cancelled cruise in full so once that’s back on my card I’ll pay final with Amex and hopefully get£150 cash back on their latest offer😊

Only thing is getting the flights sorted as we like to fly direct and looks like will have to tag a few days each side to make it work! Good luck everyone on getting sorted. Dianne

Dianne, 

Which cruise is this ?...thanks . ...which month ? 

[di T]

32 minutes ago, room with a view said:

Dianne, 

Which cruise is this ?...thanks . ...which month ? 

November the 4th from Barcelona on the Dawn, the 4th is our 45th wedding anniversary and we will stay 2 or 3 nights in Venice as it’s my hubbys birthday on the 16th. We were just going to have a couple of nights near home in the lakes😂

But thought why not? Haven’t told the grownup kids yet as this will be six cruises this year! At least I’ve booked it when grandson is in school.

[room with a view]

37 minutes ago, di T said:

November the 4th from Barcelona on the Dawn, the 4th is our 45th wedding anniversary and we will stay 2 or 3 nights in Venice as it’s my hubbys birthday on the 16th. We were just going to have a couple of nights near home in the lakes😂

But thought why not? Haven’t told the grownup kids yet as this will be six cruises this year! At least I’ve booked it when grandson is in school.

That's what life is all about !! . Still looking for Christmas/New Year .... we prefer to be away then.

Interested where did your six cruises go to ...guess you are counting the November as number six.

[di T]

17 minutes ago, room with a view said:

That's what life is all about !! . Still looking for Christmas/New Year .... we prefer to be away then.

Interested where did your six cruises go to ...guess you are counting the November as number six.

 

17 minutes ago, room with a view said:

That's what life is all about !! . Still looking for Christmas/New Year .... we prefer to be away then.

Interested where did your six cruises go to ...guess you are counting the November as number six.

Yea it will be number six, first couple were from Lisbon towards Morocco and Canary Islands, early on for a bit of winter sun. Then we have one in mid June,Spain and Gibraltar a b2b in September,west then east med.Then of course the November one which will be our 3rd this year with NCL Life is good we have had a family holiday with the kids and Grandkids in Malaga.My youngest lives up in Aberdeen so we will be visiting there a few times in between the cruises.

[room with a view]

7 minutes ago, di T said:

 

Yea it will be number six, first couple were from Lisbon towards Morocco and Canary Islands, early on for a bit of winter sun. Then we have one in mid June, Spain and Gibraltar a b2b in September,west then east med.Then of course the November one which will be our 3rd this year with NCL Life is good we have had a family holiday with the kids and Grandkids in Malaga.My youngest lives up in Aberdeen so we will be visiting there a few times in between the cruises.

Thanks .. sounds fabulous ...now going to find something to replace our cancelled cruise.  and to use our ( paid for but not now required) flights from Manchester to Venice and back from Lisbon .

[MkeCruzn]

6 hours ago, Asawi said:

I managed to find an email address to a cruise consultant that turned out to be very helpful. He couldn't apply the 20% now, but assures me that he can do it  when it comes in. So I let him make the booking. (10 days British Isles in October. Pretty much the only one I could find that works with my "life schedule" and budget. And it also sounds nice!)

 

Hi all,

I just spotted this thread. Sorry for the multiple comments below.

We were booked on the Epic for the Feb. 4 sailing and are disappointed that we won't be taking this cruise.

The whole FCC thing is rather confusing. I spoke to two different agents today and got two different answers about using the FCC before it's posted to the account. One (Jared) said it could be applied retroactively and the other (Jasmine) said it couldn't. This is important because they currently have a past guest offer of either 2 or 3 extra Latitudes points per night, which (coincidentally) expires on May 31. There is a FAQ that says we can apply the FCC to an existing booking: https://www.ncl.com/cruise-faq/guest-make-a-new-booking-before-they-receive-the-FCC

 

They also could not tell me in advance which itineraries would qualify for the FCC. Example: does a TA that starts or ends in Europe qualify as a "Europe" itinerary? Do Iceland and Norway qualify? Does Britain qualify?

I wonder if they will issue a new past guest promotion on selected cruises that is valid from June 1 and might overlap with those that qualify for the 20% FCC.

Our CruiseNext certificates are already back in our account. We don't have an issue with expiration dates, as they are good until 2026.

 

Also, regarding what the Epic will be doing, I think the options they have are: 1) it's chartered for that period; 2) they're going to do some maintenance or refurbishment; 3) move it to a different market. This will be hard for them to move it somewhere for a winter season and fill up the ship with 6 months to go.

 

Side note: We sailed TA on the Epic from NY to Barcelona this past spring. Yes, the Epic has quirks, but all ships have some quirks. The Epic's quirks did not really bother me too much.

[room with a view]

18 minutes ago, MkeCruzn said:

Hi all,

I just spotted this thread. Sorry for the multiple comments below.

We were booked on the Epic for the Feb. 4 sailing and are disappointed that we won't be taking this cruise.

The whole FCC thing is rather confusing. I spoke to two different agents today and got two different answers about using the FCC before it's posted to the account. One (Jared) said it could be applied retroactively and the other (Jasmine) said it couldn't. This is important because they currently have a past guest offer of either 2 or 3 extra Latitudes points per night, which (coincidentally) expires on May 31. There is a FAQ that says we can apply the FCC to an existing booking: https://www.ncl.com/cruise-faq/guest-make-a-new-booking-before-they-receive-the-FCC

 

They also could not tell me in advance which itineraries would qualify for the FCC. Example: does a TA that starts or ends in Europe qualify as a "Europe" itinerary? Do Iceland and Norway qualify? Does Britain qualify?

I wonder if they will issue a new past guest promotion on selected cruises that is valid from June 1 and might overlap with those that qualify for the 20% FCC.

Our CruiseNext certificates are already back in our account. We don't have an issue with expiration dates, as they are good until 2026.

 

Also, regarding what the Epic will be doing, I think the options they have are: 1) it's chartered for that period; 2) they're going to do some maintenance or refurbishment; 3) move it to a different market. This will be hard for them to move it somewhere for a winter season and fill up the ship with 6 months to go.

 

Side note: We sailed TA on the Epic from NY to Barcelona this past spring. Yes, the Epic has quirks, but all ships have some quirks. The Epic's quirks did not really bother me too much.

We would sail the Epic for Christmas/New Year ...even with the quirks ....not going to happen now.

[GLYNAGP]

4 hours ago, room with a view said:

Thanks .. sounds fabulous ...now going to find something to replace our cancelled cruise.  and to use our ( paid for but not now required) flights from Manchester to Venice and back from Lisbon .

Why don't you make a claim to NCL to recover the cost of flight the flights you purchased and not using because of their cancellation. I have 

[cruisincuzz]

20 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)

I rebooked already with one of Norwegian's agents.  I did not get the 20% yet, but he said to call on 6/1 and he will be able to apply it.  If he's wrong, I simply cancel and rebook.  I was afraid that if I waited until 6/1, I would be in the engine room.

[di T]

43 minutes ago, GLYNAGP said:

Why don't you make a claim to NCL to recover the cost of flight the flights you purchased and not using because of their cancellation. I have 

But did you book your flights through them? I booked mine through TAP for the Lisbon embarkation and home from Rome with British airways

[GLYNAGP]

30 minutes ago, di T said:

But did you book your flights through them? I booked mine through TAP for the Lisbon embarkation and home from Rome with British airways

No , I booked the flight myself with Easyjet . I have submitted a claim for these out of pocket expenses which have been brought about by a decision made by NCL of which I had no say in the matter.

I'm a massive NCL fan, but they do have a responsibility to  ensure we are not out of pocket due to their decision to cancel a cruise .

Call them for the link to make the claim you will need to upload the airline paperwork showing how much you paid. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 27, 2023 by GLYNAGP

[di T]

8 minutes ago, GLYNAGP said:

No , I booked the flight myself with Easyjet . I have submitted a claim for these out of pocket expenses which have been brought about by a decision made by NCL of which I had no say in the matter.

I'm a massive NCL fan, but they do have a responsibility to  ensure we are not out of pocket due to their decision to cancel a cruise .

Call them for the link to make the claim you will need to upload the airline paperwork showing how much you paid. 

 

 

 

 

Will give that a try, thankyou 

 

 

[di T]

Just now, di T said:

 

Did you have insurance through NCL?

[ChiefMateJRK]

46 minutes ago, GLYNAGP said:

I'm a massive NCL fan, but they do have a responsibility to  ensure we are not out of pocket due to their decision to cancel a cruise .

Is that spelled out somewhere in the terms and conditions?

[GLYNAGP]

2 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Is that spelled out somewhere in the terms and conditions?

I've really no idea, but it's not unreasonable to ask for out of pocket expenses to be refunded based on the fact that we're out of pocket due to their decision to redeploy the fleet. "If you don't ask you don't get." 

[GLYNAGP]

46 minutes ago, di T said:

Did you have insurance through NCL?

No. Actually at the moment I have no insurance for next January as I haven't renewed my annual travel insurance yet . 

[maren91]

Anyone know if you have a Europe cruise this year that's paid in full already if they will credit the 20%?

[maren91]

She's heading to Orlando as someone else speculated. Seems like a great deal on an inside cabin though! 😃

[Mississippian]

52 minutes ago, maren91 said:

She's heading to Orlando as someone else speculated. Seems like a great deal on an inside cabin though! 😃

Not really. The Haven is only twice as much!

 

I have been shopping for a T/A cruise. I suspect this will be the biggest bargain to be had when they finally get the pricing right. I will be sailing solo, so it doesn't matter that the bathroom is essentially open to the stateroom.