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Israeli Ports and The Gem

sailingships

By sailingships,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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OctoP

OctoP

Posted
Posted (edited)

@Dr_Moos I appreciate the information. I do feel bad for NCL’s customer service. Even one email from NCL could have avoided so many calls to them. A little communication really goes a long ways, even if it’s as simple as “We know you’re worried. We don’t have answers yet but we assure you we are working diligently to find the best solution, and will be in contact as soon as things are worked out.”  
 

Instead, it’s absolute crickets. Not one single email. I’m seeing so many comments on here about “The outcome is obvious so what are you whining about?” Nothing about it is obvious. We’re at their mercy. Not only that, we’re trying to piece things together from what different  told after calling in, and other sleuthing skills. I’d always heard great things about NCL but this is not their finest hour.

 

ETA - our cruise coordinator and the customer service reps have been wonderful. This is no criticism of them. NCL has out the entire weight of customer communication on their shoulders and they’ve been nothing but professional and kind to us.

Edited by OctoP
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Jetstreamer

Jetstreamer

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Posted
17 hours ago, Dr_Moos said:

I am on the same Nov. 1, GEM cruise.  After the Alexandria incident, I am not sure if my party feels comfortable to go to that part of the world anymore. I contacted NCL customer service and asked to be transferred to NCL STAR doing Lisbon-Lisbon cruise with the same sailing date as Gem.  I hold the reservation for that cruise as option. Nice lady told me that she can not do it right now, because I would be a subject to cancellation policy and loose most of the fare money. But on Monday the company will decide on Egypt ports for GEM and offer options. She also mentioned that full refund might be offered. She also extended my reservation option with STAR until Oct. 18. We'll see what happens on Monday...  

It seems other cruise ships are still calling in Alexandria (e.g. Mein Schiff 2 today). So I would hope NCL don't cancel Egypt at this point. I'd much rather they wait and see and give us every chance of stopping there. 

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PBM13

PBM13

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31 minutes ago, Jetstreamer said:

It seems other cruise ships are still calling in Alexandria (e.g. Mein Schiff 2 today). So I would hope NCL don't cancel Egypt at this point. I'd much rather they wait and see and give us every chance of stopping there. 

Just seen that the Rhapsody of the seas has docked in Haifa.  It could be a evac. 

Screenshot 2023-10-16 090406.png

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OctoP

OctoP

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5 hours ago, Jetstreamer said:

It seems other cruise ships are still calling in Alexandria (e.g. Mein Schiff 2 today). So I would hope NCL don't cancel Egypt at this point. I'd much rather they wait and see and give us every chance of stopping there. 

How do you look this up? I’d love to be able to track this myself. 

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sailingships

sailingships

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1 minute ago, OctoP said:

How do you look this up? I’d love to be able to track this myself. 

CruiseHive has a tracker page. Mein Schiff is showing at Alexandria and Rhapsody of the Seas is at Haifa sent by the US govt to take the stranded Americans to Cypress.

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sailingships

sailingships

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11 minutes ago, LadyWalkTall said:

I am also traveling on the Gem November 1st. I wish NCL would keep passengers in the loop. If they cancel the ports in Egypt then my party is not interested in going. 

Our cruises are Nov 11th and 22nd. A couple of days ago I was told any moment we could get an Email . Just now I was told November cruises would get an Email in a week or 2. 

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Dr_Moos

Dr_Moos

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15 hours ago, sailingships said:

Our cruises are Nov 11th and 22nd. A couple of days ago I was told any moment we could get an Email . Just now I was told November cruises would get an Email in a week or 2. 

Great..., what UK office told me couple of days ago was that they will publish options for November cruises yesterday - Oct 16. It's not only that the cruise becomes almost non interesting without Israel and Egypt , but some people might not feel comfortable traveling to that part of the world, The situation might worsen until Nov. 1.  It looks like they will wait until very end, until our flight  modifications become impossible or much more expensive. Hope someone will publish something here soon...  

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LadyWalkTall

LadyWalkTall

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It appears that the US and the UK have a substantial military buildup in the Mediterranean. The US has sent TWO aircraft carriers and their striker groups to the area. 
 

At this point, I think Norwegian is patiently waiting for people to cancel. 

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OctoP

OctoP

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1 minute ago, LadyWalkTall said:

It appears that the US and the UK have a substantial military buildup in the Mediterranean. The US has sent TWO aircraft carriers and their striker groups to the area. 
 

At this point, I think Norwegian is patiently waiting for people to cancel. 


People won’t/can’t cancel because they’ll lose all their money. 
 

I was so excited this morning when I saw an email from NCL in my inbox. That excitement died when I saw it was just an ad for their credit card.  

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Dr_Moos

Dr_Moos

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Posted

New warships are arriving. Few days from now there will be a total of at least 10 US warships in the area. If they force us to cruise Greek islands, it will be a cruise between aircraft carriers, destroyers, frigates and many other interesting things to see... 

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yakcruiser

yakcruiser

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Dr_Moos said:

New warships are arriving. Few days from now there will be a total of at least 10 US warships in the area. If they force us to cruise Greek islands, it will be a cruise between aircraft carriers, destroyers, frigates and many other interesting things to see... 

You will be well protected.

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PBM13

PBM13

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3 hours ago, CiCi1328 said:

Why hasn't NCL updated their passengers leaving from Istanbul to Israel, Egypt and other countries. I chose original intiernary. I paid to visit those countries. If I'm not going there give me a refund!

Have they said they will not refund. 

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Turtles06 Great Review Rare

Turtles06

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, CiCi1328 said:

Why hasn't NCL updated their passengers leaving from Istanbul to Israel, Egypt and other countries. I chose original intiernary. I paid to visit those countries. If I'm not going there give me a refund!


Do you seriously think NCL is not working on this right now?  It’s not a simple matter for a cruise line to change an itinerary with little notice and time, especially when it’s suddenly dealing with a war zone and all of the day to day unpredictability of what is going on in the region. 
 


 

 

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LadyWalkTall

LadyWalkTall

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3 hours ago, Turtles06 said:


Do you seriously think NCL is not working on this right now?  It’s not a simple matter for a cruise line to change an itinerary with little notice and time, especially when it’s suddenly dealing with a war zone and all of the day to day unpredictability of what is going on in the region. 
 


 

 

You act like NCL is moderating the peace agreement. NCL isn’t working in a war zone. 
 

NCL has already announced that all cruises embarking and debarking from Israel have been canceled or changed and all stops in Israel have been discontinued through the end of 2023. 


I’ve seen reports that some sailings have been canceled with full refunds. I’ve seen reports that Israelis citizens are eligible for a full refund on any cruise sailing from any port.

 

So excuse us if we think we are entitled to the smallest amount of customer service and just a sliver of information on a cruise that I will leave for in just 12 days. 
 


 

 

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RD64

RD64

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NCL isn’t working within a war zone, but their ships were scheduled to operate in a war zone - and now they must make logistical decisions based on this constantly developing geopolitical event. A decision made today may have to be changed several times by this evening.

 

Now, please correct me if I am wrong, but to my knowledge the only Israeli cruises that were cancelled (and totally refunded) were those by RCL that sailed roundtrip from Haifa and catered to the local Israeli market. 

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LadyWalkTall

LadyWalkTall

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4 minutes ago, RD64 said:

NCL isn’t working within a war zone, but their ships were scheduled to operate in a war zone - and now they must make logistical decisions based on this constantly developing geopolitical event. A decision made today may have to be changed several times by this evening.

 

Now, please correct me if I am wrong, but to my knowledge the only Israeli cruises that were cancelled (and totally refunded) were those by RCL that sailed roundtrip from Haifa and catered to the local Israeli market. 

My understanding from talking with NCL is  passengers on the Epic could receive refunds.  The information about Israeli citizens getting refunds came from an article on Cruise Hive. 
 

https://www.cruisehive.com/norwegian-cruise-line-cancels-all-remaining-israel-calls/113273

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OctoP

OctoP

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5 hours ago, PBM13 said:

Have they said they will not refund. 

Yes. When I called customer service and asked if I had the option to cancel or reschedule because I was concerned about traveling in or near a war zone. They said I could, but they would not refund anything.

 

The right thing for them to do would be to allow the option to reschedule for a future date. I’m not even talking about a refund. Just apply the funds to a future sailing. Those that felt comfortable going could still go. Those that didn’t want to take the risk could reschedule.
 

At this point, I don’t expect they will do the right thing and allow us to make this choice. We will never go on a cruise with them again, knowing this is how they treat their customers. They won’t care but it’s the one and only thing we have control over. 

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