Cancellation of cruise in the Middle East

[Vineyard View]

3 hours ago, EJL2023 said:

Have you canceled your cruise on Marina yet??  This situation here seems to indicate you have no confidence in Oceania any longer based upon your numerous postings on several threads with this topic. Just seems it is causing unneeded stress and assume you are more comfortable at this point not trying Oceania??

Seriously considering it. 

[Charlene Jones]

Here is info I posted on the Nautica roll call.  Please email these reporters with your story.  Also, email the head of NCL Corp. - Harry Sommer - at HSommer@nclcorp.com.  

 

 

[EJL2023]

23 minutes ago, Vineyard View said:

Seriously considering it. 

You really should. Just seems too stressful of a situation for you unfortunately. 

Edited October 31, 2023 by EJL2023

[Vineyard View]

Just now, EJL2023 said:

You really should. 

Thank you for your input. 

[sunlover12]

On 10/26/2023 at 9:31 PM, Charlene Jones said:

Sounds like Celebrity understands the lifetime value of its customers. Oceania seems to want to learn that lesson the hard way.  

The realtime difference between Celebrity and Oceania is profit. Celebrity, which is owned by RCI  is profitable. Oceania, which is owned by NCLH is losing money.  Looks like Celebrity has the cash to refund customers for changed itineraries and Oceania does not.  I'm not making excuses for anyone but I don't think this has to do with understanding the lifetime value of customers.  

 

Maybe this is a lesson for us to check the financial statements of the cruise lines before we book. 

[elease2]

On 10/20/2023 at 1:51 PM, Mary229 said:

If they will let you roll your funds to another trip I would definitely do that now.  Flight credits/vouchers are usually good for one year. 

They have now taken all refunds and FCCs off the table now.  Either you go on this war-zone trip with a deserted Greek itinerary with 9 consecutive sea days or lose your money.  End of story.

[elease2]

On 10/30/2023 at 8:25 AM, English Tim said:

We’ve just enjoyed a wonderful cruise, where favourite ports were exchanged due to the unfortunate conflict in Israel. I spoke with a lot of people on the cruise and they all understood the situation and were happy they were not in Israel.
 

There would appear to be a good number of people on this forum who are not giving enough consideration to the many thousands of people affected by this war.

 

No cruise is a bad cruise, they may not go where we want them to go but the service is always fantastic as are the facilities. The weather will still be decent and God willing you’ll be alive at the end of your cruise.

 

Cruise lines are still recovering from the losses of Covid and everyone needs to give them some slack. So cut out all the moaning and groaning and look forward to a different voyage.

When you spend over $30K to do a deserted Greek Island tour with 9 CONSECUTIVE sea days, that's more than just a couple of missed ports.  It's a REALLY expensive bait and switch and I for one, am NOT here for it.

[elease2]

On 10/26/2023 at 11:24 AM, Mary229 said:

I have had so much hope for Oceana since NCLH bought them.  NCL was our favorite in our youth and we so wanted to like Oceana.   Their lack of customer service and sometimes just downright hostility to customers is unacceptable 

This would have been our first O cruise.  Because of the unique destinations, we were willing to pay top dollar.  After this fiasco, I can promise you, we will NEVER book another NCL affiliated cruise line ever again.  AND I will tell everyone I know to stay away from their shady business practices!  It would have been so easy for them to just keep our money and offer the FCCs.  They would have retained customer loyalty and impressed new customers with the O experience and level of customer service.

[Mary229]

1 minute ago, elease2 said:

This would have been our first O cruise.  Because of the unique destinations, we were willing to pay top dollar.  After this fiasco, I can promise you, we will NEVER book another NCL affiliated cruise line ever again.  AND I will tell everyone I know to stay away from their shady business practices!  It would have been so easy for them to just keep our money and offer the FCCs.  They would have retained customer loyalty and impressed new customers with the O experience and level of customer service.

Yea, it was a very disappointing experience for us but yours is devastating.  I would be furious

[Mary229]

24 minutes ago, elease2 said:

They have now taken all refunds and FCCs off the table now.  Either you go on this war-zone trip with a deserted Greek itinerary with 9 consecutive sea days or lose your money.  End of story.

How about your flights, have you spoken with the airline?  

[Prosecco220]

Didn’t read the Oceania contract? SUCKER!

 

Well, that’s us. For successful, educated world travelers, NOT understanding Oceania/NCLH’s legal obligations before committing $40,000 to this cruise vacation was stupid. 

 

In a nutshell, Oceania/Regent/Norwegian can change the embarkation from, say, Istanbul, to anywhere else in the world. The same with debarkation. They can, at will, change the ports of call, and/or choose NOT to stop anywhere, at all. In essence, they can change our Holy Land and Middle East cruise to floating around the Bahamas for 22 days on any ship of their choosing. (See section 4 of the Ticket Contract.)

 

Want to sue? Oh no, you’ve limited yourself to binding arbitration and mediation in Miami. Regardless, you automatically signed away ALL YOUR RIGHTS when you PAID for this cruise. And if you bought trip insurance, they consider this situation “Acts of War or Political Unrest” so your claim will be denied. (Yet Oceania will sail a ship full of rich westerners down the Red Sea, past rocket launching crazies, to position their boat for its next cruise to Asia.)

 

I’d like to blame our underpaid travel agent,  but she, in reality, works for the cruise companies and airlines who provide trips and spiffs to incentivize them. We were not warned that “Upon booking, (paying), you agree to be bound by all the terms and conditions…” That was a surprise, but we’re smart, successful people, right? SUCKER! Read the contract first. 

[Mary229]

9 minutes ago, Prosecco220 said:

Didn’t read the Oceania contract? SUCKER!

 

Well, that’s us. For successful, educated world travelers, NOT understanding Oceania/NCLH’s legal obligations before committing $40,000 to this cruise vacation was stupid. 

 

In a nutshell, Oceania/Regent/Norwegian can change the embarkation from, say, Istanbul, to anywhere else in the world. The same with debarkation. They can, at will, change the ports of call, and/or choose NOT to stop anywhere, at all. In essence, they can change our Holy Land and Middle East cruise to floating around the Bahamas for 22 days on any ship of their choosing. (See section 4 of the Ticket Contract.)

 

Want to sue? Oh no, you’ve limited yourself to binding arbitration and mediation in Miami. Regardless, you automatically signed away ALL YOUR RIGHTS when you PAID for this cruise. And if you bought trip insurance, they consider this situation “Acts of War or Political Unrest” so your claim will be denied. (Yet Oceania will sail a ship full of rich westerners down the Red Sea, past rocket launching crazies, to position their boat for its next cruise to Asia.)

 

I’d like to blame our underpaid travel agent,  but she, in reality, works for the cruise companies and airlines who provide trips and spiffs to incentivize them. We were not warned that “Upon booking, (paying), you agree to be bound by all the terms and conditions…” That was a surprise, but we’re smart, successful people, right? SUCKER! Read the contract first. 

That was covered and all cruise lines have similar contracts.  The issue has been that promises were made then rescinded.   

[Harry Lake]

1 hour ago, Mary229 said:

That was covered and all cruise lines have similar contracts.  The issue has been that promises were made then rescinded.   

And while nothing illegal seems to have occurred, there's the ethics - or lack thereof. I think social media could have a big voice here.

[Abby0651]

SERIOUSLY, I would rather float around the Bahamas with a chance to swim and snorkel than go on this DANGEROUS 30 day cruise

[Harry Lake]

2 minutes ago, Abby0651 said:

SERIOUSLY, I would rather float around the Bahamas with a chance to swim and snorkel than go on this DANGEROUS 30 day cruise

But this doesn't have to be either/or.  Oh, the cruise as it stands now probably isn't dangerous. If it becomes that I'm betting O will change it yet again. ALL sea days.?

[tobique33040]

I’m fairly new to ocean cruises so I’m not experienced like so many of you with 10, 20 or more cruises behind you. You are very fortunate that you’ve never had any problems at all. I guess the world is rapidly changing and maybe cruising is not the best way to travel? I’m on here because I was considering Oceania. I’ve only been on Viking and love it but was looking for different itineraries. There have been a LOT of complaints on the Viking forum about the diverted Mideast cruises. So far I believe that people have to either cancel the cruises themselves or  accept the new itineraries. So they are apparently following a similar plan to Oceania. So someone said all the other lines are offering refunds. Which are those because I’d be interested in considering them in future. Thank y’all. 

[S4POPO]

I believe the cruise lines providing refunds are those that have sailings further out into 2024 (outside of penalty window) or those that cancelled their upcoming sailings entirely.  The "grey" area has been the sailings that had Israel ports replaced with something else.  This might mean an itinerary completely different from original intent or additional sea days.

Edited November 1, 2023 by S4POPO

[PhD-iva]

1 hour ago, tobique33040 said:

I’m fairly new to ocean cruises so I’m not experienced like so many of you with 10, 20 or more cruises behind you. You are very fortunate that you’ve never had any problems at all. I guess the world is rapidly changing and maybe cruising is not the best way to travel? I’m on here because I was considering Oceania. I’ve only been on Viking and love it but was looking for different itineraries. There have been a LOT of complaints on the Viking forum about the diverted Mideast cruises. So far I believe that people have to either cancel the cruises themselves or  accept the new itineraries. So they are apparently following a similar plan to Oceania. So someone said all the other lines are offering refunds. Which are those because I’d be interested in considering them in future. Thank y’all. 

One of the very large mass market cruise lines had short four or five day cruises that were round-trip out of Haifa. Those cruises were canceled. There could also be other ones I’m not aware of….

[tobique33040]

It just seems like on this forum people feel that Oceania is the outlier in not offering complete refunds for changed itineraries. When I was on my first of three Viking cruises, we couldn’t dock at one important port because of fog. So that was that. We just moved on, no recompense for it. I just assumed that was cruising. But people here feel that Oceania must refund because they will miss several ports. I just want to know if Oceania and apparently Viking are the only ones not offering refunds. Only it sounds that way from people saying they will never use Oceania again because of this. I’m pretty reticent to use them now too. 

[Harry Lake]

47 minutes ago, tobique33040 said:

I just want to know if Oceania and apparently Viking are the only ones not offering refunds.

The original account had O offering some people either FCC or a refund. And then a couple of days later they rescinded that offer. And removing ports was accompanied by nine sea days.

[Pandazoo]

@tobique33040 I encourage reading the ticket contract for each cruise line you consider.  

[Charlene Jones]

48 minutes ago, Harry Lake said:

The original account had O offering some people either FCC or a refund. And then a couple of days later they rescinded that offer. And removing ports was accompanied by nine sea days.

Viking is currently offering FCCs to customers impacted by similar circumstances. I will argue that there is a difference between cancelling a port in route because of last minute circumstances and completely changing an itinerary a month before departure.  

[Harry Lake]

2 minutes ago, Charlene Jones said:

Viking is currently offering FCCs to customers impacted by similar circumstances. I will argue that there is a difference between cancelling a port in route because of last minute circumstances and completely changing an itinerary a month before departure.  

Here's an article that's been posted before that gives more detail.

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/cruise-israel-egypt-jordan-oman-b2438446.html

[tobique33040]

Thanks for all the input. Nine sea days for a 2 week trip, unless a transatlantic crossing, is a lot. Sorry for everyone’s disappointment. 

[Prosecco220]

As you say, factors arise during a cruise that may force the ship to avoid a port. That is understandable. However, if Viking knew a FULL MONTH AHEAD that a cruise could not stop in ANY of the scheduled ports, I feel sure they would cancel the cruise and give refunds. Oceania is trying to salvage this pretty expensive Holy Lands and Middle East trip by abandoning the original itinerary and substituting an entirely different cruise, Greek Islands, and refusing to let us reschedule. Plus, in order to reposition their ship and not lose money, they’re subjecting their customers to 9 days sailing through a war zone. Unconscionable!