Filing an insurance claim

[justsayinisall]

Hi Everyone. Back in January my hubs and I took a 7-day cruise out of Galveston on the Prima. All arrangements were made via NCL as this was a "free cruise" received via Encore casino, in Boston. NCL handled the flight and port transfer arrangements. We were scheduled to dock at 8am and our flight home was scheduled at 12:25pm. I didn't think that would be enough breathing room but whatever, NCL knows what they are doing, they do this all the time, or so I thought. 

 

The ship docked early because of high winds and we were given the earliest departure time for people with checked luggage, time was 7:30am.

 

Well, I think NCL failed to realize how many people carried off their own luggage (they were allowed the first timeslot to exit the ship). We waited for our assigned tag color to be called and got in line. We entered the line around 830am (again, when we were called).

 

It took us close to 2 hours to get off the ship because of the line, that dang thing wound through the halls, in one side of the casino and out the other, it was insane!

 

If you ever sailed out of Galveston, you know that it's about an hour to the airport. Long story short, we missed checking our luggage, therefore also missed our flight, by THREE MINUTES!!

 

Delta was not able to get us on another flight until the following afternoon so we ended up getting a hotel for the night and begged our pet-sitter to stay another day.

 

I recently filed a claim with Aon (the insurance that NCL added to my reservation without asking-I thought it was a lucky break lol) and Aon said this: "Please provide written verification from Norwegian Cruise Line and/or the bus transfer company stating the duration and the circumstances surrounding the delay of your arrival at the airport causing you to miss your flight."

 

I contacted NCL guest services, via email, and informed them what I needed. According to the supervisor (I had to escalate), NCL Prima was in port early, people were lining up to exit ship at 630am, and they will do nothing, not even give me a letter explaining that there was a delay.

 

THEY made all the arrangements; I don't understand them. I'm just disgusted and I'm wondering if any of you nice people know where I can go from here? 

 

I also have a TA scheduled with NCL in December that I'm seriously thinking about cancelling, do you guys know if I get my full deposit, and other payments I've made already, back?

Edited May 1 by justsayinisall

[The Traveling Man]

6 minutes ago, justsayinisall said:

Hi Everyone. Back in January my hubs and I took a 7-day cruise out of Galveston on the Prima. All arrangements were made via NCL as this was a "free cruise" received via Encore casino, in Boston. NCL handled the flight and port transfer arrangements. We were scheduled to dock at 8am and our flight home was scheduled at 12:25pm. I didn't think that would be enough breathing room but whatever, NCL knows what they are doing, they do this all the time, or so I thought. 

 

The ship docked early because of high winds and we were given the earliest departure time for people with checked luggage, time was 7:30am.

 

Well, I think NCL failed to realize how many people carried off their own luggage (they were allowed the first timeslot to exit the ship). We waited for our assigned tag color to be called and got in line. We entered the line around 830am (again, when we were called).

 

It took us close to 2 hours to get off the ship because of the line, that dang thing wound through the halls, in one side of the casino and out the other, it was insane!

 

If you ever sailed out of Galveston, you know that it's about an hour to the airport. Long story short, we missed checking our luggage, therefore also missed our flight, by THREE MINUTES!!

 

Delta was not able to get us on another flight until the following afternoon so we ended up getting a hotel for the night and begged our pet-sitter to stay another day.

 

I recently filed a claim with Aon (the insurance that NCL added to my reservation without asking-I thought it was a lucky break lol) and Aon said this: "Please provide written verification from Norwegian Cruise Line and/or the bus transfer company stating the duration and the circumstances surrounding the delay of your arrival at the airport causing you to miss your flight."

 

I contacted NCL guest services, via email, and informed them what I needed. According to the supervisor (I had to escalate), NCL Prima was in port early, people were lining up to exit ship at 630am, and they will do nothing, not even give me a letter explaining that there was a delay.

 

THEY made all the arrangements; I don't understand them. I'm just disgusted and I'm wondering if any of you nice people know where I can go from here? 

 

I also have a TA scheduled with NCL in December that I'm seriously thinking about cancelling, do you guys know if I get my full deposit, and other payments I've made already, back?

Welcome to Cruise Critic.  Sorry to hear about your difficulties.  Unfortunately, your experience is not atypical.  This forum is filled with many stories similar to yours. 

 

First, NCL has no control over the airline.  They simply are acting in the place of your travel agent to arrange your flight.  Once you are booked on a flight, they essentially wash their hands of the matter.  If problems occur, "that's on you" seems to be their attitude.  This is unfortunate, of course, but not uncommon.

 

NCL also serves as an agent for you in arranging travel insurance.  NCL does not furnish the insurance, so they can claim no responsibility for the actions of the insurance company.  That company may deny a claim or make it difficult to justify a claim, as you indicate that yours did to you.  Once again, sorry, but ship happens.

 

There are a few ports which have earned a well deserved reputation for causing delays upon debarkation.  We have not sailed out of Galveston, but we have heard of this happening to others who did.  It seems to be a frequent occurrence in Miami, particularly on cruises that visit certain Caribbean or South American countries.  We experienced an almost two hour delay exiting the Pr1ma in Southampton, England in September, 2022.  It happens sometimes, so if you have a tight connection, be aware.

 

Knowing that you had a bus to catch, a long commute to the airport, and a relatively early flight, you might have asked for an earlier debarkation time slot.  Yes, I know, hindsight is 20/20, and you probably had no prior indication of the bottle neck that could occur.  Unfortunately, now you know.  We learned that lesson the hard way, too.  On that Pr1ma trip to Southampton, we had booked a National Express bus from Southampton to Heathrow.  We thought that more than two hours would be plenty of time to catch a taxi to take us the half-mile from the pier to the bus station.  Boy, were we ever wrong.  We stood in line almost two full hours just to get off the ship.  When we missed our bus by just a couple of minutes, we ended up paying another $175 for that taxi to take us all the way to the airport.  NCL turned an equally deaf ear to our predicament. 

 

So, all of this is not what you asked for, a suggestion as to how you might pursue a successful resolution of your situation.  I wish I had better news for you, but unfortunately I don't.  I can give you the contact information for someone at NCL who may be able to help, but I would caution you not to get your hopes too high.

 

Ms. Katty Byrd

NCL Senior Vice President, Guest Services

kbyrd@ncl.com

 

Good luck and best wishes.  I hope you spend some time reading many of the other threads on this forum, picking up tidbits of helpful advice from others who have gone this way before you.

[hallux]

32 minutes ago, justsayinisall said:

do you guys know if I get my full deposit, and other payments I've made already, back?

I can't speak to the rest of it, except to say that it would be REALLY nice if Aon would not be so strict about this 'written documentation' thing (and that's THEM, not NCL).  Sadly, for all Aon knows, you chose to take your time getting off the ship rather than getting off when disembarkation started.  I did self walk-off with my bags on my cruise in Feb. and was also stuck in such a line, note to self, grab a picture showing the line next time.

 

As for the quoted text, if you're before final payment you should be able to get every penny back!

[hallux]

3 minutes ago, The Traveling Man said:

you might have asked for an earlier debarkation time slot.

Re-read their post, they had the EARLIEST!

[The Traveling Man]

4 minutes ago, hallux said:

Re-read their post, they had the EARLIEST!

Yes, I noticed that.  If they had been willing to carry their own luggage, however, they could have joined the line to debark much earlier than they did.

Edited May 1 by The Traveling Man

[RocketMan275]

44 minutes ago, justsayinisall said:

THEY made all the arrangements; I don't understand them. I'm just disgusted and I'm wondering if any of you nice people know where I can go from here? 

 

I also have a TA scheduled with NCL in December that I'm seriously thinking about cancelling, do you guys know if I get my full deposit, and other payments I've made already, back?

I doubt any other cruise line or insurance company would treat this any different.