Cancelled Dawn Cruisers: What did you do?

[vowsatsea]

Just a quick poll because I'm curious as to what everyone did after their 5/26 and 6/2 cruises were cancelled.

[jentroubles]

I had little choice in the matter, short of giving up on lots of $$$$.

 

On my last cruise I bought into the $250 Rewards program. Credit needed to be used.

 

I was left standing at the dock in Charleston when they cancelled the majesty New Year's cruise. $350 waiting there.

 

Add the "generous" cough cough hack compensation of $188 from the cancelled Dawn cruise--- it totals up to quite a bit.

 

And sorry---all the credits hardly cover a week of vacation ruined over new year's and cruising on a boat I really don't want (the dawn dates do not work with our work schedule)

 

AFTER this cruise is over--it will be a whole other story. I am thoroughly disgusted with NCL and will probably not cruise with them. (I won't even get into the disaster of trying to hold a room tonight)

[Cosmopolitan's Li'l Sis]

Once we had a chance to process the fact that the cruise had, in fact, been canceled, (after listening to the message left by NCL on our answering machine), my husband called NCL on Friday afternoon, in an attempt to reschedule our cruise for 6/9, which ironically, we had originally booked (and changed to 6/2 due to a scheduling conflict). He was told that nothing could be done until Monday, for a variety of reasons. Believe me when I tell you that nothing they told him was acceptable to us; he was persistent that he did not want a reimbursement, but wanted our cruise booked for 6/9. After my husband was disconnected once and then requested to speak to a supervisor upon calling again, NCL finally agreed to put a "hold" on our suite for the 6/9 cruise (which was available); DH will be calling again first thing in the morning to deal with the payment situation, since we had already submitted our final payment. This being our 27 year anniversary cruise, as well as our first cruise together, my husband vows we will be getting on that ship on the 9th if we have to stowaway. LOL

Believe me, we were extremely upset on Friday; infuriated is putting it mildly. :mad:

This is our first vacation alone since our honeymoon, almost 27 years and 5 kids ago. We've spent much time and energy working out the details of our kids' schedules for that week, my husbands' jobs (for which he needs to provide coverage), etc.; not to mention both of us working even more to put the money together to go on the cruise to begin with. If for some reason this plan does not work out, DH vows he will never even consider cruising NCL ever again! Had I not cruised with my sisters on the DAWN once before, I would never believe anything could be worth the upsettment and anger we felt on Friday. We just can't let our cruise go without a fight, or we might not be able to plan another one, anytime soon.

 

GOOD LUCK to anyone fighting the same fight.

[nyyleeroy]

Anyway, as to the question, I hope to have confirmation today, but am trying to get onto the 5/19 Spirit out of NY. Cosmo, like your husband, I was told they couldn't re-book us on Friday, but they were able to confirm that there was a strong chance that the trip would be sold out by today, and that if it wasn't it probably would be more expensive due to increased demand. The ultimate irony though, was that when I asked why I couldn't re-book until today, I was given another number to call and told that the department was closed for the weekend (this was around 4:30 Friday afternoon). Thankfully, my TA was able to get an "extended" hold on a Spirit cabin (not sure why NCL couldn't do this for me). The 19th and 26th are really our only options due to business trips, etc. that we have coming up, and the 5/19 Miracle is sold out (can't do the Miracle on the 27th though, as we have to be back at work on Monday 6/4, which is the last day of that trip). If we can't get on the Spirit for the 19th, we'll have to look into an all inclusive or some other land-only vacation.

 

This was going to be my first NCL cruise (our 5th anniversary vacation, first trip of any kind since a long weekend 2.5 years ago, and first "real" vacation since our honeymoon)...IF we can get on the Spirit for the 19th, I'm going to have to be completely blown away in order to consider NCL ever again.

[icequeen4700]

We had no problem rebooking on the Spirit this weekend, and were given the 25% discount on the spot for the 5/26 cruise. We were able to upgrade from a window to a balcony room, and saved over $500! Although we are disappointed about the Dawn, this is our vacation and we will make the best out of it!I think its going to be a great cruise, and if anyone is going with kids around the 3-6 year old range, please let me know, my daughter wants to meet some new friends!

[electricron]

We had no problem rebooking on the Spirit this weekend, and were given the 25% discount on the spot for the 5/26 cruise. We were able to upgrade from a window to a balcony room, and saved over $500! Although we are disappointed about the Dawn, this is our vacation and we will make the best out of it!I think its going to be a great cruise, and if anyone is going with kids around the 3-6 year old range, please let me know, my daughter wants to meet some new friends!

You went from an oceanview on the Dawn to a balcony on the Spirit and saved $500? Sounds like you got a great deal!

Is this a 6 day or 8 day cruise on the Spirit?

[icequeen4700]

its a 6 day, so we did lose a day... but at least we are going away right!!!

[GeekyMom]

Best wishes to you all! I would be very upset too with the planning, searching and scheduling involved in booking a cruise like this.

 

I hope everyone of you find a better deal and cruise; turning lemons into lemonade! :)

[nyyleeroy]

You went from an oceanview on the Dawn to a balcony on the Spirit and saved $500? Sounds like you got a great deal!

Is this a 6 day or 8 day cruise on the Spirit?

 

Let's not forget that the 5/27 Spirit was a less expensive sailing than the Dawn to begin with. When I was looking (~3 weeks ago), there was a difference of ~400 per person between the 5/26 Dawn and 5/27 Spirit.

 

Based on the quotes I got for the Spirit in mid-March, it looks as though prices are up across the board...~$100 pp for an oceanview and ~$200 pp for a balcony.

 

Icequeen, congrats on the re-booking, the better cabin and the "extra" $500 spending money for your cruise...with any luck, we'll be in a balcony on the Spirit a week before you. I'll try not to make too big a mess :-)

[dkstar]

Just dont get booked on deck 11 midship. You will be right below the pool area and if you are a light sleeper you will hear alot of noise. We did stay up late and missed alot of music noise from the pool parties however they spray the pool deck down in the early morning and it sounds like the ceiling will cave in. Also they rearrange the deck chairs so you will hear alot of chair scraping. It really did not bother us at all but it might bother others who are light sleepers. HAve FUN. The Spirit was a great ship we cruised 3/18 -3/24 2007

[mkiwi20]

We were booked for the 7-day Dawn leaving 6/2 and I called up Friday night and booked us on the 8-day Spirit leaving 6/2. With our refund, and the 25% discount, we saved ourselves $200 and we are now 5 cabin categories above what we were on the Dawn! So, we made out well, but I’m still disappointed we won’t be on the Dawn.

 

I'm surprised some of you were told you couldn't re-book until Monday, we had no problem with the re-booking process this weekend.

[Cosmopolitan's Li'l Sis]

RE: My posting of 12:48 a.m. this morning -

 

Okay....I'm happy to report that the "hold" that NCL put on our original, AVAILABLE suite on Friday, for the following week's sailing of the DAWN (6/9), is all good! Guess we were meant to sail on 6/9 after all.

 

:) We ended up saving $1026 and were given a $76 OBC per person. Not sure how the OBC was calculated.....DH left for a business trip yesterday and called me today to say he spoke with NCL, but did not have time to relay all the details to me, as he had to return to his conference. Will find out later and report.

 

We're just thrilled that we were able to RE-book for our original cruise of 6/9 and are able to move our arrangements up a week again. Guess we'll get to celebrate our 27th wedding anniversary after all!

 

Who knows? Maybe there was a reason that none of us were supposed to be sailing on 5/26 or 6/2.

WE surely didn't go into planning a cruise, expecting to end up with a discount. Pleasant surprise AND my DH said the NCL gentleman who helped him with our arrangements could not have been more pleasant nor helpful.

 

So glad we're making lemonade with Friday's lemons!!!! :D

 

Sincerely hope you're all doing the same....whether it's on or off the DAWN!

We're just glad NCL didn't let us down in the end!

 

nyyleeroy: Please keep us posted about that Spirit booking for 5/19 that you're trying to get. Keeping my fingers crossed for you!

AND don't be like me and my DH.....GO on as many vacations as you can together. Don't wait for your 27th anniversary to celebrate them ALL! ;)

 

Good luck!

[Maryfrei]

It really is great to start hearing some happy endings:)!

[nyyleeroy]

Thanks Cosmo, and congrats on the re-booking (and the 27 years...I sometimes have trouble thinking I'll even be ALIVE 22 years from now, let alone still married :o).

 

The latest from my end - I called the TA this morning and the hold was still on. I spent ~10 minutes on hold while she was trying to nail everything down with the NCL rep, at which point she said she'd call me back due to apparent "system issues" at Norwegian. I offered to hold, but (thankfully) she didn't want me to be put out anymore than I already had. My callback came around 3.5 hours later. We're still not "done," but I'm kinda-sorta booked on the 19th. They took my deposit, but won't take full payment until they've processed the 25% credit from the Dawn. According to the TA, they still haven't figured out how they're going to process payment for the re-booking (take payment in full and then refund the original purchase, or keep the original charge on and just refund me the difference - considering I put it on a credit card, it really doesn't matter either way).

 

TA said she hasn't seen anything quite this messy in many years (she used the term "backward" and a colleague of hers referred to it as "an unfortunate cluster.

 

At this point, I'm happy with the perception that I have a vacation coming up...best of luck to those still looking.

 

All together with the discount and lower fare on the Spirit, we're saving ~$800 (which I'm sure we'll spend on board)...cue Don and the others to tell me how fortunate I am to have a new cruise and be saving money...$800 is nice...I just hope the frustration, aggravation and uncertainty we experienced since Friday is worth it.

[shoreguy]

It really is great to start hearing some happy endings:)!

 

More are on the way :) This is really day one of sorting out this mess.:eek:

[mbisson]

More are on the way :) This is really day one of sorting out this mess.:eek:

 

Sometimes, it seems, we all sort of just jump to conclusions (convulsions ;) ) on both sides of an issue when we see initial postings and potential problems. And then things start working themselves out and it's often not as bad as it originally seemed.

[Jess&Chris]

We were able to book a room on the 5/27 Spirit when the Dawn cancelled our May 26th sailing. We were able to put a temporary hold on a room friday afternoon and then we were able to actually book and pay for the room on Saturday morning through the consultant that had booked our cancelled cruise. This is going to be our honeymoon and originally we had an oceanview room on the Dawn and now have a balcony room on the Spirit and after our 25% credit for a future cruise, we are actually saving about $350.00. Good luck to everyone that is looking to rebook and hopefully we will see some of you on the 5/27 Spirit!

[smeck]

While not a veteran of many cruises like most of you, I've been on Three NCL cruises dating back to 1988. I'll be very hestitant to book again with NCL. Our last cruise on the Star last July to Alaska was great but had to sweat out a Star drydock for the very same reason as the Dawn. In two weeks a Disney cruise awaits us, I only mention this as a reminder to NCL of possible business they could be loosing. I'm appalled how NCL has handled this situation. While vessel maint. can't be avoided or predicted, customers gave NCL their hard earned money expecting to get what they pay for. The fact that NCL wants the customer to fork over more money for the same accomadations through no fault of their own is insane. NCL now stands for No Customer service line. Their are to many cruise lines competing for the same dollars.

[vowsatsea]

I'm glad a lot of you were able to get everything worked out! :D

[shoreguy]

While not a veteran of many cruises like most of you, I've been on Three NCL cruises dating back to 1988. I'll be very hestitant to book again with NCL. Our last cruise on the Star last July to Alaska was great but had to sweat out a Star drydock for the very same reason as the Dawn. In two weeks a Disney cruise awaits us, I only mention this as a reminder to NCL of possible business they could be loosing. I'm appalled how NCL has handled this situation. While vessel maint. can't be avoided or predicted, customers gave NCL their hard earned money expecting to get what they pay for. The fact that NCL wants the customer to fork over more money for the same accomadations through no fault of their own is insane. NCL now stands for No Customer service line. Their are to many cruise lines competing for the same dollars.

 

The same post you put on a new thread. You might consider reserving judgment until all the results are in. Today is the first day to officially rebook those effected. Things will change. We have a handful of negative reports as well as a handful of positive reports. The jury is out. We can all hope NCL does the right thing in the end.

[sheerfun]

Instead of moving to NCL Spirit we moved to Crown Princess and it costs the same and lasts one more day.

[electricron]

Instead of moving to NCL Spirit we moved to Crown Princess and it costs the same and lasts one more day.

 

True, but then they wouldn't get their 25% credit.

For total cruise fares of $2000, they would be throwing away $500.

[shoreguy]

True, but then they wouldn't get their 25% credit.

For total cruise fares of $2000, they would be throwing away $500.

 

They can use the 25% credit on their next NCL cruise.

[smeck]

The same post you put on a new thread. You might consider reserving judgment until all the results are in. Today is the first day to officially rebook those effected. Things will change. We have a handful of negative reports as well as a handful of positive reports. The jury is out. We can all hope NCL does the right thing in the end.

I wish I can share your optimism.

[chesquinn]

We are now on the 5/30 Crown Princess we are paying less and getting more.We will use our 25% credit on our 2/6/08 Gem cruise.