port charges on dawn; little review

[elwin1942]

We are just back from the 8/29 sailing of the dawn, has anyone heard if we are going to get reimbursed for the two ports we didn't go to. Also my son who is 12 had nothing to do, the kids activities are horrible for his age, and the pool is really too small. Also they s/h never taken us to Freeport, anyone that was on, did you really enjoy all those flies? I didn't meet anyone nasty or rude on the entire cruise. It was enjoyable until Miami and then went down hill for me, and many people I talked to. Also I got something on the cruise, and I'm very sick, just went to the doctor for antibiotics, we came home Sunday morning, and by Sunday afternoon I knew something was wrong, not the stomach thing, it's in my head and chest, nasty, and very spreadable according to my MD. I haven't been able to get ahold of my internet travel agent who is in Florida to ask about the port charges. Thanks for any info...

[Patpcozy]

I'm pretty sure that Ncl does not have to compensate for port changes. Not sure of the wording but I have read that somewhere. And we have had port changes with no mention of refunds. Sorry Pat

[elwin1942]

Thank you Pat. This was a first cruise, good in some ways and bad in others, and other passengers on the ship were saying conflicting things, so I wasn't sure, and since I can't get ahold of my travel agent it's not helping the info. Donna.

[mswolffan]

Sorry your first cruise wasn't the wonderful experience you hoped for. Our first cruise was a disaster from beginning to end -- electrical problems causing us to leave home port 10 hours late and even caused the ship to stop in the middle of the Gulf for a couple of hours, which meant we missed excursions in both ports....it wound up being just a boat ride. We did get a $50.00 credit for getting into Cozumel at dusk when they switched ports on us. We vowed we'd never cruise again....but I guess it's sort of like childbirth....after a while you forget how painful it was...so we're booked on the Norwegian Dream in January 05. Hopefully this one will be better but at least we will be better prepared so we can take changes more in stride. Hopefully your next cruise will be better. One thing that we usually don't have to worry about is hurricanes -- we have to take our vacation in December or January!

[roohound]

when we missed going to Grand Cayman on one of the Princess ships 2 years ago, we were reimbursed our port fees..I'm not sure how they can justify keeping them...they dind't have to pay the port fees, therefore, the money should go back to you

[Lmm1065]

I was also on the Dawn 8/29 sailing. I have a 12 yo also and found the activities to be very lacking. There were not alot of games or sports at all.

In Freeport we called around to hotels in the area and were able to go to a resort and use all the amenities for free. We had the pool to ourselves. I think the excursion desk should have done that for us. Trying to find alternate activities if we were going to dock there. I don't see the point in going to Freeport if they were not going to run any excursions anyway. I wrote a letter to NCL but as of yet haven't heard anything back yet. The pool on the ship is very small for the amount of passengers. We were able to go in the pool twice during the week. Both times were in the evening. We were not able to get near it during the day.

[elwin1942]

When we first started the cruise, everyone on NCL was so helpful and I thought everything was going to go great, and then as the week started I knew it wasn't. I still haven't been able to get intouch with my travel agent, and it's not helping, because I'm sick and don't want to call him, since I can't really talk without coughing, so I've been emailing him. I'm going to write to NCL I honestly think we s/get something back. I agree about Freeport it was handled very badly. We do want to take another cruise, but just don't know with who at this point, I guess it will depend on how this is handled. Thank you everyone was your insights, it makes me feel better, hopefully all of us with problems from this cruise (and others) will have them taken care of. And, I guess it could have been a lot worse. The main thing is we are all home safely... Donna

[smeyer418]

Last year when the NCL Sea was rerouted because of the Hurricaine, We were refunded about 10% of the cruise when they "recomputed" the port charges. Remember port charges include expendable like fuel as well as actual port charges, so I am not sure how they calculated this. They did it before we got off the ship announced it and credited it to our on board charges...So I would normally expect some compensation from these charges when they make changes. No one is ever charged more....

 

One of the things about cruising is that sometimes weather gets in the way and this is especially true about Hurricaine season. We thought NCL handled it well and we did have a great time in Canada and the crew was outstanding... even though Canada is much harder for them. They get much more time off in Bermuda...

[bUU]

I'm pretty sure that Ncl does not have to compensate for port changes. Not sure of the wording but I have read that somewhere.

It's Section 7 of the Contract of Carriage:

 

"Carrier, in its sole discretion, shall have full liberty ... to put in at any unscheduled or unadvertised port; to cancel any scheduled call at any port for any reason and at any time before, during or after sailing of the vessel; to omit, advance or delay landing at any scheduled or advertised port; to put back to port of embarkation or to any port previously visited if Carrier shall deem prudent; to substitute another vessel or ports of call without prior notice and without incurring any liability to the passengers on account thereof for any loss, damage or delay whatsoever, whether consequential or otherwise."

[smeyer418]

This is a non-liability section(especially the non-consequential damages section) IMO it doesn't cover the return of non-earned port charges(or non commissionable fares)...but I do think there is probably something else that covers. In any case most cruise lines do recompute these amounts and provide some compensation(which may just be opening the ship's bars for a few hours)...

[elwin1942]

I'm going to call NCL tomorrow, the dept. I need to talk to is only open weekdays. Funny you said the bar thing, they did have an open bar for 1 hour, but we don't drink, and we had been getting the virgin drinks, but when I asked for one they said only alcohol, so I would have had to pay the $5+ for a virgin...makes sinces???, so anyone who didn't want or couldn't drink alcohol was out on this practice. I think the thing that ticked me and quite a few other people off was taking us to Freeport, a lot of people were out money, because of mistakes that NCL made on not getting information right, I'm not one, because I heard a lot about Freeport before and didn't get off the ship. I'll let you know what happens when I get intouch with NCL; I still can't get my travel agent.