Itenerary Changes - Sun, Spirit

[sailfool]

Just checked to NCL website and it appears that Grand Cayman has been replaced with Costa Maya. Did anyone else see this?

[mbisson]

I was just looking that as we're booked on the Sun Dec 11. Looks like they're firming up that change thru the end of November.

 

If they should end up changing my itinery as well, that's OK as I know they're doing what they have to do.

 

Heck, we'll be on a cruise ship, in the Caribbean, in Dec, when we'll have snow at home.

 

Life is good

-Monte

[envirolawyer]

My friend and I are also going on the Dec. 11 Sun. I'm really hoping to go to Grand Cayman for the pirate ship excursion. It was going to be one of the highlights of the trip! If we don't go, I'm sure Costa Maya will be fun as well. It's better than another day at sea, right?

[sailfool]

We were in Costa Maya last year on the Sun. Water is very pretty there. Didn't appear to be a lot to do so we took an excursion to Mayan ruins. It was a very good trip, (great tour guide) although it took all day. I would say it was worth it. This time we will probably get off and look around the shops and beach a little and then enjoy a pool day.

[ruthslaughter]

We are going on the 'Sun' on 1/22/05. Do you think they will go to Grand Caymon by then??? Hope so.

 

Ruth

[sailfool]

I would expect that it would be in operation by then. As devastating as it was, tourism is a large part of the economy there, besides offshore banking. They will have it up and running as soon as possible.

[Lesley Green]

I am booked on the 'Sun' on Nov 6th - we chose this ship and itinerary because I wanted to revisit Cayman - used to live there when I was 7 and this is my first trip back.......

I heard rumours that Cayman was off the itinerary and phoned NCL in London on Friday 8th and they assured me that there was no change to the itinerary and Cayman was definately on. So imagine my fury when I now read that Cayman is off.

What is the cancellation policy?:mad:

[richtersl]

The island was devastated by Hurricane Ivan. Don't know how much coverage you folks had of that on your news. No cruise line or airline in their right mind is going to send passengers to an island that is rebuilding their infrastructure and is not ready to receive tourists. But recently every one who was scheduled to stop in Grand Cayman was wondering if NCL was in their right mind since up until a few days ago, customer service was telling passengers that they were stopping in Grand Cayman, despite news that the island was closed to tourists and several cruise lines had already cancelled their stops there. That's very poor customer service, if you ask me.

 

June 1 through November 30 is hurricane season. This is why cruises and vacations are so reasonably priced in the Caribbean between those two dates. If you schedule a vacation to the Caribbean at that time of year, it's a gamble. Your travel agent should have made you aware of that and suggested a different time of year for you to travel the Grand Cayman, especially since it meant so much to you.

 

You can check the Cayman Airways web site for updates on who's being allowed on the island at the present time: http://www.caymanairways.com/

At present only Caymanians, Legal Residents and Work Permit holders may travel to the Cayman Islands without special permission from the Government.

Here is NCL's statement regarding Itinerary changes: http://www.ncl.com/more/terms.htm#itinerary

Itinerary Changes

In the event of strikes, lockouts, stoppages of labor, riots, weather conditions, mechanical difficulties or any other reason whatsoever, NCL has the right to cancel, advance, postpone or substitute any scheduled sailing or itinerary without prior notice. NCL shall not be responsible for failure to adhere to published arrival and departure times for any of its ports of call. NCL may, but is not obliged to, substitute another vessel for any sailing and cannot be liable for any loss to passengers by reason of such cancellation, advancement, postponement or substitution. Reservations are subject to change or cancellation in the event of a full-ship charter, and in such event, NCL shall refund all passage moneys paid by the passenger.

The cancellation policy may be stated on your reservation confirmation form.

[sailfool]

I think Linda is right. It is unfortunate, but living in a Hurricane prone area, I have first hand knowlege of what these storms can do, and this was no small hurricane. It is hard to imagine what sustained winds of 165 can do over a period of time. Even worse is the barrage of water that the storm pushes. There is no telling what sort of wave action that storm was pushing when it hit. Considering that these are low islands (doubtful that there are many places on them greater than 25 ft elevation), 25-35ft wave action would just about destroy everything on the island. It's hard to imagine the amount of destruction that occurred there. I am sure that the pictures we have seen do not begin to convey the actual devastation.

 

It will take time to recover. I am sure they are working as hard as they can, but it just takes time to recover from such complete wreckage.

 

Having myself been throuh smaller storms, I cannot imagine what those poor folks must have gone through. I hope that I never have an experience similar to theirs.

[richtersl]

http://www.ncl.com/more/terms.htm#payment

[Globaliser]

http://www.ncl.com/more/terms.htm#payment

No, that's for US bookings. Lesley Green will probably have booked on UK terms, which seem to be found here:-

Cancellation by the Passenger

4. In case of cancellation of the Holiday by the Passenger after a reservation has been made, notice of the cancellation must be given in writing to: Reservations Department, Norwegian Cruise Line Ltd, 1 Derry Street, London, W8 5NN. Upon cancellation of any booking after a deposit has become payable, an administration charge of £100 per person will be charged. Additional charges may be payable as set out below. All cruise, air and land documents must be returned before a refund can be processed.

 

5. If notice of cancellation is received within 60 days prior to the departure date for the Holiday, the following charges will be payable to NCL:

Pre-Departure  Cancellation Charge 
60-30 days     25% of total fare 
29-15 days     50% of total fare 
14-4 days      75% of total fare 
3-0 days       100% of total fare

6. Any cancellation penalties charged to NCL by Suppliers or other third parties, due to Passenger cancellation, will be recharged to the Passenger, or his agent, in full.

 

7. Passengers disembarking prior to arrival at their ticketed destination are not eligible for refund of the unused cruise portion. Unused hotel accommodation, flight and transfer costs are not refundable. The Passenger cannot change dates of flights subject to APEX restrictions after booking. Advance booking minimum is 21 days prior to departure, and validity of travel is 7 days to 6 months from UK departure. A breach or non-compliance of any APEX conditions will result in a supplementary charge to the Passenger. Economy class APEX airline tickets cannot be upgraded to business or first class within 5 working days of the UK departure date. Fares paid by the Passenger shall be considered fully earned upon the sailing of the Vessel and are non-refundable except as otherwise provided in these Terms & Conditions.

Personally, I think it's madness to book a cruise just to go to a particular port, particularly one as prone to cancellation on the day as Grand Cayman. There was a long stretch of time when my Grand Cayman hit rate was about 50% - every time I woke up the morning of Grand Cayman, I'd lie in bed assessing how much the ship was moving about and whether it felt like too much to get into the tenders. When it did feel like it, usually it was - and then off we'd sail again.

 

If you want to go to a particular place, for goodness' sakes fly there. If you are going to cruise, cruise - and take the ports as they come, or not. It's just crazy to threaten to cancel a cruise just because one port's been substituted.

[happytogoing]

Fury?

 

I'm a new cruiser, but .........uh............the port is CLOSED.

 

I'm glad NCL has posted some alternate plans, then people can look forward to their other stops......... I don't know much, but I've read and heard enough about cruises, esp. Carribean to know that no port is a sure thing, and changes in itinerary are possible, it's right in the agreements when you purchase.......

[Lesley Green]

Guys - don't get me wrong - my anger is directed at NCL who totally 'rubbished' my question when I asked it on Friday and having lived on Cayman and through several hurricanes I am totally distraught at their plight.

 

Also FYI there is still no mention of the change to itinerary on the UK website - although it is there on the US website. Perhaps they are trying to keep us Brits out of the picture! Anyway it just means that I will have to take another trip to visit the beautiful Cayman islands another time.....

[kalamari]

Guys - don't get me wrong - my anger is directed at NCL who totally 'rubbished' my question when I asked it on Friday and having lived on Cayman and through several hurricanes I am totally distraught at their plight.

 

Also FYI there is still no mention of the change to itinerary on the UK website - although it is there on the US website. Perhaps they are trying to keep us Brits out of the picture! Anyway it just means that I will have to take another trip to visit the beautiful Cayman islands another time.....

 

How about going with an open mind and a willingness to be flexible?

[Globaliser]

Guys - don't get me wrong - my anger is directed at NCL who totally 'rubbished' my question when I asked it on Friday and having lived on Cayman and through several hurricanes I am totally distraught at their plight.

I agree that if they rubbished your question, that showed a certain lack of realism - it was a perfectly good question to have asked and they should have acknowledged that. And I also agree that the NCL UK website is pretty useless - I only use it for a handful of occasional reasons.

 

But I could well understand it if (a) the telephone sales/service agents did not know what is being planned several thousand miles away; (b) the plans were not, at the time that you phoned, firm yet; and © the company decided that nobody would be told until the information was ready for release to everybody, and hence deliberately did not tell the telephone agents. None of that is objectionable, and I would not myself be angry about it at all if the agents did not then know of any plans to change the ships' itineraries.

[richtersl]

Hi Lesley,

 

There were several threads here that covered the topic of itinerary changes and Hurricane Ivan. Several folks who were scheduled to go on the Spirit and the Sun this week posted notes on the responses they got from NCL's customer server department to their query about the status of Grand Cayman as a stop. Each person got a different response! :p The most ludicrous one was where the rep actually told the individual that NCL had just sent a crew over to Grand Cayman and that everything was a "go": the ship will stop there as scheduled. :eek: :eek:

 

Why all the BS? Who knows! It's really not that difficult to come up with a canned answer to the effect of: "We are aware of the situation on GC and we are currently working on alternate plans. Please continue to check our web site for updates to your itinerary." Don't they realize that folks will get more pi$$ed off at being misinformed than over an itinerary change????

 

BTW, NCL wasn't the only cruise line handing a line of bologna like this to their customers. Folks sailing on Carnival and Royal Caribbean had similar stories. These are posted on Ports of Call board under "Grand Cayman".

[mbisson]

Leslie,

It's not a good thing at all that you were given this info, but as Globalcruiser said if you have your heart set on Grand Cayman, you should probably fly there as cruise ships often have to skip this port.

 

-Monte

[pondfam]

Just a quick note to let you know that Spirit 10/31 has officially been changed by NCL.

[Tigger007]

I called today and was told Grand Cayman has been replaced with Belize. So maybe it depends on which date the cruise is going as to what Grand Cayman will be replaced with. :o

[Globaliser]

So maybe it depends on which date the cruise is going as to what Grand Cayman will be replaced with.

That is exactly what the NCL website says, if you go and read it.

 

One of the affected Spirit itineraries is going to Roatan (14.11.04 sailing) instead of Grand Cayman and the other two to Belize City (17.10.04 and 31.10.04). One of the affected Sun itineraries (13.11.04 sailing) is going to Puerto Izabel in Guatemala, and the remainder to Costa Maya.

 

The last affected cruises under this plan are 14.11.04 for the Spirit and 27.11.04 for the Sun, or in other words the first unchanged itineraries are 28.11.04 for the Spirit and 04.12.04 for the Sun.

[BDODDS]

what about November 20? I cant find on the website where its changed.

[Globaliser]

I cant find on the website where its changed.

Have a look at this press release. I don't think the main published itineraries have been updated: The ships may revert to the original itineraries earlier if Grand Cayman gets up and running more quickly.

[can'twaittogoagain]

We will be on the Sun Oct 16th..Yes, I saw the itinerary change on NCL's web, and also received notification by e-mail from our travel agent saying that Costa Maya would replace Grand Cayman,and that the stay at Roataan would be extended...beginning at 7am until 5 instead of noon until 5, I think it was.... I've been looking around this site at recommendations for both places. We were on the same cruise in 6/2002, so are looking for different things to do in Roataan. The beach we visited was crawling with armed (machine guns) men, and it kind of freaked me out! Anyway, 4 days and counting!

[sophiasmom]

The beach we visited was crawling with armed (machine guns) men' date=' and it kind of freaked me out! Anyway, 4 days and counting![/quote']Do you recall which beach you went to? My husband didnt want to get off the boat when he heard about the overabundence of no see um bugs there. I'll never hear the end of it if he catches wind of gunmen !:eek: Please let me know if you even hear of anything like that this time around!

[Zeno]

Oh for heaven's sake - the "armed" men are either security or police or army ! This is not uncommon in most Latin America in tourist areas. They are there for your protection ! DO you really think a cruiseship would be stopping anywhere where criminal "gunmen" freely and openly roam the beaches.