Cindy

This is the news I’ve been hoping for. Continuing pre-cruise testing didn’t make sense to me given that you don’t have to test to get into most countries and you could be exposed dozens of times after testing and before boarding. At best mandatory testing might catch a handful of people before a cruise but there are so many ways and places to catch Covid that I don’t see how a ship could be 100% Covid free. For our trip to Hawaii and POA cruise next month, we will self test before our flight, and then not again unless we have good reason to think we’ve been exposed or have symptoms.

I agree! Many of us booked on the POA have been trying to take this cruise since before Covid. Our October cruise will be our 8th attempt to use our original booking, including an NCL cancellation (for drydock) before Covid was even a vocabulary word. My husband and I are at the point that our airline tickets have to be used (booked almost 3 years ago!) and if our reservation gets cancelled again we’re keeping our flights and going anyway. I have cancellable back-up plans that I made the last time our cruise was cancelled and would pivot to go to Hawaii without cruising. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be angry and disappointed. NCL is still selling cabins on my sailing as they were for the August cruises, and in my mind those are the bookings that should be cancelled. I understand the staffing problems, but I think NCL should close bookings until they are sure they can accommodate all of them. I also think there are many people with flexibility who would jump at the chance for a refund and 100% FCC. I wish NCL would ask for volunteers before cancelling long-standing reservations as little as 6-weeks out. Yes, that’s more complicated than just cancelling reservations, but I think it’s a solution that would be better received than the current practice.

I think the confusion comes in some not understanding that while the refund is 100% of all monies paid, the FCC is only for the cruise fare itself…not airfare, excursions, etc.

Have you contacted the hotel and the tour providers? They might be willing to work with you under the circumstances. I have found all my independent providers to be very flexible through numerous cancellations. That said, even with insurance I’m pretty careful not to lock myself into a non-refundable situation these days!

They’re in a group called Pride of America 7 Days in Hawaii.

I’ve read of both pre-cruise tour and cruise only cancellations.. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to who draws the short straw. Someone started a poll on a social media site with the initials FB. The only passengers who haven’t reported a cancellation there are suite passengers and those traveling from outside the US. Other than those, there’s a mix of people in large groups, couples, NCL air, cabin type, booking date, etc.

Numerous personal accounts on a social media website.

Lots of people on June and July sailings received cancellation notices today.😢

First of all, to the OP, I’m sorry about your experience. I hope your insurance will eventually make you whole for the lost vacation as well as the unexpected medical expenses. That said, I think expecting a lot of follow-up attention from the cruise line is unrealistic, especially right now. I haven’t cruised on NCL yet, but I don’t think any of the five lines I’ve sailed with are good at communication once you’re off the ship. Those of us traveling right now need to be mindful of the issues throughout the travel industry and have an idea of where we would turn for help or what our back-up plans are. It seems like even without complications travel plans are unraveling daily!

If you have a PCC or a special number, you might try to call. Through all our Covid cancellations, I sometimes found they could see the FCC before I could.

I agree. There’s exactly one non-stop flight per day from Houston to Honolulu and back, and that’s the flight I wanted. I was definitely not interested in multiple stops and long layovers. Besides, we’re going 4 days early which takes cruise air out of the picture.

I think that's pretty recent as far as POA reservations go, especially right now. A lot of the current reservations were made 2+ years ago, or they're rescheduled sailings from Covid cancellations.

Precisely! If they need to cancel my reservation they need to do it now while I still have options. My refund will more than pay for my back-up reservations, and the plane tickets we bought in July 2019 need to be used. I don't want to plan at the last minute when everything is booked up and my options are limited.

I have read posts on another site of people whose reservations were cancelled. The number I saw was a total of 21 reservations. It's small number, except to those of you that were impacted any was too many!

I'm so very sorry! I have been booked in some way, shape, or form on the POA since July 1, 2019, and have suffered seven cancellations (one was before Covid because they were going to take the POA to drydock). I would be destroyed at this point if we were only 10 days from sailing and got cancelled. I can't even begin to imagine how you feel.