Our Epic Cruise of the MED in January 2017 has been cancelled :(

I just got this email:

Dear Valued Guest & Travel Partner:

On Monday, August 3, 2015, Norwegian Cruise Line will announce exciting and exotic new itineraries for the Fall/Winter 2016/2017 deployment, bringing the world to guests who want to explore new sights while experiencing the freedom and flexibility that only Norwegian Cruise Line can offer.

As a result of the scheduling changes, Norwegian Epic's 10-Day and 11-Day Western Mediterranean sailings from Barcelona from December 7, 2016 to April 2, 2017 are no longer available. We sincerely apologize for these cancellations and would like to thank you for your understanding. Our goal is to ensure that you still have the vacation of a lifetime with Norwegian and it would be our pleasure to assist you in selecting another available sailing from the following options: -

Option 1: Select any of Norwegian Epic's available 10-Day or 11-Day Western Mediterranean sailings from December 9, 2015 to April 7, 2016 and your cruise fare will be protected. If you choose this option, a $50 per stateroom onboard credit, which can be used on any expenditure on the ship excluding service charges, will be issued to your onboard account. If you are currently booked in a suite (categories beginning with S or H), a $100 per stateroom onboard credit, which can be used on any expenditure on the ship excluding service charges, will be issued to your onboard account.

- Option 2: Select any available sailing in our fleet from now until April 30, 2017 at the selected sailings current published fare. If you choose this option, a $50 per stateroom onboard credit, which can be used on any expenditure on the ship excluding service charges, will be issued to your onboard account. If you are currently booked in a suite (categories beginning with S or H), a $100 per stateroom onboard credit, which can be used on any expenditure on the ship excluding service charges, will be issued to your onboard account.

The new itineraries will be open for sale later this month, but will be exclusively available to you beginning, Monday, August 17, 2015. To take action on your reservation, please contact our dedicated support line at (877) 461-1160 from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm ET Monday through Friday. We look forward to hearing from you by Monday, August 24, 2015, so that we can modify your reservation.

If we do not receive a response by then, your reservations will be cancelled and deposits will be refunded.

We thank you for choosing Norwegian Cruise Line and we look forward to assisting you in selecting a new cruise vacation.

Sincerely,

Vivian Ewart Vice President, Passenger Services

Wow. The price protection options are dismal choices for someone planning a trip over a year away. Leave soon or tough luck I guess. I know I plan my Europe trips a year or more ahead of time. I was really hoping for an alternative option same time frame that was price protected. Very sad. I was so excited to be sailing for the first time on the Epic. There's no way I can plan that time frame so soon for what I wanted to be a three week Europe trip. Sorry about your cruise. Kim

Epic comes back to usa to compete against oasis from port canaveral most probably spirit heading down under!!!at last new itineraries will be posted today from ncl!!at last some good news from ncl

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Hi Kim ,we have also missed:( out we booked the 27 november for 21 nights).We were also on the january cruise with you guys 2015 we did the 21 nights you guys i think were on the first half .Good luck with rebooking have to see what ship and itinerary .Just too received the email:o Andrea

I know, I'm so disappointed because, I purposely booked the cruise very early so that we would get a) great rates b) a big cabin choice and c) the added value perks (we had free dining at the extra charge restaurants). And, yes, the US$50 on-board credit that they are offering if we book a different cruise is just pathetic.

Hi Kim ,we have also missed:( out we booked the 27 november for 21 nights).We were also on the january cruise with you guys 2015 we did the 21 nights you guys i think were on the first half .Good luck with rebooking have to see what ship and itinerary .Just too received the email:o Andrea

Andrea I know you had booked on Epic for a back to back and so, when I read this email, I immediately thought of you. I'm Joanna (from NZ) and my family and I were on the second half of the Jade cruise with you.

We were also booked on the 21 day cruise - Nov 27 and I am extremely annoyed by this. Not a lot of price protection at all.

Not to mention, those Aussie's (there's a few) that have had this cancelled will lose money on the refund, due to exchange rate if another cruise isn't booked. We will not be rebooking with NCL and will most likely do a land vacation now.

Not to mention, those Aussie's (there's a few) that have had this cancelled will lose money on the refund, due to exchange rate if another cruise isn't booked. We will not be rebooking with NCL and will most likely do a land vacation now.

And this Kiwi :(

Well there may still be some hope. If new cruises offered they may start out with really decent rates and perhaps some really good new cruises. The promo running this month is pretty good for suites, but non suite promo definitely much worse than a few months ago. I'm sure some are booked with the promo we had on the Jade; $200 obc, udp and ubp with the 18% in a non suite. I think it was on a one day sale end of January. I remember thinking I had won the lottery when I got that deal.

And that will be really hard for Canadians and Australians to lose money if they can't rebook. Quite a sting if they put money down on a suite and not the best way to enter a new market in Australia with a bunch of them angry about their lost funds.

We were also booked on the 21 day cruise - Nov 27 and I am extremely annoyed by this. Not a lot of price protection at all.

boohoo, me too

It was going to be my longest cruise to date. I was really looking forward to it.

That sucks. It doesn't affect me personally but I feel for those affected.

Personally I find all these cancellations due to itinerary changes to be quite annoying.

These cruises have not been on the market for booking for a terribly long period of time.

It was very short sighted of NCL to even release these dates if this might have been in the works. Just a real poor business decision not to wait before releasing them to book.

That sucks. It doesn't affect me personally but I feel for those affected.

 

 

 

Personally I find all these cancellations due to itinerary changes to be quite annoying.

 

 

 

These cruises have not been on the market for booking for a terribly long period of time.

 

 

 

It was very short sighted of NCL to even release these dates if this might have been in the works. Just a real poor business decision not to wait before releasing them to book.

My cancellation is more than annoying. Can keep current fare for what was Dec 2016 cruise if sail on Jade by Feb 2016. Or book new ship at current fares. No word on if they're honoring promotions(kids sail free and UBP)

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We got the letter too [emoji27] I am so upset because our Epic trip was Nov 21st(Thanksgiving week) so it is not even a possibility for us to change the date to October or early November because I am a teacher and my two children we were traveling with are elementary school age so we can't miss school. We were off the week of Thanksgiving and that is the only week we could have gone. Soo disappointed!

I was sailing 11/16 in a studio. Does this mean I can only look at sailings for a studio room? I can't sail before 4/16 so I guess that is the end of being able to do a med cruise@#$%^&*()!!

There is a solution. Find another cruise line. The options NCL offered are an insult.

There is a solution. Find another cruise line. The options NCL offered are an insult.

I hear what you say and agree but sadly the only other two cruise line options at that time of the year are MSC and Costa. I'm not keen to cruise on either of them.

We had a 21 night on the Epic in an aft corner balcony in April 2017 Plus the old beverage package etc.

I am really unhappy about this. We booked in Jan, while on the Breakaway when they brought their agents aboard and it was the first time you could book while on the ship. They made a big deal out of it, threw in extra bonuses and we booked 4 cruises.

So far, we've gotten a letter asking us to change the Getaway cruise in January and now the cancellation of the Epic. I laughed when they sent that letter for the getaway. If I wanted to cruise in October, didn't they think I would have booked it for then? I wasn't laughing when I got my Epic letter.

We will take our Escape, Getaway and Gem cruise in jan/feb and then we are sailing rccl and carnival's new ships. The anthem and the vista are offering the same kind of cruising.

I'm not going to say we will never go back on NCL, but they won't be a contender anymore in our choices unless there is nothing else.

Sadly, I am not changing out other cruises to price protect my 21 night cruise and my cabin isn't available on the one choice I did look at.

I never book vacations that far out. This time I did and NCL let me down.

It looks to me like the Spirit is going to take Epic's place for year round med. would make so much sense to allow those booked on epic 10 and 11 night to simply switch for the same time frame onto the Spirit 12 nt. Too bad that's not the price protection offer. But perhaps we will get lucky and the booking window open on the 17th will have good rates for the first couple days. Doesn't help those with great perks though because if NCL won't price protect for a very similar cruise about the same dates then no perk protection either.

So my canceled december, 2016 11 night replacement offer is for any 11 or 10 night epic sailing December 9, 2015 - April 7, 2016. Just in case you are wondering, this four month, year ahead of time window, offers a total of three options for the 11 night cruise and 6 options for the 10 night cruise. And the prices on these options are about the same as what I paid for the 2016 cruise so no real skin off NCL's back to offer to move the cruise up a year.

I'm in an H9. If I want to switch to a price protected option I have exactly one 11 night replacement offer available to book which is 1/13/16. So I guess for me it's sail then or get a refund. Those H9's seem to book fast and most during this price protection window are all booked.

Perhaps they made a mistake on the price protection option and are going to step up and give people a valid option. That's what I'm hoping for. I would love for someone to report that that's the case.

I was booked on the Epic for March/17 RT from Barcelona. There are 7 of us travelling in 3 cabins. So when it came time to rebook on the Spirit for the same time frame, between the 3 cabins our fare went up over $3000. I was booked into a studio cabin and of course had to switch to an inside cabin and pay double occupancy so my fare went up $1300.

My son and his wife and 2 kids were booked into a family cabin on the Friends and family sail free promo. Switching to the Spirit, Norwegian would not honor the promo so their fare went up $1800.

The other couple's balcony cabin only went up $70 and they honored their drink package.

So we are on a smaller ship, with less activities for the kids, on a less desirable itinerary which is one day less and yet paying $3000 more.

If the other cruise lines sailed in Europe in March we would tell Norwegian to take a hike, but the only other option is to cancel our European trip altogether.

I am waiting for a supervisor in the Accomodation Department to call me back. Hopefully they will do the right thing.

Suggest looking at the road less travelled, for non Europeans at least. Don't know where in the world you are from but many non US cruise companies sail the med all year long. Look at MSC out of Venice, Genoa or Barcelona, Costa also. You could spend a few days pre or post in any of these cities, lots to see.

good luck

Mark

I was booked on the Epic for March/17 RT from Barcelona. There are 7 of us travelling in 3 cabins. So when it came time to rebook on the Spirit for the same time frame, between the 3 cabins our fare went up over $3000. I was booked into a studio cabin and of course had to switch to an inside cabin and pay double occupancy so my fare went up $1300.

My son and his wife and 2 kids were booked into a family cabin on the Friends and family sail free promo. Switching to the Spirit, Norwegian would not honor the promo so their fare went up $1800.

The other couple's balcony cabin only went up $70 and they honored their drink package.

So we are on a smaller ship, with less activities for the kids, on a less desirable itinerary which is one day less and yet paying $3000 more.

If the other cruise lines sailed in Europe in March we would tell Norwegian to take a hike, but the only other option is to cancel our European trip altogether.

I am waiting for a supervisor in the Accomodation Department to call me back. Hopefully they will do the right thing.

Oh that totally sucks. Let us know if you have any better luck.

I have emailed our PCC to see what our options are but she has not even emailed back. There is no way I can ring NCL from NZ and sit on hold for hours as that would cost a fortune in phone fees. So, as we were a family of four booked into a Mini Suite on the Epic and it sounds like Spirit has not similar cabins, I guess our cruise booking is just going to auto-cancel.

I have emailed our PCC to see what our options are but she has not even emailed back. There is no way I can ring NCL from NZ and sit on hold for hours as that would cost a fortune in phone fees.

You can call NCL in US (numbers starting with 1-800, 1-866 and 1-877) for free through Skype, that's what I do. When using the Skype app on your smart phone for example at your home connected to WiFi, it's just like making a regular phone call.

https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA24/how-do-i-dial-toll-free-numbers-for-example-1-800-1-866-and-1-877-number-series

Oh that totally sucks. Let us know if you have any better luck.

 

I have emailed our PCC to see what our options are but she has not even emailed back. There is no way I can ring NCL from NZ and sit on hold for hours as that would cost a fortune in phone fees. So, as we were a family of four booked into a Mini Suite on the Epic and it sounds like Spirit has not similar cabins, I guess our cruise booking is just going to auto-cancel.

Yes I will keep everyone posted. I have just written a rather lengthy letter to Andy Stewart the President of NCL. I am curious to see if I receive a response.

I doubt it, but you never know. Norwegian has really handled this badly. It must be a customer service nightmare for those poor agents.

Suggest looking at the road less travelled, for non Europeans at least. Don't know where in the world you are from but many non US cruise companies sail the med all year long. Look at MSC out of Venice, Genoa or Barcelona, Costa also. You could spend a few days pre or post in any of these cities, lots to see.

 

good luck

 

Mark

Yes I know that Costa and MSC do sail in Europe but I am leery to sail on either of those lines. I have read quite a few reviews and they are not real favourable. Thank you for the suggestion though. I work in a travel agency and asked the people I work with, and they all nixed the idea. Maybe it's a Canadian thing ;)