Given the problems on the NCL Star would you book a cruise on her ?

Why would you book a holiday pay alot of money for an itinerary that can be changed and you end up drifting in the sea.........oh yes i fogot that's what you get on the NCL Star and then you get the worst customer service ever when you try and complain and try to get some sort of refund !!

 

NCL have taken people's money for a service they can't deliver yet when you complain they stick their fingers in their ears and whistle hoping you'll go away !!:mad:

And then the CC posters will just tell you to make lemonade out of lemons

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Yeah don't complain or "sweat the small stuff" like the fact you are drifting in a rough ocean and don't get to visit any of the ports you flew halfway around the world for.

The fact NCL won't communicate with you about your changes itinerary shouldn't allow you the right to be disappointed.

Hey the trivia is still on so just relax

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Sure I would. This could happen to any ship.

Not only would I not sail on the Star, but we wouldn't sail on any NCL ship. Having an engine fail - yup, could happen on any ship. But to have one fault, get that fixed in Singapore and supposedly a completely separate fault takes out the other engine. How many other NCL ships have had an engine fail in the past two months? - but Star has had 3! (First fault fixed in Singapore, 2nd fault leaving Singapore, 3rd fault out of Melbourne)

Then two months later - TWO MONTHS - after running on only one engine and not taking the time to get it fixed, both fail.

I would not sail on them, not because the engine failed, but for two months they limped with fingers crossed. If that is how they do maintenance that is obvious and costing them lots of money in refunds. What aren't they doing that can't be seen?

I was looking at Haven 2-Bed or 3-Bed rooms for a Caribbean cruise next year, and with the Jewel coming next year they were on my interest list for Australian based ships. But I will spend my $20-$30K on other cruise lines.

There are much better lines and ships.

I can actually answer this as "no" right now. I'm booked on the Explorer of the Seas Tasmanian cruise next year. Someone posted a December Star itinerary that is much better than Royal's. In researching that possibility, I ran across all of the Star's recent issues. Royal's far from perfect but at least it's a far from perfect I'm comfortable with accepting. (FWIW, Princess was in the running until they chartered/cancelled the itinerary I had as backup last spring).

That being said, if Star was doing cheap Pacific Coastal cruises out of San Diego, my answer might be different because for me the perceived risk is less. For now I'm sticking with the Explorer cruise.

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Speaking from someone currently ON the ship and waiting to sail (supposed to leave at 1, then 2, now 2:30 and no communication) not really sure. Not so much for the potential problems (and this is after having a 12 day cruise that went to one port and spent a full day and a half under tow) but more for the lack of detail. Terrible, initial response from corporate (totally unacceptable OBC), stonewalling and worse. Then, once the fiasco started being dead in the water, fairly decent communication from the Bridge in the beginning.. Now we are on virtually total radio silence. Not one word from the Bridge in 60+ hours. Vague, non-committal messages from the HD.

Terrible other onboard communication. Latitudes parties and the behind the scenes tour were scheduled (and cancelled) without any in-cabin communication. You had to check for signs at the Next Cruise office to see what the schedule was. The Platinum and P+ party was cancelled at the last minute and many people showed up at Spinnakers: No party.

Not sure if these problems are going to be fleet-wide, but if so....then it won't matter if it the Star or something else.

Speaking from someone currently ON the ship and waiting to sail (supposed to leave at 1, then 2, now 2:30 and no communication) not really sure. Not so much for the potential problems (and this is after having a 12 day cruise that went to one port and spent a full day and a half under tow) but more for the lack of detail. Terrible, initial response from corporate (totally unacceptable OBC), stonewalling and worse. Then, once the fiasco started being dead in the water, fairly decent communication from the Bridge in the beginning.. Now we are on virtually total radio silence. Not one word from the Bridge in 60+ hours. Vague, non-committal messages from the HD.

 

 

 

Terrible other onboard communication. Latitudes parties and the behind the scenes tour were scheduled (and cancelled) without any in-cabin communication. You had to check for signs at the Next Cruise office to see what the schedule was. The Platinum and P+ party was cancelled at the last minute and many people showed up at Spinnakers: No party.

 

 

 

Not sure if these problems are going to be fleet-wide, but if so....then it won't matter if it the Star or something else.

I'm so sorry you've had to go through this. I can't believe there's been 60+ hours of silence from the bridge. That's unacceptable. Have you left Melbourne yet?

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I'm so sorry you've had to go through this. I can't believe there's been 60+ hours of silence from the bridge. That's unacceptable. Have you left Melbourne yet?

 

 

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Just got an update from the Bridge. Sailing delayed, giving engineers more time. When we do sail, will go 30 minutes at low power, 30 minutes at mid-power and 30 minutes at full power. Will then anchor and assess the system before we proceed toward the Tasman.

Overall, the situation onboard (other than the awful communication) has been fine. Free cruises will do that for you.

However, our situation is a little different since we've done this itinerary twice before so missing it was not an enormous deal. However, free cruise or not, a lot of people spent many thousands of dollars in airfare to get here (and 30-40 hours) to go on a one port cruise, missing most of what they came for. For them, I feel sorry since for many it probably will be their last opportunity to do it.

Part of the problem is the routes this ship is sailing.

If the Star was doing island hopping out of Miami it likely would spend most of the time in port or sailing at half speed or less. The same for a port intensive run in the Mediterranean where the ship spends most of the day in port and does a quick overnight hop to the next port.

In most places NCL could cancel the last port on a cruise and the first port on the following cruise and end up with 3-4 days in the home port with minimal impact on passengers. Not so here.

These Australia and Asia routes are not closed circuits and they appear to involve pushing the ship a bit harder that on other itineraries.

Had this been a typical NCL itinerary they well may have had the same problems with passengers would have been less inconvenienced and maintenance would have been easier.

That said, I probably would, once it has been fixed for a while that is. The itineraries in Asia, Australia, South American and Europe all sounds a lot more interesting that a Miami cruise.

Airlines have special rules for ETOPS (long-distance over water flights with twin engine aircraft) where there is extra maintenance, checks and conditions on the flight than a domestic flight. Does the same thing happen with ships? Are the standards more demanding for an ocean crossing vrs a cruise that is island hopping?

Yes. Most definitely. . Looking at a Venice cruise in May.

We're booked for the Adriatic cruise in April - all the ports are super close, so, hoping that there won't be any problems even if ANOTHER mechanical issue occurs... *nervous*

We're booked for the Adriatic cruise in April - all the ports are super close, so, hoping that there won't be any problems even if ANOTHER mechanical issue occurs... *nervous*

Agreed, it would be annoying but nothing like on the Asia cruises where ports are a long way apart and then the destinations are usually 2 hour drives from the port so any delay or change to itinerary makes it almost impossible to organise anything meaningful

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Sounds like everything is sorted and it is back to full power so who wouldn't!!

Why on earth not ? All machinery breaks down. And, from what I have heard, Norwegian quite adequately compensated those who were adversely affected. :)

The price better be right, we're already booked on the Star for May.

Being stranded on a ship at sea is better than a good day at work. Plus if they are going to continue to give full credit and 50% off future cruise, hell ya.

If they fix the Azipod absolutely. My wife and I sailed it December 2015, and loved the ship.

The ship is great. Just has a bum ticker.

No. Too many other good options that don't have this dubious history.

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6 times on the Star and after the last fiasco...NCL could not pay me to board that ship. They lie to you up-front...and than when the inevitable happens, they scurry away as if customer service doesnt count. But wait yes they have your money...Never again NCL

Being stranded on a ship at sea is better than a good day at work. Plus if they are going to continue to give full credit and 50% off future cruise, hell ya.

As long as the ship doesn't lose power

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We're booked for the Adriatic cruise in April - all the ports are super close, so, hoping that there won't be any problems even if ANOTHER mechanical issue occurs... *nervous*

Hope there are no problems on the TA

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Being stranded on a ship at sea is better than a good day at work. Plus if they are going to continue to give full credit and 50% off future cruise, hell ya.

Except the supposed "Full Refund" isn't 100% of what you paid, They deduct taxes/fees and future cruise deposits you may have used and paid for on previous cruises. And the 50% off isn't of the total amount paid as well, just of the reduced amount the supposed full refund was. You're annoyingly nickle and dime'd down. And while you're enjoying the ship stranded at sea, you're still wondering what will go wrong next and how are you going to make your flights home that you paid for that aren't being reimbursed if you miss them. And with so many things to see in the world, wondering if you'll ever be able to see the sights you've planned for over a year to see. I haven't seen a dime back yet as the refund went to my TA, and have been reading how the extra promises of $700 to fly to Auckland and $600 for change fees home have been reduced by NCL after people have submitted claims for those amounts. As they say, time is money and we're not going to get that time back.

Except the supposed "Full Refund" isn't 100% of what you paid, They deduct taxes/fees and future cruise deposits you may have used and paid for on previous cruises. And the 50% off isn't of the total amount paid as well, just of the reduced amount the supposed full refund was. You're annoyingly nickle and dime'd down. And while you're enjoying the ship stranded at sea, you're still wondering what will go wrong next and how are you going to make your flights home that you paid for that aren't being reimbursed if you miss them. And with so many things to see in the world, wondering if you'll ever be able to see the sights you've planned for over a year to see. I haven't seen a dime back yet as the refund went to my TA, and have been reading how the extra promises of $700 to fly to Auckland and $600 for change fees home have been reduced by NCL after people have submitted claims for those amounts. As they say, time is money and we're not going to get that time back.

If you have not gotten your refund from your TA I would be wondering why? As we received ours within a couple days of being back home from NCL.

IMO just one more reason not to use a TA.

As for the flight money I will not comment on that.

Yes we have a future cruise booked on the Star, maybe we can get towed thru the Panama canal :lol;p:')

What I would like is for NCL to replace some of the tape and ropes for actual railings.:confused:

We were really contemplating booking a cruise out of Venice this April or May. Great ports and price. Even found nice airfare.... but we're don't really want to get into a situation when we'll have to decide what to do in Italy should something happen to a Star. Maybe if it was one of the ports in East Cost/Florida...

We were really contemplating booking a cruise out of Venice this April or May. Great ports and price. Even found nice airfare.... but we're don't really want to get into a situation when we'll have to decide what to do in Italy should something happen to a Star. Maybe if it was one of the ports in East Cost/Florida...

We're already booked out of Venice in May. Since we have a hotel for both the day before & the day after, we could just extend it for the full week and tour Italy (DW wants to see Florence if we have to do that). I also found 2 other cruises with the same dates, one on Costa & the other on MSC.

Since MSC has a loyalty-match program, I already submitted my info to them & my Latitude Gold translated to their Silver. MSC gives an automatic 5% discount to their loyalty members. You can apply for the match without even booking a cruise.

If you have not gotten your refund from your TA I would be wondering why? As we received ours within a couple days of being back home from NCL.

IMO just one more reason not to use a TA.

As for the flight money I will not comment on that.

Yes we have a future cruise booked on the Star, maybe we can get towed thru the Panama canal :lol;p:')

What I would like is for NCL to replace some of the tape and ropes for actual railings.:confused:

Just heard from my TA an hour ago, the refund is being worked on, NCL is just going to refund the Future cruise deposit as part of my refund. "Hopefully this will be processed by the end of this week" according to the TA for the "almost full amount" minus the $558.30 in taxes/fees. Haven't heard from NCL on the flights and change expenses I incurred flying to Auckland and home early.