Firstin87

We're on the Jan. 29 sailing on the Dawn from Tampa for 11 days.  the itinerary is (was?) for six ports on Days 4 through 9.

Just got an email from NCL Shoreex that our excursion in St. Thomas (Rumporium) has been cancelled.  Not sure if it is a staffing issue or a sign that St. Thomas may be skipped. 

To kfnesq,

Since you're on the sailing just before ours out of Tampa next month, I thought you would be interested in this information post from the Roll Call for our sailing.  Looking at the time requirements and our port dates, its not looking good for making most of them 

18 minutes ago, kfnesq said:

We are the one before you - Jan 18.  Likely same itinerary though.  At any rate, if they start dropping ports I agree the trip is hugely impacted, at least for me.  These things seem to be changing daily though, so I guess we see what happens tomorrow.  And the next day.   🙂

And the next day... and the next day...

Really takes a lot of the fun out of planning a trip, but, as the kids say, "first world problems".  Grateful to be healthy and working.  Really miss "the old days", though.

22 minutes ago, kfnesq said:

Same.....if this holds true for our cruise, we would have to test at the port, on day 3, and then again on day 6 I think.....UGH.  Logistically that is a lot for NCL to take on.  Or, as you point out, perhaps we miss those two ports.

Sounds like you may be on the same cruise we are - the Dawn out of Tampa on Jan. 29.

We are scheduled to visit six ports, but if two are removed form our itinerary, that really impacts the trip. 

Thank you for posting this.  Yikes!  We are on an 11 day Caribbean cruise late Jan. to early Feb. and hit both St. Thomas and San Juan.  Or, maybe not...

So many changes every day.  Just the hassles of trying to stay on top of the changes to plan for the trip is enough to make someone need a vacation - lol.

How awful for everyone involved!  I hope those who tested positive recover quickly and have no complications.

One would expect that at such a busy port as Miami that NCL would have better processes and procedures in place.  No truly separated area for COVID passengers?  That large a port should have a room/s for keep those passengers completely separate from others.  If they can't do it right in Miami, where can/do they do it right?  Wonder what hotel chain they contracted with that was full.  I would have thought that NCL's contract with that chain would require always having a set number of room available for passengers who test positive at the pier and have to be quarantined.

No excuse for not offering food and drink during the 5 hour wait for answers and luggage return.

Hope you are all able to have a happy holiday in spite of all this.

that does seem odd that the prices haven't dropped.  Being so close to sailing and with fewer ports that may make the trip less attractive to some, you'd think they'd lower the price.  Maybe the day after Christmas - some "Happy New Year" sale?  Hope they go lower so your can friend can join you.

19 hours ago, mertziek said:

I call the Shore Excursion desk and book my tours in advance especially if I think it could sell out.  They apply the $50 discount on the first passenger listed on the reservation and should then apply your 10% Plat discount.  I always remind them I have the extra discount.    In addition if you book two tours for one port, the $50 is applied to each excursion as well as the Plat discount.  The disadvantage is you have to pay when booking while in the past you did not pay until you took the excursion.  And you have until 48 hours prior to embarkation to call to cancel before the cruise plus once onboard you can cancel for full refund 48 hours prior to scheduled tour.  Refund is back to your payment method and not to onboard account if cancelled prior to embarkation.  Not sure how refund is handled if cancelled once onboard.

We were on the Bliss in Oct. and also booked and paid for our excursions through the Shore Excursions Desk beforehand.  Doing that means you can't use your OBC for excursions, of course.  Once onboard, we had the concierge change the excursions so we could use our OBC to cover them.  She called the Shore Excursion Desk to do so, so I'm sure standing in line there will get the same result.  I believe they cancel and rebook and the costs for each excursion were the same.

Sorry you are missing Bonaire.  Haven' been, but it's on our list.

We're on an 11 day Caribbean cruise in late January.  I'm curious if many ports will be cancelled and at what point might NCL cancel the cruise entirely.  

2 hours ago, Niffernay said:

As part of my thorough cruise preparations (my husband uses the word "obsessed" but I think thorough is a better word 🙂) I do lots of Google searches and during one of them today, I came across this gem (no pun intended).  It's from 2020 so it's a year or so old, but really informative.  Enjoy!!  🛳️

240311960_39324DeckbyDeckCover2020RECATDIGITAL.pdf 37.29 MB · 45 downloads

Thank you for sharing this.  My husband will love it.

I agree with you - thorough is good and not the same as obsessed.  It is the planning and organizing that makes vacations run smoothly!

34 minutes ago, craig01020 said:

NCL promotion of mask-free cruising was the main reason I chose them over other cruise lines.

 

I sailed on the Gem in October and it was like 2019 onboard! That didn't last long. 😪

We were on the Bliss' first post-shutdown cruise in Oct. and it was great!  Just like "the olden days".  The 100% vax so no masks was what set NCL apart from all the other lines.  Now, they are no different.  So very disappointed.  We've got a late Jan. cruise booked, made final payment already, have insurance but not CFAR, so have no options that don't cost us a decent amount of money.  Very frustrating that NCL is not offering a cancellation policy that doesn't screw over the passenger. 

On 10/13/2021 at 10:48 AM, MoCruiseFan said:

 

Computers are only as good as the humans who program them or enter data into them.  Computers rarely, if ever, makes errors.

Its called PICNIC - problem in chair, not in computer.

Hope it resolves itself soon and you don't have to spend time on hold getting it fixed.

43 minutes ago, classy_cruiser said:

Here’s a tip. If you are going to cancel your cruise past final payment, call a day or two before and cancel the excursions only. These will get refunded to your card. Less that goes into an FCC when you do cancel the cruise. 

Clever!  

9 hours ago, SpainAlien said:

Watch out for the cancellation policy for shore excursions, I think you can cancel them onboard only if you do so 48 hours or more before the excursion takes place and I believe it is then converted into obc not refunded to your card

 

What is the cancellation process once I’m on board?

Shore Excursions: Guests that cancel on board more than 48 hours prior to the tour will receive a refund for their purchase in the form of an onboard credit. Tours cancelled by guests less than 48 hours prior to arrival in the port where the tour is scheduled are non-refundable. Please note that certain tours, such as overland tours, customised tours and tours with theatre performances or special events may be subject to different cancellation fees. To make a cancellation on board or for additional details, please visit the Shore Excursion Desk.

 

And:

 

http://ncl-drupal6.ncl.com:9050/cruise-faq/what-if-i-miss-cancellation-deadline-and-do-not-want-my-tour

 

 

Thank you for that.  I knew about the 48 hours in advance, but not the OBC refund.

2 hours ago, Katnisslove said:

Yeah, surprise to us to (and i'm on here often when we have a cruise booked but last one was late 2019)!!!  We didn't realize it had changed until I called, got through all my shore excursions, picked times and then she goes "and what card would you like to pay with"...... ummmmmmmm.... definitely not happy about the change either but will know going forward.  Usually I prepay gratuities and my other half gets the onboard account (shore exursions, pic, etc).  14 night cruise the shore excursions add up fast!! Lol. He paid for most of the shore excursions and we held off on booking Grand Cayman (probably not a port that is happening in Nov), and the excursion from the ship to the airport.  Those won't be a problem booking once onboard.

I'm the same way - I'm on CC more often when we've got cruises booked and our last one was also in late 2019.  Unfortunately, NCL made this change in Feb. 2020, just before all the COVID chaos, so a lot of us are discovering this now that we're getting back to cruising.  We've got six excursions booked and they can be completely covered by our OBC. 

31 minutes ago, ggTexasGal said:

Same here!!!

I'm hoping it is easy to do.

13 minutes ago, julig22 said:

Where do you get the idea that your card isn't charged?  Mine most certainly is. If you book onboard, they might wait but they have always charged upfront, unless you had the promo.

And... there it is on my credit card statement.  They must be happy I booked so far in advance.

I still like the old policy better when you could book early and charge it to your shipboard account.  I don't like the idea of starting my vacation standing in line at the Shore Excursion Desk to rebook.  With the Free at Sea drinks, specialty dining, and wifi benefits, excursions are all we can spend the large amount of OBC we have for this particular cruise on.

Hi,

I didn't see this topic, so someone please redirect me if this is a repeat.

We've got two cruises coming up on NCL and when I called Shore Excursions to pre-book our excursions, I was told that we cannot use our OBC to pay for them at pre-booking.  Used to do that on our previous cruses, but apparently that changed in Feb. 2020.  In order to use OBC to pay for excursions, you have to book the excursion once onboard – obviously risky as the one(s) you want may be full.  I booked the excursions and paid with my credit card (which is not charged until we go).

My plan is to go to the Shore Excursion Desk once we board and cancel, then rebook the excursion so it can be paid for with OBC.  Has anyone done this and how did it go?

I don’t see any benefit for NCL to change this policy.  They give passengers OBC to use to encourage them to book their excursions through the cruise line, then don’t allow them to use it conveniently.  That doesn’t make passengers happy.  NCL does not get any benefit from my paying for the excursions in advance as they don’t get the money until the activity is completed.  The Shore Excursion team that passengers speak to on the phone must get an earful from upset passengers over this new policy, even though they are not the ones who enacted the change.  Giving passengers the only option of rebooking once onboard just makes more work for the staff at the Shore Excursions Desk and, again, unhappy passengers.  For the headaches given to so many by this new policy, I’m curious what the benefits of it are to NCL.  What am I missing?

Thanks,

 Firstin87

8 hours ago, letiha said:

Let’s hope they extend the credits for families. We are both vaccinated but our 7 year old is not.

 

Booked for October 2022... but who knows. We can not leave our country (Australia) and barely leave our state so who knows!!!

I would imagine they would extend the credit for families, but you can't predict the future, especially if the industry hits another slowdown.  You'd think you could be confidant about a cruise that's over a year away, but who ever thought the pandemic restrictions would last this long. 

I hope things improve soon for Australia.  Sounds like you are very limited.  We're in California and we've been all over the map with our mandates.  After the initial shutdown, the vaccine became available for everyone in April and it fairly easy to get in our state, but a lot of people haven't done so for a lot of reasons.  We opened up June 15 - no capacity limits; masks not needed if you're vaccinated, unvaccinated asked to wear them indoors but no one checks so it was basically a "you're on your own" policy; indoor dining back to normal.  Then in early August, we went back to masks indoors for all because of the low vaccination rate and each County has different rules.  Next month is a recall election for our governor because so many people are upset about how he's handled the pandemic response, but he hasn't done anything different than most of the other governors; not responding like the governors of Florida and Texas have ('leave everything open no matter what').  How are things in Australia and your state?

I agree with ChiefMateJRK that NCL will continue their 100% vaccination policy for quite some time.  They do not want to be a headline like Carnival was last week and their CEO has spoken about his strong support for people getting vaccinated.  As someone posted earlier, the cruise industry does not want to end up in a situation where they are shut down again, so erring on the side of caution is their best business practice to prevent that.  It's disappointing for those with kids under 12 that they can't cruise yet.  At least there are other places those families can go on vacation - amusement parks, etc.  Been a rough time for everyone and the 'return to normal' isn't a quick and smooth journey.

Yep, I realized that after I hit submit.  Based on Bird's post, RCCL is also notifying passengers often and clearly about the vax requirements. 

4 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

So you realize that this is mainstream media sensationalized fake news. The cruise line had mandatory vaccination rules. The people showed up unvaccinated and were denied boarding. End of story. If you show up to a NCL cruise unvaccinated, you would be denied boarding. 
 

I have two Royal Caribbean reservations and am bombarded with information on the requirements for sailing from each specific port. Other than not caring what the rules are, there is no way not know the minimum requirements for Royal a cruise. 

Bird,

Glad you have returned to your nest safely.  Loved your thread about the Encore's sailing.  We're on the Bliss' first sailing in Oct. and your thread was so helpful.

I cannot imagine anyone claiming ignorance of the COVID policies.  We have heard it from both  NCL and our travel agent.  Surely these people did, too.  Guessing they didn't read any emails from NCL.  Also, common sense (which is not all that common) should tell one to check constantly the last few weeks before any trip for COVID changes.

Sorry they were disappointed, but just do not support their complaint that the cruise line should help them.  Being treated like "they were at fault" is what happens when they are at fault.  Not sure why the article has to take a tone that the cruise line somehow owed them something.

On 6/1/2021 at 10:46 AM, bigdsf said:

I'm booked out of sf on the Ruby Princess nov 27,2021  they had unreal pricing a month ago.ships will not be full

We were happy with the price we paid, too.  Looking forward to not having to deal with flying, either, as SF is our local port.  I wonder if Gov. Newsom will announce any information relating to cruise ships in Calif. when he is supposed to reopen the state on June 15.  I'll allow myself to get excited when I hear something from the government that ships are allowed in their states.

We were in Ensenada a couple years ago and my husband bought me a lovely pair of fire opal earrings.  I'd like to go back someday to get a matching necklace.  Hoping to see some jewelry stores on this cruise - lol.