badtzmaru

Hi everyone. Thanks again for all of your support and words of advice.

I spoke with Katherine at the executive office today, and she agreed to allow us to change our reservation.

We decided to make the cleanest change and move to the Getaway Western Caribbean cruise that sails one day later, 12/03. This helps us avoid having to reorganize my time out of the office, and my fiancé's request for leave from the Air Force.

I'm glad that NCL did the right thing. It helps us cruise with confidence again.

Although the opinions in the thread varied, I truly appreciate everyone's input. Many of you provided words of encouragement, and I'm grateful for the time you took to speak on the issue.

You have even taught me a thing or two about cruising that I think we'll help us plan our future trips. :D

I want everyone to know, my decision to escalate this was solely based on principle. The principle behind our marriage, along with the principle of clear and honest advertising.

Thank you for all of the well wishes for our wedding and marriage as well.

I will keep an eye on the thread, and will keep you updated with photos from our wedding and cruise.

Josh

Geez people calm down!

First off congratulations on your upcoming wedding. I wish you both much happiness.

Secondly, there is not much you can do regarding the itinerary change.

I am on a crazy sailing that disembarks in San Juan on Nov 12th (yippee) not exactly happy about that either, but whatever...

Like some of the other rational posters on this thread, I say "just enjoy the ship on the day it's in Jamaica". It is wonderful how calm it is when most of the passengers are off the ship!

You have the pool almost to yourself with waitstaff at your beck and call. you could even plan to have a small reception that day while everyone else is off the ship.

The spa is also much quieter if you want to book a massage or something. Enjoy the cruise DESPITE the cruiseline itself.

Much Happiness!

Donna

Thank you Donna. All very good points.

I appreciate everyone's feedback. Most of the comments were supportive and constructive. I simply came here to get some opinions on my situation, as I go on a cruise only every three years or so, on average. I will keep you updated on my progress, or lack thereof ;)

Yes, I understand itineraries change.

Yes, I understand that I could have opted for the travel insurance.

Yes, I understand that booking any wedding at a port is risky.

It's the advertising issues that I find the hardest to wrap my head around.

As far as someone saying I "have a personal aversion to Jamaica"... A personal aversion would be "I don't like Jamaica because it's too touristy or the weather is too hot". Being gay there is a crime [see Section 76 of Jamaica's Offences Against a Person Act] - That is not a personal aversion.

For most people, this change in itinerary is "Oh, we are going from Eastern Caribbean to Western Caribbean." ...

For us, it was "You are going from a place where you can legally get married and be recognized to a place where being homosexual is punishable by up to 10 years of incarceration at a labor camp".

We aren't the kind of guys to throw our relationship in your face (we could have booked a gay cruise for that), but we just didn't want to take a cruise somewhere that we didn't feel comfortable exiting the ship.

Thanks again for your feedback and kind words. I promise we will make the best of the situation.

I'm not sure how you have a dispute case via American Express.

It boils down to you not liking the new itinerary after a hurricane wiped out a port of call.

For a couple reasons... and not because my personal opinions about Jamaica.

For starters, my American Express offers automatic travel protection for purchases made directly with a carrier. I worked for Amex in college and they are very consumer friendly when it comes to disputes such as this.

Secondly, the company advertised the incorrect itinerary for an entire month after the decision had been made to change, and did not notify me until I was precisely within my 60 day cancellation period.

Thank you for your kind words :D You are definitely right. I know a lot of weddings don't go as planned, so either way we'll work on making the best of it.

Great ideas! And then, while docked in Jamaica, have a spa day on the ship! I know it's not what you envisioned for your destination wedding cruise, but, unfortunately, life happens. Nothing to be done now and I would be incredibly surprised if NCL is willing to change the cruise. They are not known for their conciliatory ways. Also, you state that you have other friends traveling with you. I can all but guarantee it won't happen for a group. I'll certainly eat my words if wrong.

 

 

The only thing I will say is this, don't let weather, bigoted attitudes, money already spent or a sour customer service rep ruin any part of one of the most important days of your's and your fiance's life. You won't be any less married no matter where the actual vows are exchanged. In the end, you could have an incredible honeymoon party cruise with your friends along to celebrate as well.

 

 

I wish you both the best of luck and happiness in your new life!

:') I appreciate your advice and sense of humor

(Sarcasm mode on)

 

Here are the replies you will get, to save you having to read the entire thread that will commence:

 

1) You go, girl! Somebody has to stand up to these corporate fat cats! They waited on purpose so you couldn’t cancel! They owe you a wedding!

 

2) Suck it up, buttercup! There were two major hurricanes in the area. They’re doing the best they can. It is what it is.

 

3) You did have insurance, right? This is why you always buy trip insurance.

 

4) Wait. Gay folks can get married? (Only if an old fart stumbles by.)

 

(Sarcasm mode off)

 

I hope it works out to your satisfaction. I think a lot of people may be satisfied but not happy when this all shakes out. Congratulations on the wedding - I hope you have many years of happiness. As my wife says, a wedding is one day, annoying each other is a lifetime.

 

I personally think I would contact the group desk and see if they can do the wedding onboard. We had a renewal ceremony a couple of years ago, with the Captain and it was very nice.

 

It’s almost a destination wedding, and if all of you are booked on the cruise already, it would save everyone having to cancel and do something else.

 

Worst case is you cancel the cruise and fly to St Thomas. I’m not sure I personally would want a happy day in an area recovering from a disaster, but that’s just me.

 

 

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I didn't get the insurance. I wish I had. I thought it was like most travel insurances, primarily for if we got sick or something came up.

I realize the reasons for the itinerary change, I understand that they probably hear a plethora of excuses and reasons for wanting to adjust your itinerary. When I initially spoke with them, I felt conflicted because why is my reasoning better than anyone else's for not wanting to visit Jamaica? But after realizing that they were still advertising the outdated itinerary, I felt duped.

We don't mind about the changes to our wedding plans, and are even planning something near home. But we will not honeymoon in Jamaica. It would go against everything our marriage means.

I've been with American Express for 17 years, and haven't disputed a charge, so I will likely contact them to dispute this, based on their advertising practices.

Hi everyone,

I am new to CC, and have only been on 5 or 6 cruises, but wanted a little feedback about my recent experience.

My partner and I are engaged, and were looking at wedding options earlier this year. I have cruised with NCL twice before, and I felt like they were gay friendly and very inclusive. We decided we would take a cruise and get married at one of the destination ports, with a few of our friends along for the ride.

After reviewing several of the options from the East Coast ports (we are based in NC, so I normally sail out of FL or NY), we decided on the Eastern Caribbean cruise after we located an officiant, photographer, and venue in St. Thomas (Being a US Virgin Island, the paperwork would be easier as well).

As we began nailing down dates, the storm predictions began. We decided to wait until after the major storms in Aug/Sept passed to book. Our contacts in St. Thomas took photos for us after the storms, and said that the number of cruises in and out of St. Thomas could be restricted, but they thought based on the other areas of the islands, I should contact my cruise line just to be sure.

Prior to booking, I called NCL to ask about the Eastern Itinerary. There were cruises still listed for Oct/Nov/Dec for the Epic Eastern Caribbean. I asked if the itinerary had been updated, and was advised it had not at that point, and would only be changed if additional storms impacted the areas.

After our conversation with NCL, we booked our venue, photographer, officiant, and December 2nd cruise. I even sent my marriage application to St. Thomas with the $200 fee.

This week, I got the email that everyone else appears to be receiving, about the itinerary change. My heart dropped a bit when I saw Jamaica on the itinerary (Jamaica has gotten better, but is known to be homophobic, and even still has laws banning gay activity). We went from having our wedding planned in St. Thomas to a location where we won't feel comfortable even getting off the boat. Conveniently, I received the email the day my cancellation fee went to 75% (60 Days prior to sailing).

I called the number in the email and got the robotic call center rep, telling me that if I wanted to change I would have to pay the fee. They gave me the number to the executive office to get me off the phone, and I called there as well. Dawn at the executive office had no empathy to the situation, and just kept saying "You can cancel, for 75%".

I don't think we were being unreasonable. I'm not asking for my lost deposits in St. Thomas. I'm not even asking for a refund. My only request was that we be moved to another cruise that did not include Jamaica (I didn't have restrictions on the port of entry, dates, duration, ... anything). I simply asked for ANY other option. Before booking the Epic, we looked at the cruise to Cuba, Cozumel, etc. They were all within the same price range, and I even offered to take a shorter cruise, if needed.

After the same robotic responses I had gotten from the previous call center, I ended the phone call with the executive office and began writing the company.

While preparing my letters to the company, I found boards like this one where customers on my same cruise were notified of the itinerary change in early Septemeber. When I visited the NCL website, the old itinerary was still listed (and was, up until yesterday - 10/06).

It appears that NCL left the old itinerary on their site for an entire month before updating it. This upset me further. During my initial call confirming the itinerary, the representative said "What is on our site is up to date". Now, I am finding out that appears to be false.

I wrote to a few of the email addresses I could find for the company (CEO, COO, Passenger Relations, Social Media, etc), and received a call from the executive office.

The representative, Katherine, told me she would be in touch with me by the EOD on Friday, but I never heard back.

I guess I am going to have to dispute this with American Express. I really was open to them changing it for us, and remaining loyal to NCL, but now I feel put off.

I don't want to get political, but do you think I'm being reasonable in my requests?