8920

Ease up a bit.  Yes, seasoned cruisers know that in the end, you're booking X days and ports - and even disembarking ports it's now abundantly clear to me - are not guaranteed.  Cruise lines don't exactly advertise that fact when they sell their cruises.  You have to either dig in the fine print, or get bit by it once to know that. 

He sees it in a different way.  "The cruise ship was just a taxi."  Was he legally correct?  No.  But his point is that in his mind, the cruise no longer has the same value to him that it did when he booked it.  And in that, he is correct.  He is the sole judge on whether it's worth it to him.  

29 minutes ago, GirlWriter said:

Maybe the changes are required because of other cruises -- for example, another cruise that overlaps with yours had a stop in Jerusalem that now has to be changed to another port, and so it got moved to one of the ports you already had, which then is overbooked and exceeding the maximum ships allowed in port, which requires NCL to move yours to yet another port. So, in other words, other moving parts collided with your itinerary and created a domino effect.

Thanks!

Okay, thanks.  That's the factor that I was missing, considering the sister ships' (and also NCI's other brands) rerouted itineraries.  They may have had to sacrifice some of Epic's itinerary to give the slot to another ship that needed it more.  That actually makes much more sense.  I appreciate the input.

46 minutes ago, RD64 said:

It is not just a simple fix of taking out an eraser and writing in a new port - one has to take the logistics into account. Unless the cruise is outright cancelled, NCL must still “create” an adjusted cruise of XX number of days. There are only so many ports available in this geographic area. 
 

And truly as we can see from some of these posts, the entitled (those who have paid their $$) feel that the schedule should be changed to accommodate their wishes. There are probably 2000 other people on board that have their own different ideas about what an appropriate revised itinerary would be. It is impossible to please everyone.

Sorry, you must have added this while I was typing.  

I understand what you're saying, but again, why would they have to create an entire new itinerary when the one they had was fully reserved and arranged except for the last two ports?  If we already had a slot reservation for Rhodes and Patmos on specific days, why give up those slots for someone else to take? 

And from the posts - and I'll grant you, there are some entitled people there - nobody suggested skipping even more ports than we already are or adding Mykonos.  Most, if not all, had already come to a their go/no go decision based on losing the Israeli ports and changing disembark to Athens and were way more pissed off at losing two additional ports.  If NCL was changing the ports to appease some of them, they really missed the mark.

None of it makes sense, which means NCL must have had one hell of a reason for doing it.  Curious what that was.  Maybe I'll ask onboard, maybe I'll just order another drink and sit on my balcony. Either way, I'm still going.

1 minute ago, RD64 said:

Provisioning, distance to be travelled, fuel costs, bunkering, shore excursion availability,  port scheduling and facilities,  many ships from other cruise lines also scrambling to adjust their itineraries at very short notice, airlift where necessary, safety concerns,….

I agree, they're all factors.  What is less clear is if all of those factors were already scheduled for every port for this cruise prior to the 10th day of the 12 day cruise, and had been for at least two years prior, what would have changed with those arrangements that would necessitate changing the ports?  The only obvious change that had to be made was deleting Ashdod and changing the disembarkation port. The rest of the schedule disruption has no obvious reason, although there must have been some reason if NCL added that much work to an already overworked staff.  It's a fair question to ask what that was, although we'll probably never know.

27 minutes ago, RD64 said:

You are looking at in terms of the isolation of one or two ports.  NCL has to look at it in terms of the entire itinerary and the logistics that are involved. According to you nothing needs to be changed - NCL may have an entirely different view based on factors which we may know nothing about. 

And here we are, speculating about what those factors could possibly be.  Do you have any insight to add?

5 minutes ago, RD64 said:

Perhaps you should work for NCL in itinerary planning since you seem to think that everything can be changed at the drop of a hat.

No need to get snarky about it.  I was just saying that nothing in the first 10 days of the cruise needed to be changed.  The slot reservations at the ports were already booked and all logistics already planned.  So why mess with the rest of the ports?  The only changes that needed to be made were the Israeli ports on days 11 and 12.  Why create all of the extra work?

5 hours ago, richmke said:

The Epic can trans-atlantic for days at sea. The ship can carry enough food to last for weeks. Going from Limassol to Athens in 2 days would be a cake walk for the Epic. I doubt Ashod was a large re-provisioning port. They have all the other stops to take on extra food and fuel if they needed it. First stop at Athens, and Instanbul, in particular, since those are Embarkation/Debarkation ports where major reprovisioning occurs.

Yeah, that's true.  I don't know, I can't think of any other reason why they did it that way.  

4 hours ago, www3traveler said:

Probably what ports have space available on a specific date and time.  Port docking schedules are determined months in advance. 

Exactly, so why cancel ports that had already been booked nearly two years in advance?  All they had to do was skip Ashdod and Haifa and reroute to Athens.  Why change up everything else?  The return cruise has Patmos and Rhodes still on the schedule.  

27 minutes ago, CruiseMH said:

I`m wondering about taking out the other two greek isles.I personally can`t find any reason why to kick out these two isles.

 

I was scratching my head at that, too.  For some reason, we're going to Mykonos on Day 4 rather than Santorini.  That seems to have created a knock-on effect, which made Patmos and Rhodes unavailable.  Not privy to what happens behind the scenes for that.  I would guess it has something to do with logistics. Simply skipping the Israeli ports and going directly to Athens may have been too far to sail without visiting a port where fuel or other provisioning services are available and thus needed to rearrange what days we visit those ports.  There's no threats security-wise that would necessitate deleting any Greek ports, so for those going on future Greek Isles cruise, I wouldn't worry.  Yours will likely go as planned.  

1 hour ago, Mbennett71 said:

I don’t expect that they have logistics figured out. I never suggested that they would.   I’m sure they haven’t stopped working on it all weekend.  I think it’s unfortunate that they haven’t reached out to their customers yet to say they’re working on it like other cruise lines have.  That’s it.  As for what’s unfolding in Israel - it’s more than unfortunate, it’s a horrific tragedy that’s unlikely to end anytime soon. We’re keeping a close eye on family and friends there.  

I'm on the Epic with you on 11/8.  Right now, NCL is probably working the logistics of the Jade, which was scheduled for Haifa 10/11 and Ashdod 10/12.  I'm certain those are going to be cancelled, but they're stops, so they can choose alternate ports.  After that, NCL doesn't have another cruise touching Israel until the Gem on 11/7.  Our cruise and the return from Haifa to Rome are the only cruises that NCL has that disembark/embark from Haifa all year.  Once they get through the situation with the Jade, Epic will probably be the next priority.  It's a fluid situation, and who knows what's going to happen in the next month.  Personally, I would rather them make the port change now rather than holding out hope to make it in until a week before so that we have time to adapt our travel plans.  

I doubt Egypt is going to be an option.  It's too close, and there was also a situation where two Israeli tourists and their tour guide were murdered on the same day as the attacks in Israel.  They would most likely pick another option.  My guess would be Athens, since they already have embarkation facilities there and the city is big enough to accommodate multiple flight and hotel options.  I seriously doubt they would cancel the entire cruise.  That's 22 days worth of a ship sucking down money rather than making money because of three days of scheduled ports. 

It's a sad situation all around.  More concerned for the people in the region than this cruise.    

4 hours ago, graphicguy said:

Ezry. our mixologist, surprises me.  Chocolate Raspberry Martini.

 

Very Good! 

If you get a chance, ask her how long she's staying on the ship.  Would love to try one of those next month.  

11 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

 Not picturesque…but we’re docked in Barcelona!

Thanks for posting all of these pictures.  We're in the room directly above yours in a few more weeks, and it's nice to see what they look like currently, vs some youtube videos that may not be up to date.  Don't drink up all of the good stuff before we get there.  

15 minutes ago, CarolRoy said:

 

My refund for the cruise fare and taxes was credited to my cc today.  Transaction date was 4/20 and credit posted on 5/22.  Don't know why it was almost a month for the credit to show up on my cc.  I guess Carnival was holding off releasing the credit.  I did not purchase anything from Carnival like drink package, pre-paid grats, or anything else.

I forgot about that part.  Mine were the same way, transaction date of 4/13 and posted date of 5/17 (4/16 and 5/22 for the cruise fares).  It does look like they're finally getting these moving along.  40 days from cancellation to the first of three cabins refunded.  Just in time to pay for my rescheduled land-based vacation.

On 5/18/2020 at 7:46 AM, 8920 said:

Booked 9/1/2019

Cruise Date 6/7/2020 out of San Juan on Fascination

Cancelled cruise on 4/12/2020 (the day before Carnival made the second batch of cancellations)

Last night, 5/17/2020, refunds for shore excursions.  

Updated:

5/22/2020  Received refund for one of my cabins for fare, taxes, and gratuities, minus $500 dollars.  Still waiting on two other cabins.

I was expecting them to give me some grief over the fact that I cancelled my cruise the day before Carnival officially had (but after the CDC had).  Technically, this could have resulted in a $500 cancellation penalty.  I called to find out what happened, and they had for some reason thought I had asked for $500 of the fare for each cabin to be an FCC.  They were very nice about it, placed me on hold for about five minutes, and told me that the FCC was being refunded as well for all cabins.  Of course, it could be another 35 days before I see anything, but she did say that they are getting through the backlog faster now.  

I know for a fact I asked for a full refund, so if you get your refund and it looks a little short, you might want to make sure they didn't try to keep a little of it for an FCC.  It may have been that this is how they waive the cancellation policy by default and you have to ask for it to be a refund specifically, so that would only be an issue if you cancelled the cruise yourself and it wasn't cancelled by Carnival.  

In reading over all of these posts since I cancelled, I think I've figured out what their pattern is for issuing refunds. 

There absolutely isn't one.  

Cruise Date 6/7/2020 out of San Juan on Fascination

Cancelled cruise on 4/12/2020 (the day before Carnival made the second batch of cancellations)

Last night, 5/17/2020, refunds for shore excursions.  

I didn't specifically cancel the shore excursions first, they automatically did when I cancelled the cruise.  Still no refunds for cruise fare, taxes, or gratuities.  I really don't understand why they can refund shore excursions but not the cruise fare.  Maybe it's because the funds for shore excursions are in an escrow account to give to the excursion operators?  If that's the case, are they just holding out as long as they can to raise the cash for refunds?  Whatever, I'll pay off the rest of my new non-cruising vacation with this refund and wait impatiently like everyone else.