DCGuy64

If I have the choice to believe a multibillion dollar company that ferries 1,000s of passengers all over the world every single day and has to abide by multiple sets of maritime and landbased laws and regulations, and a group of irresponsible adults who are trying to have their 15 minutes of fame, I'll choose the corporation Every. Single. Time. Others are free to do differently. EDIT: People here are probably familiar with how a newspaper can print a "scoop" kind of story on page 1 in large font and then, when errors in the story are discovered, they print a retraction on page 28 in small type. Reminds me how often people can paint a cruise line (ANY cruise line, mind you, not just NCL) of ripping people off, stranding them, etc. and then when the full details emerge and the cruise line didn't do anything wrong, the haters are nowhere to be found to say they jumped to conclusions and were wrong.

If NCL elects to reimburse passengers, even though it has no liability whatsoever and is in no way required to, I'm sure that won't stop the haters on here who will still somehow say NCL is evil and should be boycotted, sued or burned at the stake. 🤣🤣

100% agree. Typically entitled, "I'm the victim," 0% responsibility passengers. NCL did nothing wrong and I hope those people get zilch.

I can see why. My TA cruises a lot, but I don't think he's done VV yet. When we sail with them next January, and the offer is still good (and assuming we have a good time, which I anticipate we will), I could easily see us opting for this.

Wow, no kidding. That's quite a generous incentive!

Absolutely. You can see quite a bit in 15 hours. In fact, in 2021, we disembarked from a cruise in Trieste, took the train to Chiusi to meet friends who live in Citta' della Pieve, had dinner, breakfast and a snack with them and were there less than 24 hours. You could do a ton of stuff in Rome with 15 hours.

Thank you, I knew about the bar tab but wasn't sure if something similar could be done for sailor loot. Thanks for the explanation! Oh yes, I understand that. The 'benefit' to me is that I sometimes like to have money saved that I then put towards onboard expenses rather than spending that money on other stuff before the cruise and then having a massive credit card bill later. Same principle (to me, anyway) of paying down my cruise over time versus a big chunk to be paid at final payment time. That's all. Thanks.

Just a question since we are new to VV: Can sailor loot be loaded prior to the cruise by the sailor, or is it only available as the result of a promotion? I know with other lines, OBC is typically a perk offered either by the cruise line or a travel agent. Is that true of Sailor Loot, too?

YMMV, for sure. We've had everything from a missed connection (same airline) to weather delays to a COVID issue, most of the time the airline took appropriate action. We did have to pay $50 to rebook an international trip, but that was in business class so $50 was no biggie. It's always worth talking with the airline and asking "what if." I usually don't like to schedule flights too close to disembarkation, but you might be surprised to see how often I build in the extra time, only to be stuck at the airport for hours and I'm thinking "you know, I should have taken that earlier flight after all." But then there's Murphy's Law, so....

Thanks so much! Really appreciate your review. My first-ever cruise, I ditched my family and hung out with two other guys closer in age. I'm glad you had a nice cruise!

Thank you for your review! I'm glad your kids had a good time. We're booked on the Encore for next May (2025). What were your impressions, if any, of Food Republic? How about Los Lobos, Onda, or Cagney's? Just trying to get an idea what food is like on the Encore. We've been on a few other NCL ships but not that one. Thanks again!

Yeah, I get that. We were really looking forward to our stops in Athens and Livorno last November when we sailed with Norwegian, but they were cancelled. Big bummer, but it didn't stop us enjoying our trip. Hope your trip goes swimmingly and there are no cancellations. But if there are, just try to roll with it and maintain a positive attitude. At least you know now that VV can make changes, so it's good lesson learned, right? Worst case, you're stuck on an amazing ship with great food, drinks, entertainment, etc. 😊

Earlier you mentioned this would be your last one. Hopefully after this one you might change your mind?

👏👏👏 Bravo! Well stated. It never ceases to amaze me how people can sign a contract and then are shocked and appalled that they, wait for it, signed a contract! You can't make this stuff up! I'd like to know when these complainers are cruising so I can avoid them. Something tells me they're not really Virgin's target market, anyway.

Hmm, that has never happened to us in the past. I've missed a couple of flights over the years, and all the airline did was put me on the next flight, usually the following day, with no cost whatsoever. I've already paid for the flight, after all, it's not like I just showed up at the airport with no reservation and said "how much is it to fly home"?

We ended having our TA book us on the Encore to Alaska next year as a replacement for the Star cruise. We've never been to Alaska so it's something we're looking forward to. Maybe we'll do a land based vacation to Norway one day.

That just might be it! 🤣 Agreed. It's just part of cruising. At least in this instance, the change was (apparently) something the sailors wanted. Many times it seems like ports are dropped or substituted while the cruise is underway, with little justification. I guess it's kinda nice that this was due to passenger preference.

It sounds from the earlier post like sailors wanted another sea day, NOT a stop at a different Med port.

Quite a few people on CC mention they have cruises booked one, two, even 3 years ahead of time. What would be your suggestion in terms of the right time to change things? At the very least, there are often people who book less than 50 days ahead of sailing date, so that's enough time for them to decide whether to book or not. I take itinerary changes as just one of the many things that can happen. Earlier today I found out that my cruise was cancelled altogether (ship is changing to a charter for our sailing). I'd certainly prefer a changed/missed port to a full cancellation.

I like your posts a lot, BTW. I am just sitting here chuckling because it seems like people on Cruise Critic are always offering advice about what cruise lines should and shouldn't do, how they should skip certain ports because "everybody's been there," etc., and now here's a case of the cruise line actually listening to customers and changing the itinerary accordingly, and people are mad. 🤣

Take the risk. In the worst case, you miss that flight and leave the next day, which is what others are encouraging you to do, anyway. You might also consider seeing how often that 9:15 flight takes off on schedule. Maybe it's perpetually late leaving.

Somewhat of a curious comment, since Cruise Critic is very often littered with posts saying the cruise lines should take passenger input into account.

I saw that they are doing that for 2024. But we're going on a family trip to France June 8-21 so that won't work, unfortunately. We're just SOL

Thank you very much! I appreciate the positive and encouraging note. I'm hoping that happens, as well. Since they're offering 10% off our next cruise, it would certainly be nice to get both that AND the triple CN offer!

Thank you for that. I'm looking at Alaska on the Jade or the Encore at this point. I'll check on other ships for summer 2025.