January 20.013 cancelation

[SuiteCruisin14]

Received an email from NCL canceling our January 20, 2012 cruse because of a charter.

Norwegian Pearl's 7-Day Western Caribbean sailing on January 20, 2013 has been chartered. As a result, we are

cancelling this sailing. Norwegian Cruise Line sincerely apologizes for any inconvenience caused by this cancellation and

would like to thank you for your patience and understanding.

We are offering you the ability to transfer your reservation to the following sailing dates on Norwegian Pearl: January 6

or 27, 2013, February 3, 10 or 17, 2013, and March 10 or 17, 2013. The cruise fare will be protected at your current rate

or re-priced if the new fare is lower. You also have the option to transfer your reservation to any sailing in the

Norwegian Cruise Line fleet from now until December 31, 2013 and the cruise fare will be re-priced to the current

published fare. Reservations that are transferred will receive a $50 per stateroom on-board credit to be used on any

expenditure on the ship, except service charges. Guests currently booked in suites (categories S1 to S5 and SC to SF)

will receive a $100 per stateroom on-board credit to be used on any expenditure on the ship, except service charges.

If we do not receive a response by Thursday, June 28, 2012, your reservation on Norwegian Pearl will be automatically

cancelled and your deposit will be refunded. Please let us know your preference by calling our dedicated support line at

(877) 461-1160 from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm ET Monday through Friday.

Thank you for your understanding and we look forward to assisting you with your reservation.

Sincerely,

Crane Gladding

Senior Vice President, Passenger Services

 

We had a $450 OBC and they didn't mention that. PCC has not called back yet.

 

I am thinking of booking the Dawn 10226 for February 17th, any input on that category?

[JerseyGem]

Thanks for posting about the cancellation (for many who booked with TA's, your post will be their first notice). You seem to be handling this very calmly (rather than being angry or upset at NCL- as I think I might be). Sometimes specific dates are needed or flights have already been purchased, so I imagine some people will need to look for a new cruise- any cruise- during that week. As for transferring to the Dawn, that should be no problem for NCL except for your OBC. If you received it as an NCL promotion, it should transfer (assuming you're booking a similar category of cabin). If the OBC was from a TA's promotion, it might not transfer.

 

We were booked on the Pearl for 1/20/13 when it was going to leave from NYC for a 12 day Caribbean cruise. About 6 months ago, NCL changed the Jewel for the Pearl (with all cruises and bookings staying the same- no extra OBC). Our NCL account was promptly updated, but we still have not been notified by our TA about the change. Thanks to Cruise Critic, we were kept well-informed as the situation unfolded.

[kjquilts]

So sorry your 1/20/2013 Pearl cruise has been cancelled due to charter.

Looks like it is by Kosherica. Don't want to post link since it shows pricing so probably against the board rules but google will give you the info.

 

Think this is the third Pearl charter for early 2013. Guess it makes business sense for Norwegian or they wouldn't do it but it sure wreaks havoc on those who have made their vacation plans.

 

We're booked on the Jan 13, 2013 Norwegian Star out of New Orleans. Haven't purchased airfare yet because SW doesn't open up until around July 9th. Just wondering how close to sailing date a ship can be chartered.

[SuiteCruisin14]

Thought I would send an update as to what has happened. PCC advised calling the phone number in the email as they would handle the transfer.

 

A nice guy, Carlos, worked with me for 30 minutes to get an alternative to what I had. I had already looked at the 2 dates that I could tranfer to and knew what was available so I had no surprises.

 

Only Feb 3 had an equivilent Suite to what I had booked and they honored the price I paid earlier. I was disapointed that there was no break on moving up in cabins when there was no equivilant available. The upcharge was the same as booking that cabin today.

 

I had $450 OBC, it carried over and they added $100 to that so no complaints with that.

 

We did not have a group, airfare, or complicated vacation schedules so we were probably easy to work with. This is the 3rd change in ship/itineray since January and while we love NCL this is getting to be a PITA and I am sure they lost customers from this.

 

Oh, Well! A cruise is a cruise and we may have to do a short one in Nov-Dec to feed the addiction.

 

Lynda

[sstrong]

We're booked on the Jan 13, 2013 Norwegian Star out of New Orleans. Haven't purchased airfare yet because SW doesn't open up until around July 9th. Just wondering how close to sailing date a ship can be chartered.

 

My wife and I and two friends are also booked on this cruise and wondering the same thing.

[NLH Arizona]

My wife and I and two friends are also booked on this cruise and wondering the same thing.

I'm also on the Star and have booked my air, so I guess I just have to hold my breath until I board.

[HokiePoq]

Excellent question by the previous poster....how much notice is company policy for charters and cancellations? It would be helpful to all of us who purchase our own airfare. We always want to be at the port city a day ahead and set up our air accordingly.

[chipq]

Wow! I surely would not be as calm about this. I have always kind of prepared the back of the mind about hurricanes or mechanical problems causing a cancellation but never gave much thought to a group chartering the ship right out from under you. I certainly would be PO'd at the least. And it seems to me that offering $50 OBC for the inconvenience is a little cheap condiering if the $50 was spent on drinks then NCL really would only be out about $10. The profit margin in alcoholic drinks is huge. Hope you new cruise is fantastic.

 

 

http://luv2cruise.blogspot.com

[Nightengale212]

Wow, this is the 2nd winter 2013 Pearl cruise cancelled due to a charter that was posted here over the last couple of days with the first being 2/24/13. I see you were offered to sail the Pearl on 1/27/13 which is the cruise hubby and I are booked on so I hope we dodged the charter bullet!! As many folks have mentioned on similar threads to wait to book to reduce the chances that your cruise will be chartered, we had no choice to wait to book a cruise as this was a casino comp cruise and had to book by 7/1/12 and sail by 4/1/13 so we chose this cruise. Since we needed a direct same day early am flight to MIA we have to fly out of BOS, so I decided to check out the flights shortly after we booked the cruise and could not believe this far out how few seats were left on all early am flights on 1/27 and went ahead and booked our flights. Got my fingers crossed that we too will not be singing the cruise charter blues, and very sorry this happened to you as it is not easy to reschedule all that is involved in cruise travel.

[terriberri268]

We are (were) booked on this cruise too. We had b2b booked. Jan.20 and Jan.27 on the Pearl.

Our airfare is already booked. I don't know what we are going to do. We booked through CAS too.

I will call CAS on Monday and see what we can see. I do have travel insurance which I hope will cover airfare change fees. I guess I will call the insurance company Monday too:(

 

Does anyone know if insurance covers airfare changes when this happens?

 

I would like to book the Epic. For Jan.19; if no go from CAS I will probably book the Celebrity cruise leaving Jan 19.

 

Good thing I had already booked air for the day before the cruise!

 

We can always spend a week in Miami too I guess.

 

 

You can see I am running options through my mind lol:)