Cancelled 2016 cruise and NCL response

[sail7seas]

Having read all of the changes; poor communication from NCL etc, I cancelled a cruise on Escape for a Haven suite.

I told the person that I do not like to do business with companies that change policies; upcharges and do not have clear communication to those already booked.

I did receive a call from a "PCC" asking why as this was an expensive cruise. That was why the call.

I asked if the NCL leaders consider feedback from cruise critic and was told no, they do not worry about such comments.

Interesting that he tried to broker another cruise we have booked. If I would agree to pay the service charges now we would pay the same and the rate would not increase.

Hello?

My response was that although we have had many great NCL cruises, the constant changes will drive our cruise choices.

I would have appreciated a response that at least the many, many responses on CC made a difference.

Are we all talking to ourselves?

 

 

 

I think it very unlikely any PCC telephone rep has a clue to what social media sites upper management of the cruise line pay attention. In this new information age, it would be hard to think CC is ignored by a major cruise line. They are smart enough to weed through those posts from people with an agenda and those posts that are 'mostly' accurate.

 

I know people who work in Seattle Office of HAL read CC from time to time at a minimum. I strongly suspect there are those who print out posts/threads they think their supervisors might be interested to read.

 

[sail7seas]

While I don't work for NCL, I do monitor social media for my company (along with several other employees; I handle Facebook and our company forums, while others handle Twitter and other social media).

 

We note what people say on social media, but it has much less impact on our organization than a support ticket, phone call, email or letter. The purported "power" of social media does come into play when a customer has a specific complaint and posts it on Facebook. I then spring into action and ... issue a support ticket so it can get fixed.

 

If the customer issued the support ticket themselves it would get fixed faster, because it would be in the queue at the time they posted on Facebook. Instead, we play the social media relay game and I enter the ticket on their behalf.

 

Like most companies, NCL has customer satisfaction surveys going back years. They are statistically significant, scientific measures of customer satisfaction. Organic social media comments are self-selected and not a scientific barometer of customer satisfaction. They are compared to the known statistics to decide what kind of weight to give them.

 

The OP provided excellent information to NCL beyond post counts. A customer cancelling a cruise and leaving comments that they just didn't want to risk spending the money on their first NCL cruise because of the way the new charges were handled with current customers may have more impact than the entirety of the CC posts. (BTW - if I don't have the OP's exact reason listed there it's not intentional, and I mean no disrespect to the OP at all; I'm using an example to make my point).

 

About the company responding on forums: This is almost always a bad idea unless done by a very skilled CEO or perhaps someone at the VP level. I have very specific guidelines as to what I can and can not say, and can only post in response to our company-sponsored Facebook Groups. The reason is the parsing you see done in these threads. So you only see what a company's attorneys and marketing people have sanctioned to be said.

 

 

 

Very informative, helpful post.

Thank you.

 

[DreamingBig1]

The percentage of active members (including readers) of cruise critic is probably not as great as people assume. It's one of many marketing mediums that a cruise line has at their disposal.

 

Of course any company likes to have a handle on their goodwill and message, but in this case, it can't possibly be that big to make a huge difference. So yes, they have to be keeping track silently of what the buzz is.

 

The message matters, however most companies will act according to what allows them to compete and stay profitable.

 

You have every right to take your money and go elsewhere. If NCL is making you unhappy, you probably should. It's your hard earned money.

 

They should value you as a every customer, despite your being a active member of cruise critic.

 

Money talks. If more people cancel their cruises, then changes most likely will take place.

 

My gut tells me that the Freestyle promotion is successful, and that NCL will have many new and unique cruisers because of it.

 

Now they can do one of two things with that. Take advantage and totally ruin this opportunity to grow their business, by not keeping up a level of customer service and value, or adjust and embrace the new NCL cruisers whereby making their NCL experience a great one, where they will come back and share their good experience.

 

Its a wait and see.

[cadien]

We just got off a cruise. There wasn't a bridge tour for the M&G but there was one for suite guests. The M&G attendees did receive invitations to the officers dinner (I may have the name wrong) and another benefit.

 

It did amuse me that on the post-cruise survey, the question "Have you heard of cruise critic?" got a screen all to itself. With the lower case. There was a follow-up question about reading reviews pre-cruise and writing them after.

[Rancher Dave]

For those that sailed NCL recently and received the post-cruise e-survey, there is a specific questions (actually, a 2nd. questions with sub-questions) about knowing, active, reading & posting on social media, including CC.

 

I don't recall if we got the survey last year sailing the BA, but both DW & I got one this year for the BA. For old-timers, it used to be done on the ship & dropped off in a box at Guest Services, and even drawings held - then, it changed to a random/select sampling only, post-cruise with the followup email.

 

The PCC was possibly just reading off the script & clueless about CC himself/herself so I will believe 50% of what's said and then discount 50% of the info as useless ...

 

Case-in-point, I happened to think that on the ship's M&G, they have a sign-in sheet for all CC'ers attending, there must be some reason for them to collect our names, stateroom #, CC username/handles AND email addresses - of course, they just put it into the round file bin right afterward. The Captain himself commented that they do read & follow CC - maybe not the details of every other thread on NCL, but somebody sitting in front of a monitor screen is doing what I call "intel" work on trending & the pulses on social media. If they don't - they are fools in this day & age to pretend that they ignore it all, which they can as it is well within their prerogative to do so.

 

Funny to hear the captains comments about following CC. The internet manager on Jewel was following CC especially the thread started two weeks ago about the unlimited internet package on the ship. (It was a nice package, as I used it last week. Between the phone and computer, switching between them, I used over 4500 minutes of time and nearly 3T of data.)

[bobg529]

I have been to multiple Meet and Greets and we were told , no, beggged, more than once by a hotel director on one ship and the captain himself on another, not to wait till we got home to write it up on Cruise Critic, but to PLEASE come to them on the ship so they could get the problem resolved. They may not want to admit it, but our opinion matters. The people that post on this site are the heart and soul of their industry. It is a well known theory in marketing that one persons complaint represents thousands of others of silent complaints. Those are the killer complaints because those customers don't say a word. They just take they're money and they skedaddle.:eek: Sure, if Frank Del Rio is a pompous airhead he can think that he can do whatever he likes because the dumb schmucks (that's us folks) will just keep coming back for more. But he's wrong and he will find out the hard way, by becoming unemployed. :mad: do you really think the continental breakfast was supposed to remain free all along? Really?:confused: Hell no, they saw the anger and they tried to save face and make it look better. Bottom line: they're dumb, but they're not stupid.

[dexddd]

We're on the GEM and the entire CC Meet & Greet group was invited to a bridge tour and the schedule did NOT conflict with other concurrent events, Jenny Lim - HD was among those on the ship. Paid behind-the-scene tour was available (don't recall specifics with Platinum tours) then too (and, charging less for it.)

 

No BA bridge tour offered in 2014 either and for BA 2015 - the onboard liaison scheduled CC's Meet & Greet to conflict (not on purpose, right ... as I would like to believe) with the Platinum abbreviated (shortened with 3 areas only) BTS tour that start 30 minutes earlier - consistently as I learned since. And, of course, the paid BTS (extended or full length) tour was offered later in the week - and despite being a full ship, wasn't soldout & still being advertised the day before by the CD as part of PA speech piped all over the ship. **There wasn't even an Officer's Dinner offered (listed in the daily but blank for details - Day 1) for the usual dozen lucky pax from the drawing as it's often done.

 

Dexddd -captured my thoughts exactly, it was meow like, WTH - I went with minimal expectations already, DW did feel like go & wisely so, had more fun in the casino (but lost a few) & joined me for a very late breakfast in O'Sheehan afterward. It has to be shortest M&G I ever attended (which I wrote in the review) Actually, the Latitude reception for Silver/Gold/Platinum members later in the week was equally disappointing - not a big deal & didn't ruined our cruise.

 

It wouldn't surprise me that the instructions came out of MIA, why make it free for CC when it can be sold to the public for a fee. Besides, it's not in the cruise contract nor included in the fares paid. :D

 

What I do know is that, as one of the tens of thousands of (senior/veteran) reviewer for TripAdvisors, both front desk "employees" & often the manager on duty at many of the better hotels we've visited on land (as repeats) are very appreciative & do recognize that as FT'ers, we played an important role in spreading the words, and, even if it's a minor housekeeping issues, strive to get it done right & matters resolved. And, you know what, they respond often in a public way on their forum & write back, do the followup calls & emails personally - lines like NCL, of course, have their own mindset and feel that they can do whatever. And, that is that - not going to debate about it. Going slightly off-topic, United Airlines, once known as one of the best with its 'Fly the Friendly Skies" tagline are now ranked bottom among (legacy) US carriers in customer (dis)satisfactions - and despite our FF lifetime status since the early 1980's, we haven't flown them in 18 months because we choose to give our business to another carrier - heck with their perks, and for anyone who fly a bit, you'll know the deals for 2015. :rolleyes:

 

If all of these changes are good for business & to Wall Street, good for NCL and FDR & team's calculations are spot-on, but if not - time will tell & it will not take a decade for the impacts to be measured & felt. Meanwhile, with Wall Street's 1 day big drop yesterday - CCL is still doing better, along with its outlook, than NCLH - and the competition got more newer ships coming along to do milky runs. I am sure MIA HQ people are watching closely, as they should. The world isn't just black-n-white but rather, shades of grey as well.

 

Recently someone on a Jewel class trip reported the overlap going on of the CC M&G and the Platinum tour so it is more than just the BA.

 

On the afternoon after our M&G on the BA last year, I wrote a letter to Prem telling him that they should not have them overlap. I got a blah blah blah response back which apparently had no effect since you had it happen again in 2015 and nothing has changed.

[SissasMomE]

Seriously? A PCC that used to be a captain? As soon as he said that, I would have known he was full of it and asked to be transferred to someone else.

 

I don't think it's impossible. One of my first jobs was working in a pet supply store. I always said that when I "retire", I am going to leave my high stress legal job, and go back to working in the pet store.

[ncklhaus]

I don't think it's impossible. One of my first jobs was working in a pet supply store. I always said that when I "retire", I am going to leave my high stress legal job, and go back to working in the pet store.

 

I highly doubt that a retired cruise ship captain (from several different lines) would take a job answering phones in a call center. But that's just my opinion.

[laceltris3]

As a CC newbie, I can vouch for the immediate turn up of Cruise Critic in search engines! A short one and a half months ago I was asked to join my cousin on a cruise and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. A quick google search of NCL Getaway brought me here; Cruise Critic has been a wealth of info (sometimes so much info it's overwhelming!) to a fresh cruiser like myself.

 

On the topic of if the cruise lines are "listening" to these posts, they would be stupid if they weren't. Looking to research about my cruise, I read many reviews (good, bad and the ugly) that has made an impression on me. I have opinions and expectations of my ship that I learned here. NCL and all cruiselines should listen to the people who are directly impacting their business.

 

I have been pretty quiet on here, not posting often and mostly digesting all the bits of info I can get for my upcoming first cruise. But you can guarantee- people are listening, your opinions and reviews matter. Just like me, there are plenty of other "ghost" users on here listening and taking your advice. NCL probably amongst them.

 

I recently joined cc, but I have been aware of it for years. My first cruise was last year and I have 2 more scheduled for this year. Those were all DCL, and to be honest, the there are Disney boards that are more active and are better resources for DCL. For 2016, we booked the 9 day Baltic capitals on the Star, mainly because I can get a suite and airfare for 5 for less than DCL wanted for a balcony room (DCL started 2016 prices at approximately double the initial prices for 2015, and exactly where I could get a still unsold room on the summer 2015 sailings).

 

Cruise critic is the first place I came for information, and to be honest, I am quite weary about the customer service experience I will receive. But it is a port-intensive itinerary, so I don't even miss the entertainment that I would be to tired to enjoy on DCL anyway.

[Loucat]

I highly doubt that a retired cruise ship captain (from several different lines) would take a job answering phones in a call center. But that's just my opinion.

 

I did not start this thread without being totally honest about my cancellation and the call from NCL. I would have no reason to tell anyone on CC something that was not my experience. Yes, is it interesting this person claims he was a ship's captain and is now a PCC? I agree but that is what was said. He sent an email with his contact information so he could be my own PCC which I need like a hole in the head.

[Partyatsea]

Maybe it was this on PCC who thinks NCL does not consider CC comments (recent trends are way more than comments). He claimed he is a previous captain and has worked for many cruise lines.

 

Seriously? Your kidding right? :rolleyes:

[ncklhaus]

I did not start this thread without being totally honest about my cancellation and the call from NCL. I would have no reason to tell anyone on CC something that was not my experience. Yes, is it interesting this person claims he was a ship's captain and is now a PCC? I agree but that is what was said. He sent an email with his contact information so he could be my own PCC which I need like a hole in the head.

 

I didn't say that I didn't believe what you said, because I do. I just don't believe the PCC.

[zqvol]

Funny to hear the captains comments about following CC. The internet manager on Jewel was following CC especially the thread started two weeks ago about the unlimited internet package on the ship. (It was a nice package, as I used it last week. Between the phone and computer, switching between them, I used over 4500 minutes of time and nearly 3T of data.)

 

You spent over 75 hours online on a cruise? Did you do anything except stay online all week?

[SissasMomE]

I just had to call NCL about something. While on hold, the following message was playing "Norwegians share their experiences on social media".

 

Guess that settles that. :rolleyes:

[Minoushka]

Truthfully I can only say nice things about NCL .on

Epic a few years ago I organized a meet and greet .All upper echelon officers came .i got to know the Hotel manager and other staff who were really very nice .i then proceeded to book the Med and Transat on Epic .I. Was treated like a queen on both of these ...byall stafff members ...very Very nice .....awesome voyage in spite of being very sick ..bronchitis etc ...warm in Barcelona ,..freezing in Florence .brrrrrrr

I.m still in touch with that Hotel Managerwho now is Fleet manager .He even helped me with a problem with their newly acquired company ...Oceania

Im going on 2more NCL ships this year .....i am organizing another meet and greet .I like NCl ...not too crazy about new costs but still looking forwArd to being on 2new ships Getaway and Escape .im sure i will have a great time

Yes I do belivethey read this column and do act upon it ..so post comments ....they will act upon them

 

Michele

[hpecorari]

I just had to call NCL about something. While on hold, the following message was playing "Norwegians share their experiences on social media".

 

Guess that settles that. :rolleyes:

 

Yep, it sure does!

 

Harriet

[Love2Cruz2015]

Some companies are much slower on realizing that the power paradigm has shifted. In the past a dissatisfied customer only effected the people they had immediate contact with. This significantly reduced any fall out from poor business practices. Now with the internet increasing the reach of every consumer to a worldwide market they should take notice. I have no doubt they see what goes on here and that is has some effect on decisions. The fact that they post on threads is proof that they are watching. Why watch if our comments are of no consequence? They want us to think we have no effect because a widely negative reaction here reaches countless people and could hurt their bottom line.

 

6&8

 

NCL needs to wake up..CC and TripAdvisor for hotels/restaurants is a powerful tool. If they're smart, they'll use it to their advantage instead of dismissing. I, like many others, pour over reviews before coming to a decision that costs me mega bucks. They need to wake up and realize customer DO have a say....whether they like it or not.

 

Power in numbers.

[calex]

The cruise I referred to was with a captain who was known for offering bridge tours. The officer who made the comment told me the change came from the Miami office.

 

It seems that Miami saw something being given free that they could sell.

 

I attended the same Meet & Greet aboard the Star in November 2014 as Swedish_weave where Hotel Director Hugo Vanosmael stated the decision came down from corporate headquarters in Miami that all ships were directed to stop offering bridge and galley tours to Cruise Critic M&G groups. These tours were not offered on all ships, but since CC members are known as prolific writers and they have described these tours in detail in the posts, people were complaining onboard when a tour was not offered. To be consistent across all ships, corporate instructed all senior officers to cease the tours.

 

But, we all know NCL's track record on consistency... so there may be a few ships that still offer tours for M&G groups.

[cliffd64]

Having read all of the changes; poor communication from NCL etc, I cancelled a cruise on Escape for a Haven suite.

I told the person that I do not like to do business with companies that change policies; upcharges and do not have clear communication to those already booked.

I did receive a call from a "PCC" asking why as this was an expensive cruise. That was why the call.

I asked if the NCL leaders consider feedback from cruise critic and was told no, they do not worry about such comments.

Interesting that he tried to broker another cruise we have booked. If I would agree to pay the service charges now we would pay the same and the rate would not increase.

Hello?

My response was that although we have had many great NCL cruises, the constant changes will drive our cruise choices.

I would have appreciated a response that at least the many, many responses on CC made a difference.

Are we all talking to ourselves?

 

With all due respect, I think your decision to cancel your cruise was a bad one.

 

As you are aware being a suite passenger, when on board, the suite passengers do have much more access to upper level crew and therefore you could have expressed your concern to someone like the HD about the lack of communication about their changes in policies with regards to passengers who are already booked. In that way you could have used your status as a suite passenger to express your opinion to someone who could take it seriously as opposed to a commission based PCC who could not care less. The reality is, except for increases to daily service charges (for which an argument could be made that it's been several years without such an increase) none of these changes would affect your ship experience whatsoever in a Haven Suite especially with today's promotions.

 

As a fellow suite passenger, I intend to enjoy my next cruise, and I will, and it will be just as good as any previous cruise, especially since I'm going to be in a suite. Yes, Norwegian probably needs to work on better communication, but that's not a reason for me to walk away from the product I have enjoyed every year since 2002! The reality for me is that even with these changes, I still can't find a comparable deal with CCL, RCI, X or any other mass market line etc. Abandoning the product that I enjoy the most only punishes me, not Norwegian. Will there be more changes? No doubt... Things change with time. Remember the uproar when freestyle was first developed? I think the industry is changing... you just have to evaluate the changes and see how it would affect you in the long run. So far... the changes won't have much of an impact to me.

 

I admire your principles, but I think you may have over played your hand in this case. Good luck on your future cruises :)

[calex]

I did not start this thread without being totally honest about my cancellation and the call from NCL. I would have no reason to tell anyone on CC something that was not my experience. Yes, is it interesting this person claims he was a ship's captain and is now a PCC? I agree but that is what was said. He sent an email with his contact information so he could be my own PCC which I need like a hole in the head.

 

By chance, is the name of the PCC who claims to be an ex-captain, Francesco Schettino?

[NLH Arizona]

I just had to call NCL about something. While on hold, the following message was playing "Norwegians share their experiences on social media".

 

Guess that settles that. :rolleyes:

 

Who said they didn't?:rolleyes:

 

No one ever said that Cruise Critic or any other Social Media site didn't have a voice and they alert others to the cruise line with their reviews and comments, but it is just not as loud as some want to think it is, with regard to complaining about things. If their voice was so loud, there would be no increase in beverage gratuity, no 18 percent gratuity for specialty restaurants and no charges whatsoever for room service, just to name a few things.

Edited April 20, 2015 by NLH Arizona

[maywell]

Who said they didn't?:rolleyes:

 

No one ever said that Cruise Critic or any other Social Media site didn't have a voice and they alert others to the cruise line with their reviews and comments, but it is just not as loud as some want to think it is, with regard to complaining about things. If their voice was so loud, there would be no increase in beverage gratuity, no 18 percent gratuity for specialty restaurants and no charges whatsoever for room service, just to name a few things.

Cruise Critic wasn't that influential with Sheenan when he raise the DSC from $10-12, removing lobster from MDR plus chocolate night. I highly doubt CC posters will convince Del Rio any better.....

 

Sent from my SGH-T399 using Tapatalk

Edited April 20, 2015 by maywell

[hpecorari]

By chance, is the name of the PCC who claims to be an ex-captain, Francesco Schettino?

 

Not unless he's taking calls behind bars!

 

Harriet

[pieshops]

You spent over 75 hours online on a cruise? Did you do anything except stay online all week?

 

Or 3 days and 2 hours