Breakaway Hurricane News 10/9

[Charles4515]

 

Like I said before, if NYC wants to host these new mega ships, they need to be able to accommodate the crowd. Next time we sail on a ship bigger than the Magic, we will do it from another port (like Baltimore)!

 

 

I doubt that hosting mega cruise ships is a priority of New York City. They don't need cruise ships. The cruise ships need New York. Not the other way around. Most of the cab drivers when I took cabs to the pier from Penn Station didn't know there was a cruise ship pier and had never been there! I think it will be up to the cruise lines to make upgrades for mega ships. I have been on several smaller ships leaving out of Manhattan, Zenith before they moved to Bayonne, and Veendam. There were no issues at all because they were not mega ships.

 

In my opinion the experience of sailing past the Statue of Liberty and the New York skyline makes up for the hassles of the embarkation and disembarkation.

 

 

 

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Edited October 18, 2016 by Charles4515

[MICHLEV1974]

[quote

In my opinion the experience of sailing past the Statue of Liberty and the New York skyline makes up for the hassles of the embarkation and disembarkation.

 

 

 

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You are absolutely right! I get the chills every time I sail past the Statue of Liberty. She's just so beautiful and full of hope for all sailing in and out.

[YankeeFan4Ever]

Hurricane NiCoLe. Coincidence? I think not...

 

Seriously, to all the people complaining about the re-route to Florida and the Bahamas, please tell me... what was NCL supposed to do in this situation?

 

You take your chances during hurricane season. Simple as that... :rolleyes:

[dexddd]

I was in the ship last week. I totally understood the reroute, but didn't understand why it took so long to tell us. I was watching the weather for days and it was obvious we couldn't go to Bermuda. And while I appreciate that maybe they were hoping the storm track would change, it made it hard to pack and added a lot of stress before the cruise.

 

The credit was barely enough to cover the inconvenience and didn't take into account 3rd and 4th persons in a cabin. But I didn't bother to complain about it, everything else I complained about seemed to fall on deaf ears anyway.

 

I sailed the breakaway 2 years ago and service has fallen off quite a bit, and the ship is starting to show its age, and it's not that old. After my last cruise I had such a great time I took my mother on the ship, she was not impressed with NCL, and my opinion really dropped. I'll be looking at other cruise lines in the future.

 

As for the ports PC could have used more time in at least for people who wanted to go to the parks or for an early beach day. Not sure why we couldn't get to Port earlier to make better use of the time. Every time I go to the Bahamas I say I won't go back, I mean it this time.

 

Overall my group made the best of it, certainly not what we dreamed, but ship happens.

 

 

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What was your PC times? Seems they were the normal times they are doing on that run from what I recall. Not saying it is right as they get in at noon or 1 which you lose 1/2 the day vs. prior years the ships out of NY got in at 8 a.m. and the later times are for saving fuel.

[SilentHill]

come on now, suffering? because the NCL decided that they had to change the itinerary? suffering? isn't that a little over dramatic?, my goodness, atleast they went somewhere,on a beautiful ship!

and before others moth off and talking about other lines giving 100% refunds

please go and read some of the posts.....lets say RCC and others.

Lord I hope all these people acted like fools will never cruise again,and spare the crew such horrible behavior.

Marion

 

Oh Marion, When will you realize that suffering is subjective and not something you or anyone else can put a definite label on. I'd ask you not to judge others, but it's a little too late for that. You've already shown ignorance by brushing off the zika issue. If I was on that ship I would have demanded to get off. I don't give a damn about the money, my wife and I are trying to have a baby, so that would have been a real concern.

[Charles4515]

Oh Marion, When will you realize that suffering is subjective and not something you or anyone else can put a definite label on. I'd ask you not to judge others, but it's a little too late for that. You've already shown ignorance by brushing off the zika issue. If I was on that ship I would have demanded to get off. I don't give a damn about the money, my wife and I are trying to have a baby, so that would have been a real concern.

 

 

 

Those who are concerned about Zika should buy cancel for any reason insurance if they book a cruise. No itinerary is guaranteed to take place. Particularly during hurricane season. If you are trying to have a baby don't book a cruise if Zika is a concern. Even booking to a destination that does not have Zika when you book, it could have Zika when the ship sails.

 

 

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[SilentHill]

Those who are concerned about Zika should buy cancel for any reason insurance if they book a cruise. No itinerary is guaranteed to take place. Particularly during hurricane season. If you are trying to have a baby don't book a cruise if Zika is a concern. Even booking to a destination that does not have Zika when you book, it could have Zika when the ship sails.

 

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Agreed, but let's be real. 90% of people don't plan like that. Why do you think stores are so busy the week before Christmas? People love to put stuff off and worry about it last minute.

[barbpatter]

One of the best room steward we've ever had over 16 cruises. The staff and crew were great -- and made up for the mess of a sailing on the Pride of America in 2008! Too many people for the terminal though -- and we (unfortunately) weren't Haven. Two hours to get through security and checkin -- with two system shut downs! And two hours to even get off the ship, through the terminal and customs. One escalator and one elevator for 3,900 people. :(

 

We were on the Oct 9 cruise and were incredibly surprised by the easy disembarkation. We were self-assist, took our own luggage off. We ate breakfast at OSheehans with our luggage at the railing over atrium. Around 815, we got in line, off the ship, thru customs, got in a cab to Grand Central and was ON THE 943am TRAIN! I was in my house in Newburgh NY before 12 noon!

[Charles4515]

Agreed, but let's be real. 90% of people don't plan like that. Why do you think stores are so busy the week before Christmas? People love to put stuff off and worry about it last minute.

 

 

 

90% sounds somewhat high but I agree most people don't plan like that. Also I think when people book a cruise to Bermuda, and it doesn't happen passengers are going to be disappointed. They should be disappointed. Some will handle their disappointment better than others.

[rasmus]

Can anyone tell me who the Captain was on that rerouted Breakaway sailing?

[stungazed]

We were on the Oct 9 cruise and were incredibly surprised by the easy disembarkation. We were self-assist, took our own luggage off. We ate breakfast at OSheehans with our luggage at the railing over atrium. Around 815, we got in line, off the ship, thru customs, got in a cab to Grand Central and was ON THE 943am TRAIN! I was in my house in Newburgh NY before 12 noon!

 

Hey, I live in Newburgh too!

 

I wasn't on this sailing but in September (4th sailing) while disembarkation is a but of a cluster eff, we too were off quickly with self assist and walked in my front door around 10am. We didn't take the train but we drove opting to pay the bargain rate of $280 for parking.

[Travelinggiraffe]

What was your PC times? Seems they were the normal times they are doing on that run from what I recall. Not saying it is right as they get in at noon or 1 which you lose 1/2 the day vs. prior years the ships out of NY got in at 8 a.m. and the later times are for saving fuel.

 

 

12-9 in PC which is normal hours for the ship for the alternate itinerary. BUT instead of leaving at 4 pm we left at 8 am so they could have gotten in earlier., not sure if their was an issue on the PC side. The only excursions available were NASA, universal/Disney and Coco Beach and Village, I don't know if that's normal.

 

For Nassau the alternate itinerary is 8 am to 6 pm, huge difference there. They offered no excursions on this cruise.

 

And we had no private island stop. Having missed that it would have been nice to have more usable time in at least one of the ports. Not many people did excursions in PC, I'm sure there are people who took a 7 day cruise to nowhere.

 

 

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[Travelinggiraffe]

Can anyone tell me who the Captain was on that rerouted Breakaway sailing?

 

 

Don't remember his name but I believe he was Croatian if that helps

 

 

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[MICHLEV1974]

If I was on that ship I would have demanded to get off. I don't give a damn about the money, my wife and I are trying to have a baby, so that would have been a real concern.

 

Any passenger could have left the ship. Let's stop the drama here....you wouldn't need to 'demand' to get off the ship. Take your things, hand in your key card and bye bye.

[dslucas]

Can anyone tell me who the Captain was on that rerouted Breakaway sailing?

 

Captain Svedung I believe.

[Letsgo 2]

Captain Svedung I believe.

 

He deserves a great big Thank You gor keeping

everyone safe

Marion

[dslucas]

He deserves a great big Thank You gor keeping

everyone safe

Marion

 

He did not make the decision to change the itinerary in this case. The announcement over the ship's PA from the captain stated the decision was incoming from HQ in Miami as to our ports of call.

[SilentHill]

Any passenger could have left the ship. Let's stop the drama here....you wouldn't need to 'demand' to get off the ship. Take your things, hand in your key card and bye bye.

 

I was under the impression that they didn't change itinerary until most of the boarding was complete. Do they just let people off the ship? How do they handle luggage? You seem to know so much about it, so I can't wait to hear how it's actually handled.

Edited October 20, 2016 by SilentHill

[Letsgo 2]

I was under the impression that they didn't change itinerary until most of the boarding was complete. Do they just let people off the ship? How do they handle luggage? You seem to know so much about it, so I can't wait to hear how it's actually handled.

 

I know a couple that were on the ship , and got off

the ship the same day, how they handled the luggage

I have no clue, all I know is that they got off on Sunday

when they found out of the change.

So they knew on Sunday.

Edited October 21, 2016 by mkalio

[SilentHill]

I know a couple that were on the ship , and got off

the ship the same day, how they handled the Lucy

I have no clue, all I know is that they got off on Sunday

when they found out of the change.

So they knew on Sunday.

 

Glad to hear they were able to disembark, I wonder if it was difficult or if they just let them go. All of those people coming up the gangway, seems like it would be a challenge. Would you just hand in your key card at guest services and then try to walk off or would you be escorted? I'm very curious if anyone here was in this situation how exactly it was handled.

[zdubya36]

I haven't chimed in here yet... Things seemed to have settled down...

 

My family left the ship at approximately 8pm on 10/9... This was roughly an hour after the altered itinerary was announced. We had a legitimate reason to get off the ship.

 

We were on the phone with NCL starting from the somewhat suspicious announcement at 3pm about no Bermuda, staying in NYC. I say suspicious because it was just too coincidental that they announced this once everyone was on board... But, whatever...

 

We decided to see about our options and after some lengthy phone calls and some escalation on the phone, we were told we could only be refunded tax/govt fees. I knew of what Carnival, Disney and Royal had done on some of their previous weeks trips and was disappointed in NCLs response.

 

We never dealt with the ships customer service, we never yelled, cried or got angry... In fact, I was extremely happy with the response from the phone agents and their managers in trying to get some answers. This was obviously not their fault...

 

As I stated previously, once the alternate route was announced we had no choice but to leave the ship. We called customer service, explained we were leaving... They informed us to go to our room gather everything and leave the room... As they didn't know if the keys would be deactivated...

 

We got our things, made it down to the embark/debark point on the ship which was manned by two NCL guards... They had a clipboard full of names from the ships customer service of people who had cancelled... We were not on it... We called NCL once again to do a final cancellation... The guard acknowledged this, we gave him our keys, and left.

 

Any passenger could have gotten on/off the ship at anytime before 7am 10/10. We walked the gangway down with some crew members excited to have a night in NYC. There was a sign at debark that stated "all crew and passengers must be on the ship by 7am"... To my knowledge this was never announced, and might have been a nice option for some. People were not held hostage on the ship BUT I don't think passengers knew they had this option.

 

As stated, we had a legitimate reason for not sailing on the alternate itinerary... We took a gamble that NCL would understand this.

[BirdTravels]

I haven't chimed in here yet... Things seemed to have settled down...

 

My family left the ship at approximately 8pm on 10/9... This was roughly an hour after the altered itinerary was announced. We had a legitimate reason to get off the ship.

 

We were on the phone with NCL starting from the somewhat suspicious announcement at 3pm about no Bermuda, staying in NYC. I say suspicious because it was just too coincidental that they announced this once everyone was on board... But, whatever...

 

We decided to see about our options and after some lengthy phone calls and some escalation on the phone, we were told we could only be refunded tax/govt fees. I knew of what Carnival, Disney and Royal had done on some of their previous weeks trips and was disappointed in NCLs response.

 

We never dealt with the ships customer service, we never yelled, cried or got angry... In fact, I was extremely happy with the response from the phone agents and their managers in trying to get some answers. This was obviously not their fault...

 

As I stated previously, once the alternate route was announced we had no choice but to leave the ship. We called customer service, explained we were leaving... They informed us to go to our room gather everything and leave the room... As they didn't know if the keys would be deactivated...

 

We got our things, made it down to the embark/debark point on the ship which was manned by two NCL guards... They had a clipboard full of names from the ships customer service of people who had cancelled... We were not on it... We called NCL once again to do a final cancellation... The guard acknowledged this, we gave him our keys, and left.

 

Any passenger could have gotten on/off the ship at anytime before 7am 10/10. We walked the gangway down with some crew members excited to have a night in NYC. There was a sign at debark that stated "all crew and passengers must be on the ship by 7am"... To my knowledge this was never announced, and might have been a nice option for some. People were not held hostage on the ship BUT I don't think passengers knew they had this option.

 

As stated, we had a legitimate reason for not sailing on the alternate itinerary... We took a gamble that NCL would understand this.

 

Was there any question in your mind that you were not going to Bermuda with a hurricane heading straight at it. Sounds like your want to be a victim.

[zdubya36]

Was there any question in your mind that you were not going to Bermuda with a hurricane heading straight at it. Sounds like your want to be a victim.

 

Please highlight the areas you feel I sound like a victim... Then we can discuss :)

[rasmus]

Captain Svedung I believe.

 

Thank you :)

[flyawayca]

I'm curious, no insurance I have seen covers itinerary changes, I know the one I have from USAA sure doesn't....:confused: just asking not saying it isn't but again curious what company does? :D

 

Sorry, just finally had time after getting back to read through posts. I have Nationwide Travel Insurance. They offer coverage for itinerary changes. (This coverage is not available to residents of certain states due to state law - my state luckily is not one of them)

 

https://travel.nationwide.com/plans-cruise-universal.html

 

This is my first time actually having to file a claim, so I can't yet attest to how good they are. I submitted it 3 days ago so we shall see!