Cancelling. Again.

[mugtech]

 

Ports matter and reasons matter. I can't believe some people think I am not 'entitled' to a reason. You do realize this is my money??? 'Executive decision' is ridiculous.

 

Did you get all of your money back? If so we are not talking about your money, just your unhappiness.:D

[SRUMom66]

How often does NCL or other cruise lines do this? Our change is a bit more involved. We were originally disembarking in Rome, it is now Barcelona. It is a totally different country. We have 11 of us going on this cruise and we have our air fare already booked for the trip home. Luckily we wanted to stay in Rome and extra couple of days which is why we booked this particular cruise so our flight does not return home right away. NCL is going to reimburse us to fly from Barcelona to Rome, however not until the cruise occurs, so what we have paid for the flights is out of budget right now. From the rumors we have heard it is because they chartered the cruise after ours. It is a huge change in my opinion

[jvsnana]

I'm not sure of your exact ports, but I can say that when we did the 2 week Eastern Med itineraries on the Jade a couple of years back, Split and Dubrovnik were possibly our two favourite ports on the cruise. I certainly enjoyed them both more than Santorini (although that is obviously just personal preference).

 

Going back to Split will be one of the highlights of our upcoming cruises at Easter.

 

Again, not knowing the exact itineraries now, I have also heard Kotor and Olympia mentioned. Whilst I haven't been to Kotor, we are going there soon and it looks really nice. We also really enjoyed Olympia, and would highly recommend it.

 

Given the reported crowding at Santorini, I think I would actually be reluctant to book a cruise that is due to go there at the moment. It was busy enough when we were there as one of just two ships there.

Would love to hear what you did as far as excursions in Split, Dubrovnik and Olympia :) We will miss seeing Santorini, but these new ports look great to us!

[KeithJenner]

Would love to hear what you did as far as excursions in Split, Dubrovnik and Olympia :) We will miss seeing Santorini, but these new ports look great to us!

 

 

 

Split - you dock very close to the old town, which is an old palace that people built inside of. We went up the clock tower. I could walk around there for hours. A trip to Trojir is popular, but we will need to go back again for that one.

 

Dubrovnik - we got the shuttle bus to town and then walked the City Walls, which really was a highlight of the cruise. Lots of bars to relax in afterwards.

 

Olympia - we hired a car to Olympia, although there are quite a few options for getting there. It's not somewhere I feel we need to go back to, but everyone should visit it once. We stopped off at a beach on the way back.

[ctnurse]

We used this company in Dubrovnik and can not say enough wonderful things about Boris and his company. We have taken private tours all over the world and this is one of the best companies we have ever used.

http://www.dubrovniktoptours.com

[ctnurse]

Would love to hear what you did as far as excursions in Split, Dubrovnik and Olympia :) We will miss seeing Santorini, but these new ports look great to us!

 

We used this company in Dubrovnik and can not say enough wonderful things about Boris and his company. We have taken private tours all over the world and this is one of the best companies we have ever used.

http://www.dubrovniktoptours.com

[jvsnana]

Split - you dock very close to the old town, which is an old palace that people built inside of. We went up the clock tower. I could walk around there for hours. A trip to Trojir is popular, but we will need to go back again for that one.

 

Dubrovnik - we got the shuttle bus to town and then walked the City Walls, which really was a highlight of the cruise. Lots of bars to relax in afterwards.

 

Olympia - we hired a car to Olympia, although there are quite a few options for getting there. It's not somewhere I feel we need to go back to, but everyone should visit it once. We stopped off at a beach on the way back.

 

We used this company in Dubrovnik and can not say enough wonderful things about Boris and his company. We have taken private tours all over the world and this is one of the best companies we have ever used.

http://www.dubrovniktoptours.com

Thanks so much for the info!

[BLACKBURNROVERS]

Would love to hear what you did as far as excursions in Olympia.

Having looked at various videos and pictures of Olympia, we decided not to bother travelling there to look at a few ruins. An alternative is simply to spend time in Katakolon. We found this town to be a lovely place to just simply wander up and down the main street and have a few beers on the back road that runs adjacent.

[jvsnana]

Having looked at various videos and pictures of Olympia, we decided not to bother travelling there to look at a few ruins. An alternative is simply to spend time in Katakolon. We found this town to be a lovely place to just simply wander up and down the main street and have a few beers on the back road that runs adjacent.

That sounds like a great alternative. More research for me to do :p

[wordsjustfly]

NCL had to cancel for our cruise once, and it was explained when I asked if there was a reason like this. Airlines reroute and cancel every day for a myriad of reasons – safety, mechanical, weather, etc... it's the same with the cruise lines. If they have to cancel, postpone or what have you they send out notices I had of time and their customer deals. And really at the end of the day it's not up to you to know why they made an executive decision – it's not in your contract that you sign when you book the cruise that you get to know every reason under the sun why they make the decisions they do. If you really don't like the cruise line then go to another cruise line. 🤦🏼*♀️

 

 

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[Charlies Aunt]

Well I'm pleased that people have posted about the itinerary changes, because otherwise I wouldn't have found out. I am booked on the 27 August 2017 NCL Star cruise, but have yet to be informed of the changes to the itinerary by NCL. I'm a bit disappointed about not visiting Santorini, but would rather not visit if the place was due to be packed with people. I like the alternative ports, and so I am happy to keep my booking. Hopefully we will have a fantastic time.

 

This may well be out of NCL`s control.

 

I heard a few days agoon the radio (BBC) that the Port of Santorini have been forced to make adjustments to their port schedules for this year to restrict too many large cruise ships being in port at the same time and it seems as though they are carrying this through.

 

As beautiful as Santorini is when it is over-crowded it is not enjoyable for anyone.

[ozscotart]

We have also cancelled this cruise: changing two out of four ports on a Med cruise is not a small matter. Many UK cruisers will have been to many Med ports, and choose their itineraries carefully, as we did with this one, booking our flights and other land arrangements (all non refundable) around it. Our TAs fortunately were able to persuade NCL to refund our deposit, the UK t&cs do not provide for this, so we are not too unhappy (we are very happy with our TA) We will be more cautious about booking specific itineraries with NCL in the future though. Our next cruise is on the Jade to the Panama Canal and we have not been that much to Central America so they probably can't change that one in a way that would bother us too much. And we are going to Ravenna by train, though sadly not to santorini , the most lovely Med island imo.

 

 

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[Tiggertastic]

From 2017, the uk papers were reporting in March 2016 that santorini is limiting cruise tourists to 8000 people per day. I have to admit our wait for the cable car last May was over 45 minutes. So I'm not surprised having researched it. I'm just sad that I've been to the new ports 4 times already but as I say we're going to make the best of it for the sake of 2 family members that have never cruised before.

 

 

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[havenfan]

I can't believe some people think I am not 'entitled' to a reason.

 

The fact of the matter is that you are not. I would absolutely agree that it would have been more courteous for NCL to have apologized and provided some explanation but, with corporations just as with real persons, there is no mechanism for enforcing this. If you can't enforce it, I don't see how you can claim it as a right. All you can do is direct your money to an operator who might meet your expectations for courtesy (and avoid the company of rude people). And encourage others to do so, which you have done.

Edited January 27, 2017 by havenfan