Norwegian Pearl Refund

[YanM]

I just want to see if anyone got their promised refund from Norwegian Pearl? 

 

We were on the cruise that got interrupted due to a mechanical problem, forcing us to disembark in Barcelona and fly to Rome by ourselves July 3. Norwegian promised everyone aboard 50% cash refund and 50% future credit based on the original fare paid. We got captain's letter to that effect, plus it was widely reported in media at the time. 

 

Now, my wife and I paid a total of $7037.22 to Norwegian for that cruise.

According to our invoice, that included $3718.00 guest fair, $503.22 port fees and taxes and $377.00 prepaid service charge.

A simple calculation shows that 50% of the guest fare is $1859.00

 

Few days after we left the ship and flew to Rome we got three separate refunds from NCL on my credit card:

$377.00

$100.00

$151.00

I am not sure exactly what they are, but my guess is - it is refund of prepaid service charge and half of port fees and taxes.

We were also given cash before we left the ship for unused shore excursions, which have nothing to do with the original fare.

Now, where is the rest of the money? It is August 12 now. It has been almost 6 weeks since we left the boat. 

 

I called Norwegian on July 23, and spent 2 hours on hold only to be eventually told that they "do not know anything about that" and "their supervisor will call me back". It has been 3 weeks now, and no one called me back. Is anyone else in the same situation? This is a lot of money, are they trying to hush it up and go back on their word now?
I attached a copy of captains letter we were given to this post, in case everyone wants to see it. 

 

PS - I am also curious if people who were supposed to depart from Civitavecchia got their promised 100% cash and 100% future cruise credit refunds?   

  

[smplybcause]

Original cruise fare paid = the $3718 you paid for the fare. Taxes, fees, and service charges are not part of the fare. So your FCC would be $1859 and split evenly between everyone in the cabin unless someone was cruising on the 3 & 4 guest free promo. Have you called your TA or NCL to see if at least the FCC is on your account(s)?

 

6 weeks isn't an outrageously long time to be waiting for a refund when they were having to do refunds for thousands of people. This also was going on during the same time as the Cuba cruises getting refunded so thousands more. 

 

Did you open a case with NCL? https://www.ncl.com/case-submission If not I would suggest you do that and get off the phone, you're just going to keep getting low-level employees that either don't know what you're talking about or don't have the ability to see or do anything about it. 

Edited August 12, 2019 by smplybcause

[YanM]

Thank you. I am mainly interested in other people's experience.

 

Regarding the time it takes - its not the time itself as much as a complete lack of clarity as to when and how this money will be refunded. Note that the first refunds went through IMMEDIATELY, yet they do not add up nowhere near $1859, which, as you hopefully can see, I did mention in the original post as the exact amount I expect.

 

I have opened the claim too, actually, about two weeks ago, and included $177.00 I paid for our flight to Rome. Sorry, I have failed to mention it in the original post. I did get a response today, which only talks about the flight fare, and NOTHING (not a word) about the 50% of the original fare paid. Here it is. What worries me, again, is that they completely hush up the original fare paid part of the refund, as if it does not exist, even though I did include it in the claim.

 

Re: Norwegian Pearl

Dear Mr. M Thank you for your patience as we reviewed your correspondence. We apologize for any disappointment and inconvenience you experienced, due to the mechanical issue encountered with Norwegian Pearl. We have received your receipts for your out of pocket expenses. As such, we have requested a check on your behalf from our accounting department, which will be forwarded to you under separate cover within approximately 3-4 weeks. We appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns and look forward to welcoming you onboard in the near future. Sincerely,   Latanya Postell Coordinator Guest Relations

[dexddd]

Welcome to CC.  Having been through this in the past, six weeks is not abnormal for NCL.  Not saying right or wrong.  We waited 16 weeks for our refunds and even less info given.  That was plain WRONG.

 

Future credit is of base fare only.  It is possibly even less than the first number you show.  I had to do a spreadsheet and in  no combinations could I figure it out.  Had to get actual TA invoice which had some other fees in base fare which were excluded.

 

Good luck.

[tomk3212]

We were on the 12 day TA on the Getaway back in April-May of 2019 that got cut to 10 days with one week's notice from NCL.  NCL promised us a 25% reduction in the cruise fare.  We received that almost immediately, even before we docked in Southampton at the end.  We also received a refund on our pre-paid DSC almost immediately as well.  Both these transactions appeared on the credit card we originally used to pay for the cruise.  Easy, peasy, no huhu.

 

NCL promised us $300/pax for hotel fees, taxi fare and airline change fees per Vivian Ewart, NCL's Sr. VP of Customer service.  We filed a claim (see smplybcause's post above) on May 12th and was told it would take  "15 Business days" to process.  I waited till June 30th (WAY past the aforementioned 15 business days) and sent Ms. Ewart another email with our case# requesting status of the claim.  We received an acknowledgment about 2 weeks later from NCL itself stating that our claim was being processed & we'd get a check in 3-4 weeks time.   We got the check yesterday, paid in full btw, for what we asked for.  NCL didn't question any of our claims.  So it took about 3 months to satisfy a claim we filed back in May.

 

Bottom line: you're in for a LONG WAIT, no two ways about it!  Also, consider this; NCL knew at least 10 days out that there would be issues with our TA cruise so they had some time to prepare. The incident with the Pearl was completely unplanned for and an emergency to boot.  So am not surprised that you haven't gotten your cruise fare back yet.  NCL has been having significant staffing issues in the past 5 or 6 months plus they're upgrading their computer systems.  Ms Ewart sent a letter/email to NCL's partner Travel Agents explaining their issues in great detail.  Someone posted it here in another thread a few months back; do a search & you should be able to find it.  

 

Be persistent and polite and, above all, patient, and NCL should come through...though it'll take awhile.  Good luck!!

[fiftyguy]

Hi

I had a similar experience as others who responded. I submitted a claim 4/15 and my resolution came on 7/3. NCL paid 100% of my claim. 

I did call every two to three weeks to get an update and to let CS know I was tracking the claim.

 

[YanM]

Thank you guys.

I understand that it may take time, the worry I have is that they do not seem to any longer ACKNOWLEDGE the fact that they still owe me money. Just to clarify, here is the best recollection of how my phone conversation back on July 23 went:

 

>>>>>>>>

- Hello, this is NCL, how can we help you?

- I am calling to check on a status of my refund.

- What is your reservation number?

- XXXXXXXX

- You have received a refund on July 5.

- Wait, yes, I have received SOME PART of the refund, but it is by no means everything we were promised! We were told we will get 50% of the fare in cash, and what I got was total of about $600, which is not even half of that! 

- Ugh, hold on...

- Ok

.....

- Are you still holding?

- Yes

- Hold on some more

- Ok

....

- Ok, we can't give you any information, my supervisor will call you back on that. What is your telephone number?
<<<<<

 

It has been 3 weeks now, still waiting... 😞

 

So, you can see why I am worried here? Given that some people state that they got the entire refund IMMEDIATELY, I am not sure if the money I got, which is barely 20% of the initial fare paid, is ALL they will pay! I do not want to wait for 6 months only to discover that... nothing is coming and nobody knows anything. I want to make sure they actually ACKNOWLEDGE the money should come at some point, and then I can wait.

 

It would be good to hear from people on my cruise, see what they got so far? There were 2500 people, surely at least some of them read this message board?

[PTC DAWG]

44 minutes ago, YanM said:

Thank you guys.

I understand that it may take time, the worry I have is that they do not seem to any longer ACKNOWLEDGE the fact that they still owe me money. Just to clarify, here is the best recollection of how my phone conversation back on July 23 went:

 

>>>>>>>>

- Hello, this is NCL, how can we help you?

- I am calling to check on a status of my refund.

- What is your reservation number?

- XXXXXXXX

- You have received a refund on July 5.

- Wait, yes, I have received SOME PART of the refund, but it is by no means everything we were promised! We were told we will get 50% of the fare in cash, and what I got was total of about $600, which is not even half of that! 

- Ugh, hold on...

- Ok

.....

- Are you still holding?

- Yes

- Hold on some more

- Ok

....

- Ok, we can't give you any information, my supervisor will call you back on that. What is your telephone number?
<<<<<

 

It has been 3 weeks now, still waiting... 😞

 

So, you can see why I am worried here? Given that some people state that they got the entire refund IMMEDIATELY, I am not sure if the money I got, which is barely 20% of the initial fare paid, is ALL they will pay! I do not want to wait for 6 months only to discover that... nothing is coming and nobody knows anything. I want to make sure they actually ACKNOWLEDGE the money should come at some point, and then I can wait.

 

It would be good to hear from people on my cruise, see what they got so far? There were 2500 people, surely at least some of them read this message board?

Can you access old roll calls?  Maybe ask around..Just an idea...

Edited August 15, 2019 by PTC DAWG

[smplybcause]

I would stop calling. Email. Then you actually have a record what they said vs your recollection. Plus you have a better shot of not just talking to a low level rep who can only read what's on the screen. 

 

Considering I don't recall the thread on the Pearl incident getting any traction close to the getaway TA one, there may not be that many CCers that were on it or that regularly are on the boards. 

[YanM]

9 minutes ago, smplybcause said:

I would stop calling. Email. Then you actually have a record what they said vs your recollection. Plus you have a better shot of not just talking to a low level rep who can only read what's on the screen. 

 

Considering I don't recall the thread on the Pearl incident getting any traction close to the getaway TA one, there may not be that many CCers that were on it or that regularly are on the boards. 

Thank you. I did email too, of course. 

Problem with emails - they are even easier to ignore. I got no response. 

I also left a message on their Facebook page. Same result.

😥

[smplybcause]

4 minutes ago, YanM said:

Thank you. I did email too, of course. 

Problem with emails - they are even easier to ignore. I got no response. 

I also left a message on their Facebook page. Same result.

😥

 

You can find emails beyond the regular customer service at elliott.org to escalate them. Not sure if vivian who was mentioned above is the next step up or not. But I suggest reading their info before you write and start at the bottom working up. 

[jjjct]

44 minutes ago, YanM said:

Thank you guys.

I understand that it may take time, the worry I have is that they do not seem to any longer ACKNOWLEDGE the fact that they still owe me money. Just to clarify, here is the best recollection of how my phone conversation back on July 23 went:

 

>>>>>>>>

- Hello, this is NCL, how can we help you?

- I am calling to check on a status of my refund.

- What is your reservation number?

- XXXXXXXX

- You have received a refund on July 5.

- Wait, yes, I have received SOME PART of the refund, but it is by no means everything we were promised! We were told we will get 50% of the fare in cash, and what I got was total of about $600, which is not even half of that! 

- Ugh, hold on...

- Ok

.....

- Are you still holding?

- Yes

- Hold on some more

- Ok

....

- Ok, we can't give you any information, my supervisor will call you back on that. What is your telephone number?
<<<<<

 

It has been 3 weeks now, still waiting... 😞

 

So, you can see why I am worried here? Given that some people state that they got the entire refund IMMEDIATELY, I am not sure if the money I got, which is barely 20% of the initial fare paid, is ALL they will pay! I do not want to wait for 6 months only to discover that... nothing is coming and nobody knows anything. I want to make sure they actually ACKNOWLEDGE the money should come at some point, and then I can wait.

 

It would be good to hear from people on my cruise, see what they got so far? There were 2500 people, surely at least some of them read this message board?

I was scheduled on the cruise after you that was cancelled. I got a full refund and full next cruise benefit for the cancellation within a few weeks.  Still waiting for the airline change flight money to come from NCL, but got acknowledgment that it is forthcoming in a check. Those that were from NZ and Australia took a lot longer to get their refunds, but I think in the most part they got the compinsation they were promised. The one person from the cancelled CC roll call that had a problem found out that their credit card expiration date had expired so was invalid and could not have their refund issued to the credit card. Check that to make sure that is not an issue. You will get it resolved just keep on top of it. NCL will make it right for you. Glad you got to visit most of your ports.

[PortFees45]

2-hour hold time is obscene

[YanM]

1 hour ago, jjjct said:

I was scheduled on the cruise after you that was cancelled. I got a full refund and full next cruise benefit for the cancellation within a few weeks.  Still waiting for the airline change flight money to come from NCL, but got acknowledgment that it is forthcoming in a check. Those that were from NZ and Australia took a lot longer to get their refunds, but I think in the most part they got the compinsation they were promised. The one person from the cancelled CC roll call that had a problem found out that their credit card expiration date had expired so was invalid and could not have their refund issued to the credit card. Check that to make sure that is not an issue. You will get it resolved just keep on top of it. NCL will make it right for you. Glad you got to visit most of your ports.

 

Thank you.

This is exactly what I am afraid of - that there is some sort of mistake, or another issue, and I got only part of the money. Now they may not do anything unless I get through to them somehow. They do not make it easy, though.

 

Yes, 2 hours on hold was insane. I am not sure if they did it deliberately, hoping I will hang up. I also found it suspicious that they ignored my request for a refund with the claim, and, as you can see from their email quoted above, simply promised to refund "my expenses". There is no word whether or not the rest of the money EVER coming. I find it difficult to just sit and wait in this situation, given that there is no formal acknowledgement of outstanding amount to be forthcoming.

[herdingdogmom]

Did you book (and pay final payment) with a travel agent?  If so, the refund amount went to them.

[dexddd]

5 hours ago, herdingdogmom said:

Did you book (and pay final payment) with a travel agent?  If so, the refund amount went to them.

Even though we used TA, all of our 2016 refunds and credits were direct from NCL.

[AliciaandMark]

Hi there. I too was on the cancelled cruise following yours due to set sail from

Rome on July 5. We only received the remaining parts of our refunds this week. Like the other poster stated our issue was also that one of the cards used at the time of payment had since expired. They refund to the exact payment method used to pay the original payment in the same instalments. Hence we got about 1/3 back and then nothing until I contacted regarding the new card details. They did not contact me and I had to work out what the issue was and make contact with them regarding the missing payment.  We have also received our future cruise credit which is 100% of the cruise fare only against each traveller. The future cruise credit does not include the money spent on taxes, gratuities, upgrade payments ect ect. I am still impressed however with this as a compensation and we have made good use of that on an upcoming cruise next Feb. Hope you can get to the bottom of where your remaining refund is. Of note is that I ended up getting an NCL agent to chase mine for me. When they cancelled our cruise I was contacted by a personal cruise consultant and this is the person I’ve communicated with all the way through. It’s been very helpful. 

[dexddd]

OP, as said, good luck.  They move very slowly in the refund area.

 

In our case we had one persistent poster who mailed top management, had a thread here.  He was in the same boat as us until all was resolved at 16 weeks.  As you can see from posts above others at three months.

 

Spend your time looking for a cruise on another line.

[dexddd]

I should add reports on other refunds since have mentioned refunds to credit cards vs checks.

[jjjct]

10 hours ago, YanM said:

 

Thank you.

This is exactly what I am afraid of - that there is some sort of mistake, or another issue, and I got only part of the money. Now they may not do anything unless I get through to them somehow. They do not make it easy, though.

 

Yes, 2 hours on hold was insane. I am not sure if they did it deliberately, hoping I will hang up. I also found it suspicious that they ignored my request for a refund with the claim, and, as you can see from their email quoted above, simply promised to refund "my expenses". There is no word whether or not the rest of the money EVER coming. I find it difficult to just sit and wait in this situation, given that there is no formal acknowledgement of outstanding amount to be forthcoming.

Have you tried sending an email to Vivian Ewart? Not sure of her position at NCL think she is pretty high up. Others have had success contacting her and getting their concerns resolved, her email, it is vewart@ncl.com

 

[YanM]

13 hours ago, herdingdogmom said:

Did you book (and pay final payment) with a travel agent?  If so, the refund amount went to them.

 No, I paid directly. There is. however, an NCL agent attached to the itinerary, and I was in touch with her too. She said I got the future cruise credit, but knows nothing about the cash refund.

[YanM]

8 hours ago, AliciaandMark said:

Hi there. I too was on the cancelled cruise following yours due to set sail from

Rome on July 5. We only received the remaining parts of our refunds this week. Like the other poster stated our issue was also that one of the cards used at the time of payment had since expired. They refund to the exact payment method used to pay the original payment in the same instalments. Hence we got about 1/3 back and then nothing until I contacted regarding the new card details. They did not contact me and I had to work out what the issue was and make contact with them regarding the missing payment.  We have also received our future cruise credit which is 100% of the cruise fare only against each traveller. The future cruise credit does not include the money spent on taxes, gratuities, upgrade payments ect ect. I am still impressed however with this as a compensation and we have made good use of that on an upcoming cruise next Feb. Hope you can get to the bottom of where your remaining refund is. Of note is that I ended up getting an NCL agent to chase mine for me. When they cancelled our cruise I was contacted by a personal cruise consultant and this is the person I’ve communicated with all the way through. It’s been very helpful. 

 

 

Thank you. 

I am sure it has nothing to do with the payment card, cause I still use this card every day for other payments, this is my main credit card. it expires in November. But maybe there are other issues? I will try calling them again today.

[YanM]

Update:

Called them again today. Beginning is pretty much the same: one hour waiting for someone to pick up, then I was put on hold while they "find out". Eventually I was told that since it is POST cruise refund, refund department does not even deal with it, and I should be transferred to guest relations!

Was transferred, waited another 30 minutes for someone to pick up there.

Finally nice girl picked up, listened to my complaint and said she is "sending an email to her supervisor". Apparently, only supervisors can do something over there. I had to take it at that, hopefully it will not be like last time, when supervisor was supposed to "call me". I guess will have to wait another 3 weeks...

[herdingdogmom]

For our adrift at sea Australia cruise, the refund went to the credit card used for each payment. We had used a different credit card for the deposit and had to track that one down.  

 

Since you aren’t getting answers from NCL, probably best to file a new claim for the refund portion - it gets it assigned to someone, but it can take awhile.

[YanM]

Update:

So, no word from Norwegian. Not from "supervisor", not from Vivian Evert, whom I sent an email about a week ago. 

They simply ignore me.

 

I opened a dispute with the credit card company requesting 820.00 dollar charge (one of the series of payments I have made to Norwegian before the cruise) to be reversed. It seem to be the only option to get some justice here.

Luckily, if you pay with the credit card this option is always available. Sad, really.