Rome on the Epic - September. Cruise gone from website?

[ScratchTheRat]

I am a bit worried that even post-maintenance, the NCL website does not allow bookings on the Epic out of Rome this September. I hope my cruise isn't cancelled.

 

We got a letter to say Cannes was replaced by Cagliari (on all Rome ported cruises up until Oct 31) but now there are no shore excursions bookable outside of Rome and Barcelona and though you can search for the cruise (15th Sept from Rome) but once you click on it, it says "...selected itinerary is no longer available" 

 

Any insights?

[All-ready2cruise]

Have you logged into your account? 

I'm seeing the same thing but I'm not booked on that cruise. 

[ScratchTheRat]

10 minutes ago, All-ready2cruise said:

Have you logged into your account? 

I'm seeing the same thing but I'm not booked on that cruise. 

Yes I have. Still shows me as booked, but no excursions in those ports

[All-ready2cruise]

Well, good luck, hopefully it's just another glitch which seem to be happening more frequently. I won't mention the alternative. 

[Stealthdog]

I’d be careful with any cruise out of Italy (I don’t think NCL will be resuming there this year anyways).  The Italian government has been enforcing quarantines and restriction of movement for large periods of the year.  Even if the cruise happens, you could be stuck in quarantine prior to sailing - they just enforced a 5 day quarantine for non-Italian EU citizens during Easter.  

[ScratchTheRat]

30 minutes ago, Stealthdog said:

I’d be careful with any cruise out of Italy (I don’t think NCL will be resuming there this year anyways).  The Italian government has been enforcing quarantines and restriction of movement for large periods of the year.  Even if the cruise happens, you could be stuck in quarantine prior to sailing - they just enforced a 5 day quarantine for non-Italian EU citizens during Easter.  

Easter is very different to September. Tomorrow, Italy are relaxing their rules and Rome and most of Italy are moving to yellow.

 

If you look at 5 months ago in the US compared to now, you'll see my point.

 

By September, most people will have been vaccinated with a great deal having their 2nd in time.

[rachiem]

I'm thinking that they are about to cancel these sailings from Rome...it's been too many days to be just a glitch now??

[Trimone]

I believe that NCL is cruising with the customers they’ve got! I’m in the Haven on the 5th September...

 

[ScratchTheRat]

1 hour ago, rachiem said:

I'm thinking that they are about to cancel these sailings from Rome...it's been too many days to be just a glitch now??

Though I too am anxious about this, I just can’t see them cancelling them right after sending everyone a letter with an itinerary change. Makes little sense to me. 

[rachiem]

1 minute ago, ScratchTheRat said:

Though I too am anxious about this, I just can’t see them cancelling them right after sending everyone a letter with an itinerary change. Makes little sense to me. 

Hope so!

[Trimone]

I had assurances from Timothy Handcock NCLs best adviser that the cruise is still on, believe me he’s not a minimum wage employee....

THE BESTIE  

[AstoriaPreppy]

1 hour ago, ScratchTheRat said:

Though I too am anxious about this, I just can’t see them cancelling them right after sending everyone a letter with an itinerary change. Makes little sense to me. 

Have you sailed with NCL before? Anecdotally, they're the worst in this sort of situation.

 

Case in point would be our Hong Kong-Singapore Southeast Asia Cruise in February 2020. The port of Hong Kong closed down early in February because of COVID, but for weeks NCL insisted the cruise was still departing from HK as planned.

 

11 days before departure, they changed the itinerary to a round-trip Singapore sailing, refused to let anyone cancel and get a refund, forced everyone to change their flights, then refused to pay anything other than change fees (not the fare difference for flights as they'd originally said). 

Three days before the sailing, they canceled the trip outright... while many passengers were already en-route to Singapore. Hundreds of passengers only discovered this after landing in Singapore, or in their transfer airports. Luckily, we were scheduled to depart the following morning, so we never made it onto our first flight.

TBH, I just hope everyone on these summer 2021 med sailings has great travel insurance, because you can't really expect NCL to do the right thing by the passengers. 


 

[ScratchTheRat]

1 hour ago, Trimone said:

I had assurances from Timothy Handcock NCLs best adviser that the cruise is still on, believe me he’s not a minimum wage employee....

THE BESTIE  

I really  really hope you’re right

[bluesea777]

I thought I saw on another thread that your itinerary got changed - the ports got shifted as well as one replacement ... so that may make sense that the excursions got pulled temporarily. They will return when NCL has sorted out the changes.

 

Give them a couple of days or so.

 

 

[zdcatc12]

12 hours ago, ScratchTheRat said:

I am a bit worried that even post-maintenance, the NCL website does not allow bookings on the Epic out of Rome this September. I hope my cruise isn't cancelled.

 

We got a letter to say Cannes was replaced by Cagliari (on all Rome ported cruises up until Oct 31) but now there are no shore excursions bookable outside of Rome and Barcelona and though you can search for the cruise (15th Sept from Rome) but once you click on it, it says "...selected itinerary is no longer available" 

 

Any insights?

Mine that is the week before yours has Rome, Barcelona and Palma Majorca excursions listed. Those three did not have a date change like the others did. I assume that is why these are listed and the other ones aren't back up yet.

[SpainAlien]

They might be trying to work out the itinerary to accommodate each countries restrictions. I did see a post where someone said that a Spanish port was looking to open for the summer but only for ships visiting other Spanish ports, in other words you could get on in Barcelona but then only go to Palma, Valencia, Alicante, Cartagena, Malaga, Cadiz, and the Canary Islands, etc. Similarly boarding in Rome based on that same rule you wouldn't be allowed to visit Spain, that sort of messes up all the Epic itineraries 

 

[Trimone]

One of the main cruise travel agents in the UK is actively marketing our cruises, you can pick a room and the whole package online.

Must be just the NCL site that doesn't show up?  

[deniseatnycs]

1 hour ago, SpainAlien said:

They might be trying to work out the itinerary to accommodate each countries restrictions. I did see a post where someone said that a Spanish port was looking to open for the summer but only for ships visiting other Spanish ports, in other words you could get on in Barcelona but then only go to Palma, Valencia, Alicante, Cartagena, Malaga, Cadiz, and the Canary Islands, etc. Similarly boarding in Rome based on that same rule you wouldn't be allowed to visit Spain, that sort of messes up all the Epic itineraries 

 

Hi Gail

 

That looks very interesting can you remember where you saw it please?  Looking to book the Dawn from Venice early October hopefully, Spanish Residents will be vaccinated by then.

 

Denise

[SpainAlien]

2 hours ago, deniseatnycs said:

Hi Gail

 

That looks very interesting can you remember where you saw it please?  Looking to book the Dawn from Venice early October hopefully, Spanish Residents will be vaccinated by then.

 

Denise

Hi Denise

 

There is an article in Euro Weekly News about Malaga reopening. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.euroweeklynews.com/2021/04/10/cruise-lines-association-in-talks-to-reopen-malaga-and-barcelona-ports/amp/

 

I will try to find the post where they said it would only be for cruises to Spanish ports, leave it with me for a few minutes 

 

Certainly by September most of us will have been vaccinated hopefully even my 22 year old son.

 

Gail x

 

Edited April 26, 2021 by SpainAlien

[SpainAlien]

2 hours ago, deniseatnycs said:

Hi Gail

 

That looks very interesting can you remember where you saw it please?  Looking to book the Dawn from Venice early October hopefully, Spanish Residents will be vaccinated by then.

 

Denise

This Seatrade article states national itineraries first

https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/ports-destinations/port-malaga-prepares-cruising-andalusia-gives-green-light

[Aane]

To me it looks like all cruises with Epic is in some kind of hold position.  If you try to book for September/October with only date as delimitation, you get a list of all potential cruises world wide for the period.  The headline of the cruises come with bold fonts, while on Epic they are all faded until departure date 31.10.  This cruise you can book, the other Epic - not!

[Aane]

On 4/25/2021 at 5:26 PM, ScratchTheRat said:

I am a bit worried that even post-maintenance, the NCL website does not allow bookings on the Epic out of Rome this September. I hope my cruise isn't cancelled.

 

We got a letter to say Cannes was replaced by Cagliari (on all Rome ported cruises up until Oct 31) but now there are no shore excursions bookable outside of Rome and Barcelona and though you can search for the cruise (15th Sept from Rome) but once you click on it, it says "...selected itinerary is no longer available" 

 

Any insights?

I’m told that tomorrow info will come out, there will be changes to the cruise, which should become public tomorrow. Cruise is supposed to still be on.

Edited April 26, 2021 by Aane

[ScratchTheRat]

28 minutes ago, Aane said:

I’m told that tomorrow info will come out, there will be changes to the cruise, which should become public tomorrow. Cruise is supposed to still be on.

Fingers crossed. Let me know if you hear anything specific

[deniseatnycs]

7 hours ago, SpainAlien said:

This Seatrade article states national itineraries first

https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/ports-destinations/port-malaga-prepares-cruising-andalusia-gives-green-light

Thanks Gail certainly look encouraging 

[toddw2u]

But countries like Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Croatia that welcome millions of American tourists each summer, and greatly depend on them for income and jobs, are set to jump at the opportunity to reopen to the American tourism market with the E.U.’s blessing.  -NYT

 

Feeling more confident that we will in fact be cruising the Med