From the Horses Mouth

[SouthLyonCruiser]

I see so many posts asking questions about Norwegians policies on just about everything. You would think that there would be a space provided for Norwegian to officially reply to the questions. How hard can this be?

Maybe there is such a thing, but I have never seen a reply from Norwegian.

[ColeThornton]

NCL does have a user account on Cruise Critic but any posts I have seen have been pretty general in nature.  To be honest, I don't blame them for posting full time on inquiries with this motley crew around.  🙂

[ColeThornton]

Oops, I meant "not posting full time".

[sparks1093]

Many of the questions asked are already answered in the FAQ on NCL's website. 

[Two Wheels Only]

See "plausible deniability". 😉

[PTC DAWG]

37 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

Many of the questions asked are already answered in the FAQ on NCL's website. 

Exactly

 

https://www.ncl.com/faq

[SeaShark]

Right...why would they answer things here when they already have their own site and their own reps to do so? This is just a forum to people to discuss cruising...it isn't NCL's (or any other lines) help desk.

[tallnthensome]

Like others said, through same questions are asked over and over and over on this board . Also nobody wants to even read the cruiseline websites as they want others to do their homework for them even though there is a thing called Google. NCL won't waste their time on here. 

[BirdTravels]

2 hours ago, SouthLyonCruiser said:

I see so many posts asking questions about Norwegians policies on just about everything. You would think that there would be a space provided for Norwegian to officially reply to the questions. How hard can this be? Maybe there is such a thing, but I have never seen a reply from Norwegian.

NCL has replied on their official website vs a 1-in-a-100 social media site. I am surprised to see so many posts from people that are just too lazy to look up the policies. Especially those who have reservations and have numerous emails from NCL pointing them at the information they seek. 

 

The biggest problem here is that random people (including me) will respond with random answers based on some hearsay and not what is currently posted on NCL's website. I try to take the time to pull the current text off the NCL website, but NCL and all other cruise lines are evolving their policies in reaction to real-life impacts of the ongoing pandemic in near real time. 

We have been on three cruises this year. And the protocols for each of those cruises changed many times, especially as the departure dates were close. We just go with the flow,,, which is how everything during a pandemic is working.

[bstel]

44 minutes ago, tallnthensome said:

Like others said, through same questions are asked over and over and over on this board . Also nobody wants to even read the cruiseline websites as they want others to do their homework for them even though there is a thing called Google. NCL won't waste their time on here. 

then people should just stop answering all the stupid questions.  Its amazing how people will come to this site and post a question and then wait for a response, vs just going on Google and getting an instant answer.

 

my vote would be to respond to every dumb question by providing the following link:

 

https://www.ncl.com/faq

[Oxo]

Certain questions should be automatically deleted by Monitor. Such as:

Dress Code/Dress in MDR

What happens if I don't get my Vaccine, when should I get it.

Just a few examples.

[UKstages]

2 hours ago, SeaShark said:

Right...why would they answer things here when they already have their own site and their own reps to do so?

because enlightened companies realize that having a strong social media presence can help shape their brand and influence customer perception and behavior, leading to stronger sales and market share. enlightened companies recognize that today’s marketplace requires them to respond to customers in the manner and venue which they prefer. push vs. pull… much easier to respond and influence in the places your customers hang out seeking unbiased opinions, rather than trying to get them to go to a staid corporate website.

[billslowsky]

4 minutes ago, UKstages said:

because enlightened companies realize that having a strong social media presence can help shape their brand and influence customer perception and behavior, leading to stronger sales and market share. enlightened companies recognize that today’s marketplace requires them to respond to customers in the manner and venue which they prefer. push vs. pull… much easier to respond and influence in the places your customers hang out seeking unbiased opinions, rather than trying to get them to go to a staid corporate website.

When I look at companies and individuals with strong social media presence, the word "enlightened" rarely comes to mind.

[hallux]

2 hours ago, bstel said:

Its amazing how people will come to this site and post a question and then wait for a response, vs just going on Google and getting an instant answer.

I'm with you on that.  On another forum where I participate someone asked a question for which we have a heavily-merged thread already, I popped their thread title into an internet search and our thread was result #1.  They found the forum but for some reason didn't find the thread related to their particular question.

 

I've also answered questions here, as a first reply after 2+ hours. A Google search (or a search of these forums) would have found their answer faster than that as the same question had been discussed only a couple weeks prior.

[LGW59]

34 minutes ago, UKstages said:

because enlightened companies realize that having a strong social media presence can help shape their brand and influence customer perception and behavior, leading to stronger sales and market share. enlightened companies recognize that today’s marketplace requires them to respond to customers in the manner and venue which they prefer. push vs. pull… much easier to respond and influence in the places your customers hang out seeking unbiased opinions, rather than trying to get them to go to a staid corporate website.

Unbiased opinions on CC, OMG surely you jest!  Enlightened companies right now don't have the staff needed to read through much of collective nonsense that we post and respond to here.  But it is fun!

[SeaShark]

36 minutes ago, UKstages said:

because enlightened companies realize that having a strong social media presence can help shape their brand and influence customer perception and behavior, leading to stronger sales and market share. enlightened companies recognize that today’s marketplace requires them to respond to customers in the manner and venue which they prefer. push vs. pull… much easier to respond and influence in the places your customers hang out seeking unbiased opinions, rather than trying to get them to go to a staid corporate website.

 

Enlightened cruisers realize that trained experts (TAs & PCCs) are available to answer their questions and take care of their reservations at no cost to the cruiser. Enlightened cruisers don't go to anonymous strangers on an Internet forum, nor do they rely on social media.

 

Can you provide an example of an enlightended cruise line that answers and responds to questions on Cruise Critic?

 

BTW, if the customer was, as you say "seeking unbiased opinions", then, by definition, they are NOT looking to interact with the company online as the company's opinion would obviously be biased. Not to mention that if a company was enlightened, they would know enough to not have a website that is "staid".

[LGW59]

3 minutes ago, SeaShark said:

 

Enlightened cruisers realize that trained experts (TAs & PCCs) are available to answer their questions and take care of their reservations at no cost to the cruiser. Enlightened cruisers don't go to anonymous strangers on an Internet forum, nor do they rely on social media.

 

Can you provide an example of an enlightended cruise line that answers and responds to questions on Cruise Critic?

 

BTW, if the customer was, as you say "seeking unbiased opinions", then, by definition, they are NOT looking to interact with the company online as the company's opinion would obviously be biased. Not to mention that if a company was enlightened, they would know enough to not have a website that is "staid".

Exactly!  Which is also exactly why I rely on CC members to assist and advise me in how I dress, tip, what time I can check-in, where I can get lunch when I board, to please share the  food and beverage menu from every single venue on the ship and to please please post pics of eggs benedict, garden salads, OJ, coffee, very helpful for me in planning my menu for my Oct 2023 cruise. OK OK before you hit me, it is in jest, sort of 🙂

[PTC DAWG]

Can I order two appetizers in the MDR?

 

Can my 12 year old hang out in H2O? 
 

Why don’t they stop the chair hogs? 
 

Etc, etc, etc…
 

 

[AndyCapn]

The problem with getting it from the horse's mouth is that the Cruise Critic boards are designed for the other end of the horse.

[chillyw]

13 hours ago, SouthLyonCruiser said:

I see so many posts asking questions about Norwegians policies on just about everything. You would think that there would be a space provided for Norwegian to officially reply to the questions. How hard can this be?

Maybe there is such a thing, but I have never seen a reply from Norwegian.

 

It's very hard. I work in customer support leadership in a different industry, and staffing and scaling a very well run online community is a nightmare.

 

It's hard enough when you're a centralized, fully connected, land based company making decisions across departments that need to get documented, then translated into language that means something to a support rep and a customer, and communicated to customer reps. Those hundreds of reps have to actually read their emails, successfully remember them, and implement that new information over the old way they had been operating under for who knows how long.

 

Now add onto that a company where customers have policy questions about things that ships in the middle of the ocean have autonomy over.

 

To staff a community, you need to find some rockstar agents who keep up with literally everything that's changing, because every single thing they post is going to be public. Especially on a site like cruise critic, it's going to be taken like gold. They made a mistake on a policy they posted? Too bad, someone's already printed the thread out, taken it onboard, and is demanding the mistake.  Now some poor sucker at guest relations on the ship has to figure out what the hell is going on.

 

 

Oh, and the agents have to have the patience of an angel, because when the company does something unpopular, they're going to take the brunt and be the public face.

 

Also, they better be really, really trustworthy, and a very strong communicator, because they're essentially a brand ambassador at that point too.

 

Furthermore, if people started posting sensitive info in questions on here publicly, not understanding they shouldn't, NCL wouldn't be able to delete it and wouldn't want to be in that situation with a guest.

 

So yeah, if I was NCL support, I'd be doing everything I can to scale my support through better self-service documentation and search (theirs kinda sucks) and creating an amazing chat experience that is fast, has automated options behind authentication to do things like buy and adjust shore excursions, dinners, etc, so you don't have to talk to someone if you don't want to, and make getting to a person easy so you don't have to call in.

 

But there's zero chance I'm touching support here.

 

 

[BennyBrun]

I agree with ChillyW, Liability issues keeps official accounts away from public forum plus the inability to control posts.

[goldmom]

I have very very rarely in the past seen a direct response from NCL to something on these boards,  it has happened but not recently that I've seen.

 

Part of the problem was that once they responded they were then peppered with lots of nuisance questions from posters (ie: Can I upgrade?  Is my cabin noisy? etc.), so I think they probably decided it wasn't worth the hassle of responding.

 

Also now, they can easily contact passengers more directly with alerts, texts and e-mail. 

[UKstages]

my goodness, a few straw man arguments are certainly being bandied about here!

 

the question was actually "why would they answer things here when they already have their own site and their own reps to do so?"

 

the question was not about cruisers, it was about companies, specifically cruise companies.

 

my answer was broader and referred to "enlightened companies" of all kinds... those that "get" the power of social media to shape their brand and influence purchase decisions and the perception of their product and their customer service. i did not refer to cruise companies because i don't know personally of any that have a presence here... which was kind of the point. i can tell you that many airlines and hotel companies have a presence on flyertalk and other frequent flyer websites where their best customers tend to post.

 

as for "unbiased" opinions... nobody is expecting a company to have an unbiased opinion. those that come for the unbiased opinions of forum contributors can weigh what they learn "from the horse's mouth" against those unbiased opinions. (and, by the way, the unbiased opinions of forum contributors are, by definition, biased.)

 

 

[billslowsky]

58 minutes ago, UKstages said:

my answer was broader and referred to "enlightened companies" of all kinds... those that "get" the power of social media to shape their brand and influence purchase decisions and the perception of their product and their customer service. i did not refer to cruise companies because i don't know personally of any that have a presence here... which was kind of the point. i can tell you that many airlines and hotel companies have a presence on flyertalk and other frequent flyer websites where their best customers tend to post.

 

Competent companies don't join in on free-for-all message boards like these.  They set up a communication channel where they can control the format and content, saying nothing more on social media than "contact us at our site".  Using Cruise Critic or similar sites as a customer communication channel would show how unenlightened they are. 

[Yesimapirate]

I'm a bit disappointed.   We got off the Epic a week ago and there weren't any horses aboard,  let alone one that could talk!