NCL just CANCELED my cruise due to private charter

[MONYMONY68]

We were booked on Prima for the Jan 22, 2023 cruise. Anyone else booked on this cruise?  NCL just kicked us to the curb for a private charter. Now, I have to cancel my flight, hotel, car reservation as well as my vacation with my job. 
 

To rub salt in the wound, NCL is not offering this itinerary on Prima on any other dates. 
 

Has anyone else experienced a cruise line canceling your cruise due to a private charter?  NCL canceled one cruise on me due to COVID. Understandable. So, I booked another cruise over a year later. That cruise was also canceled due to a dispute with a Mexican port, even though I cruised with Holland America the month prior and they had no issue with that Mexican port. I was so excited about Prima and this unique itinerary and then it canceled due to this private charter. 
 

I have a FCC credit that I need to use. I will book my last cruise with NCL and never cruise with them again. I emailed them yesterday. We’ll see if they respond. 
 

Worst customer service ever!!
 

 

[SeaShark]

Are you only finding out about this now? The cancellation actually happened more than 3 weeks ago and was discussed here and on the roll call for this sailing.

 

It sucks, but it happens. They have a customer willing to book the entire ship...much better customer to service than some who only books 1 cabin. That is business.

[SeaShark]

I hear you. That is a downside to using a TA. The TA "owns" the booking and any cancellation notice goes to the TA who is supposed to inform you...however, if the TA drops the ball...

 

In case they didn't let you know, NCL is giving 100% refunds on amounts you paid toward the cruise and they gave everyone a 10% off FCC to use for a future cruise. 

[SeaShark]

FWIW, this is the text of the cancellation notice that NCL provided:

 

Dear Valued Guests and Travel Partners: On behalf of Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), we thank you for your loyalty and for making us your vacation of choice. We have important information regarding Norwegian Prima's seven-day sailing from Port Canaveral, Fla. on January 22, 2023. Travel partners should share the below information with guests who may be affected. As a result of a private full ship charter, the Norwegian Prima January 22, 2023 voyage has been canceled. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. A full monetary refund of the fare paid will be automatically returned to the form of payment provided at the time of reservation. No further action is required; your refund will be automatically processed within 30 business days. You will see the refund returned to the original form of payment in seven to 10 business days from the processed date. The visibility of the funds is dependent on each financial institution's internal policies. For those reservations paid via a previously issued Future Cruise Credit (FCC), 100% of the FCC used will be automatically re-applied to your Latitudes account. No further action is required; the FCC will be automatically added to the account within seven days of the cancelation date. To further compensate for this change, we have issued a 10% discount in the form of an FCC for a future voyage. This credit may be used through May 11, 2023 and can be applied towards any of our published sailings through May 11, 2023. The FCC will be available on May 11, 2022. If you are interested in selecting another sailing for your upcoming vacation, please contact us at 1-800-327-7030 or your travel professional. Guests residing outside of the U.S. or Canada should visit www.ncl.com for local contact information. We sincerely appreciate your understanding and look forward to welcoming you aboard very soon.
Sincerely, Katty Byrd Senior Vice President, Guest Services

[RocketMan275]

47 minutes ago, MONYMONY68 said:

I have a FCC credit that I need to use. I will book my last cruise with NCL and never cruise with them again. I emailed them yesterday. We’ll see if they respond. 

This isn't unique to NCL.  I've had this happen to myself on Holland for example.  

I've seen reports that NCL is also chartering their 5 March cruise out of Orlando.  When I heard that I went a head and scheduled a different cruise.

[mjkacmom]

All the lines do this, don’t book air and hotel far in advance.

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, MONYMONY68 said:

Yep, just found about it and by accident. I booked with x. They never informed me. I only found out about it because another couple wanted to join us; so I jumped on the NCL website to do some research for them. 
 

x customer service sucks. 

Just be aware that you can not mention travel agent names on this board. 

[hallux]

For your reading pleasure @MONYMONY68 the previous thread that was mentioned - 

 

[ontheweb]

We once had a river cruise over the Christmas New Year's holiday period.chartered out from us after final payment was made.

 

And maybe it makes great business sense for the line, but I know we will never consider a cruise with that line again.

[Zippeedee]

Royal Caribbean dumped  my group casino cruise coming up in October for a full ship charter. The group got a great deal with Carnival but it meant we got nothing from Royal for expense and inconvenience.

[Oceansaway17]

wow when I first saw the title, my thought was the Pearl.  They use that ship a lot for charters.

I too am surprised they would use Prima during first year for any charters.  oh well

[The Shrike]

1 hour ago, hallux said:

For your reading pleasure @MONYMONY68 the previous thread that was mentioned - 

 

I can sum it up for you:
- Some people that were on the cancelled cruise:  I will never cruise NCL again.
- Lots of other people:  Every cruise line does this.  If you won't cruise with lines that do this you simply will have to quit cruising.
- Cancelled cruise people:  Well...NCL still sucks.
 

[Itried4498]

I wasn't booked on it, but recently they cancelled a weeklong Riviera trip out of LA  in October in favor of a charter.

[CILCIANRQTS]

Welcome to the club!
It’s like putting a deposit down on a car and signing a contract, then when you go to the dealership the next week they say “So sorry, but someone came in after you left and offered a lot more for the same car, so we sold it to them. But we do have a lot of OTHER nice cars on the lot!”

Would  you roll over if that happened??

[SeaShark]

3 minutes ago, CILCIANRQTS said:

Welcome to the club!
It’s like putting a deposit down on a car and signing a contract, then when you go to the dealership the next week they say “So sorry, but someone came in after you left and offered a lot more for the same car, so we sold it to them. But we do have a lot of OTHER nice cars on the lot!”

Would  you roll over if that happened??

 

Good Question. Does the signed contract allow either party the right to cancel before a certain point in time like the cruise contract does? If the contract allows the dealer to sell the car to someone else prior to it being finalized, are you really rolling over?

[DwayneG]

Seashark makes a good point: yes, the cruise lines can cancel us and sell our cabin's to someone else...but it goes both ways , because WE can cancel if WE find a better deal first as long as it's before final payment.  We can cancel and go to another line, and we can even cancel and rebook with the same line at a better price.  So yes, it's a bummer if they cancel us but I think most of us have cancelled on them a time or two also.  Before Covid and the staffing issues it was pretty rare for the lines to cancel a cruise after the final payment cutoff date. Maybe someday things will be normal again.

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, DwayneG said:

Seashark makes a good point: yes, the cruise lines can cancel us and sell our cabin's to someone else...but it goes both ways , because WE can cancel if WE find a better deal first as long as it's before final payment.  We can cancel and go to another line, and we can even cancel and rebook with the same line at a better price.  So yes, it's a bummer if they cancel us but I think most of us have cancelled on them a time or two also.  Before Covid and the staffing issues it was pretty rare for the lines to cancel a cruise after the final payment cutoff date. Maybe someday things will be normal again.

Speaking for myself, the only time I cancelled a cruise was when in 2020 I saw the writing on the wall and cancelled before final payment when I saw Norway closing ports. (The cruise line cancelled about a month later after the final payment date.)

 

Speaking for myself, the only ship chartered out from under us was well before Covid and was after final payment.

[lx200gps]

On 5/27/2022 at 2:30 PM, mjkacmom said:

All the lines do this, don’t book air and hotel far in advance.

...though if you do, make sure they are changeable/refundable.

[Greenpea2]

Really sorry this happened to you. Whether or not all cruise lines do it, it sux when it happens to YOU. Very inconvenient and disappointing. Feels kind of cold, and I say this from experience. Wonder if that's the charter that I found out was planning to be the week of my Prima cruise (first week in March). When I heard the rumors I switched to end of February. If it is a different one then that would REALLy be annoying. Two cruises within 2 months? Just keeping my fingers crossed my re-booked cruise is a go. 

[MONYMONY68]

I've called Norwegian a few times and even had some email correspondence with the VP of guest services.  As of now, NCL has not rescheduled this cruise with this exact itinerary.  So, I checked pricing for the cruise that's 1 week prior (Jan 15, 2023) and the same cabin I had before is now $461 more!  And that's including my so-called 10% credit for my "inconvenience" that NCL offered as well as my upgrade promo because I had purchased FCC and booked my original cruise while on board the Jewel.  I'm so pissed!

[argyll1881]

1 hour ago, MONYMONY68 said:

I've called Norwegian a few times and even had some email correspondence with the VP of guest services.  As of now, NCL has not rescheduled this cruise with this exact itinerary.  So, I checked pricing for the cruise that's 1 week prior (Jan 15, 2023) and the same cabin I had before is now $461 more!  And that's including my so-called 10% credit for my "inconvenience" that NCL offered as well as my upgrade promo because I had purchased FCC and booked my original cruise while on board the Jewel.  I'm so pissed!

Yes, I think that is a valid point.  While I can understand why they might cancel a cruise for a full ship charter they should perhaps allow you to book and cruise of the same duration and cabin category for the price you had paid.

[insidecabin]

I fall into the "never say never" camp, I might not look at a cruise line for a while if there is endemic issues that are not getting fixed  but for the odd one off its not productive to write-off a line

 

Most cruise lines will consider the charter option when considering any line you have to weigh up everything its part of the research.

 

If charter is too much of a risk then you wipe out a lot of cruise options.

 

Just because you get hit by an issue does that really change the overall position based on the wider experience of more people and research,  just a bit unlucky this time.

 

For quite some time I have taken the view that the cruise I booked may not happen as intended not until we disembark can we say we got what we booked if nothing changed.

 

Not sure which bit of that itinerary appeals but you can get close with Celebrity Beyond that include 3 our of 4.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[argyll1881]

On 5/28/2022 at 4:53 PM, CILCIANRQTS said:

Welcome to the club!
It’s like putting a deposit down on a car and signing a contract, then when you go to the dealership the next week they say “So sorry, but someone came in after you left and offered a lot more for the same car, so we sold it to them. But we do have a lot of OTHER nice cars on the lot!”

Would  you roll over if that happened??

I get the point but it is little bit different.  It's more akin to you buying that car and then the dealership sells EVERY car they have to someone who says 'sell me them all or I'm not interested'.  Potentially unethical but one can see the business attraction.

[CILCIANRQTS]

43 minutes ago, argyll1881 said:

I get the point but it is little bit different.  It's more akin to you buying that car and then the dealership sells EVERY car they have to someone who says 'sell me them all or I'm not interested'.  Potentially unethical but one can see the business attraction.

Same impact on the individual customer - screwed in the name of higher profit.

[PTC DAWG]

Read the contract you agreed to with said Cruise Line..IF you think you have a leg to stand on, go for it.

 

My advice, book another similar cruise for your vacation time frame and move on.