NCL Spirit Spring 2024 and 2025 Sailings Disappear

[RB9643]

3 hours ago, alwalaska said:

 Unfortunately, this is a bucket list to Australia and New Zealand and they canceled all of them with nothing new in their place as of yet.  This was the only ship NCL had in that region. 

 

We just booked the 2/8/2025 cruise last week and got the cancellation email today.

 

The Spirit was severely overpriced compared to Princess for the same date. We booked it anyway assuming the price would drop.

 

I have to assume they will replace Spirit with another ship, hopefully cheaper, which (along with the 10% FCC) should save us a bunch of money.  I find it hard to believe NCL is completely abandoning Aus/NZ.

 

 

[Panhandle Couple]

They have the Prima delivered last year, and the Viva is just around the corner this year.  I believe the next one is scheduled in 2025.

 

It seems reasonable that removing older (and smaller) ships from the fleet will happen some time.

Fleet management.  Carnival is retiring ships and buying and refurbing other ships. 

And these cruises are 22-28 months out.  Hardly a last minute change.

[RB9643]

7 minutes ago, Panhandle Couple said:

 

It seems reasonable that removing older (and smaller) ships from the fleet will happen some time.

Fleet management. 

 

 

Makes sense, unless you spend $100 million in refurbishments in 2022, like they did with Spirit.

 

 

[Panhandle Couple]

15 minutes ago, RB9643 said:

 

Makes sense, unless you spend $100 million in refurbishments in 2022, like they did with Spirit.

 

 

Prima cost over $1 billion, so will Viva.   12 years payment schedule, 25 year life cycle with mid-term update around year 12.  

 

The $100 M is included in one of their debt notes, because it is not listed as a separate ship debt.  Any sales would be off the cost basis of the ship, so the $100M would be taken into account.

 

[RB9643]

3 minutes ago, Panhandle Couple said:

Prima cost over $1 billion, so will Viva.   12 years payment schedule, 25 year life cycle with mid-term update around year 12.  

 

The $100 M is included in one of their debt notes, because it is not listed as a separate ship debt.  Any sales would be off the cost basis of the ship, so the $100M would be taken into account.

 

 

I'm perfectly aware of how accounting works, thanks.  My point is that a $100 million refurbishment would be highly unusual for a ship you plan to retire in 2-years. Will it be more attractive to a buyer? Of course. Will it be the depreciated value of $100 million more attractive? Unlikely.

 

In my very, very humble opinion, Spirit isn't being retired or sold any time soon. It's simply looking for a home.

 

 

 

 

[alwalaska]

1 hour ago, RB9643 said:

 

Makes sense, unless you spend $100 million in refurbishments in 2022, like they did with Spirit.

 

 

Plus I love the changes that were made.  

[julig22]

On 6/14/2023 at 2:08 PM, RB9643 said:

 

We just booked the 2/8/2025 cruise last week and got the cancellation email today.

 

The Spirit was severely overpriced compared to Princess for the same date. We booked it anyway assuming the price would drop.

 

I have to assume they will replace Spirit with another ship, hopefully cheaper, which (along with the 10% FCC) should save us a bunch of money.  I find it hard to believe NCL is completely abandoning Aus/NZ.

 

 

Even though it doesn't show on the website, Spirit is still scheduled to be in Australia in December 2024 - unless somebody at NCL was really asleep at the wheel and forgot to notify people on the 2 remaining cruises in December 2024. Both fit the "extraordinary journey" category, both 1x itineraries.  Dec 7 is Sydney to Bali, with 5 stops in Australia, in addition to Sydney, then on to Indonesia.  Dec 21 is Bali to Singapore.  Where it's coming from, where it's going to - who knows!

[RB9643]

1 hour ago, julig22 said:

 Dec 7 is Sydney to Bali, with 5 stops in Australia, in addition to Sydney, then on to Indonesia.  Dec 21 is Bali to Singapore.  Where it's coming from, where it's going to - who knows!

 

That is interesting. Nothing on Spirit's calendar after April, 2024, which coincides with the 20% FCC.  But yes, one has to assume it's coming from and going to somewhere.  I, for one, can't wait to see where it ends up. I really want to cruise on that ship.

 

 

 

 

[amygutman]

Very sad about the cancellation of our Alaska to Hawaii June 2025 Spirit. I know it's silly, but we had found this cruise, fell in love with the itinerary and had already started planning a vow renewal for our 20th anniversary. We lost our 15th anniversary cruise to the Med due to the pandemic so this is a very frustrating blow. We are still crossing our fingers for our Epic TA in Nov 2024 but actually booked with Celebrity a Nov 2024 TA as back-up due to the multiple Epic cancellations (worse itinerary, more difficult to fly in and out of part in Europe). 

 

Like a number of people, we have started to search for other June 2025 itineraries, but nothing exciting yet. Hoping that maybe the Spirit will reappear with something sexy in a part of the world where we could celebrate our anniversary and our love of cruising. 

 

I don't recall ever seeing this many cancellations for such large time blocks - seems a very odd business decision especially when the competition is very high for passengers among all cruise companies. 

 

Anyway...the hunt is on for something fun on the water in June 2025...

 

Warmest, Amy

[Greener123]

Surely 2025 sailings won’t have actually been on sail all that long - they’d have had to have decided the routes well in advance of putting them on sale so this is a pretty odd quick change to the plans, especially with nothing else announced - unlike with the epic where it just moved from med to Caribbean

[brigand13]

You might be surprised with regard to how long some of these sailings have been available for purchase.  I had one for Sept 2024 (AK to HI repositioning) cancelled that I booked in December 2021.  The Spirit's schedule had been the same since the cruise resumption after COVID: Summer in AK then move through the South Pacific/HI area and Winter in Aus/NZ.  

[alwalaska]

18 hours ago, amygutman said:

Very sad about the cancellation of our Alaska to Hawaii June 2025 Spirit. I know it's silly, but we had found this cruise, fell in love with the itinerary and had already started planning a vow renewal for our 20th anniversary. We lost our 15th anniversary cruise to the Med due to the pandemic so this is a very frustrating blow. We are still crossing our fingers for our Epic TA in Nov 2024 but actually booked with Celebrity a Nov 2024 TA as back-up due to the multiple Epic cancellations (worse itinerary, more difficult to fly in and out of part in Europe). 

 

Like a number of people, we have started to search for other June 2025 itineraries, but nothing exciting yet. Hoping that maybe the Spirit will reappear with something sexy in a part of the world where we could celebrate our anniversary and our love of cruising. 

 

I don't recall ever seeing this many cancellations for such large time blocks - seems a very odd business decision especially when the competition is very high for passengers among all cruise companies. 

 

Anyway...the hunt is on for something fun on the water in June 2025...

 

Warmest, Amy

I don't think it is silly.   I have been saying we would go to Australia and New Zealand after we retired so that we could make a month of it since it is such a long flight. Well, we retired last  year and on our cruise this Feb I started looking at itineraries. I totally fell in love with everything about the voyage, the ship, the ports, etc. We scheduled for 2025 to give ourselves enough time to save the money to be able to do the trip right without financial frustrations.  Those who say, it is far away, so just do something else are probably not planners.  Different people all take things in different ways.

 

I hope that you find something truly memorable for your anniversary after two frustrating misses. We were going to be celebrating our 35th with our cruise, but now it will be our 34th anniversary, or at least our 35th Valentine's Day together.

 

I'm glad that we were at least able to find something during the discount period that is almost the exact same cruise we were planning.  I just have to finish planning much faster and realize that our budget will be upside down, but at least we have the resources to pay for it without borrowing money.

[amygutman]

5 hours ago, alwalaska said:

I don't think it is silly.   I have been saying we would go to Australia and New Zealand after we retired so that we could make a month of it since it is such a long flight. Well, we retired last  year and on our cruise this Feb I started looking at itineraries. I totally fell in love with everything about the voyage, the ship, the ports, etc. We scheduled for 2025 to give ourselves enough time to save the money to be able to do the trip right without financial frustrations.  Those who say, it is far away, so just do something else are probably not planners.  Different people all take things in different ways.

 

I hope that you find something truly memorable for your anniversary after two frustrating misses. We were going to be celebrating our 35th with our cruise, but now it will be our 34th anniversary, or at least our 35th Valentine's Day together.

 

I'm glad that we were at least able to find something during the discount period that is almost the exact same cruise we were planning.  I just have to finish planning much faster and realize that our budget will be upside down, but at least we have the resources to pay for it without borrowing money.

@alwalaskaYour kindness made me smile and I will you much love, health and happiness for your 35th Valentine's Day! Our TA came through today...He said "You want something special? How about The Holy Land?". It looks like we will be having an early anniversary celebration on the Viva in Israel, Egypt, Turkey and Athens. The itinerary looks lovely, completely different than what we were expecting, and the price is comparable to our 2025 June Spirit (not considering airfare which I will be working many, many OT shifts to cover over the next 2 years). 

 

Not super excited about the Viva as the Prima Haven looks, well...ugly and sterile. However, it's a part of the world we've always wanted to see. So when one door closes, another opens. And, this door opened with a 10% discount! 🥰

 

@Greener123 We booked the Spirit June 2025 about 2 months ago. NCL starts posting cruises about 2 years in advance, whereas many companies only list 16-20 months in advance. Like @brigand13 and many other cruisers, we try and plan 2 years in advance. Helps with work schedules and planned monthly financing of our cruise addiction. We have an Alaska cruise in September on the Encore we booked almost 2 years ago in order to secure the DOS as there are only two on the ship and did not want to miss out by waiting. 

 

Warmest, Amy

[smillerholmes]

On 6/14/2023 at 1:52 AM, julig22 said:

Just tried my saved link to my December 2024 Sydney to Bali cruise and got the "your itinerary no longer available" notice. But it's still in my account, no change in itinerary. Hope it's just a glitch in the system but... Darn, finally found a cruise to places in Australia, other than Sydney.

 

Nothing showing on NCL site for Spirit after April, 2024.  Here's what cruisemapper shows as the schedule

Grrrr...I am so nervous about this.   It looks like my April 22nd, 2024/Hawaii to Alaska cruise is the last one that is "for sure" which doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence.  

[dexddd]

6 hours ago, smillerholmes said:

Grrrr...I am so nervous about this.   It looks like my April 22nd, 2024/Hawaii to Alaska cruise is the last one that is "for sure" which doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence.  

Go large.  The aft OS available for $30,000.

[julig22]

And December 2024 Sydney to Bali now officially cancelled as well.

[RB9643]

4 minutes ago, julig22 said:

And December 2024 Sydney to Bali now officially cancelled as well.

 

Yep, you knew that was coming, eventually.

 

[julig22]

On 6/16/2023 at 12:22 PM, RB9643 said:

 

Yep, you knew that was coming, eventually.

 

Not entirely unexpected but the last time this happened and I was booked on the sole non-cancelled cruise, my on/default itinerary/on/default itinerary.... finally stayed on, it was just the cruises before and after than needed tweeking.

So I'll take my 20% and go to Sydney by way of Tahiti and Fiji this year.  I'm flexible!

[Aquarius_traveler129]

Now seeing cancellations for Asia cruises for 2025.. another one of the cruises I had planned for that year. Just waiting for the email. 
 

I was wondering if anyone was able to add the 20% to an existing reservation? 

 

I have 2 $100 thank you coupons, a FCC of $480 already applied to my trip to Australia in January. Would love to add the 20% but since it’s not on my account yet my PCC can’t see it yet
 

 

[julig22]

18 minutes ago, Aquarius_traveler129 said:

Now seeing cancellations for Asia cruises for 2025.. another one of the cruises I had planned for that year. Just waiting for the email. 
 

I was wondering if anyone was able to add the 20% to an existing reservation? 

 

I have 2 $100 thank you coupons, a FCC of $480 already applied to my trip to Australia in January. Would love to add the 20% but since it’s not on my account yet my PCC can’t see it yet
 

 

20% fcc hasn't been issued yet but my pcc suggested I book my replacement cruise now since people will be scrambling to rebook to use it.  No indication that it won't be able to be used on an existing reservation that complies with the terms.  The do tend to limit coupons to 2, so hard to say how much you can apply at any time.  I've also got fcc from a price drop to apply, waiting for everything to return to my account.  CN was already returned which was helpful to have for rebooking my replacement cruise.

[Aquarius_traveler129]

1 minute ago, julig22 said:

20% fcc hasn't been issued yet but my pcc suggested I book my replacement cruise now since people will be scrambling to rebook to use it.  No indication that it won't be able to be used on an existing reservation that complies with the terms.  The do tend to limit coupons to 2, so hard to say how much you can apply at any time.  I've also got fcc from a price drop to apply, waiting for everything to return to my account.  CN was already returned which was helpful to have for rebooking my replacement cruise.

I’m so excited I already had my reservation set- I believe we are going on one of the last Australia sailings on the Spirit.

 

planned on calling my consultant today- he should be able to work it out. I too also have my $500 CN returned. 
 

if anyone’s nervous about Alaska to Hawaii what I’m doing is Hawaii on the Pride of America and then flying to Whittier from Honolulu and taking the Jade in 2025. Way cheaper than the spirit and barely any sea days! 

[ChiefMateJRK]

4 minutes ago, Aquarius_traveler129 said:

Way cheaper than the spirit and barely any sea days! 

Some of us love Sea Days, but I understand that others may not.  I love sea days and hate air travel, so the combined HI/AK itinerary works great.  Hopefully it will reemerge after next April in some form.

[Aquarius_traveler129]

Just now, ChiefMateJRK said:

Some of us love Sea Days, but I understand that others may not.  I love sea days and hate air travel, so the combined HI/AK itinerary works great.  Hopefully it will reemerge after next April in some form.

Totally understand! I don’t mind them but my partner despised them. We prefer to be off the boat or looking at scenery! 

[BigRedFan]

On 6/16/2023 at 3:17 PM, julig22 said:

And December 2024 Sydney to Bali now officially cancelled as well.

I am scheduled for that cruise and I haven't received anything from NCL saying it is cancelled yet.  Has anyone received an official notice?

 

[julig22]

30 minutes ago, BigRedFan said:

I am scheduled for that cruise and I haven't received anything from NCL saying it is cancelled yet.  Has anyone received an official notice?

 

No notice yet but it's gone from my account and the CN I used was returned.  I happened to be on the phone with my PCC on another matter on Friday and she found the cancellation notice that had just been released.  Assuming we're getting the same FCC deals.