Prima...Islafjord

[UKstages]

i can confirm that they were selling excursions for all the canceled ports in may. i even had a ticket for an excursion on the 5/14 sailing.

[SakeDad]

1 hour ago, ontheweb said:

 I explained again that no one had been allowed to get off the ship there in any of the May or June cruises.

It's not that they weren't allowed to get off the ship there. The ship NEVER WENT THERE. They overnighted in Akueyri instead. 

[ontheweb]

53 minutes ago, SakeDad said:

It's not that they weren't allowed to get off the ship there. The ship NEVER WENT THERE. They overnighted in Akueyri instead. 

Well, that is definitely one way of not allowing passengers to get off the ship in Asafjordur.😒

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, UKstages said:

i can confirm that they were selling excursions for all the canceled ports in may. i even had a ticket for an excursion on the 5/14 sailing.

Giving them the benefit of the doubt (which they probably do not deserve), maybe that early in May they did not realize the ship would not be going there and allowing passengers off. But after this many times of skipping the port, they should realize that. If they are still selling excursions there especially from the ship where they have to realize they have been skipping the port, SHAME ON THEM!

[UKstages]

 

38 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

f they are still selling excursions there especially from the ship where they have to realize they have been skipping the port, SHAME ON THEM!

 

well, i generally don't hold the shorex folks in very high regard, but on this point, i disagree.

 

they have to continue to sell the excursions for a particular port because they may not legitimately know if they are going to go there or not. sure, it's unlikely after all this time... but at some point they will go there and they have to have a full slate of excursions booked in case they do.

[SakeDad]

The calendar above says she's there July 4th. We'll know soon enough if that really happens.

[kitkat343]

People who use cruise critic will be aware of this situation (although you should double check the roll call for your sailings on cruise critic to make sure it has also been posted there).  Please note that it is really important that you post this information on the other roll calls on other sites because we don't want other guests on your cruises to put down nonrefundable deposits without knowing the risk they are taking.  Also, please note that there are some passengers (people with disabilities, families traveling with small children) for whom it is much more difficult for them to handle last minute itinerary changes.  If you post the possible alternatives, these passengers will be very grateful to have the opportunity to see if they can make alternative ports work for their families. 

 

 NCL did this for nearly a year in the Dominican Republic after running a ship aground, and not notifying passengers of the possibility of this port being canceled prior to final payment.  Please note that on my sailing in January, only half the passengers received the email notifying them of the port cancellation when the decision was made in December to replace the DR with a sea day.  The itinerary remained the same on the NCL website for the following month, and people who called NCL were told the port wasn't cancelled so there was a lot of confusion, so its important for you to try to help newer cruisers/cruisers who have travel limitations be aware of this situation so they can try to mitigate the difficulties caused by this itinerary change.    

[SakeDad]

1 hour ago, kitkat343 said:

NCL did this for nearly a year in the Dominican Republic after running a ship aground, and not notifying passengers of the possibility of this port being canceled prior to final payment.  Please note that on my sailing in January, only half the passengers received the email notifying them of the port cancellation when the decision was made in December to replace the DR with a sea day.  The itinerary remained the same on the NCL website for the following month, and people who called NCL were told the port wasn't cancelled so there was a lot of confusion, so its important for you to try to help newer cruisers/cruisers who have travel limitations be aware of this situation so they can try to mitigate the difficulties caused by this itinerary change.    

The other issue most are unaware of is the people you talk to are not in a call center if old days where everyone has the same information. Most are home based and in countries around the world and don't have "supervisors" in the room to reach out to. It makes it much easier to get incorrect information they will swear is correct.

[UKstages]

regardless of their physical location, all reps have access to the same tools and resources… namely, a knowledge base, which is a repository of all information on products and services, policies, FAQs and such. no supervisor on site if they’re working from home, that’s true, but typically there is a help line available through e-chat or phone. the reps who have earned the privilege of working from home are typically senior reps with good decision making skills and good product knowledge and need to consult a supervisor less often.

[SakeDad]

8 minutes ago, UKstages said:

regardless of their physical location, all reps have access to the same tools and resources… namely, a knowledge base, which is a repository of all information on products and services, policies, FAQs and such. no supervisor on site if they’re working from home, that’s true, but typically there is a help line available through e-chat or phone. the reps who have earned the privilege of working from home are typically senior reps with good decision making skills and good product knowledge and need to consult a supervisor less often.

One would hope but certainly has not been our experience or our TA's at all times. Hits & misses best describes it.

[UKstages]

you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him think.

 

all reps have access to the same tools.
 

whether they choose to use them is an entirely different matter.

[ontheweb]

12 hours ago, UKstages said:

 

 

well, i generally don't hold the shorex folks in very high regard, but on this point, i disagree.

 

they have to continue to sell the excursions for a particular port because they may not legitimately know if they are going to go there or not. sure, it's unlikely after all this time... but at some point they will go there and they have to have a full slate of excursions booked in case they do.

Let me note, I am not blaming the shorex people in the call center as I really doubt that they have been informed that NCL has skipped this port every cruise. I do blame upper management for letting them be ignorant of this and continuing to sell excursions there. And I wonder if they are still selling them on the ship. The people at the excursion desk there have to be aware of the situation. They have to have been giving refunds or credits now for almost 2 months for excursions to that missed port.

 

And I would also like to note that the original representative I talked to did the right thing. She said she did not know as that was outside of the information she had, but she would see if she could get me to someone who did know. It was not her fault that the excursion representative were just as much in the dark as to what was happening.

 

And as to your point that maybe they will go there someday, I would say not this cruise season unless they have some information that the dock work is about to be completed.

[ontheweb]

12 hours ago, SakeDad said:

The calendar above says she's there July 4th. We'll know soon enough if that really happens.

Yes, we will know soon enough. And even though you can still buy an excursion for there, I think the odds are very high against you actually being able to use it.😒

[ontheweb]

4 hours ago, UKstages said:

you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him think

You can sell an excursion for Isafjordur, but you cannot let the passenger use it. 🤦‍♂️

[bluesea777]

On 6/20/2023 at 7:37 PM, SakeDad said:

Recently?

 
The Star is in Isafjordur today, at anchor in the fjord, and using her lifeboats as tender.

 

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, bluesea777 said:

 
The Star is in Isafjordur today, at anchor in the fjord, and using her lifeboats as tender.

 

That has been happening, but the same has not been true for the Prima.

 

Question---the Prima lists Isafjordur as dock, does the Star do the same, or is it listed as a tender port?

[Asawi]

1 hour ago, ontheweb said:

That has been happening, but the same has not been true for the Prima.

 

Question---the Prima lists Isafjordur as dock, does the Star do the same, or is it listed as a tender port?

In the origininal itinerary for my Star Cruise July 23 it's listed as dock. I don't think there were any tenders in that itinerary, but there will probably be a few more.

[bluesea777]

2 hours ago, ontheweb said:

That has been happening, but the same has not been true for the Prima.

 

Question---the Prima lists Isafjordur as dock, does the Star do the same, or is it listed as a tender port?

 

I looked in the confirmation for our last year's Star cruise and it stated Dock for Isafjordur. We didn't dock but tendered using the ship's lifeboats. The fjord was calm and tendering was easy.

 

Why couldn't Prima use her own lifeboats to tender passengers to town? This is a good question .... 🙈🙉🙊

 

 

[SakeDad]

6 hours ago, bluesea777 said:

 
The Star is in Isafjordur today, at anchor in the fjord, and using her lifeboats as tender.

 

I was asking about Prima. Star is a different class/size ship.

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, Asawi said:

In the origininal itinerary for my Star Cruise July 23 it's listed as dock. I don't think there were any tenders in that itinerary, but there will probably be a few more.

Thanks, for the Prima all ports are listed as dock, except for Geiranger which is listed as tender.

[ontheweb]

59 minutes ago, bluesea777 said:

 

I looked in the confirmation for our last year's Star cruise and it stated Dock for Isafjordur. We didn't dock but tendered using the ship's lifeboats. The fjord was calm and tendering was easy.

 

Why couldn't Prima use her own lifeboats to tender passengers to town? This is a good question .... 🙈🙉🙊

 

 

An excellent question!

[robinium]

23 hours ago, UKstages said:

i can confirm that they were selling excursions for all the canceled ports in may. i even had a ticket for an excursion on the 5/14 sailing.

Can confirm same for the Prima itinerary which departed Southampton on June 4th.

[SakeDad]

7 hours ago, bluesea777 said:

 
The Star is in Isafjordur today, at anchor in the fjord, and using her lifeboats as tender.

 

People need to stop comparing the Star and the Prima as they are completely different ships. Star is 91,740 gross tonnage with 105 ft max beam and 2348 guests max with a total of 14 decks. Prima is much bigger at 142,500 gross tonnage, 133 max beam, 3099 guests max with a total of 20 decks. It matters.

[YVRteacher]

It is not based on size. The Prima’s lifeboats, like those of the -away plus ships (Bliss, Encore etc) are not designed for tendering.  The Star’s lifeboats were designed for tendering.  When the Bliss was in Alaska last year and there was a rockslide in Skagway and the Bliss had to move away from the dock on one of the days she was there, the Holland America ship ended up using their tenders to get passengers back to the Bliss.  I know the question is “why don’t the lifeboats work as tenders on these ships?” And I don’t have an answer. I do know this is the reason Prima is not not visiting Ísafjordur. The dock was supposed to be ready and the dredging of the harbour was supposed to be completed in Ísafjordur by spring 2023 and this did not happen yet.

Edited June 22, 2023 by YVRteacher

[SakeDad]

10 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

It is not based on size. The Prima’s lifeboats, like those of the -away plus ships (Bliss, Encore etc) are not designed for tendering.  The Star’s lifeboats were designed for tendering.  When the Bliss was in Alaska last year and there was a rockslide in Skagway and the Bliss had to move away from the dock on one of the days she was there, the Holland America ship ended up using their tenders to get passengers back to the Bliss.  I know the question is “why don’t the lifeboats work as tenders on these ships?” And I don’t have an answer. I do know this is the reason Prima is not not visiting Ísafjordur. The dock was supposed to be ready and the dredging of the harbour was supposed to be completed in Ísafjordur by spring 2023 and this did not happen yet.

Thanks for the clarification. I had not heard that. I am on the July 16 sailing and hopefully we make the port. But in any case I will make sure I talk with an Officer and get the REAL DETAILS about why the lifeboats can't tender. As former crew on other ships this is the first I have ever heard of this. I don't doubt you but I want to know the actual reasons for it. I will post once I get those details.