Emergency help needed please

[VoyageVirgin]

Then I do not understand what this portion under "Carrier's Rules & Regulations" in my ticket means: "Any guest under 21 years of age must be accompanied by a guest over 21, in the same or an adjoining stateroom who expressly agrees to be responsible for the under-21 guest throughout the cruise."...............

 

Setting aside for a moment the issue of what may be good parenting vs what may not be, is this NCL's complete policy on minors in cabins? My cruise documents say the same and I am unable to find any more info, including NCL's website.:rolleyes:

 

If it is, then it appears that NCL's only requirement on minors is that there be someone over 21 in an adjoining cabin. Not even a connecting cabin requirement.

 

So am I missing something?:confused:

 

[kidrn]

Literally our bags are packed and we are headed out the door but I wanted everyone to know the final outcome. My TA finally got through to a reservations supervisor that was actually concerned willing to listen and resolve the situation in a very timely manor. He reinforced the need to keep asking to speak to supervisors when you are receiving unsatisfactory responses. Due to noones control some staterooms were taken out of inventory. I am happy to report that we are in side by side staterooms. Both my TA and reservation specialist at NCl showed great concern and compassion for my family which I am greatful for. At least we are close together. Oh the representatives name at NCl is Myles. He is awesome. kidrn:)

[Gabgab]

Man some of you guys are really mean in here, please dont attack people about bad partenting skills and then in the next breath say why are you worrying that your kids are not in the same life boat. Come on anyone with commen sense knows NCL messed up first by not reading the last names of the people and second by not even notifiying them when they did get moved. When alot of u guys attack people it scares away other people from ever wanting to ask questions because they will be afraid of being attacked. Please treat others they way you want to be treated. :)

 

I am glad everything worked out in the end. :)

[SailAways]

Literally our bags are packed and we are headed out the door but I wanted everyone to know the final outcome. My TA finally got through to a reservations supervisor that was actually concerned willing to listen and resolve the situation in a very timely manor. He reinforced the need to keep asking to speak to supervisors when you are receiving unsatisfactory responses. Due to noones control some staterooms were taken out of inventory. I am happy to report that we are in side by side staterooms. Both my TA and reservation specialist at NCl showed great concern and compassion for my family which I am greatful for. At least we are close together. Oh the representatives name at NCl is Myles. He is awesome. kidrn:)

 

Awesome - Have a great cruise - HAPPY HOLIDAYS -

And thanks for posting as you were headed out the door. We would have hated to wait till your return to hear the outcome.

Thanks again!:D :D

[samtig]

Let me be perfectly clear, my husband and one child were booked in one stateroom and me and other 2 children were booked in the other. We did not break any rules. we have to book 2 cabins because we are 5 total and there were no AB available. Again thank you to the person defending me. I am not quite sure why the other person wants to assume I am so irresponsible. As i have posted before I am a pediatric nurse and I know what irresponsible parenting is and is not. That is not the point. NCl has not handled the customer service well from the beginning. I could never get by with treating people nor would I want to the way this has been handled. As I said before NCl and my Ta are trying to work something out so we can be closer.

 

You purchased a vacation with connecting rooms because of your children & then NCL switched without notifying you. I don't blame you for being upset - you should be. How anyone can defend NCL is beyond me. If it were me, I'd not travel NCL again & I am, by the way, an NCL fan.

[Toyz711]

on our last cruise we had 4 rooms, only 2 had the same last name. matching names would not work well in our case. plus do you really think that they are going through 2000 names to try to match them up when they are in a hurry to block out the rooms and get ready to cruise? they have to have the manifest ready and turned in to the local officials.

 

unless the rooms are blocked together in the reservations and the computer sees it as blocked..it will happen again. cruise lines are not mom and pop businesses, they have how many cruises a week, each with app 2000 passenagers..that's a lot of names to go through.

 

the sad thing is that this is the way they do upgrades too, 99% of the people on this board would love to be surprised with a room change. there are not enough hours in the day for them to call everyone with room changes or upgrades. it's not just NCL, this would be any cruise line or travel business.

 

American changed my seat on my way to seattle last sept, my DH had booked our seats on the side with only 2 seats, 4 months before. but they changed the plane to 3 on each side, i was screwed. i sat on the outside aisle, being bumped by the cart all the way..both lags. my husband was in the window seat, 1 row back. none of the other passenagers would give up their seats, they wanted to sit with their partner. it wasn't fair, as far as i could see..we were the only couple that were split up. i had bruises for 2 weeks.

[Down-Unders]

I cannot believe what has just happened. We are leaving Friday on the pearl. we booked adjoining cabins because I have 3 children. We had our cruise docs and advance registrations completed and just by chance I went on the Ncl website and they moved one of our rooms down the hall! I called NCl direct and after being on hold for an hour I called our ta She got through to NCL but noone knows why this happened and our TA nor us were notified. # hours later I still do not have an answer. NCl is supposed to be notifying inventory to see what is going on. Any suggestions or comments or anyone with a crystal ball to see the outcome would be appreciated. kidrn:mad:

 

Relax look forward to Friday, when you get on the ship go to the front office and ask for the office Manager dont take no for a answer. Knowing NCL they will sort your cabins out to your advantage, in the meantime let your TA do the work. You will have a great holiday.

[newmexicoNita]

You purchased a vacation with connecting rooms because of your children & then NCL switched without notifying you. I don't blame you for being upset - you should be. How anyone can defend NCL is beyond me. If it were me, I'd not travel NCL again & I am, by the way, an NCL fan.

I haven't seen one person defend NCL. If you have please let us know. NMnita

[electricron]

Relax look forward to Friday, when you get on the ship go to the front office and ask for the office Manager dont take no for a answer. Knowing NCL they will sort your cabins out to your advantage, in the meantime let your TA do the work. You will have a great holiday.

 

Great advice! By the way, the probem has already been fixed. Read the follow up report...

 

Literally our bags are packed and we are headed out the door but I wanted everyone to know the final outcome. My TA finally got through to a reservations supervisor that was actually concerned willing to listen and resolve the situation in a very timely manor. He reinforced the need to keep asking to speak to supervisors when you are receiving unsatisfactory responses. Due to noones control some staterooms were taken out of inventory. I am happy to report that we are in side by side staterooms. Both my TA and reservation specialist at NCl showed great concern and compassion for my family which I am greatful for. At least we are close together. Oh the representatives name at NCl is Myles. He is awesome. kidrn:)

 

That's great news! NCL does care after all.

Kidrn, have a great cruise. Please give a review when you return.

[familyof4cruising]

I am glad you resolved your problem. It is great that you left with peace of mind. I am happy to hear that NCL took care of it.

[KeystoneCruiser]

Good points, keystone. :)

NCL will not enforce their own rules. Then (like I tell our private school admin) if you will not enforce your rules that you created, then change the rules. But and I will fight to the finish this, as long as the rules are there and until they are changed, it is being a responsible parent to obey the rules. Otherwise think about what you are teaching your children by disobeying them.

 

<kidrn--i do apology for the remarks that attacked your parenting skills>

 

Thank you dwrist!

 

Unfortunately that is the world we live in. NCL, like most companies, are not going to enforce all their rules. It was like on our Star cruise when the kids were running in the halls near the elevators. Yes, I did report it to the main desk and the response I got was "kids will be kids." The real reason NCL was not going to take care of that situation is the same reason they allow some with jeans in the dining room: they are afraid of making the customers mad and, probably more to the point, are afraid of a face to face confrontation with angry passengers and perhaps those same passengers writing them up on the S.T.Y.L.E. cards that are so important for promotion. You pick your battles.

 

Someone suggested once on these boards, that NCL should have a group of crew members whose job it is to enforce these rules and be the ones trained to make those potentially nasty confrontations. Crew members who, because of their job, are not subject to remarks about them on the S.T.Y.L.E. cards. Sounds like a good idea.

[KeystoneCruiser]

Literally our bags are packed and we are headed out the door but I wanted everyone to know the final outcome. My TA finally got through to a reservations supervisor that was actually concerned willing to listen and resolve the situation in a very timely manor. He reinforced the need to keep asking to speak to supervisors when you are receiving unsatisfactory responses. Due to noones control some staterooms were taken out of inventory. I am happy to report that we are in side by side staterooms. Both my TA and reservation specialist at NCl showed great concern and compassion for my family which I am greatful for. At least we are close together. Oh the representatives name at NCl is Myles. He is awesome. kidrn:)

 

Kidrn: I am so glad this all worked out for you and I am very pleased that NCL was able to find an amicable solution to this. Now go and enjoy your cruise.

 

It still bothers me that you were not notified of the room change however. That seems to be a problem where NCL really needs to work.

[dwrist]

...Someone suggested once on these boards, that NCL should have a group of crew members whose job it is to enforce these rules and be the ones trained to make those potentially nasty confrontations. Crew members who, because of their job, are not subject to remarks about them on the S.T.Y.L.E. cards. Sounds like a good idea.[/quote

 

Which translates to Staff positions. Then it requires higher pay than any cruise line would be willing to pay;)

[samtig]

Thank you Shawnee, my point exactly!!

[ahoughton]

Thank goodness NCL has not started outsourcing or she could have been dealing with a rep that doesn't speak english. (It's coming)

[samtig]

Kidrn,

Glad NCL made it right! Nothing worse than having a situation involving your children. Have a great vacation!

[newmexicoNita]

"ok, we now have a $200 OBC, NCL did the best they could do under the circumstance"s"

That sounds like defending NCL to me:mad:

And what more could they have done? They also were able to get the cabins together. NMNita

[kmacht]

After reading through the whole thread I need some clarification here. I don't want to start a flame war, just looking for some facts so I can understand some things if this ever happens to me. It appears that the OP reserved two specific rooms that happened to have adjoining doors. She did not book a gurantee but specific rooms. What part of the carriage contract with NCL allows them to move your rooms either with or without notification? It does not matter why those cabins were booked. The fact is that specific cabins were requested and a confirmation was given after final payment. Do you pay a premium for booking a specific room rather than taking a gurantee? Second, why would the OP even try dealing directly with NCL on this? Isn't that why you go through a travel agent? Shouldn't it be the travel agent on the phone fighting for their client rather that the OP dealing with it? I realize it isn't the agent that made the change but in my opinion it should be their responsibility to have it fixed.

 

Keith

[newmexicoNita]

After reading through the whole thread I need some clarification here. I don't want to start a flame war, just looking for some facts so I can understand some things if this ever happens to me. It appears that the OP reserved two specific rooms that happened to have adjoining doors. She did not book a gurantee but specific rooms. What part of the carriage contract with NCL allows them to move your rooms either with or without notification? It does not matter why those cabins were booked. The fact is that specific cabins were requested and a confirmation was given after final payment. Do you pay a premium for booking a specific room rather than taking a gurantee? Second, why would the OP even try dealing directly with NCL on this? Isn't that why you go through a travel agent? Shouldn't it be the travel agent on the phone fighting for their client rather that the OP dealing with it? I realize it isn't the agent that made the change but in my opinion it should be their responsibility to have it fixed.

 

Keith

Keith, it is a little confusing for all of us, but here is what seemed to have happened: yes, she book connecting rooms or adjoining, whatever and because of the life boat situation they had to move one of the cabins: apparently what was showing on the website and brochures (the ship is new) was not totally correct. Anyway, needless to say she was very upset. She was trying to work with her TA who I guess, from her comments tried to asssist as best possible. Somehow she decided to take things into her own hands. She contacted several reps at NCL, finally, somehow was able to get the cabins closer together.

 

The screw up was certainly the fault of NCL and not letting her or her agent know was even worse. However, we don't know if they did notify her agent and the message got sidelined somewhere.

 

Regardless she nows has a $200 OBC and cabins next (across the hall) from each other. She is on her way, hopefully will have a wonderful holiday and will report back with a positive review upon her return. As I and some others have said, she had every reason to be upset, but after the error was made it is hard to imagine NCL could have done much more than they did to correct the situration.

 

I mention the part about the TA because I am a TA and I know it isn't impossible for messages to get filed in the wrong place, I also know most cruiselines do not make a habit on doing these kinds of things without notifying the agent involved. Do they change cabins on people, yes, it is rare but it can happen, do they do it without letting someone know. rarely. Again, I am generalizing, of course there are exceptions to any rule.

 

NMnita

[KeystoneCruiser]

...Someone suggested once on these boards, that NCL should have a group of crew members whose job it is to enforce these rules and be the ones trained to make those potentially nasty confrontations. Crew members who, because of their job, are not subject to remarks about them on the S.T.Y.L.E. cards. Sounds like a good idea.[/quote

 

Which translates to Staff positions. Then it requires higher pay than any cruise line would be willing to pay;)

 

 

There's always some problem with good ideas isn't there.....;)

[KeystoneCruiser]

After reading through the whole thread I need some clarification here. I don't want to start a flame war, just looking for some facts so I can understand some things if this ever happens to me. It appears that the OP reserved two specific rooms that happened to have adjoining doors. She did not book a gurantee but specific rooms. What part of the carriage contract with NCL allows them to move your rooms either with or without notification? It does not matter why those cabins were booked. The fact is that specific cabins were requested and a confirmation was given after final payment. Do you pay a premium for booking a specific room rather than taking a gurantee? Second, why would the OP even try dealing directly with NCL on this? Isn't that why you go through a travel agent? Shouldn't it be the travel agent on the phone fighting for their client rather that the OP dealing with it? I realize it isn't the agent that made the change but in my opinion it should be their responsibility to have it fixed.

 

Keith

 

Nita basically explained it. But let me add that this is the third documented case in about 9 months of NCL doing this.

 

1.) In my case, NCL moved our assigned cabins sometime between our first bill and final bill, but we didn't catch it until after that. (I messed up by not checking the room number on the final bill before paying). But again, we were not notified.

 

My TA was wonderful and fought hard for us, but to help the cause both my father and I wrote letters & emails to NCL and we told the story on these boards. My fellow posters on this board became great support and also called on NCL to correct the problem. We tried to pay for an upgrade to higher level cabin that could allow us to be connecting but even though the cabins showed open on the website, NCL told us the website was behind "a few days."

 

In the end, NCL moved us to connecting cabins a few doors from where we originally started. (they "found" us the new cabins about a four days before we flew out.)

 

2.) A story on these boards about a month ago involved a traveler who showed up at the pier to find that their rooms had also been switched and they too were seperated. In this case, NCL upgraded one cabin, but did not move the the rest of the family in the second cabin.

 

After a lot of arguing, NCL was able to move them side by side again. But again, this traveler and his TA was not notified until he showed up at the pier.

 

3.) And the story above of Kidrn. Again, she booked connecting balcony cabins and found out last week that one of her cabins had been moved. (luckily she checked her reservation online to find the move, otherwise she would have found out at the pier.) Again, no call to TA or her from NCL.

 

NCL was able to put her family in adjoining cabins (next to each other) but she still lost out on the connecting cabins that she originally had.

 

 

The underlying theme in all three stories that is the most bothersome to me is the fact that in all three cases, NCL did not notify the parties involved or their TA's of the changes. Nita pointed out that it would be easy for a TA to misplace or miss a message, but I have a hard time believing that three TA's could all miss/misplace messages!

[newmexicoNita]

Nita basically explained it. But let me add that this is the third documented case in about 9 months of NCL doing this.

 

1.) In my case, NCL moved our assigned cabins sometime between our first bill and final bill, but we didn't catch it until after that. (I messed up by not checking the room number on the final bill before paying). But again, we were not notified.

 

My TA was wonderful and fought hard for us, but to help the cause both my father and I wrote letters & emails to NCL and we told the story on these boards. My fellow posters on this board became great support and also called on NCL to correct the problem. We tried to pay for an upgrade to higher level cabin that could allow us to be connecting but even though the cabins showed open on the website, NCL told us the website was behind "a few days."

 

In the end, NCL moved us to connecting cabins a few doors from where we originally started. (they "found" us the new cabins about a four days before we flew out.)

 

2.) A story on these boards about a month ago involved a traveler who showed up at the pier to find that their rooms had also been switched and they too were seperated. In this case, NCL upgraded one cabin, but did not move the the rest of the family in the second cabin.

 

After a lot of arguing, NCL was able to move them side by side again. But again, this traveler and his TA was not notified until he showed up at the pier.

 

3.) And the story above of Kidrn. Again, she booked connecting balcony cabins and found out last week that one of her cabins had been moved. (luckily she checked her reservation online to find the move, otherwise she would have found out at the pier.) Again, no call to TA or her from NCL.

 

NCL was able to put her family in adjoining cabins (next to each other) but she still lost out on the connecting cabins that she originally had.

 

 

The underlying theme in all three stories that is the most bothersome to me is the fact that in all three cases, NCL did not notify the parties involved or their TA's of the changes. Nita pointed out that it would be easy for a TA to misplace or miss a message, but I have a hard time believing that three TA's could all miss/misplace messages!

'And Keystone, I totally agree with you, it is unlikely this would happen 3 times. I do find the fact this is the third time this has happened very sad. NMnita

[SailAways]

'And Keystone, I totally agree with you, it is unlikely this would happen 3 times. I do find the fact this is the third time this has happened very sad. NMnita

 

Just curious, Nita.

 

Do you, as a TA, have anyway to research this type of problem which apparently is occurring more than the norm?

 

Seems someone should be able to get to the bottom of, or at least address the problem at NCL.

 

Do you have more strings to pull, or are you as unable to get a definitive answer as the general public?

 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!

[snake114]

I, too, had a problem like this that I outlined a couple of weeks ago on the Sprirt. We booked connecting balcony cabins next to the kids club directly with NCL 8 months out, and when we arrived at the ship we were told that the cabin numbers on our documents were incorrect, and that we had been "upgraded" to other balcony cabins on a different deck several rooms apart.

 

To make a long story short, we refused to accept this change, and after a couple of hours got our old rooms back and a $100 OBC.

 

Just goes to show, though, that NCL certainly does do random last-minute changes or room assignments without contacting the passengers- even when young children are involved, as was our case!!

 

While we will continue to use NCL, our next cruise the 4 of us will be in a mini-suite instead- if moved, no problem!!

[KeystoneCruiser]

I, too, had a problem like this that I outlined a couple of weeks ago on the Sprirt. We booked connecting balcony cabins next to the kids club directly with NCL 8 months out, and when we arrived at the ship we were told that the cabin numbers on our documents were incorrect, and that we had been "upgraded" to other balcony cabins on a different deck several rooms apart.

 

To make a long story short, we refused to accept this change, and after a couple of hours got our old rooms back and a $100 OBC.

 

Just goes to show, though, that NCL certainly does do random last-minute changes or room assignments without contacting the passengers- even when young children are involved, as was our case!!

 

While we will continue to use NCL, our next cruise the 4 of us will be in a mini-suite instead- if moved, no problem!!

 

Snake: You are the person that I was talking about in #2 of my post. I couldn't find the old post, so I just recanted the story from memory. Thank you for filling the holes.

 

Like we said earlier, three documented cases of CC members and has many have pointed out, CC members are only a very small minority of all NCL passengers. (I think I read a figure once of something like 4%) How many others has NCL done this switcharoo too and we don't know about.

 

Let's say CC members make up 5% for easy math. 3 of us have had this happen to us. So since 5 x 20 = 100, let's take 3 x 20... Basically it could be as many as 60 people in the last nine months have had this happen to them. (take it one step farther and say 80 for a year.) Too many in my opinion.