New York Daily News

[Don Haynes]

Which is it. six months or nine months cruiser2? NCL did it with five months to spare.

 

What about all of those who booked reservations further than nine months out? Or is it six months?

 

How can anyone charter a ship without a itinerary? Yes, it is the chicken and the egg, which came first.

[Cuizer2]

Its my opinion five months is still a long time before a cruise. Frankly, I usually book a cruise around a month before, about the same time I book a flight.

 

Just because you are in a position that is flexible enough to book with only one month's notice does not mean everyone is. Some people have to plan their vacation the year before. Taking a ship off the market less than six months prior to sailing is not fair to those who have to make their plans the year before. Once inside nine months the cruise lines should not allow a full ship charter.

[Cuizer2]

Looks like this was actually a quad post. However, one of the duplicate posts was a stealth post. And here is my bonus photo, of the NCL Star, just before it ran me over ...

 

[Cuizer2]

Its my opinion five months is still a long time before a cruise. Frankly, I usually book a cruise around a month before, about the same time I book a flight.

 

Just because you are in a position that is flexible enough to book with only one month's notice does not mean everyone is. Some people have to plan their vacation the year before. Taking a ship off the market less than six months prior to sailing is not fair to those who have to make their plans the year before. Once inside nine months the cruise lines should not allow a full ship charter.

[rr55]

Well there's an easy solution, the line post itneraries whenever it wants (to allow prospective charterers to act) and then accept reservations only when it's ready to guarantee them absent something beyond it's control. I just think it's disingenuous of a company to accept and hold a deposit and then decide it's got a better deal from someone else (who wants a charter) and thus it will not honor your reservation.

[Cuizer2]

Aren't you going to place some blame on the cruisers who wish to book vacations a year or more in advance? Most businesses think in quarters, not many corporations or people for that matter book reservations beyond three months.

 

Some people have to plan that far in advance. That is why they want to know when they can make reservations. Not everyone is in a position where they can take off for a week with only a month or two notice.

 

I don't blame anyone for booking a cruise one year in advance. I do blame people who book non-refundable airline tickets or hotel rooms one year in advance. The cruise is refundable up until 60-90 days prior to the sailing date. Once inside that period then people should make non-refundable reservations.

 

Nonetheless, canceling a cruise within six months is just not fair to the general public, because many of them need more than six months lead time to plan a vacation (work, school, coordinating with other who also have work and school issues).

[Cuizer2]

Which is it. six months or nine months cruiser2? NCL did it with five months to spare.

 

What about all of those who booked reservations further than nine months out? Or is it six months?

 

How can anyone charter a ship without a itinerary? Yes, it is the chicken and the egg, which came first.

 

You are combining two different issues into one. I said that canceling a cruise within six months is not a fair amount of lead time for some people. As a different thought, to be fair to all, I said that full ship charters should not be allowed within nine months. Since the itineraries come out about fourteen months ahead, this gives the charter groups plenty of lead time. Besides, if someone wants to charter a full ship, I am sure they can get the itinerary before the general public. Cruise lines know their itineraries about two years (or more) ahead of time.

[ennjay]

This cruise has been advertised, and being sold, on the R Family Cruises website for MONTHS now.... at least since the fall, if not late SUMMER. Rosie's company did NOT just book this charter. It sounds like maybe NCL double-booked? Or they counted on the charter not selling as well as it ended up selling, and didn't bump previously-booked passengers until recently.

[electricron]

This cruise has been advertised, and being sold, on the R Family Cruises website for MONTHS now.... at least since the fall, if not late SUMMER. Rosie's company did NOT just book this charter. It sounds like maybe NCL double-booked? Or they counted on the charter not selling as well as it ended up selling, and didn't bump previously-booked passengers until recently.

 

Or quite possible, Rosie didn't send NCL the charter payment until lately. That might be why NCL didn't take this cruise off the market until recently, just in case Rosie didn't pay upfront, or decided to not charter this cruise afterall.

If regular passengers can decide to change their plans, and not take a cruise before final payment, why can't Rosie? I don't know when final payment is due on a charter, but I don't think it is as far away as a year before the ship's departure. 6 months is significantly longer than the 90 days we have for final payment.

[Cuizer2]

This cruise has been advertised, and being sold, on the R Family Cruises website for MONTHS now.... at least since the fall, if not late SUMMER. Rosie's company did NOT just book this charter. It sounds like maybe NCL double-booked? Or they counted on the charter not selling as well as it ended up selling, and didn't bump previously-booked passengers until recently.

 

Interesting.

[Don Haynes]

Usually by the first of June there are two years of itineraries posted, and during early April there is barely a years worth of itineraries posted. Expecting charters to be booked two years in advance for a summer cruise is a bit much, for businesses thinking in terms of quarters.

 

As Electricron has noted, consumers have final payment at 90 days, surely charters have a longer lead time. Yet, most consumers think 90 days is too early to fully pay. Charters are part of the tourist industry, and I do not see a Congress that will outlaw it.

 

Most of the buses we ride on tours are chartered. Do you really think the tour companies buy buses?

[SailAways]

Most of the buses we ride on tours are chartered. Do you really think the tour companies buy buses?

 

They buy Islands. If they have ships going to particular ports year round, why is this such an absurd idea?:confused:

 

It would seem that the bus companies plan ahead for these charters, and do not bump the everyday user off, or not provide alternatives while the buses are chartered.

 

Again, I understand that the present guidelines of the cruise lines allow them to accept charters at their discretion, and bump previously booked pax. It simply is not good business for the general public, and for all of us who do need to plan far ahead for this type of vacation.

 

Not all of us have the privilege to take last minute vacations. Many are bound by jobs, with set vacation times, children in school, and various other obligations which necessitate early planning on their part.

 

I had suggested in a previous post if it would be a possibility, or idea that the cruise lines could consider to designate particular ships which would be used as "Charters", and allow the regular pax to make their own decision as to whether they would like to book on them or not.

 

Any ideas along these lines??

[Don Haynes]

The problem with designating ships is that many ships do move about. For expample, the Dawn, next year she will be moving from New York City to Miami when the Gem comes to New York. Sometimes a ship leaves the fleet, within a year NCL will lose two ships.

[SailAways]

The problem with designating ships is that many ships do move about. For expample, the Dawn, next year she will be moving from New York City to Miami when the Gem comes to New York. Sometimes a ship leaves the fleet, within a year NCL will lose two ships.

 

Well, obviously, ships move about - That surely is not news at all.

 

So, if you have this information, surely, the cruise line does too, and could plan accordingly. I'm sure they plan further ahead than one year.

 

I do not accept that they cannot do long range planning.

[rr55]

They can do long range planning, they just choose to hedge their bets sitting with reservations and holding the deposit money, all the whule hoping a better deal comes along. That is their right under the contract, if course, but it's lousy customer relations. I say don't accept the reservations until you can guarantee something like this won't hppen; but don't expect to see tha any time soon.

 

And all the while people are blamed for by fellow customers booking too early and not insuring themselves for losses on airfare etc. in case this happened.

[electricron]

Another double post. So sorry!

[electricron]

They can do long range planning, they just choose to hedge their bets sitting with reservations and holding the deposit money, all the while hoping a better deal comes along. That is their right under the contract, if course, but it's lousy customer relations. I say don't accept the reservations until you can guarantee something like this won't happen; but don't expect to see tha any time soon.

 

Well, they could ask those willing to charter a ship to book it up to two years in advance. But those who charter cruise ships will never sell a ship out two years in advance. Even NCL is selling cabins on most cruises weeks before departure.

While Rosie can probably afford to book the charter, she really doesn't want to. What she wants to do is sell the cabins to others for a profit, to raise cash for a charity, and to pocket a little for her troubles. Apparently, she has had this Dawn cruise up on a web site for months, selling cabins one or two at a time. She eventually has sold enough cabins to pay the final payment, at a point 5 to 6 months before departure. Now, if she were forced into paying the final payment two years or even one year before departure, she wouldn't be able to charter the ship, because she hadn't sold or couldn't sell enough cabins.

Everytime you book a cabin on a cruise ship, you are actually chartering that cabin. The only difference between you and Rosie is that she's chartering the entire ship, vs a cabin. And in the world of business, money talks.

Just because you can afford to book a cruise a year in advance, not everyone can. Including Rosie's customers. Get real!

[smeyer418]

I do think that Rosie or whomever should accommodate the reunion....

[smeyer418]

Idouble post sorry

[editor@cruisecritic]

That is an amazing AMAZING photo! May we use it to illustrate an NCL story? It's lovely....

Best,

Carolyn

Editor

Cruise Critic

PS and where were you, exactly?

 

 

 

 

Looks like this was actually a quad post. However, one of the duplicate posts was a stealth post. And here is my bonus photo, of the NCL Star, just before it ran me over ...

 

[editor@cruisecritic]

[FONT=Georgia]That is an amazing AMAZING photo! May we use it to illustrate an NCL story? It's lovely....[/FONT]

[FONT=Georgia][/FONT]
[FONT=Georgia]Best,[/FONT]

[FONT=Georgia][I]Carolyn[/I][/FONT]
[FONT=Georgia][/FONT]
[FONT=Georgia]Editor[/FONT]
[FONT=Georgia]Cruise Critic[/FONT]

[FONT=Georgia]PS and where were you, exactly?[/FONT]




[quote name='Cuizer2']Looks like this was actually a quad post. However, one of the duplicate posts was a stealth post. And here is my bonus photo, of the NCL Star, just before it ran me over ...

[IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b103/ZefH/NCL%20Star/Star3-4-2-06.jpg[/IMG][/quote]

[editor@cruisecritic]

You know, I have to say as the editor of the site I'd heard of the R Family Vacations charters (frankly I love them) but in this case concerning the July cruise, we were researching a news item about how Rosie, on "The View", had spontaneously offered the cruise to audience members back during a show taped in January. Frankly, it never occured to me that the ship hadn't already "officially" been chartered, aka "taken it off the books". Because after the "news" of Rosie's giving these cruises away (which alas we didn't end up reporting even after our initial legwork, if only because we were swamped with other things) we checked the R Family site -- and it already listed the July Bermuda cruise. So it didn't seem like news.

But...that NCL hadn't already told folks who had booked that voyage, well, can't answer to that!!!!

Sorry I didn't twig sooner.

Carolyn

[quote name='Cuizer2']Interesting.[/quote]

[Snowrose]

After the recent discussion about not being able to refuse passage to the NYC school/students that caused such problems in early January, it just fascinated me that NCL could then refuse passage to paying passengers simply because they'd booked for July on the Dawn before Rosie O'Donnell decided she wanted the entire ship.

[URL]http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_272611726.shtml[/URL]

First it appeared that NCL didn't want to seem anti-semetic and now it apparently doesn't want to be seen as anti-gay, so confirmed passengers are getting the boot instead - and only getting a $50 onboard credit for the inconvenience and will be booked on another cruise.

Teri

[driker2]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS]No the Jewel has not listed 37 degrees. The Pearl has not run aground in the Seychelles. Not even a lazy room steward on the Dawn. Just a management and sales decision that seems to have left some NCL cruisers pretty understandibly unhappy.[/FONT]
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][/FONT]

[URL="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/499072p-420758c.html"][FONT=Comic Sans MS][COLOR=blue][B]http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/499072p-420758c.html[/B][/COLOR][/FONT][/URL]


[FONT=Comic Sans MS]I've seen Rosie's HBO movie. It seemed to have been a lovely event. Not so nice, though, for the displaced persons.[/FONT]

[Don Haynes]

Charters are common in the travel/tourist industry. Airlines, hotels, and cruise ships. Unfortunately, these passengers were bumped for Rosie's charter. All of the passengers are getting a full refund, plus $100 per cabin on board credits for another NCL cruise. Five plus months is a long time from the sailing date, all of the passengers have plenty of time to switch ships or cruise lines. While this decision may have been a public relations nightmare for 200 to 300 booked customers, its a win win marketing decision for NCL.

However, the Daily News, a tabloid rag, didn't mention this. At a cost of possibly a half million dollars, NCL gains at least ten times that amount in nationwide marketing.