Advice on '14-Day Authentic Alaska - Southbound Cruise Tour' or similar with NCL

Hi there,

When I log in to my NCL account on the US website my booking is all there, says 14 day Authentic Southbound Cruisetour and has th full itinerary listed so I'm still really hopeful it will be honoured :)

I had the NCL Personal cruise consultant phone me last night to tell me she's been told to cancel my booking because it is no longer available.

I told her not to do a thing because I know it IS still available in the US.

I have had nothing in writing from NCL to say there is a problem.

Has anyone else heard anything? I have already opened a case with customer services but I'd be very interested to hear if it's just me or if anyone else has had the cruise tour cancelled. Thanks x

Hi.

We have also booked this tour leaving Fairbanks 24/7/2018 after seeing the great price back in January.

A couple of weeks after booking the land tour part disappeared from the booking on my ncl. It changed the title of the holiday to default itinerary name and shows we are at sea for the first week before leaving Seward on 30th July.

I rang customer services at the end of April and after 3 weeks got a short e mail to say yes we have a land tour booked before the cruise.

We have had no further contact from them and are very interested in what is being said on cruise critic.

If anyone has any more information we would like to hear it.

Thanks

We've decided not to pursue it so it doesn't bring attention to the booking :)

On the invoice I received when the booking was made, it did mention this tour and cruise wasn't covered by ATOL. Does anyone know if ABTA will cover this? I took screen shots of the whole booking process from start to finish so if they start playing funny I'd like to discuss ABTA with them etc etc

We also have all the bookings printed off and saved. Including the original itinerary and the email saying we are booked on a land tour before the cruise.

Our problem is that we intend to spend a few days in Alaska before we embark on either the land tour or the cruise and will have to book flights either to Fairbanks or Anchorage depending on what happens with ncl.

Also sort accommodation out in the relevant place.

Guess we will have to be patient ☺

Hey All

So 'D Day' has arrived, received an email from NCL saying this itinerary has been cancelled and the ship changed to the jewel.

Has any one else had this? Just wondering if anyone has and if anyone has called and spoken to NCL yet?

just in case is of any interest, i called NCL and the lady there was pretty unconvincing.

She said the ship has changed to the Jewel, it will be running the same itinerary. So when asked why can the land tour not proceed if the sailing is the same, she just said she doesnt know.

I have looked into this, the Sun is still offering the cruise only for the associated dates on line. The land tour and cruise is still showing as available for the US Market. I have taken screen copies of this to keep to show that the 'Sun' is still cruising on the dates on our supposed original booking so they cannot try and say the Sun is not doing this sailing at all.

I am waiting for a call back from a team manager to be told why this is happening.

Have also received the email.

Just spoke to someone from customer services who said that the land tour couldn't be run alongside the new ship. When asked why when the dates and port of departure were the same said it just couldn't!

I then asked what happened next and if anything such as an upgrade could be offered for the disappointment she said that we could rebook on the new ship or cancel with a deposit refund but that was all.

I told her I would get back to them when we decide what to do but that their customer service needed sorting out.

Not sure where to go from here.🙁

Check the itinerary of the original ship, it might still be on sale like ours is, i am about to call them back.

Not sure if you are in the UK spragg but I have spoken to ABTA, they said I can file a complaint with all relevant information and they would review the case. Im not one to tell people to do this, but if a few people did the same it might stand some ground.

I have just spoken to a team leader, she has said a decision has been made with senior management to state that the land part of the tour is only available to the US market.

I have asked to to find out why this is. I have stated that this feels like discrimination. I explained that if I wanted I could go on to the US site, as a british citizen and book this cruise so their logic doesnt make sense.

She wouldnt tell me how many people are affected. I didnt mention this forum in case it gave them any cause to start snooping to see what is being said

I am in the UK.

On the website they still have the Sun leaving Seward on 30th July and no mention of the Jewel leaving from there.

Will get in touch with ABTA and see what they say.

Thanks

I've logged a webform complaint with ABTA, I have a feeling we wont get anywhere but surely the people on this forum must not be the only people who have booked this.

I just dont know why they cannot honour the bookings made.

Totally agree!!

Spoke to someone else from ncl to find out how much it would be for the same cabin on Norwegian Jewel and was quoted just under £200 less than cruise and land tour price.

Asked for the contact details for the complaints dept. and it was the same department as I was talking too!!

Going to send some emails and see if I can get anywhere with that and also send an email to ABTA.

So I had a call back and was told it was changed for logistical reasons?

Explained the case that how logistical does it need to be? We get a plane and meet at the airport. We get taken to the hotel, meet the next morning go on a tour then a hotel.

I asked to know what the exact issue with the logistics is. Apparently they'll call me Monday. They trying to use any excuse rather than reveal the real one.

Hi,

I've only just 'found' (thanks daffodil) this forum. I too booked back in Jan, through a TA, who i phoned asking if the deal was too good to be true. i booked for the beginning August 2018 tour and southbound cruise. i spoke to the TA about 3/4 times checking the price and itinerary, who in turn checked directly with NCL, who confirmed every step of the way...

and today i receive the email saying they have removed the tour and changed ship. i spoke to my TA asking what compensation they are giving because for approx 1/2 the holiday now not being there... and they will give me nothing - nada - zilch! but i can either have my deposit back or just rebook on the cruise?!?! ermmmm not exactly like for like is it?!

i have fired off another email, not sure what good that will do me! may as well go the ABTA route, but can anyone tell me if that would be against NCL or the TA??

Hey it's essentially about ncl but if you booked via your agent it may have to go via them. Check with your agent tho as they seem to have worked really well with you and you wouldn't wanna upset them. I'm sure they want you to go just as much as you do

I've started another thread in NCL board which might give us some further insight into what's going on.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=53430805&posted=1#post53430805

Hi All,

well unbelievably I have actually had some success with this :) Stay with me as it is long winded....

when I got the phone call from my TA a few weeks ago I knew what was coming so told her what I wanted her to say to NCL - that got us nowhere, so I put together the facts on an email to customer services NCL and cc'd my TA in along with CEO and another SVP from the service side of NCL.

As expected Customer services came back with BS about why there was no land section for EU customers. and also stated that CEOs and the like are very busy so would not reply but assured me they did read all emails (?!?)

I replied to all of them thanking them for their information however asked how they would feel if they booked a 2 week holiday for price x only to be then offered 6 months down the line a 1 week holiday for exactly the same price?

I left it at that - not thinking I'd get anywhere and last Monday got a phone call from my TA asking me if I minded if NCL 'moved' my booking to a US booking (I did say why on earth would I mind?!) so I could have the tour and cruise..

I received email notification from NCL within the hour that my booking moved to a US tour and cruise package, at the original price I paid and dates etc.....

So success!!

I have also had success.

E-mailed them to say that we would change our booking to the jewel but added how dissatisfied we were with the way the booking had been handled.

Told them we were returning customers and it was a pity their land based customer service wasn't as good as the on-board service. Also pointed out that we booked it in good faith and was disappointed that we were paying as much for a 1 week holiday as had been quoted for 2. After a few days we had an e-mail to say that we had been given the land tour back and a confirmation was sent.

Still hasn't showed up on my ncl yet but good news.

Can look forward to it now!!

Sprag365 that's great news - what date / itinery are you going on?

We leave Fairbanks on 24th July 2018 on the 14 day authentic alaska tour.

Which one are you doing?

We leave Fairbanks on 24th July 2018 on the 14 day authentic alaska tour.

Which one are you doing?

Hello! We are on exactly the same tour as you Sprag on July 24th - now that NCL have called to say they are reinstating our cancelled booking too 😃

I hope everyone who was affected by this has dug their heels in and had their bookings honoured. I wonder about the OP - they haven't updated on this thread.

So glad for you all that you are getting the cruise, we never got to book it as our pcc said he could not book alaska cruises for us in the uk. He said he could get a usa booking agent to call us but by the time this happened the cruise had been taken off the website. :(

Look forward to meeting you Daffodil92.:)

I also wondered how others had gotten on. Hopefully everyone would have been treat the same

Hi.

We have also booked this tour leaving Fairbanks 24/7/2018 after seeing the great price back in January.

A couple of weeks after booking the land tour part disappeared from the booking on my ncl. It changed the title of the holiday to default itinerary name and shows we are at sea for the first week before leaving Seward on 30th July.

I rang customer services at the end of April and after 3 weeks got a short e mail to say yes we have a land tour booked before the cruise.

We have had no further contact from them and are very interested in what is being said on cruise critic.

If anyone has any more information we would like to hear it.

Thanks

Hey sprag, just wondered if you have been allocated your hotels? We are due to go in sept and just trying to get an idea of what we might get 😝

Hi Malemew.

We had our hotels allocated just over 3 weeks before we go.

We are at Bear Lodge in Fairbanks. Denali Park Village in Denali. The Anchorage Hilton and Ocean Shores in Homer.

Fly out to Fairbanks a week tomorrow. Can't wait😁