mom1980

Okay, so it's been a bit (over a year!) and still, reading through all of these comments makes me a bit irate. My frustration and anger kept me from responding earlier. I understand everyone saying that it's only one side of the story. Yep you're right, and I would be thinking the same thing, but I will also say I didn't know the other side of the story either. Feeling like we had done everything we could in the situation only to have it not help us at all is really frustrating.

In the end NCL took fault for the issue. They stated that the reservation "auto-cancelled" and there was a "glitch" hence why we were not notified of the cancellation. After not accepting their original offer of $200 onboard credit to use within 12 months, we were eventually reimbursed for some of our incurred expenses (extra cab rides and some unsavory hotels due to lack of options). Of course, none of this truly makes up for the way we were dealt with/treated at the port or the fact that it is so poorly organized with no one available to handle these issues when needed. There should always be customer service available for this very reason. I'm not sure if it is still this way, but we will not be using NCL to find out. This was what I was really fighting for, not the money. I wanted them to acknowledge the poor organization and fix it in some way. Not sure if I succeeded, but I did try.

I wish I could respond to each person and explain a little better to each comment, but I really have no time to do that. I will just say, we did what we could with the budget we were on and the situation we were in. The vacation was tentatively planned for several months, but sometimes all you can do is tentatively plan until the time comes and that is what we did. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Hawaii despite the not-so-good start and in the end I believe it was actually better that we didn't take the cruise. It gave us time to really explore the island and Pearl Harbor. I know we will always remember this vacation, the bad of course, but the good definitely stands out more.

I wish everyone great luck in their cruising and hope that no one else has to deal with a similar situation.

We did stay and we had a great time on Oahu! It was great to be able to explore the island in depth. We'll be returning to check out the other islands another time for sure. Most likely on a different cruise line though ;)

Okay, I'm in a way different time zone than everyone else here and have to sleep. It appears there are a lot of questions. I'll do my best to answer them all as best as I can. If I miss something pertinent and you're genuinely curious, please ask again.

I'll begin by saying that upon arrival in Hawai'i we took the sim cards out of our phones to save ourselves insane roaming fees. Yes they do work, but who really wants to pay ridiculous amounts of money to use them. Even the company warned us to make sure we take the sim cards out or not turn the phones on at all if we leave the country. We had wifi at the airport and that is when I received the only two emails I got with any important information in them (I'll get back to this). We were at the airport for about 3 hours using their wifi. I did not miss a cancellation email. We left the airport and did not get into a hotel (with wifi) until it was past the 9 pm deadline (per the phone rep I spoke with) to try to do online registration and therefore I didn't even attempt it. Afterall, we were in Hawai'i, we were sightseeing...

I received two important emails from Norwegian. The first being a reservation hold, the second sent immediately afterward was a confirmation. The confirmation email had an attachment which says: PAID by (insert credit card used) # **** on (insert date paid). We were well, well under our credit limit. So no issues there.

Additionally, I used the term "dropped off" when I referred to the charge on the credit card. I used the incorrect term. It was refunded. Not sure if it was by Norwegian on their own accord or what, as I did call and tell my credit card company what was going on, so they opened a case on the charge. I assume that because it was taken care of so quickly that Norwegian refunded it.

They may not normally email cancellation notices. I'm not sure, but "Jason" did tell me that I should have received a cancellation email immediately when it was cancelled, I was just taking his word for it on that one...additionally, isn't the whole thing non-refundable if I had cancelled it on my own??

There was no travel agent involved. I booked on the phone directly with Norwegian's customer service.

I did not go into this with a bad attitude toward Norwegian. I would have just preferred to use a cruise line that we were familiar with. I'm sorry if it came off that way. As I said, I had read some bad reviews, but you really never know the circumstances. I however do know my circumstances and know that they really should, if nothing else, have emergency phone numbers that people actually answer on the weekends. After all, many cruises leave on Saturday and Sunday, right?

I really am less concerned with the fact that we didn't get on the cruise, and more concerned with the fact that it was handled with such a "meh, what are ya gonna do?" attitude from the employees.

As I said I'm sure something happened along the way. I understand stuff happens. However, once again they really should have handled it differently.

I did have payment confirmation and a confirmation email. All of which I showed to the employees that were working with us at the terminal. Because it was a last minute booking we were not assigned a cabin, which is normal for a last minute booking. You get at least what you pay for. It was no cause for concern.

Thank you for your responses. Yes, it is clear we booked the cruise at the last minute. The rep told us there were 4 cabins left upon booking. And I knew when we booked that we probably wouldn't be able to log in online to check in due to our lack of Internet access. I expressed my concern about this to the rep during the phone call and he assured me that it was no problem and to just make sure to give ourselves a couple of hours to check in at the terminal. I understand that being stuck at the terminal could have been avoided had we checked in prior. As I said, I also understand that we were a last minute booking and having had such a low rate we were the ones to go, but I feel like they most certainly could have handled the situation very differently. I was truly much more angry with the way they handled the situation than the situation itself.

Having a spouse in the military sometimes makes it impossible to plan things in advance, in the same respect the vacation time we do get is priceless time we get to spend together as a family. We decided to spend some of this quality family time and a lot of our money on a cruise this February.

With our current location we chose Hawai'i (still a 10+ hour plane ride), and the only option we had within Hawai'i was Norwegian for this specific time frame. We booked our cruise, received a confirmation email, and proceeded to show up at the terminal.

When we showed up it appeared they had no record of us on the manifest. The employees on the floor were directed to give us a couple of emergency numbers to contact and have us give them a call. I used a kind man's phone (we were out of country, as we are living overseas, and therefore did not have cell phones) and called my credit card company, the charge for the cruise was pending. I called both emergency numbers they gave me, no one answered at either number.

After a lot of back and forth between the employees on the ground and the employees on the ship and a great amount of frustration on our end, I demanded to speak to whoever it was they kept "calling up" to. Jason, passenger services manager, came down and explained to us that "someone" had cancelled our reservations 16 minutes after we made them. They were unable to tell us who "someone" was. Keep in mind we received confirmation emails but never got a cancellation email. He went on to explain that maritime laws prohibited us from boarding the ship unless "Miami" said we could and unfortunately Miami was the one not answering the phones. I made sure to explain our situation. We had flown 10 hours, my husband serves in the military and we are stationed overseas, therefore we have no cell service here, we have no ride, and no place set up to stay in Hawai'i. He assured us that he would do everything he could and come back down to keep us informed. That was the last we saw of Jason.

We sat at the terminal for several hours with 5 bags and two small children waiting. Finally, after many questions, and prodding the person we were working with on the ground went up to the ship to speak to Jason. She came back, not with Jason, but with a card with the same emergency phone numbers on it. She basically told us that Jason said there is nothing that can be done and we will have to contact Norwegian to attempt to get our money back for the cab rides to and from the terminal and hotel expenses. I asked her why Jason didn't come down to speak with us in person. I got no comment other than "he sent me." Meanwhile, we sat there with no phone and a charge on our credit card from Norwegian for a couple thousand dollars.

I understand mistakes are made. Things are overbooked and seeing as how they offered us a military discount we were probably the cheapest of the last few reservations made, so they gave us the boot. All relatively understandable, however the way the company and ship handled the situation is deplorable. They did not inform us of the cancellation at all, and they made little to no effort to help us out, or to even acknowledge their mistakes.

I'll add that the pending charge from Norwegian went from pending to posted the next day and stayed on our account for several days before dropping off. Norwegian really dropped the ball with this one and have yet to respond to any of my attempts to contact them in writing (as I want all records of my correspondence with them).

I booked this cruise having seen a couple of other horrible Norwegian reviews. I honestly thought the customers must have had some wrong doing in the situation. Well I can assure you, this was not the case in our situation. Although I know we are the minority they really should review their practices and fix what is wrong with their business.