The Traveling Man

So, roughly 3100 pax on Pr1ma, about 3200 pax on V!va, almost 3600 on Aqua and the following Pr1ma class ship, then close to 3900 on each of the two methanol Pr1ma class ships, and finally jumping up to 5100 pax on everything on the drawing board after that. That's quite a departure from the "smaller is better" mantra that NCL was touting prior to COVID as the new vision for their ships.

If NCLH would match my Latitudes status with whatever loyalty programs they have on Oceania and Regent, I'd be more inclined to consider those cruise lines.

We have over 40 cruises on eight different cruise lines. Long ago I gave up counting the number of changes in arrival or departure times or itinerary changes. I expect that fewer than a handful made it to each port at the advertised time. As they say, "Ya pays ya money and ya takes ya chances."

Nope, you were not. I can speak from experience on this point. A few years ago my wife and I sailed on the Norwegian Getaway on a Trans Atlantic cruise from NYC to Southampton. Four days after that cruise ended, we had plans to board a river cruise in Amsterdam to sail to Budapest. So, how do we get from Southampton to Amsterdam within four days? The options that came to mind were plane, train (through the Chunnel), and ferry. Each of those would require nights in hotels, taxis, meals, repeated packing and unpacking, and other expenses and inconveniences. Then we noticed that our NCL ship was scheduled to depart on a ten day Baltic cruise the same day we arrived in Southampton. It's itinerary included stops at Le Havre, Zebrugge, and Amsterdam on it's way to Copenhagen. So, we emailed NCL's VP for Guest Services and asked if we could book the ten day cruise, but disembark at Amsterdam. We figured that the cost would be similar to what we would pay for planes, trains, and automobiles (and hotels and restaurants), but that the convenience factor would make it worthwhile. We received a written confirmation from the VP that we could do this, with specific instructions as to how we were to proceed.. Note that this authorization came from an NCL VP, not some reservations clerk. Copies of that mandate also were forwarded to the ship, so everyone from the Captain down to our stateroom attendant knew what was happening. So, we paid for the ten day cruise and stayed onboard, but we exited the ship and CEASED TO BE PAYING CUSTOMERS after three days. It didn't matter what our plans were after we disembarked at Amsterdam. The fact is that when they closed our onboard account and scanned our key cards as we left the ship, we were on our own, and NCL no longer owed us any duty or responsibility as passengers. Even if we had planned to rejoin the Getaway on its next cruise, NCL owed us no further duty until we again successfully boarded the ship. I'm sorry that your vacation was negatively impacted and that you missed out on the second cruise, but as many others on this forum have advised, NCL does not owe you anything simply because you "missed the boat." Instead of boarding the second cruise at the designated port of embarkation, you attempted to board subsequently at an intermediate port. The fact that the ship skipped that port because of weather does not relieve you of your responsibility to get to the ship. As others have stated, the fact that you were given permission to do this did not imply that NCL guaranteed that you would be able to do it. Neither does the fact that customs regulations meant that you were not allowed to board in Greenland somehow shift the responsibility to NCL. You missed your opportunity to board the ship for the second part of your planned B2B, and that is on you. As others have said, travel insurance would have been a good idea for this trip. You chose not to purchase it. You chose to attempt a risky travel plan. The responsibility falls entirely on you.

Perhaps it shouldn't stop, but the "customer care" of advising passengers on board a ship of changes to the current itinerary, does.

Nope, when you checked out and left the ship, you no longer were a paying customer. Check the invoice for your cruise. I expect that you will find that you were not charged the Daily Service Charge for the days you were off the ship. NCL's approval of your choice to disembark early carried no implicit responsibility to communicate anything to you other than any changes which might have been made to the embarkation time at the regularly scheduled port of embarkation for your second cruise segment. We have taken cruises for which embarkation details were changed at the last minute and we always have received emails and/or text messages with updated info. Apparently the ship sailed on time from the scheduled embarkation port. You were on your own to catch up to it at a subsequent port and unfortunately you were unable to make that connection. The fact that NCL agreed to allow you to do that did not place the onus on them to make sure it happened.

As several others have noted, once you packed your bags and left the ship on the first cruise, you were no longer a passenger on an NCL ship. As has been mentioned on many other threads on this forum, sometimes the decision to miss a port is made at the last minute. The ship's officers did notify the passengers on board, but you were not a passenger on board at that time, so you did not receive the notice. The fact that you were not on the ship at the time the notice was given did, in fact, absolutely absolve NCL of the responsibility to ensure that you were aware of the changes. I realize that the harsh reality of that fact may be difficult to accept, a hard pill to swallow, but the fact is still a fact. NCL had no legal obligation to inform someone who was no longer a passenger on the first cruise segment, and not yet a passenger on the second cruise segment, of anything regarding changes in the ship's intermediate itinerary. Sorry you "missed the boat," but you chose to take a chance and circumstances did not work out in your favor. I don't think anyone on this thread has suggested that NCL is not required to notify passengers of changes to the itinerary. Rather, several have pointed out that at the time the decision was made to alter the itinerary, you were not a passenger. If you had made it to the scheduled port of embarkation for the second cruise, you certainly would have been notified of the changes. You opened yourself up to risk by choosing to catch up to the ship at an intermediate port, which unfortunately the ship missed.

Your circumstances were that you chose to depart a cruise prior to its scheduled completion, then rejoin the same ship, albeit on a different cruise partway through that cruise at a port other than the designated port of embarkation. I think it would be very unlikely that of the millions and millions of passengers who have sailed with NCL over the past half-century you would be hard pressed to find even a handful of passengers who attempted this. I doubt that anyone has ever received compensation for missing their planned boarding under these circumstances.

Yes, and you also can use the OBC for NCL sponsored shore excursions if you book them once you are on board the ship. If you book them ahead of time you will need to pay for them at the time you book them. Since you wouldn't be on board at that time, you can't use your On Board Credit. Some popular excursions do sell out before the ship sails, but we usually have found one or two per cruise that seemed appealing enough to use up our non-refundable OBC.

Don't count on that. There have been way too many reports on Cruise Critic of passengers who booked their flights through NCL, then missing a connection or not making it to the port on time. NCL does not control the flights. They merely act as your travel agent in booking them and they typically select the least expensive routing. It usually works out fine, but not always. If you can ask NCL for a diversion to arrive a day earlier, I would strongly recommend doing so.

On the Escape, Inside staterooms are approximately 135 sq ft while Balcony cabins are about 207 sq ft, so no, it would not be as crowded in a Balcony as an Inside.

Yes, I did. I assumed that you cancelled the tour. I know I would have.

Wouldn't it be quite crowded for four persons in an Inside room?

Your 15 hours over two days in Namibia was cut to about five hours on shore on one day. Bummer. Namibia is a beautiful country with much to see and do. Five hours won't even scratch the surface. The arrival times in Richard's Bay and Durban, though, sound like a joke. Unfortunately, NCL isn't laughing and obviously you aren't either. Who cares if your ship arrives in Durban at 3:00 AM. Is anyone really going to plan on getting up several hours before breakfast is served and stumble around in the predawn darkness? In essence, you have maybe five usable hours in port there.

That means that the ship will have 38 hours to travel the roughly 500 miles from Curacao to St. Lucia instead of 24-1/2 hours to travel about 450 miles from Bonaire to St. Lucia. That averages out to about 12 knots for 38 hours instead of 16 knots for 24+ hours. That could amount to significant cost savings for fuel.

We received $5.00 each when the Epic skipped Puerto Rico in 2016 and $15.00 each when the Escape skipped Bar Harbor in 2018. We have missed several ports on other cruises but have received no refund of port fees on any cruises except the two I mentioned.

We have done this several times. Occasionally a few passengers will cancel just before the sailing date, so there may be space available for you to buy a ticket as soon as you board. More often, though, you can ask someone at the Shorex desk to put your name on a waiting list. More than half the times that we got on a waiting list they notified us a day or two later that enough folks had cancelled to make room for us. YMMV.

Our most recent B2B was last October on the Dawn. As with every previous NCL B2B, the accounting, including OBC, carried forward to the final cruise in the series.

I agree. Taking 99/509 usually is the better choice. I simply meant to reply to a previous comment that seemed to say that I-5 is not an option. It may not be as wise a choice as 99/509, but it is an option.

It's one option. The last time we caught a cab from Sea-Tac, that's the route the driver took. It's a bit farther than taking 509, but takes about the same time unless there's a traffic tie-up.

On most NCL ships there is a restaurant reservation desk near Guest Services. It may only be staffed a few hours a day, but those hours usually are posted. When we have had to change our specialty restaurant reservations because of conflicts with DWO, they always have been able to help. The few times that we have traveled in the Haven, our Concierge made arrangements for us. Maybe we have been fortunate, but we never have experienced any major problems in rearranging our dining reservations.

Unfortunately that is true on most NCL ships. Some of the ships which recently have had major renovations feature USB ports near the beds. Some even have US standard 110 volt outlets there, but on most NCL ships the outlets are located at the desk, near the foot of the bed.

Same here.

Not sure. We never have used this option when booking a suite and I never thought to ask about it.

Same here.