Atgatsea

My guess is NCL doesn’t care because they have their own insurance and a team of lawyers working for them at the direction of unscrupulous executives.  The more revenue being generated now will count towards the current bottom line thereby supporting the stock price and counting towards executive bonuses.  NCL is fully insured again lawsuits and damages from customers and/or crew who may get sick and sue them.  The lawyers and insurers will handle all aggrieved individuals themselves while the executives remain insulated and beyond reproach in their slick, air-conditioned executive offices in S. Florida.  We need a method for contacting these executives directly so they can be de-insulated.  If anyone has contact information (phone number, email address, etc.) for NCL’s decision makers (CEO, VP of Passenger Services, or the individual who keeps posting that fallacious ‘guest safety is our number one priority’ post on behalf of NCL, etc.), I ask that the information be shared with this forum so that we may try to contact these corrupt individuals who are playing with our safety in the name of unjust enrichment.  Even if they never change their decision, then at least they are made aware that their actions are wrong and that they are hurting NCL’s brand and future bottom line.

1 hour ago, Masekr11 said:

I’m on the 17th sailing and can access my booking summary; however, it’s showing tons of upgrade options. I tried doing it and didn’t get an error message (I closed the page before payment though). It’s odd they have pretty cheap upgrades on a sold out ship. 

We all know their first priority is money.  Their second priority is probably image because a bad image could impact their first priority.  Contacting the media sounds like a good option.  They obviously are paying little attention to us and don’t care about our health and safety, but they may pay attention if negative press hurts their image and risks their precious bottom line.  I will contact you via the cruise critic messenger to share my thoughts.

3 hours ago, ppcox said:

News from the current Jade is they are docked in Thailand and everyone who transited through Hong Kong is bing put into quarantine.

I was looking at the wrong itinerary!  There have been so many changes it is hard to keep them all straight.  I hope none of the current cruisers have to go through what the people on the Diamond Princess are currently experiencing.

1 hour ago, Norwegian Cruise Line said:

The safety, security and well-being of our guests and crew...

The worst part of NCL’s post is how stupid they think we all are by putting out a statement like this.  Do they really expect any of us to believe their number one priority is anything other than making as much money as they can?  People who know much more about infectious diseases are issuing these serious and legitimate warnings about the risks posed by this virus.  Intelligent people - many actively involved in this forum - are heeding these warnings while weighing risks against the value of cruise fares already paid because NCL, unlike other more responsible cruise lines, will not cancel cruises amid a tragic and supremely unfortunate situation around the world.  The risks mentioned by NCL in April - that are evidently not bad enough now to warrant cancellation of the 2/6 or 2/17 Jade sailing - must be the risk of the new executive team (NCL appointed a new CEO at the beginning of the year) missing the Street’s quarterly earnings estimate.  Keeping our money allows them to claim they led the company through a crisis and brought in revenues by sailing when others didn’t.  Acting like a greedy ostrich with its head in the ground is showing us NCL’s number one priority.  In my book, when I encounter avarice of this magnitude, I make not doing business with companies like this my number one priority.

Why would NCL cite the “growing concerns” of the virus as the justification? They are concerned about it in April but not now?  They anticipate it becoming significant two months from now?  I don’t believe a word they say.  NCL is showing nothing but hubris, greed, and stubbornness in slashing prices and continuing to sail in this manner.  The enhanced medical precautions cruise lines have implemented are obviously inadequate and NCL is just asking for some very bad karma.

31 minutes ago, hamrag said:

 

Seriously....read their statement again, pay particular attention to the vast majority of the bullet points under the heading 

Policies currently in place include:

 

Neither of us can possibly know how NCL would have reacted if HK had not closed their port, but the policies currently in place are certainly proactive....in order to protect passenger safety, security and well being. They are consulting with local health authorities as well as the WHO and US CDC....let's trust them to do so, rather than trying to be 'health experts', and if anything changes the current position may alter!    

Actually, we can see how NCL is reacting after the HK port is closed...by continuing to try to capitalize off of this public health emergency.  I just checked NCL.com and as of the time of this post, they are still marketing the 2/17 Jade cruise as departing from Hong Kong which is clearly false and acting in bad faith.  Why have they not changed their website?  Is it to lure in unsuspecting customers who see HK advertised and then get blindsided with a changed and significantly-diminished  itinerary?  There is a clear pattern of greedy, uncaring, and potentially unethical albeit legal - per the verbiage in their slick contracts - behavior by this company and their executives.  And as for unresponsive...I submitted a help desk inquiry through their pre-cruise online submission portal.  The automated response I received said they aim to respond within 48 hours and it has been significantly longer than 48 hours.  How is that for anything but unscrupulous, uncaring, and unresponsive?

13 hours ago, Norwegian Cruise Line said:

 

Why is NCL still marketing the 2/17 Jade itinerary as leaving from Hong Kong on ncl.com?

9 hours ago, Norwegian Cruise Line said:

 

I wonder if the individual who uploaded NCL’s post read any of our statements and, if so, how they feel about NCL profiting from this public health emergency - which is exactly what they are doing by keeping monies paid by guests who have made a rational decision not to go for obvious reasons  - and whether they would be willing to provide their name and phone number so those of us who have been stonewalled can contact them to get some answers.  

43 minutes ago, Masekr11 said:

I fail to see how this is fair. Rebooking a new flight or changing an existing flight is extremely expensive on such short notice. NCL is not committing to what they deem to be “reasonable” compensation nor are they offering a firm amount they will compensate you with. To change my flight, it would cost over $2,000 and NCL is refusing to say if they consider that reasonable (I highly doubt they would pay that). The 10% refund is only applicable if you actually go on the cruise. If you cancel, you only get your taxes and port fees back. Sure they legally can do this, but as someone else said, it’s not ethical and definitely not fair. 

Thanks for keeping us up to date with NCL’s response  Their offer is completely ridiculous because you only receive their token offer if you still go this cruise that now has a materially altered itinerary.  One of the main reasons I chose this cruise (way back) was because I wanted to see Hong Kong.  NCL should be trying to make the customer experience as pleasant as possible - this is their business.  Those of us who have been impacted and aggravated already should receive either a refund/credit so that we can decide if we still want to go on this problematic cruise with a diminished itinerary.  I find it curious that they are offering “reasonable” (whatever that means) reimbursement of flight change fees after most flights were already cancelled meaning we would not incur a change fee but rather have to eat the difference between the cost of a ticket purchased well in advance and the sky-high costs of a last minute ticket.  I doubt it.

Actions speak louder than words and NCL’s silence is deafening.  Yes, they have a solid contract with lots of clauses and contingencies all designed to protect them In keeping our money.  But so do Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Celebrity yet they, along with major hotels, casinos, airlines, etc., have all taken a proactive approach to protect their customers, employees, and non-customers living in the hot zones.  There is no doubt they will all take a major hit to their bottom line but they should be insured against events like this, as I would imagine NCL is similarly insured.  Placing blame on customers and pointing to travel insurance is avoiding their responsibility to do what is right.  There is no excuse for NCL’s silence and lack of action other than naked greed and their actions, or rather lack of actions, is speaking to me loudly and it is saying the health and safety of its guests and employees is not NCL’s first priority and, as a result, my actions will be to sail with one of these others companies (Royal, Celebrity, Carnival) whose actions are more compelling.