tulch

On-board the Epic, as of Feb 4, 2017:

Hotel Director: Mustafa Gulbahar

Ass't Hotel Director: Stefan Antonescu

Senior F&B Director: Yannis Kazalis

Executive Housekeeper: Orlando O'Neill Manuel

Cruise Director: Pedro Serra

Beverage Manager: Zdravko Kohakovic

Guest Services Manager: Aminta Gomez

Exec Chef: Alok Kumar

Restaurant Mgr: Herman Gonzalez Rios

Also, just off the Epic today after a b2b. We were apprehensive about the Epic: I read lots of bad reports, many of them from CC cruisers. We actually booked the Spirit (a smaller ship, shall we say?) but got caught in the great ship shuffle of two years ago when NCL switched itineraries on multiple ships. We were offered the Epic which was perhaps the one ship in the fleet we swore we would never sale.

As it turns out, this was the best cruise we've had in more than 20 years of cruising. We had such a GREAT time that we probably will cancel our existing booking with NCL for next year and do the Epic again.

I will get around to a fuller review in a few days but boy, were we surprised (in good way)!

MAYA CHAN! We try to select cruises so that Costa Maya (and therefore Maya Chan) are among the ports of call!

Dear NCL (because we know you audit these boards):

There is a wonderful young mermaid who cruises often, frequently with NCL. Her experiences (documented by her Mom) are enjoyed by many - and more importantly to you, influence many on CC who travel with children.

I strongly suggest you consider asking Sakari to provide a kids' review and perspective of her experiences on NCL ships. She tries everything and will provide you with honest and forthright opinions and suggestions.

Sakari can be your "secret" reviewer (like a mystery shopper); or, perhaps a not-secret "Kids Ambassador." I am sure that NCL can come up with a gratis compensation for Sakari (maybe free fare for her; or non-suite VIP status for her family).

...And wouldn't it be fun to compare Sakari's personal review with Mom's?!

We recently booked goportcanaveral - it was $30 for however long you are there. But their reviews were too mixed for me to feel comfortable. We ended up cancelling. It took about three weeks for the refund, but that doesn't seem out of the norm for a cancellation to process with the credit card company.

We ended up booking at the cruise terminal -- something we have NEVER done because of the cost. The Port charges for 8 days (on a 7 day cruise) - BUT they are not set up for more than a one week cruise. (I even called to tell them we are on a B2B. I was told that so long as we don't move the car, there would be no additional charge and our two week cruise would cost the same as a one week cruise.)

One of our party needs to catch a flight after the cruise. A shuttle or cab has run $25 from other ports and I assume the cost would be the same or more from Port Canaveral to MCO. By the time we added this cost in, it came out to about the same as parking off-site and removed some anxiety about making it to the airport in time for a noon flight.

Again, I cannot speak from experience about goportcanaveral; but if you are on a longer cruise, parking at the cruise terminal might be a viable option for you.

I am wondering whether anyone can clarify the ship and dates for the "Holy Ship" b2b sailings. Their site lists the NCL Epic. However, neither the dates nor itinerary match with the Epic sailings. (7 days, not 4 days in Jan 2017; departures on Saturdays: 1/7, 1/14, 1/21, 1/28).

Gorgotron, there actually are three of us traveling. I have seen the site and rate you mention - but I also have read there are concerns about security of the vehicles. I also was not able to find additional info, e.g., BBB rating.

It seems too good to be true. Do you have personal experience with goportcanaveral, or know of anybody who has booked through them. I would prefer to stay at home the night before the cruise and just drive there versus hotel.

By the way, thank you for researching and the suggestion. It is appreciated. Again, if anyone has personal familiarity with this parking option , please let us know!

Thank you for some alternative suggestions RE:cocoabeach4less.

We will be doing a b2b and also need parking for 15 days (14 days of cruising and disembarkation day, for which you are charged = 15 days). We have looked at renting a car each way (easy to get to Port Canaveral, but very few cars available for the return trip home). We have looked at various parking options (pricey and most locations seem far less secure than the hotel parking lot). This seems like a pretty inexpensive option for an hour of our time.

Hi! I wanted to respond to this since we actually are booking though this group. I spoke with the front desk (twice) at the Country Inn and Suites and the cocoabeach4less is legitimate. Country Inn has had a relationship with cocoabeach4less for about three years. Cocoabeach4less also had an A+ rating from the BBB.

They indeed are a timeshare organization and attending an hour-long presentation is required to get their rates. The difference in rate for our date in January is $69 versus $214 (and the property is almost sold out). I have our confirmation from cocoabeach4less but the hotel also shows our booking.

We will be coming in late on the evening of our stay and we will have to attend one of the presentations the morning of our departure. The hotel shuttle might be gone before the timeshare presentation concludes. However, the gentleman at Country Inn & Suites told me that cocoabeach4less will get us to the port on time and he has never heard of anyone having a problem.

Again, the only downside -- which is major for some people - is the timeshare presentation. We are on a fixed income, so we appreciate the price at which this is being offered.

I'd be interested in learning if anyone has tried them and could share their own personal experiences.

We have sailed HAL, RCCL and Carnival in addition to NCL. Many, many years ago, we gravitated to sailing only NCL because (a) we prefer smaller ships to the mega-monsters; and (b) we really appreciate the crew on NCL ships.

We took a look at MSC recently. If you are in suite-mode, MSC looks to be a steal. If you are non-suite cruisers like us, even with a Platinum level match on MSC, it is far more expensive for less on MSC. Ditto for most of the other cruise lines.

Having said that, we are not thrilled with being moved (in last summer's ship scamble) to the Epic this winter; and the Getaway for 2018. (We live in Florida and have no desire to fly to a port. Retired, etc....)

After 2018, we will move from cruising to land-based vacations of some kind.

It does not look like Tampa is scheduled as a departure port past April 2017 (and February 2017 has been dropped).

Does anyone have insight as to the reasons?

I currently not near an MS Excel-loaded computer and not able to list this directly. I would appreciate if someone could add the following to the list (found on allaboardtravel web site):

"Cruising for a Cause" 1/14/2017 NCL Escape

Talked to my PCC yesterday about this. She said that NCL has not loaded the complete list for 2017/2018 sailings because of the unrest in Europe. She did not say -- and it is not clear to me -- whether this might involve redistributing ships or changing itineraries. If so, at least we won't have the mess of last summer when NCL decided to shuffle ships with months worth of already booked passengers.

Great idea for a thread - thank you!

Large groups present all kinds of unintended problems: For example, reserving blocks of tables in any of the restaurants effectively negates the "freestyle" option for others. More often than not, group meetings run a little late.... So, if 200 people want to reserve the MDR at 6 pm but don't START showing up until 6:30, there are not enough tables available for other passengers -- starting with the time reserved until the time those 200 passengers finish their dinner. Ditto for the staff that NCL must make available to serve them.

Now, transfer the needs/requests of that large group to any other venue on the ship. Those individuals have selected a group cruise so that they can be together. The actual people involved may be the nicest, sweetest people on earth -- but all of them at the same time kill the whole idea of "freestyle." Any crew member will tell you the same thing -- and when crew are stressed, it also makes a less pleasant experience for the rest of us.

Hence, my appreciation for this thread....

As suggested by others, contact NCL ASAP.

For what it is worth: My daughter's boyfriend forgot his passport for a Jan 2013 cruise. NCL's port representative was willing to accept a copy of his birth certificate that boyfriend's family faxed to the port. We all boarded and still had time for lunch aboard the Dawn.

This was for a Caribbean cruise leaving from Tampa. i don't know whether there are standard policies in place. However, having a copy of your birth certificate obviously proves birth -- one of the key functions of a passport.

Good luck -- and (hopefully) Bon Voyage!

There are several current threads regarding "upsells" but very few concerning "upgrades" and the "Upgrade Fairy."

Prior to the new regime, passengers might receive a call from the Upgrade Fairy. I believe that a "good" rate was 1/3 of the difference between what you paid for your stateroom and the better cabin -- and that was total, not per person. For example, if the upgrade was $2000 more, you would pay $650 - $675 TOTAL for the upgraded room.

The Upgrade Fairy called you. There was no published number and no obvious rationale to the algorithm used.

Has the Upgrade Fairy gone away? If so, are the deals as good as they used to be? Or, can one do as well by calling the upgrade department?

(Note: I am excluding upgrades due to NCL's mistake. We were upgraded to a suite in January because NCL changed our reservation, almost a year after it was made. The suite apparently was the only room available.)

Just wondering how much better/worse/different the offers are if you call NCL versus they call you. Also, does having a specialized upsell department mean that the upgrade (versus upsell) fairy is dead?

In general, I agree with most of what has been posted here. If you paid a fair price for your cruise, you accept that and move on. More often than not, fares increase as the sailing date approaches rather than decrease.

BUT....

When this happened to us last year, NCL offered some percentage (I belive 25%) of the difference in fares as OBC. That seemed to be standard operating procedure. I don't know whether that approach still is the norm. However, it couldn't hurt to try to call again and see if you get a different answer. (You might even suggest that this seemed to be NCL's approach as late as this time last year.) Ya' never know. Good luck

As the OP noted, their primary beef is with post-cruise customer service. S/he now has lots of advice as to what to do in the future with on-board issues. However, the primary concern remains, viz., post-cruise customer service.

I would approach this in one of two ways: If you work with an EXPERIENCED PCC, get him/her involved. She/he has skin in the game to keep you happy; and a management team that can escalate to the right people quickly if they agree. Ditto for experienced TA's.

Approach #2, is put this all down on paper and mail it. Physical pieces of paper are more difficult to blow off than phone calls or emails - and in our day and age, get taken more seriously.

Your letter may be nothing more than "Dear Sir" and copying what you posted here. Send it in the mail -- registered, which requires a signature that it was received (and again, gives your letter more psychological weight).

Call the CEO's office and ask to talk an executive assistant. Tell him/her that you've been trying to get a customer service issue resolve since (fill in the date of your first call to NCL). Ask him/her if they could tell you to whom a letter should be sent. Start your letter with: "I am writing to you at the suggestion of Mr. X's office."

As for your original complaint: NCL corporate might think it is a nuisance. Or, they will try to fix the issue. (And corporate usually can get both sides of a story quickly.) Either way, YOU will know that you escalated the issue as far as it could go. You either will walk away a satisfied NCL customer or have good reason to take your business elsewhere.

Good luck and please keep us posted.

Just need to clarify a point (made in my earlier post on this thread). NCL - not a TA - but someone at NCL HQ changed my stateroom that had been booked almost two years in advance of sailing. My PCC (an NCL employee, experienced and considered "senior" in level) was not notified of the change; nor was I, the passenger.

Again, all this was done by NCL and the only "travel agent" was my NCL PCC. Although NCL could not provide a reasonable explanation for the change, they did make things right (in fact, very much so). I assume something like a bug in the reservation system was a t fault as at least one other poster on this thread suggests a similar problem (and similar solution by NCL).

To state this as clearly as possible: NCL changed my stateroom, without notification or explanation.

When I made final payment on my stateroom, I received a computer-generated invoice showing "paid in full" -- also showing a completely different stateroom than I had booked more than a year ago. It was an upgrade in category but a terrible location. My PCC tracked down the individual at HQ who made the change - 3 weeks before final payment -- and was quite clear that (a) not notifying the passenger or the PCC about changing the room is unacceptable; and (b) the reason the room was booked so far in advance was to meet certain criteria the assigned stateroom did not meet.

My PCC was told that the room needed to be changed because of issues with the room itself. Not exactly believable since our sailing was 5 months after the change was made. The "solution" offered was my PCC could select any stateroom in the upgraded or previous category and NCL "would make it happen."

She tried. But we are doing a b2b2b and wanted to remain in the same stateroom. Nothing was available.

My PCC went to her management team for help. We now are in a very desirable suite -- several categories above our original booking. NCL is picking up all differences in price, including the daily service charge. And NCL threw in $25 OBC for causing the inconvenience.

Lessons learned: (1) NCL has done some strange stuff of late, and I totally believe the OP's story. (2) Find a TA or PCC who will fight for you. (3) You need to find someone at NCL who can make a management decision. I'm sure mine was made at fairly high level within the organization. That is one of the nice things about dealing with a PCC versus an external TA. (4) Don't give up until you get an acceptable solution. We would have been delighted with a whole lot less -- but our TA insisted we get VIP treatment. Needless to say, we are absolutely thrilled at how NCL decided to resolve the issue. We were pretty loyal NCL fans before. I think we moved into the die-hard category...!

Show my email to your TA. Your problem needs to be bucked up the ladder. Good luck!

The "good old days" in many sectors of the hospitality and service industries are just that.... More of us can afford cruises than before -- my first cruise in the 70's (half-fare as a student going to Europe but in THIRD CLASS) still was at a time when only the very rich cruised for a vacation. Otherwise, it was the cheapest way to get someplace (or you would take the train or fly).

I understand that economics and a different target market is behind many of the changes for the "mass" cruise lines. Most of us can't afford to try the luxury lines -- even a "mass market" river cruise is twice the cost of NCL.

So, I easily forgive many of the irritating changes such as up charges. Where I have trouble is the new management disregard for not only their passengers but their own staff. Most of the customer service staff also was caught by surprise when NCL decided to reposition all of those ships at the same time this summer. And THEN theyhad the nerve to restrict what passengers could do in terms of rescheduling. I took what was shoved down my throat but I probably will cancel.

To me, THAT clearly is a case of "not the cruise I booked."

If you have a PCC or TA, call immediately -- or call the general NCL reservations number. We recently got "upgraded" from guaranteed room to a less desirable one. We selected the room we had for a reason and were not happy with the "upgrade." You should be able to get any other available room in the new category (if you want it) or in the old category. Don't accept this if you don't like NCL's choice, especially since you were not consulted. Minimally, you should get OBC. (The same thing happened to us and our PCC was able to get a stateroom that really was an upgrade.)

If it is any comfort to those getting past due notices: I was told that it will take the accounting department several weeks to catch up, especially since there are so many exceptions to info already loaded in the computers. I was told to ignore all past due notices. My updated reservation notices from NCL are accurate and those are what count.

And back to my ORIGINAL question: Is the DSC price protected when forced to reschedule due to NCL cancellation of cruises?

The only question being asked here - not the value, morality, desirability of paying the DSC; tipping more or tipping less; or any other questions about paying the DSC. My question: Is the DSC price protected?

The direction this thread has taken is interesting but off-course. I am grateful for any responses to the actual question being posed.