RD64

Who did you pay for the items? If it was the airline, then it is the unfeeling airline you should be arguing with. The cruel hotel won’t let you cancel? Take it up with them. Why should the cruise line ( which still has a cruise run running) be obligated for extra things you did not purchase through the cruise line?

Most cruise lines? Other than RCL with its roundtrip cruises from Haifa (targeted to the local Israeli market),who are the “Most Cruise Lines” to whom you refer?

But why should they give you a credit for those ancillary items if you choose - yes you are choosing to forego the cruise. Sometimes it pays to book refundable air and hotels.

As others have stated - NCL is a business - not a charitable institution. Just like every other cruise line and business, their goal is to maximize profits. You always have the option to patronize other cruise lines which you may find operate on a more charitable basis.

Very true - they need that foreign port requirement.

Please confirm -your cruise leaves from Istanbul and returns to????

If you do not like the process - that is a fair statement. There are others that do like the process - everyone is entitled to their opinion. However, at the end of the day, nobody is forcing you to use the process. You are always free to purchase your desired stateroom at the outset, and not engage in bidding wars.

After one bad experience, I will only book the exact cabin I want after doing the appropriate research. To each his own however,

Airfare from YYZ to anywhere in Italy has been horrendous this year. Prices for next spring / summer / fall not much better.

Although I have not sailed on Disney - from people that I know that have - the food and service are over the top for what is in essence a niche cruise line. If you want the food / service of a mass market cruise line because the price is right - then you get what you pay for.

True - who will blink first? Perhaps Princess wants to maintain some pricing integrity - but if it works for Princess, others will be sure to follow. As long as deposits are refundable, this could be a win / win for those who are able to plan accordingly.

If it goes legal it will have to be filed in Florida I believe.

Without a doubt cruise lines are already looking at adjusting itineraries for 2024. Although to many on here it is ancient history, but in October 1985 the Achille Lauro was hijacked off the coast of Egypt and an American passenger killed. Bookings for the 1986 Mediterranean season evaporated and did not return to normal until the 1987 season. Granted the cruise industry was at a different point in its evolution forty years ago. Most cruise companies high tailed it out of the Med and brought their ships to North America. The now defunct Sun Line - a Greek cruise line - offered some interesting itineraries on this side of the ocean - as opposed to the Greek islands. The 2024 season will be starting shortly - five or six months. While I doubt the situation will be a repeat of 1985/1986 - surely the cruise lines are watching bookings. I do anticipate that Israeli ports will disappear from next year’s schedules. At the very least they will promote these cruises as “Magical Mediterranean” as opposed to Israel and the Holy Land - that way passengers can’t complain that they were promised a cruise to Israel and the Holy Land.

But if people stop booking these cruises to potentially dicey areas, the cruise lines will have no option but to look for alternate itineraries.

Yes Leon Klinghoffer - off the coast of Egypt I believe.

I truly hope things do not escalate to make that a reality. However, all passengers have to realize that these changes are possible, not just now, but into the 2024 Med season as well. You can be guaranteed that itinerary planning is working overtime these days for next Spring / Summer / Fall. If sales start to decrease on existing itineraries, changes will have to be made. For those of you old enough to remember the Achille Lauro hijacking back in 1985 (ironically also in October), this destroyed the Med cruise season for 1986, with many cruise lines resorting to North American itineraries. Again may be ancient history to most, but Sun Line - a very popular Greek line at the time - offered some very unique North American itineraries that summer.

NCL isn’t working within a war zone, but their ships were scheduled to operate in a war zone - and now they must make logistical decisions based on this constantly developing geopolitical event. A decision made today may have to be changed several times by this evening. Now, please correct me if I am wrong, but to my knowledge the only Israeli cruises that were cancelled (and totally refunded) were those by RCL that sailed roundtrip from Haifa and catered to the local Israeli market.

Provisioning, distance to be travelled, fuel costs, bunkering, shore excursion availability, port scheduling and facilities, limited ports without repeating, many ships from other cruise lines also scrambling to adjust their itineraries at very short notice, airlift where necessary, safety concerns, It is not just a simple fix of taking out an eraser and writing in a new port - one has to take the logistics into account. Unless the cruise is outright cancelled, NCL must still “create” an adjusted cruise of XX number of days. There are only so many ports available in this geographic area. And truly as we can see from some of these posts, the entitled (those who have paid their $$) feel that the schedule should be changed to accommodate their wishes. There are probably 2000 other people on board that have their own different ideas about what an appropriate revised itinerary would be. It is impossible to please everyone.

And what recourse do you have at this point in deciding what ports NCL will eventually assign?

If you play the guarantee game, you have to go in with the expectation that you may be assigned a cabin you wouldn’t knowingly pay for.

You are looking at in terms of the isolation of one or two ports. NCL has to look at it in terms of the entire itinerary and the logistics that are involved. According to you nothing needs to be changed - NCL may have an entirely different view based on factors which we may know nothing about.

$340. In what year?

Agreed - the prices for Vancouver are ridiculously expensive in the summer (I assume other times of the year as well). Given the option, I would choose the Fairmont on the corner of Burrard and Granville (or Georgia). A great location and hotel.

Perhaps you should work for NCL in itinerary planning since you seem to think that everything can be changed at the drop of a hat.

What it may mean to you may be far different than what the cruise lines are able to provide. You signed up for a cruise of XX days, and that is what you will receive - regardless of what you deem to be comparable quality.