Disgruntled first timer

[ads320]

My boyfriend and i are going for a cruise for the first time. We are going over the Chirstmas holidays for a 10 day cruise in Hawaii with the NCL wind (Dec 28 to jan 7). The room we are assigned to is an oceanview sateroom. When i go check the deck plan to see the location of the room, it ends up that room is completley obstructed by a lifeboat. I contacted the travel agent and she confirmed with Air Transat (which is who we booked through) that our room is NOT obstructed. When i checked again, on the NCL webpage it states that it is. From reviewing many comments and reviews about this ship and problems with obstructed views, we decided we wanted to upgrade or downgrade so that we do not have an obstructed view. We contacted our travel agent again and she contacted NCL directly and confirmed that it was an obstructed view depsite what we found out earlier. At first, we were told inorder to upgarde it would cost us $117 per person. So i gave the go ahead to upgrade but then my travel agent came back with in order to upgrade it would now cost $450 per person!!!! What gives. First they give us false information about the room and now the quote. The travel agent said that she wouldn't budge at all. What crappy service so far from NCL. Not providing a good first impression. If i'm paying so much already, why the stupid hassle. Anyways, sorry for venting like this my question is has anybody else have this problem and how would you go about to fixing this? thanks

 

 

disgruntled first timer :mad:

[cliffd64]

My boyfriend and i are going for a cruise for the first time. We are going over the Chirstmas holidays for a 10 day cruise in Hawaii with the NCL wind (Dec 28 to jan 7). The room we are assigned to is an oceanview sateroom. When i go check the deck plan to see the location of the room, it ends up that room is completley obstructed by a lifeboat. I contacted the travel agent and she confirmed with Air Transat (which is who we booked through) that our room is NOT obstructed. When i checked again, on the NCL webpage it states that it is. From reviewing many comments and reviews about this ship and problems with obstructed views, we decided we wanted to upgrade or downgrade so that we do not have an obstructed view. We contacted our travel agent again and she contacted NCL directly and confirmed that it was an obstructed view depsite what we found out earlier. At first, we were told inorder to upgarde it would cost us $117 per person. So i gave the go ahead to upgrade but then my travel agent came back with in order to upgrade it would now cost $450 per person!!!! What gives. First they give us false information about the room and now the quote. The travel agent said that she wouldn't budge at all. What crappy service so far from NCL. Not providing a good first impression. If i'm paying so much already, why the stupid hassle. Anyways, sorry for venting like this my question is has anybody else have this problem and how would you go about to fixing this? thanks

 

 

disgruntled first timer :mad:

 

Not sure from your post if the problem here on the upgrade is with NCL or your travel agent.

 

The only advice I can give you is ... do the research yourself, ask many questions and check things like the deck plan BEFORE you select a cabin.

 

These types of problems and miscommunications are usually best avoided by being well informed. In years past, you could expect a travel agent to do this work for you. Now with the heavy competition from the Internet, alot of travel agents do not have the luxury of being up to speed on every sort of cabin aboard every ship. It's a cutthroat business these days. Additionally, customer service phone reps are probably the least paid employees at the NCL offices, and they are fallible and rarely held accountable, so you should have as much information as you can prior to booking.

 

Good luck with your trip :) Consider a balcony cabin next time. They are never usually obstructed, and provide a better view than a oceanview. :)

[immargaret]

The room we are assigned to is an oceanview sateroom.

 

I'm sorry your not happy with your cabin. Did you book a guarantee, and if so what category did you book?

 

With a guarantee on the Wind if you booked a H or HH oceanview guarantee you could always have been assigned an G category obstructed oceanview...because it is considered more desirable than the H or HH, even with the obstructions....since it is on a higher/more popular deck. If you didn't want to end up with an obstructed cabin then the lowest level you should have booked was a GG category... I'm not a TA but any good TA should have noticed this.

 

I hope you can put this behind you and enjoy your cruise...

[Luv_to_Cruise]

We had a similar situation in 1998. It was our honeymoon, my husband's first cruise, and we specifically asked the TA for a cabin with beds that could be pushed together. Well, Lo and Behold when we arrived we had a cabin where the beds could not be pushed together:eek: . And there were no other cabins available. We made the best of it and still had a wonderful time :D :D :D ...I hope you do too. Cliffd64 has some good advice. We now book direct with the cruiseline after I make sure, absolutely sure, it's the cabin and features we want.

[jeannep]

Don't worry too much about an obstructed view. Truthfully, you will not be standing in the room looking out the window too much. I am sure you will be able to see some of the view. Getting so mad and stressed is not worth it.

 

Enjoy!

Jeanne

[SailAways]

My boyfriend and i are going for a cruise for the first time. We are going over the Chirstmas holidays for a 10 day cruise in Hawaii with the NCL wind (Dec 28 to jan 7). At first, we were told inorder to upgarde it would cost us $117 per person. So i gave the go ahead to upgrade but then my travel agent came back with in order to upgrade it would now cost $450 per person!!!! What gives? disgruntled first timer :mad:

 

If I were dealing with a TA who gave me this sort of service, I would first of all be looking for a new TA.

Secondly, you should have access to the deck plans - be sure to check out

exactly what you are booking before you say "OK."

If you are booking a guarantee, you need to be flexible. If you are not willing to be flexible, book a specific cabin.

Keep doing your research, and good luck.

[evansgang]

I'm with Jeanne... You really won't be spending too much time in your cabin anyway. There are many areas of the ship to enjoy. If you are in your room, you may not be looking at the view!:D

 

Go with a good attitude and you will have the cruise of a lifetime...

 

We are sailing on the Wind Nov 26th. Will post back how it all was...

 

Have you checked for your roll call yet? You will learn lots and get to know some great people..

 

Diane

[CPMichael]

I agree with SailAway -- I would get a new TA. They clearly didn't do their job for you. They should have:

 

A) given you correct information about the obstruction, this is not difficult to do.

 

B) Honored the price they originally quoted you for the upgrade.

 

JMHO

 

Michael

email: *****

[electricron]

It isn't NCL giving you bad information, it's your travel agent.

 

You're a first time cruiser, and you're gathering valuable experience from this for your next cruise.

A quote from Oscar Wilde,

"Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes."

 

It may be too late to fix this. What category cabin, or cabin number, did you end up with?

[Don Haynes]

Obstructed view cabins are considered by many in the cruise industry as oceanview cabins. They have picture windows, and the sun's light do enter the cabins. I wouldn't be so quick to blame the travel agent, sometimes one must be very clear to the agent what you request.

[smeyer418]

My boyfriend and i are going for a cruise for the first time. We are going over the Chirstmas holidays for a 10 day cruise in Hawaii with the NCL wind (Dec 28 to jan 7). The room we are assigned to is an oceanview sateroom. When i go check the deck plan to see the location of the room, it ends up that room is completley obstructed by a lifeboat. I contacted the travel agent and she confirmed with Air Transat (which is who we booked through) that our room is NOT obstructed. When i checked again, on the NCL webpage it states that it is. From reviewing many comments and reviews about this ship and problems with obstructed views, we decided we wanted to upgrade or downgrade so that we do not have an obstructed view. We contacted our travel agent again and she contacted NCL directly and confirmed that it was an obstructed view depsite what we found out earlier. At first, we were told inorder to upgarde it would cost us $117 per person. So i gave the go ahead to upgrade but then my travel agent came back with in order to upgrade it would now cost $450 per person!!!! What gives. First they give us false information about the room and now the quote. The travel agent said that she wouldn't budge at all. What crappy service so far from NCL. Not providing a good first impression. If i'm paying so much already, why the stupid hassle. Anyways, sorry for venting like this my question is has anybody else have this problem and how would you go about to fixing this? thanks

 

 

disgruntled first timer :mad:

 

first of all welcome to the boards.

secondly You have learned what must of us know already, most TA's are clueless, they have never cruised and will do anything for a sale. I do use a TA mostly so they can rebate so of the commision me and help me get the best price, but you need to do most of the research yourself. If you give us the cabin number we can tell you exactly how much by percentage you are obstructed. If its less than 50% you will be ok... The wind unfortunately doesn't get the highest marks. Its one of the reasons its so relatively inexpensive. I am sorry this first experience has been so bad. But the price and obstruction thing is the TA's. He/she could have found out this info if they used the NCL site right. We have learned never to trust anyone but the facts.

[eyzwdeshut]

Don't worry too much about an obstructed view. Truthfully, you will not be standing in the room looking out the window too much. I am sure you will be able to see some of the view. Getting so mad and stressed is not worth it.

 

Enjoy!

Jeanne

 

Well if her point was to be in her room & SEE out the window (as some people do, that's why they choose outside cabins as opposed to inside), then i think it's worth stressing about... you want what you pay for right?

[Baitman19]

Ads320,

 

I'm sorry that you have had this problem on your first NCL cruise. Your TA is to blame for most of your problems. NCL didn't tell you the cabin wasn't obstructed, your TA did. It's your TA who is responsible for this misrepresentation. If they did call NCL and got a quote for an upgrade for $117.00, call them back and tell them that they have cause you an inconvience and what are they going to do about it. The reason for the increase in price maybe that there aren't anymore cabins available for the $117 upgrade rate.

I would definitely call back your TA and make them fix their problem. If you had booked directly thru NCL, then I would be telling you to hound them for a better price for the upgrade.

 

Hope you can get this fixed!

[derf5585]

OK I had enuf, time for some levity

 

We all know what "Disgruntled" means. How about "Gruntled", what does that mean?

 

Are You Gruntled Yet?

from

http://www.esmerel.com/circle/wordlore/gruntled.html

 

Although he wasn't actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.

from

http://www.freesearch.co.uk/dictionary/gruntled

[jander]

Obstructed view cabins are considered by many in the cruise industry as oceanview cabins. They have picture windows, and the sun's light do enter the cabins. I wouldn't be so quick to blame the travel agent, sometimes one must be very clear to the agent what you request.

Obstructed view cabins are oceanview cabins, they are certainly not inside cabins.

[deborahdarling]

Hi ads30,

 

As a TA myself I can sympathize both with you and with your TA. I think that Transat is to blame. In all likelihood they gave the incorrect information to your TA who then passed it on to you. Although I must say that he/she should have looked at the NCL deck plan before passing the info to you! I would pursue it with Transat's customer service department. Good luck and enjoy your cruise!

[Tarheelbelle]

My boyfriend and i are going for a cruise for the first time. We are going over the Chirstmas holidays for a 10 day cruise in Hawaii with the NCL wind (Dec 28 to jan 7). The room we are assigned to is an oceanview sateroom. When i go check the deck plan to see the location of the room, it ends up that room is completley obstructed by a lifeboat. I contacted the travel agent and she confirmed with Air Transat (which is who we booked through) that our room is NOT obstructed. When i checked again, on the NCL webpage it states that it is. From reviewing many comments and reviews about this ship and problems with obstructed views, we decided we wanted to upgrade or downgrade so that we do not have an obstructed view. We contacted our travel agent again and she contacted NCL directly and confirmed that it was an obstructed view depsite what we found out earlier. At first, we were told inorder to upgarde it would cost us $117 per person. So i gave the go ahead to upgrade but then my travel agent came back with in order to upgrade it would now cost $450 per person!!!! What gives. First they give us false information about the room and now the quote. The travel agent said that she wouldn't budge at all. What crappy service so far from NCL. Not providing a good first impression. If i'm paying so much already, why the stupid hassle. Anyways, sorry for venting like this my question is has anybody else have this problem and how would you go about to fixing this? thanks

 

 

disgruntled first timer :mad:

Don't give up yet. We had several problems in our booking of our upcoming Dawn cruise. My travel partner and I spent at least 12 hours on calls---yes it's true---trying to get what we wanted from our travel agent. We are both experienced cruisers and knew that we were not going to take no for an answer to the problems. Eventually on the final call we demanded being conferenced in with the NCL people. We made it clear that we would not book again with NCL if not satisfied, and we cruise on average twice a year. We were finally heard and got what we wanted.

Get on the phone and demand in a reasonable and firm and polite way what you want. Be clear before you call what you are willing to accept and at which price. I think you can have a better outcome.

Good luck and enjoy your cruise!

[almitra]

What is transat?

[Goldryder]

Some obstructed view cabins have two elongated windows, rather than one large window. As an example the pic below is of NCL Jewel 'G' grade oceanview. The amount of natural light was excellent and although the tenders were dangling outside, you still saw alot of what you were passing without having to crane your neck or do contortions.

 

However, as has already been said, its highly unlikely you will be in your cabin for anything apart from sleeping and getting ready for meals and/or shore excursions.

 

Don't let it cloud your holiday :) enjoy yourselves.

[mbisson]

Some obstructed view cabins have two elongated windows, rather than one large window. As an example the pic below is of NCL Jewel 'G' grade oceanview. .

 

Goldryder-After looking at that picture, I'm glad we changed from an obstructed G to an inside and saved some money. Picture window OK, Balcony-Better, but we're just not fans of obstructions, portholes, and now I'll add "slit windows".

 

jmo

 

Now, from some of these posting in this thread, I hope no one is offended by my sig line ;)

 

-Monte

[Planer's Edge]

Question for the original poster...which cabin are we talking about specifically?

 

There are oceanview cabins which appear to be obstructed on the deck plans but in actuality only have a Zodiak in front of the window. Zodiak's are very low profile as compared to lifeboats. We have had one of these cabins in the past.

 

So, which specific cabin are you talking about?

 

PE

[Goldryder]

Goldryder-After looking at that picture, I'm glad we changed from an obstructed G to an inside and saved some money. Picture window OK, Balcony-Better, but we're just not fans of obstructions, portholes, and now I'll add "slit windows".

 

jmo

 

Now, from some of these posting in this thread, I hope no one is offended by my sig line ;)

 

-Monte

 

 

Just for reference, the windows were 2ft x 1ft each, the picture doesn't quite do them justice unfortunately, sorry. :)

[ads320]

Thanks for the reply everyone. All your advice is very helpful. We are still dealing with the travel agent to fix our problem. Our main problem was that we are interested in upgrading but NCL does not want to honour it's promo price for first timers (like us). They consider us as ALREADY booked and we can not get the promo price . they would like us to pay $450 per person to upgrade instead of $115. We'll see how it goes. honestly, we will try not to let it ruin our experience but we would like to get what we want to pay for. The blame is with TRANSAT AIR (Cdn company that is the middle-man for offering vactions and air- fortuantely we are flying with WestJet). Anyways, I think they should honour the price they quoted us to upgrade. we are staying on the carribean deck #8228. we'll see how it goes. wish us luck. another quick question, does NCL Wind have any theme nights? if so what are they? and also what is the "check-in" time for the cruise/ the ship leaves at 8 pm. Thanks again for your replies. We'll keep you posted.

 

First-timer cruiser:eek:

[sunshine 229]

Thanks for the reply everyone. All your advice is very helpful. We are still dealing with the travel agent to fix our problem. Our main problem was that we are interested in upgrading but NCL does not want to honour it's promo price for first timers (like us). They consider us as ALREADY booked and we can not get the promo price . they would like us to pay $450 per person to upgrade instead of $115. We'll see how it goes. honestly, we will try not to let it ruin our experience but we would like to get what we want to pay for. The blame is with TRANSAT AIR (Cdn company that is the middle-man for offering vactions and air- fortuantely we are flying with WestJet). Anyways, I think they should honour the price they quoted us to upgrade. we are staying on the carribean deck #8228. we'll see how it goes. wish us luck. another quick question, does NCL Wind have any theme nights? if so what are they? and also what is the "check-in" time for the cruise/ the ship leaves at 8 pm. Thanks again for your replies. We'll keep you posted.

 

First-timer cruiser:eek:

Best of luck, whatever cabin you end up in I hope you have a great time. If it makes you feel better I've cruised a couple of times in inside cabins and have still enjoyed myself a lot so obstructed or not you should have an enjoyable cruise. I know it is more a case of feeling you are getting what you paid for but, once you're on the ship, I hope you will forget all the hassle and just enjoy the experience.

[pdxmichelle]

ADS320- We had the same problem on the Dawn. We wanted to upgrade from a window to a balcony for the different in price and the TA said NCL would not honor that. They wanted us to pay some other astronomical amount. I told the TA that is ridiculous, as on all other cruise lines in the past, we only paid the difference in price listed. The TA finally got a hold of a supervisor for NCL and they honored the price listed on the web site. Good luck.