Star azipod propulsion problem

[marcs1]

 

material left out

 

Next time will definitely try booking thru an agent and/or buying trip insurance.

 

 

What type of travel insurance might cover port cancellations or changes?

[pieshops]

What type of travel insurance might cover port cancellations or changes?

 

Most of them, we spent well over a thousand dollars on a dive charter in ko samui, I put out all the money and, 3 COuples joined the charter through cc, now we are missing the port and dive trip is non refundable. My insurance will cover me 100%. No worries. Well,worth the cost

[marcs1]

Most of them, we spent well over a thousand dollars on a dive charter in ko samui, I put out all the money and, 3 COuples joined the charter through cc, now we are missing the port and dive trip is non refundable. My insurance will cover me 100%. No worries. Well,worth the cost

 

Thanks for the reply.

My questions are:

Is the travel insurance covering the fact that you are missing the port or covering the cost of your charter?

 

Do you know how a travel insurance company calculates the value of a missed port?

 

If your policy does reimburse you for missing a port would you mind sharing what company you used?

[karoo]

Thanks for the reply.

My questions are:

Is the travel insurance covering the fact that you are missing the port or covering the cost of your charter?

 

Do you know how a travel insurance company calculates the value of a missed port?

 

If your policy does reimburse you for missing a port would you mind sharing what company you used?

 

 

Not sure about different travel insurance policies, but basically they reimburse you for the costs outlaid that aren't refundable E.g. The fact that they paid for a tour that isn't refundable that money you can make a claim for. Just a missed port where no money has been outlaid isn't claimable. Many private tours state if the ship doesn't port for whatever reason you're tour will be totally refundable. NCL also fully refunds their shore excursions as well as the port charges for a missed port. So usually a missed port doesn't incur the passenger to outlay any money so therefore there is no money to claim back.

 

 

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Edited December 18, 2016 by karoo

[pieshops]

Thanks for the reply.

My questions are:

Is the travel insurance covering the fact that you are missing the port or covering the cost of your charter?

 

Do you know how a travel insurance company calculates the value of a missed port?

 

If your policy does reimburse you for missing a port would you mind sharing what company you used?

 

Kind of hard to put a value per se on a missed port so nothing for that. Maybe trip interruption coverage but I doubt it.

[MedicalEngineer]

Hi,

 

Now that there are more days at sea, can someone on the Star kindly tell us what types of activities are available? I am embarking in HK on 22December.

 

When I was on the Baltic cruise in June on this same ship, there were some professional entertainers from Argentina who performed tango on stage - are they still there?

 

Thanks.

[cmander]

Jan 5 out of Singapore is now changed with no Thai ports. Extra night in Singapore and overnight in HCMC. They are offering us 20% refund on cruise. No option to cancel or discount for future cruises. This will be the first and last time I cruise with NCL. I only found out about their changes through cruise critic and informed my TA who knew nothing of the issues at the moment regarding the Star. :mad:

[BirdTravels]

Jan 5 out of Singapore is now changed with no Thai ports. Extra night in Singapore and overnight in HCMC. They are offering us 20% refund on cruise. No option to cancel or discount for future cruises. This will be the first and last time I cruise with NCL. I only found out about their changes through cruise critic and informed my TA who knew nothing of the issues at the moment regarding the Star. :mad:

 

NCL is always very good at communicating with all passengers. The problem is that your TA is not forwarding you this time critical information.

 

The compensations is more than generous. The changes to your itinerary are consistent with the contract YOU signed. Sorry that you are not willing to abide by the contract YOU signed.

[Sutosis]

I can confirm that the Jan. 5th sailing has been changed to not include the Thai ports and they offered a 20% refund. I awoke to the email this morning. Bummer.

[Pope Francis]

NCL is always very good at communicating with all passengers. The problem is that your TA is not forwarding you this time critical information.

 

The compensations is more than generous. The changes to your itinerary are consistent with the contract YOU signed. Sorry that you are not willing to abide by the contract YOU signed.

 

Holier than thou statements are not helpful at this time...

[pieshops]

NCL is always very good at communicating with all passengers. The problem is that your TA is not forwarding you this time critical information.

 

The compensations is more than generous. The changes to your itinerary are consistent with the contract YOU signed. Sorry that you are not willing to abide by the contract YOU signed.

 

I am a NCL loyalist and also on the sailing on the 22nd (well not anymore ) and I can tell you first hand they suck at communication with passengers in this case. The star had issues starting on Sunday when it was supposed to leave, even after leaving port 3 days late we were not even informed of any issue, when I stated calling on Tuesday no one who answered the phone and 2 supervisors I spoke with had no idea that the star even had issues at all

 

We had a basic idea based on looking at a map on what ports we would be missing and knew if we were right we would not sail and wanted to get a start making alternate plans to get to most ports on our own.

 

Not until we were sitting in the airport on our way to Hong Kong Friday evening in JFK did I get an email. Luckily I had done a lot of legwork and knew what I needed to do and already had hotels booked where we wanted to go or I really would have been screwed.

 

This was not a,weekly sailing out of Miami doing the same itinerary every week where we could have hopped on any ship and done the same itinerary. We had been planning on this cruise for 18 months as a once in a lifetime experience with my wife going back to Vietnam for the first time since she was 1 when her parents were killed in the war and she was brought back to the USA by her adopted marine father. We had plans on going to the orphanage with a lot of stuff for them and meeting many of the nuns that took care of her.

 

I am beyond disgusted with them, they knew on Wednesday when the ship left Singapore that the next sailing would be revised but have no info.

 

We will enjoy our land vacation be it lot more hectic but don't give me this crap about them being good at communicating. This was atrocious

[pieshops]

NCL is always very good at communicating with all passengers. The problem is that your TA is not forwarding you this time critical information.

 

The compensations is more than generous. The changes to your itinerary are consistent with the contract YOU signed. Sorry that you are not willing to abide by the contract YOU signed.

 

And on top of that at 8:32pm Hong Kong time Tuesday December 21st NCL is still selling the original itinerary on their website, Not one change or warning.

[winty]

And on top of that at 8:32pm Hong Kong time Tuesday December 21st NCL is still selling the original itinerary on their website, Not one change or warning.

 

 

They also have all the same shore excursions on the website, still available to book even though the ports aren't available !

[teamflames]

We are on the 5th January sailing and so at least we have been notified with much more advance warning than the last 2 cruises. The 20% refund is probably approximately appropriate but considering the compensation offered on the 2 previous sailings it feels disappointing.

This is our first ncl cruise , so it will need to be impressive onboard for us to return.

We won't bother getting off now at the other ports as too much risk to organise tours at this late stage.

 

 

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[biker@sea]

Jan 5 out of Singapore is now changed with no Thai ports. Extra night in Singapore and overnight in HCMC. They are offering us 20% refund on cruise. No option to cancel or discount for future cruises. This will be the first and last time I cruise with NCL. I only found out about their changes through cruise critic and informed my TA who knew nothing of the issues at the moment regarding the Star. :mad:

 

 

 

Tell Your T.A. to join & read Cruise Critic. :rolleyes:

 

 

.

[teamflames]

I called ncl , they told me bad luck it's only 20% no option to cancel.

The 20% in our case is really port charges I am guessing.

Cancelled my future 38 day sailing, why would you risk more than 20k usd on a long cruise that might skip most ports with a company that will give you a token gesture.

I was told I should be grateful as cruise after ours is only getting 200 obc. Now that is arrogance.

 

 

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[sleeperzo6]

I too am booked on the Jan 5th cruise. This will be my 15th NCL cruise. I read cc so I've been aware of the azipod problems. I always book directly with NCL. NO TRAVEL AGENTS. Last night at 8:00 I received my first notification from NCL about changes related to the azipod breakdown. They really are pretty bad about communication. And pieshops also made a good point. We are traveling halfway around the earth for this cruise. The future NCL discount offered to the previous 2 cruises was a nice touch to soothe the pain. It would have been a nice gesture. Next cruise is not booked. Unlike the past, I'll explore other cruise lines.

[Cruise Wonderland]

I have some friends travelling on Jan 16 sailing, and they just received the below notice about the itinerary change. If NCL can "predict" even the itinerary one month later will be affected, does this indicate that NCL will not have plans to send the ship to drydock to completely fix the problem?

 

[chengkp75]

Again, there is no firm indication that the ship requires drydocking to repair the azipod. It can be that the parts required to repair while in service will not be immediately available. Further, drydocking is not like "Jiffy Lube" where you can drive up and get your ship drydocked. Docks are typically booked 12-18 months in advance.

[Pope Francis]

Just talked to my PCC at NCL. They have nothing on our cruise. (NCL Star 2-06-2016 to 2-18-2016 from Sydney to Auckland NZ), We can probably gather that our itinerary will change as well as the Jan cruise prior to us just did so they will not have the boat fixed prior to our getting on the ship. No agreement on a date that we would hear something. All this means is that NCL has no comment and everything you are hearing here and on C.C. is probably correct!

[Cruise Wonderland]

Again, there is no firm indication that the ship requires drydocking to repair the azipod. It can be that the parts required to repair while in service will not be immediately available. Further, drydocking is not like "Jiffy Lube" where you can drive up and get your ship drydocked. Docks are typically booked 12-18 months in advance.

 

I am from Hong Kong and sure that there are drydock facilities in our city, which can accommodate ships as large as NCL Star. Yes, just like you have said, it is not easy to have a vacant dock at such last minute.

 

I am not quite sure how will the itinerary of Dec 22 and Jan 05 sailings be changed, but if NCL starts to inform the guests on Jan 16 sailing about the itinerary modification, that means they are pessimistic the problem cannot be solved within the coming month?

[teamflames]

I don't think dry dock is on the cards, they are notifying for charges out to Feb, clearly they plan on pushing on. I don't understand why certain ports are getting dropped ?

Also don't understand why port charges are not being refunded????????

 

 

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[teamflames]

I am from Hong Kong and sure that there are drydock facilities in our city, which can accommodate ships as large as NCL Star. Yes, just like you have said, it is not easy to have a vacant dock at such last minute.

 

 

 

I am not quite sure how will the itinerary of Dec 22 and Jan 05 sailings be changed, but if NCL starts to inform the guests on Jan 16 sailing about the itinerary modification, that means they are pessimistic the problem cannot be solved within the coming month?

 

 

They are already changed, Thailand ports being canceled and others such as Taiwan and Cambodia.

 

These are floating resorts now, Sanya you have to do shore excursion (most won't); Vietnamese ports miles away from anything but who would risk prebooking a tour that might still be cancelled (as it was on current sailing).

 

No options to cancel.

 

 

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[Pope Francis]

Just talked to my PCC at NCL. They have nothing on our cruise. (NCL Star 2-06-2017 to 2-18-2017 from Sydney to Auckland NZ), We can probably gather that our itinerary will change as well as the Jan cruise prior to us just did so they will not have the boat fixed prior to our getting on the ship. No agreement on a date that we would hear something. All this means is that NCL has no comment and everything you are hearing here and on C.C. is probably correct!

[mking8288]

I have some friends travelling on Jan 16 sailing, and they just received the below notice about the itinerary change. If NCL can "predict" even the itinerary one month later will be affected, does this indicate that NCL will not have plans to send the ship to drydock to completely fix the problem?

Thank you for sharing & uploading your friend's Jan. 2017 notice of change for the Star, which was dated Dec. 10, 2016 ... wondering if that was back-dated. Sure hope that many that booked via brick-n-mortar TA (very common in Asia & China ... hint, hint: those soon to be on the brand new "Chinese" Joy) are promptly notified and aware of these changes. Our extended families have relatives, friends & old mature (elderly) classmates all over the world and while majority of them have emails, smartphones and iPads/iPhones these days, not all of them do and for the casual user - they don't "surf" Cruise Critics or other social media/forum sites unlike us addicts.

 

For the Dec. 22 sailing out of HK, NCL is still (trying, I guess) to sell the "original" sailing and advertising all the ports - clock just turned midnight locally and we have retired expat friends living about 2 or 3 miles from Kai Tak Cruise Terminal; and, tempted to book a last minute, affordable sailing ... thinking they will make a quick pit stop at coastal Kaoshuing, southern Taiwan first, LOL. Not only would they miss it but they also won't get to stop at HCMC, etc. - all these, less than 24 hours before sailing.

 

In all fairness to NCL, corporate is going to take a financial hit on its quarterly earnings for sure with the lost revenue and whatever. What about truth-in-advertising and being sincere too - not cool and not acceptable. Folks on other sites & social media are talking too - it is stupid, foolish for NCL to play "dumb", period as it is going to backfire.

 

It's a good thing that NCL doesn't have a significant # of mainland Chinese pax booked or cruising now - this week's sailing, I am not so sure as it is the traditional holiday - even a small group of them onboard can really get rowdy and quite a scene ... and, they've done it when airlines cancelled flights due to weather or ships delayed sailing.

 

Lastly, this revised Jan. 16 sailing seemed to suggest that it's skipping 2 ports in the first half of the original itinerary with an extended/overnight stay in Singapore; and, then "planned" on keeping the rest of the port stops en route to Aussie with no further changes. I guess, time will tell on whether the Azipod issues will be "fixed" and restored to being fully operational by then.