Star azipod propulsion problem

[Mismatched]

Why make yourself miserable. Cancel. Get it over with.

 

Or,,, ,when you get back, write us back and tell us that you never got off the ship because you want to boycott the ports. We all know that you are not going to sit on the ship by yourself playing travel scrabble. Come on.

 

 

Everyone's situation is different. The cruise fare is ~1/3 of the total cost. There is another 1/3 for flights, and 1/3 for pre/post hotels and off-shore.

 

If you booked cruise/flights/hotels/tours through a travel agent, you are likely to get 100% refund of the total cost. If like us, you booked them separately and get 100% refund on the cruise fair, you are still losing ~2/3 of the total cost without having taken any vacation. If you are more mobile (not with young kids like us), you can convert to a land/flight trip without having to drag kids, suitcases, strollers thru multiple airports, and "enjoy" a day of adventure thru airports for each flight (instead of being "bored" on the ship).

 

So for people like me the choices are:

1- Take the cruise with fewer stops at overall discount of 1/6 (16%), and use the 50% future discount to take a cheaper cruise almost at no cost. Will at least see HK and SG for 3-days each.

2- Cancel the cruise, take the refund and stay 9 days in HK, and 9 days in SG. Likely to break even or slightly higher. But still see two places that I will see anyway.

3- Cancel the cruise, and lose 2/3 (66%) for pre-paid/non-refundable items. Use the refund for a stateside cruise if lucky to find one during these busy holidays.

 

We, like many will take option 1, and make the best of it. Next time will definitely try booking thru an agent and/or buying trip insurance.

 

Regarding the comments that NCL has been fair in their compensation, I would say they should have also done the following:

1) Provide free off-shore tours to everyone. With the changes in itinerary, we have already lot our prepaid tours, and we cannot book any since the itinerary can change.

2) Provide free on-board WiFi to everone so they can inform relatives of itinerary changes, and make changes to their bookings as the itinerary changes.

3) Provide more details and daily updates on the progress/plans to fix the Azipod. The issue is not having a mechanical problem. The issue is not being prepared to fix it. This is the 6th time it has broken down, so they should have all the expertise and parts to fix it quickly.

 

My guess is that they don't want to cancel the cruise on Dec. 22nd since it is the holiday cruise and the most expensive (2X the price of the previous and next cruises). So they will run it while trying to fix the azipod. If not fixed, then depending which port has the capability, they will cancel/shorten one of the tours between Jan. 5th and Mar. to do the fixes. I expect it to be the Jan. 5th or the next cruise - the sooner they do it the less rebates they have to pay.

[winty]

Why make yourself miserable. Cancel. Get it over with.

 

Or,,, ,when you get back, write us back and tell us that you never got off the ship because you want to boycott the ports. We all know that you are not going to sit on the ship by yourself playing travel scrabble. Come on.

 

I'm not boycotting the ports, just not getting my hopes up that we will end up stopping at all three. If we do it's a bonus.

Everyone has a right to feel upset about this cruise. I have been planning this for over a year, am currently travelling and have planned four months of travelling around this specific cruise, so excuse me for being peed off. It may be one of those things and out if our control but that doesn't stop me being angry, annoyed and upset. I'll make the best of it as at the end of the day as I'll still be on a cruise ship but I just hope we get a bit if decent weather so I can get to sit by the pool with my pina colada !

NB -some if us aren't in the position to be able to cancel

Edited December 18, 2016 by winty

[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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