Called NCL to cancel excursions - what I learned

[carrierae001]

First of all, I am incredibly impressed with NCLs response. I am on the Nov 23rd sailing, so I am flying out next week. I called to try and cancel excursions (and get the date to book a new one off ship). When I called, I got straight through to the excursion department - no wait. For a company that has their main call center closed, WOW!

 

When I spoke to them, they quickly refunded all my excursions. The woman that I spoke to stated that they do not know for certain what locations in the western Caribbean we will be stopping at on any particular day. They also are not able to book any excursions for you right now, and cannot until the cruise is updated on the "your vacation home" page online. She also stated that for sailings coming up soon, they may not have the official itinerary until we walk on the ship. :o Hopefully, that isn't the case, but heck, we will still be on the ocean with an umbrella drink instead of dealing with our jobs at home, so no complaints!

 

I did ask about later sailings to update everyone here, and told me that they are going to be evaluating the safety and infrastructure of the islands and return as appropriate. She did not know if the November sailings were going to Western Caribbean yet, but said it all depended on the recovery progress.

 

She was very apologetic and sounded like she had been yelled at quite a bit today. Please remember that these poor people are taking quite the beating from angry travelers. They are giving you all the information that they have right now (I promise you they are not holding out on you!) and they do not deserve your ire. If you want to be mad at NCL for not telling you everything right this second, go ahead, but leave the lovely people answering the phone out of it.

[Cruisercl]

Thank you for sharing this information. The crisis is still ongoing so I am sure they are just trying to figure it all out. I agree, it doesn't help when people call and get angry because there aren't answers yet. The answers will come.

In crisis management there often aren't answers until the high priority things (safety and peoples lives) are taken care of. It appears that this is still ongoing.

 

OP - quick question for you - if you don't cruise until Nov 23rd, why are you flying out next week?

 

Safe sailing all! :)

[sandjforever]

I am confused. You are sailing November 23rd and are flying out next week?!

[beerman2]

I am confused. You are sailing November 23rd and are flying out next week?!

I'm thinking OP meant Sept. A 2 month vacation would be good though

[j603]

I want to call about my August 2018 vacation but am holding off while the poor NCL peeps can get their second wind. I can't even imagine how chaotic their office must be right now. All the cruise lines, really.

[carrierae001]

I'm thinking OP meant Sept. A 2 month vacation would be good though

 

 

Oh wow, how awesome would a two month vacation be!

 

Sorry, my last few weeks have been a stressful mess. I'm a nurse in Texas, so we were taking care of evacuees from our offices on the Gulf Coast from Harvey, then my parents evacuated to my house from Irma. Luckily their house is still standing and they are going home in the morning.

 

I haven't had a decent nights sleep in far too long!

 

My vacation is Sept 23rd!

[beerman2]

Oh wow, how awesome would a two month vacation be!

 

Sorry, my last few weeks have been a stressful mess. I'm a nurse in Texas, so we were taking care of evacuees from our offices on the Gulf Coast from Harvey, then my parents evacuated to my house from Irma. Luckily their house is still standing and they are going home in the morning.

 

I haven't had a decent nights sleep in far too long!

 

My vacation is Sept 23rd!

Enjoy your WELL deserved vacation, you've earned it.

[j603]

Well, you certainly sound like you need a vacation. Enjoy it to the fullest!!!

[NLH Arizona]

Oh wow, how awesome would a two month vacation be!

 

Sorry, my last few weeks have been a stressful mess. I'm a nurse in Texas, so we were taking care of evacuees from our offices on the Gulf Coast from Harvey, then my parents evacuated to my house from Irma. Luckily their house is still standing and they are going home in the morning.

 

I haven't had a decent nights sleep in far too long!

 

My vacation is Sept 23rd!

Hope you have a great vacation and thanks for what you are doing for those in need.

[Disney323]

I want to call about my August 2018 vacation but am holding off while the poor NCL peeps can get their second wind. I can't even imagine how chaotic their office must be right now. All the cruise lines, really.

 

I don't think you need to be calling them anytime soon for your 2018 cruise....That's 11 months away.

[Cruisercl]

Oh wow, how awesome would a two month vacation be!

 

Sorry, my last few weeks have been a stressful mess. I'm a nurse in Texas, so we were taking care of evacuees from our offices on the Gulf Coast from Harvey, then my parents evacuated to my house from Irma. Luckily their house is still standing and they are going home in the morning.

 

I haven't had a decent nights sleep in far too long!

 

My vacation is Sept 23rd!

 

Oh shoot.....I was hoping you were taking a 2 month vacation! After hearing about your recent struggles it would be well deserved.

 

You are an angel; thank goodness for people like you!! :halo:

Have a GREAT cruise!!!!!

[tawaik]

Enjoy your up coming cruise and thank you for your post :)

[Gershep]

You deserve this vacation, enjoy your cruise!

[oneplustwins]

My cruise isn't until Oct 21st - do we need to call and cancel our excursions or for those of us who still have a bit of time, will NCL cancel and refund the excursions on their own? I don't mind calling, but for some reason I assumed they would automatically refund those of us on October cruises since we're not sailing out for 3-6 weeks. If I need to call, I will wait until the end of the month after NCL has time to deal with the Sept cruises first!!

[HokiePoq]

My cruise isn't until Oct 21st - do we need to call and cancel our excursions or for those of us who still have a bit of time, will NCL cancel and refund the excursions on their own? I don't mind calling, but for some reason I assumed they would automatically refund those of us on October cruises since we're not sailing out for 3-6 weeks. If I need to call, I will wait until the end of the month after NCL has time to deal with the Sept cruises first!!

 

I am going to wait a while to cancel anything on our Nov. 27 cruise which goes to St. Martin and St. Thomas among others. I figure they will cancel them automatically. If we should happen to go there, both are water related requiring a boat only. If the particiular boats survived, we can go and support the local economy. Not looking good going to either place at this point though.

[oneplustwins]

Got an email from NCL and at the bottom it stated they would automatically cancel all excursions and give on board credit for amount paid. Part of me is annoyed by this, I would like the money refunded to my credit card to pay for other excursions (not through NCL) for my new itinerary..... but the other part of me is like, YES, that's $95 for more booze on board!!!

[j603]

I don't think you need to be calling them anytime soon for your 2018 cruise....That's 11 months away.

 

Nope. I emailed. I told my Cruise Consultant that I had a question but I didn't want her to answer it until after they have caught up on the chaos that Irma caused.

[Travelingboski]

Got an email from NCL and at the bottom it stated they would automatically cancel all excursions and give on board credit for amount paid. Part of me is annoyed by this, I would like the money refunded to my credit card to pay for other excursions (not through NCL) for my new itinerary..... but the other part of me is like, YES, that's $95 for more booze on board!!!

 

I called NCL today about my sailing next week. We had tours booked for the Eastern Caribbean Islands. If you call them and ask them to cancel your excursions they will credit the money back to the credit card it was charged to. If you don't call, then your canceled excursion will be listed as on-board credit when you cruise.