NCL Pearl Cancelled 07/05/19

[tikruizer]

39 minutes ago, shadow1972 said:

 

To the best of my knowledge, she's still in Barcelona.  She went out on a test run last night, did a couple of loops and returned to port.  I heard she got up to 23 knots...but I haven't confirmed that.

 

According to a couple of tracking sites, she went out and reached close to 23 knots (posts 222 and 223).  Most important, when docking the Pearl attempted a difficult maneuver to dock next to one of the Disney cruises, which seems to confirm that everything went ok.

Also one of the entertainers onboard posted in FB that last night they threw a party for the crew, so everything has a positive vibe so far.

Let's hope for no setbacks !!!

[rkelly21]

Let's hope they stayed on port long enough to contain the Norovirus. It should have been enough time. We will soon find out. Happy voyages to all.

 

Edited July 9, 2019 by rkelly21
sp error

[shadow1972]

50 minutes ago, rkelly21 said:

Let's hope they stayed on port long enough to contain the Norovirus. It should have been enough time. We will soon find out. Happy voyages to all.

 

 

I find it funny that nowhere have I seen anyone complain about being ill during this voyage.  Can you show me the reference materials that you are consulting regarding your baseless claim of Norovirus?

Edited July 9, 2019 by shadow1972

[misand]

On 7/2/2019 at 4:09 PM, cruisingnewtoit said:

Does the future cruise credit include the promotions from the cruise that was cancelled? 

Definitely not! We were on the Thanksgiving Jade.  We had 3rd and 4th free so no credit extended for the.  Our rebook one for this Thanksgiving was almost 3x the price.

[littlelulu01]

4 hours ago, terrydtx said:

I agree with you. If you had not left home for the cruise before it was canceled and had trip insurance you would have been reimbursed for the airfares. For those who left a few days early before the cruise was cancelled you will not get any flight reimbursement and you are stuck in Italy with no accommodations. If I was in the latter position, I would be pissed and never cruise again with NCL.

Not necessarily true about the insurance.  It depends on the plan and situation.  Some plans with Nationwide and April have some unique compensation reimbursements depending on state of residence that would in essence make up for lost airfare or extra hotel on top of Ncl’s offer. 

 

 According to cruise line’s contracts (not just NCL) they can cancel at any time for any reason and need only refund your money.  That’s in the contract I sign off on anyways.  Of course if corporations followed their cruise contracts to the letter when things go wrong, it would not be long before they had a terrible reputation and nobody would sail with them so they often go above and beyond such as ncl did in this case. 

 

 Ncl has really stepped up their game in the last year or so and is now on par or better with any other reputable cruise line’s offer when stuff happens.  The offer for both of these sailings is a gesture of good will and a very genuine attempt for the cruise line to make it up to those affected.  They have made great strides by trial and error, now avoiding major dry dock work on revenue sailings, planning a little more ahead for charters, stepping up when things go wrong and avoiding bad press. 

 

Going on a cruise in another country without any back up plan, without any money, without any ability to make changes on the fly if necessary is a VERY, VERY bad idea.  Passengers affected by the cancellations could just have easily had some other issue that affected their ability to sail that was not NCL’s fault.  Cruise lines are not an airline with extra ships sitting around to trade out when something happens.  Major disruptions in travel could just as easily been related to a Boeing 737 max, weather, an act of war….  In those cases it would not have been NCL giving any compensation and insurance might not be covering any expense either. 

 

These passengers are not drifting at sea on a broken ship, being airlifted off in rough seas.  They are safe on land and have nice compensation to look forward to.  With a minimum level of planning ability these vacations could be salvaged and then some. If that wasn’t possible the combined compensation from ncl should be enough to get home and pay for a future make up vacation. Disappointment certainly understandable.  The compensation from NCL is about the best case scenario one can expect when a vacation is altered for whatever reason. 

 

[blueslily]

I hope that any future cruisers are using this as an opportunity to work on any necessary backup plans in case of emergencies. I alerted my roll call for our sailing in Oct. Hoping fellow cruisers will use this as an opportunity to consider their travel plans. We are taking a Western Med cruise on the Epic in Oct.  We have pre stays and post stays in different destinations. Great time to make sure all of our hotel reservations are refundable and that we have extra space on a couple credit cards that we are taking along. This cruise will be a major trip for my mom. I definitely hope that we wont need a Plan B, but we certainly will be prepared to be flexible if necessary. Its too much planning and work to get everything planned to be in Europe but miserable. So, we will have  great time regardless.  Happy planning everyone!

[Warbird]

7 hours ago, terrydtx said:

If I was in the latter position, I would be pissed and never cruise again with NCL.

If the price was right you might think twice about it.

[RJB]

23 hours ago, Laszlo said:

Maybe I'm the odd man out. Devastated to me is finding out you have cancer and have a few months to live, a family member was just killed in a car accident from a drunk driver. This to me is devastating news, not my cruise has been canceled......thats just me

+ 100

[jjjct]

On 7/9/2019 at 9:43 PM, Warbird said:

 

My Husband and I were to be on the Pearl July 5th cruise. We got a phone call on July 2nd the day before we were to fly into Rome. This was for my husbands 60th birthday and our 1st visit to Rome and Greece.  We have cruised on NCL 10 times and is our cruise line of choice. Yes we were upset to find out that the cruise we researched and planned for 9 months was cancelled. After the initial shock, we understood that it was beyond our control and NCL could really do nothing to fix the problem to get us on our way. We were safe at home while many of those that were active on our roll call were already in Italy. I personally would have been in a panic if I was in Rome without a backup plan. Kudos to all of you that made last minute vacations for you and your family. Hope you had a wonderful time.

Just to let you NCL doubters know, while this was a big disappointment, NCL has been wonderful in the compensation that they have given us. Full refund of the cancelled cruise and cruise value paid for a future cruise. While I would have preferred to be on my cruise right now, I commend NCL for compensating well for the cancelled cruise. Already planning our next cruise to celebrate my guys birthday, after all he will be 60 all year and looking forward to our next NCL cruise. 

[richstowe]

12 hours ago, jjjct said:

Just to let you NCL doubters know, while this was a big disappointment, NCL has been wonderful in the compensation that they have given us. Full refund of the cancelled cruise and cruise value paid for a future cruise.

I am one of those doubters .😁 Happy to hear they treated you properly  and kudos on your fine attitude . Forgive my attitude as I continue to wonder what their compensation policy will be for those with upcoming affected cruises .

[shadow1972]

3 minutes ago, richstowe said:

I am one of those doubters .😁 Happy to hear they treated you properly  and kudos on your fine attitude . Forgive my attitude as I continue to wonder what their compensation policy will be for those with upcoming affected cruises .

 

I can also confirm that the compensation was quite good.  A little long for the actual refund to appear, but they did say 7-10 business days and mine just came through today.  The credits showed up last Friday.  Considering the number of guests compensated, totally understandable on the turnaround time. 

[jjjct]

49 minutes ago, richstowe said:

I am one of those doubters .😁 Happy to hear they treated you properly  and kudos on your fine attitude . Forgive my attitude as I continue to wonder what their compensation policy will be for those with upcoming affected cruises .

Hopefully NCL will get the problem fixed and get the Pearl back to Civitavecchia for the 11/18 cruise. I can't imagine they aren't doing EVERYTHING within their means to fix her.

 

[Kenny1080]

The NCl website no longer shows the 18th July cruise, is this normal? Does that mean sold out?

 

[ed01106]

1 minute ago, Kenny1080 said:

The NCl website no longer shows the 18th July cruise, is this normal? Does that mean sold out?

 

Could mean it is sold out.  Could mean it is canceled.  Could mean NCL is nervous, e.g. they aren’t 100% certain it is a go, but they aren’t ready to cancel it, because they are hoping it is a go, and are figuring it is just best not to book any more guests, just to cancel them 36 hours later.

[S4POPO]

I just checked and the July 18th sailing is still there.  It looks like only "insides" are still available.  All other categories are marked as "sold out."

[old nutter]

She's off out again at 13 July - 0015 local time AIS is saying that she is going back to Barca again.  Could be another test or she could be flushing water systems out ready to go to Ciivitavecchia.

[mpk]

On 7/10/2019 at 7:27 PM, jjjct said:

Just to let you NCL doubters know, while this was a big disappointment, NCL has been wonderful in the compensation that they have given us.

Sorry you had to go through this, not exactly the stuff anyone wants to deal with on vacation.

 

About the backup plans mentioned in this thread-- I think it's easier said than done.  Maybe it is just me, but I barely have enough time to plan for the primary vacation, let alone a just-in-case backup  :)

[rkelly21]

Is the Pearl still sitting in Barcelona to fix repairs?  I was on the Transatlantic on 4/28/19 and the Norovirus was rampant. Since then i think it's done a few cruises then pulled from service. I would really like to know if this problem has been fixed. 

[jjjct]

1 hour ago, mpk said:

Sorry you had to go through this, not exactly the stuff anyone wants to deal with on vacation.

 

About the backup plans mentioned in this thread-- I think it's easier said than done.  Maybe it is just me, but I barely have enough time to plan for the primary vacation, let alone a just-in-case backup  🙂

You got it so right, but vacation is what we need so we plan on!

[shadow1972]

57 minutes ago, rkelly21 said:

Is the Pearl still sitting in Barcelona to fix repairs?  I was on the Transatlantic on 4/28/19 and the Norovirus was rampant. Since then i think it's done a few cruises then pulled from service. I would really like to know if this problem has been fixed. 

PROVE THE NOROVIRUS OR STFU.  And don't delete this post like you did the previous one where you couldn't prove it.

[Kenny1080]

10 hours ago, S4POPO said:

I just checked and the July 18th sailing is still there.  It looks like only "insides" are still available.  All other categories are marked as "sold out."

Which site can you find this on? Uk NCL site only show the only ncl pearl cruise in July as 28/7 departure

[bubblesqueaker]

1 hour ago, Kenny1080 said:

Which site can you find this on? Uk NCL site only show the only ncl pearl cruise in July as 28/7 departure

I saw this too and phoned them. It was sold out with the exception of two inside cabins. They said the sailing was going ahead. I seen it back on the NCL UK site for a short time yesterday, everything sold out.

[tikruizer]

Pearl just left Barcelona and she is on her way to Civitavecchia.

 

[NancyW12]

If one already had airline tickets, why in the world would you just not go anyway?  Get a hotel room, buy a rail pass, use Easy Jet and go within Europe? Italy and Spain are big countries. They have plenty of hotels. The refund from NCL should cover anything that would need to be charged on land. Why would you lose the airfare and skip the whole trip? Don't get it.

[sverigecruiser]

3 hours ago, NancyW12 said:

If one already had airline tickets, why in the world would you just not go anyway?  Get a hotel room, buy a rail pass, use Easy Jet and go within Europe? Italy and Spain are big countries. They have plenty of hotels. The refund from NCL should cover anything that would need to be charged on land. Why would you lose the airfare and skip the whole trip? Don't get it.

 

I'm sure that lots of people can't afford to pay for the vacation again until they get refunds. I should do as you say but lots of people can't do that on short notice.