9/1 Breakaway Terminating in New Orleans

[Vagabond Knight]

Everyone's been starving???  When did Newsweek turn into the National Enquirer?

[$hip$hape]

23 minutes ago, shof515 said:

https://www.newsweek.com/hurricane-dorian-strands-cruise-ship-passengers-new-orleans-everyones-been-starving-no-one-1457562

From the above...

Another, Heidi Dowd, simply said:

"I learned never again travel during hurricane season."

Angry passengers are now demanding answers from Norwegian,

accusing the company of poor communication and organization.

Sarah Alonso, who was on the Norwegian Breakaway, told Fox 8 on Tuesday they had been confined to a cargo terminal in New Orleans with no one allowed in or out.

"Everyone's been starving, no one knows what's going on,

basically Norwegian Breakaway just dumped us here and said 'see you later,'"

Alonso said. "Everyone's losing it a little bit right now. We've been here for hours, it's hot,

we've called our families countless times with different travel arrangements, different plans."

 

Alonso was eventually able to board a chartered plane out of New Orleans.

Edited September 4, 2019 by $hip$hape

[graphicguy]

38 minutes ago, hypercafe said:

This has been a hard time for everyone involved and I can see it's very hard to meet the needs of the 4k plus people on the ship and the 4k+ looking to board on the first. Being asked to disembark at short notice in a strange place sounds like a nightmare. That said my daughter was going on the Sept 1 trip. Trying to get accurate information and make a plan was impossible because NCL seemed to be waiting for the last minute compared to RCCL and Carnival. The size of the ship and number of passengers also make these emergencies much harder to resolve. I cruised on the breakaway when it was new in NYC, after that I have switched to the smaller 600 or so passenger ships like Silver Shadow or Regent Navigator. If a problem comes you have a chance at some personal help.

All true.  I was supposed to be on the 9/1 cruise.  It became clear to me that NCL was more focused on sailing that cruise, regardless of the dangers involved.  They changed to embarkation day or time 3 times in a 36 hour period.....sometimes not even informing me.  I found out about ½ the changes by reading CC.

 

Finally, the Port of Miami took responsibility for the sailing from NCL by closing the port.  NCL ultimately had to be forced to cancel my cruise.

 

i feel badly for those who sailed the week before me.  The news story outlining NCL’s comedy of errors regarding the lack of communications and poor decision making has extended to those poor folks.

 

Frm what I’ve read, Royal, MSC and Carnival handled the same situation well.

Edited September 4, 2019 by graphicguy

[$hip$hape]

21 minutes ago, SunsetPoint said:

Everyone's been starving???  When did Newsweek turn into the National Enquirer?

I find, on a vacation, it's the unexpected things we remember most. 🙂

 

...we could be just sitting at home, watching things develop on TV,

and it's cheaper than "starving".

Edited September 4, 2019 by $hip$hape

[Briankc1445]

I was on the Breakaway 8/25 sailing and thought I'd pass along my experience. The frustrating part was that we would get a new explanation every day about our plans so I would have to update my flights. I feel like the communication could have been better. We were told on Thursday night we were going to stay 3 nights in Cozumel and then about 12 hours later they said we were leaving Friday as normal (after most people had already disembarked the ship thinking they had until 4:30 am to be back on).

 

I did have travel insurance but I just called and they will only cover a portion of my flight back from New Orleans as they are considering this a delay and not trip interruption due to some technical definitions in the policy. 

 

 

[Oakman58]

23 minutes ago, Briankc1445 said:

 

I did have travel insurance but I just called and they will only cover a portion of my flight back from New Orleans as they are considering this a delay and not trip interruption due to some technical definitions in the policy. 

 

 

 

There is one  consistent thing across the board with travel insurance companies, if they can find a way to weasel out of paying the insured they will.  I wouldn't be without travel insurance but I know if I need it I will have to jump through a lot of hoops to get my expenses back.  NEVER accept their first denial and they will definitely try to wear you down enough that you give up.

 

I speak from experience.  One week before we were due to depart for Egypt the 2011 revolution began.  Everyone was trying to get out of Egypt and we had no way to get into Egypt, airlines had cancelled inbound flights.  The Egyptian tour company we booked with refused to refund our money.  It took me 6 months of a back and forth hassle with our travel insurance before we finally got them to reimburse us.  I have little respect for insurance companies.

[mjkacmom]

2 hours ago, mariefisher said:

I think the passengers had every right to complain. To drop you off in an unfamiliar port and say change your flight and we will pay you back later is crazy. I can just imagine explaining that to an airline agent. All of the other ships waited this out and are bringing the passengers back to their original port.  

To me it looks like NCL was tired of feeding the passengers and dropped them off. They had to go back to Miami anyway. Did they offer to let them stay and wait. If not why not?  I can see letting the passengers off in NO that wanted to get off but the rest I just can’t figure out. 

 

NCL would much rather having guests on the ship spending money than dropping them off at a port and pay to fly them back to Miami. An empty ship is a money pit.

[Ptroxx]

27 minutes ago, Briankc1445 said:

I was on the Breakaway 8/25 sailing and thought I'd pass along my experience. The frustrating part was that we would get a new explanation every day about our plans so I would have to update my flights. I feel like the communication could have been better. We were told on Thursday night we were going to stay 3 nights in Cozumel and then about 12 hours later they said we were leaving Friday as normal (after most people had already disembarked the ship thinking they had until 4:30 am to be back on).

 

I did have travel insurance but I just called and they will only cover a portion of my flight back from New Orleans as they are considering this a delay and not trip interruption due to some technical definitions in the policy. 

 

 

What travel ins did you use.  ??   

What you get with NCL ? Or something different ? 

Can you post the verbiage ? 

[$hip$hape]

10 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

NCL would much rather having guests on the ship spending money

than dropping them off at a port

and pay to fly them back to Miami.

An empty ship is a money pit.

Right on ! 

Edited September 4, 2019 by $hip$hape

[PTC DAWG]

9 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

NCL would much rather having guests on the ship spending money than dropping them off at a port and pay to fly them back to Miami. An empty ship is a money pit.

I seriously doubt they had enough food to keep everyone happy.  And no provisions ready in NOLA..they weren't expecting the ship...

[Son of a son of a ...]

This just keeps getting worse for NCL.  When a business does not generate good will with its customers, the customers will turn on the business at any opportunity.  This can all be traced back to TCZ.  

[newmexicoNita]

15 hours ago, $hip$hape said:

Right on ! 

so true. I doubt anyone realizes this hasn't been an easy time for NCL either. So many keep saying Carnival and RCI made the decisions early on, which is true, but they also took the easy way out. Made a decision, din't consider changes in the movement of the storm may result in the decision not being the right one. So though it seems they handled it better, this was a situation that had no right answers. I still say, and will continue to support the decisions the cruise lines made, we do not know what went on behind the scenes. Of course NCL wanted to do what was best for all and of course they would have preferred to keep everyone on the ship bu that was not  possible. 

[Mike_DeA]

3 hours ago, newmexicoNita said:

so true. I doubt anyone realizes this hasn't been an easy time for NCL either. So many keep saying Carnival and RCI made the decisions early on, which is true, but they also took the easy way out. Made a decision, din't consider changes in the movement of the storm may result in the decision not being the right one. So though it seems they handled it better, this was a situation that had no right answers. I still say, and will continue to support the decisions the cruise lines made, we do not know what went on behind the scenes. Of course NCL wanted to do what was best for all and of course they would have preferred to keep everyone on the ship bu that was not  possible. 

No, you're the only one.  But guess what... cruise lines have to be prepared to deal with these issues, they happen regularly.

 

It's easy for you to support the decisions made, you're sitting in your air-conditioned house.  I'd like to hear from actual passengers on this sailing.  I don't like whiners but I do want to hear facts.

 

[mattc99]

I was booked for the Sept 1 cruise from Miami that was cancelled.  Am I supposed to call NCL for the refund or will they automatically process the refund on their end?

 

It hasn't hit my credit card as of today.

[lizygirl3]

Mattc99:  I am asking myself the same question?? Any information on the refund, and if you guys are getting the 20% future credit, etc...

[hilomelko]

On 9/4/2019 at 2:37 PM, Briankc1445 said:

I was on the Breakaway 8/25 sailing and thought I'd pass along my experience. The frustrating part was that we would get a new explanation every day about our plans so I would have to update my flights. I feel like the communication could have been better. We were told on Thursday night we were going to stay 3 nights in Cozumel and then about 12 hours later they said we were leaving Friday as normal (after most people had already disembarked the ship thinking they had until 4:30 am to be back on).

 

I did have travel insurance but I just called and they will only cover a portion of my flight back from New Orleans as they are considering this a delay and not trip interruption due to some technical definitions in the policy. 

 

 

I think the cherry on top was the last day the captain did not address the passengers,not in front of the ship as everyone disembarked,not over the PA system nothing..silence.....

[$hip$hape]

6 minutes ago, hilomelko said:

I think the cherry on top was the last day the captain did not address the passengers,

not in front of the ship as everyone disembarked,

not over the PA system nothing..

silence.....

Maybe he was busy. (?)

Just wondering, if you stood in line at the customer service desk?

Edited September 5, 2019 by $hip$hape

[Shoppie124]

On 9/4/2019 at 3:14 PM, PTC DAWG said:

I seriously doubt they had enough food to keep everyone happy.  And no provisions ready in NOLA..they weren't expecting the ship...

I was on the ship.  They ran out of romaine, strawberries and rye bread!

 

there were plenty of alternatives!

[$hip$hape]

9 minutes ago, Shoppie124 said:

I was on the ship.  They ran out of romaine, strawberries and rye bread!

there were plenty of alternatives!

"Starving."

(Personal memories  of searching through a garbage dump.)

 

Squint your eyes a bit closer; you may be eating your words.

Ani DiFranco

 

Edited September 5, 2019 by $hip$hape

[Shoppie124]

1 minute ago, $hip$hape said:

"Starving."

Personal memories  of searching through a garbage dump.

 

Squint your eyes a bit closer; you may be eating your words.

Ani DiFranco

 

So funny you posted that.  I went to high school with Ani. She was a couple years older than me.😂😂

[$hip$hape]

1 minute ago, Shoppie124 said:

So funny you posted that.

 I went to high school with Ani. She was a couple years older than me.😂😂

"funny" in an ironic way.

I 💗 Ani

[newmexicoNita]

16 hours ago, mattc99 said:

I was booked for the Sept 1 cruise from Miami that was cancelled.  Am I supposed to call NCL for the refund or will they automatically process the refund on their end?

 

It hasn't hit my credit card as of today.

Not positive about this, but think it will take a few weeks at least for the refund to hit; maybe even longer in this case. Sooner or later it will be posted. I know we all want sooner rather than later. 

[lizygirl3]

Got confirmation  e-mail from NCL that cruise was cancelled and the amount I paid for the cruise will be refunded. Just wondering if anyone has seen it on the credit card statement

[logan25]

The “empty” Breakaway sailed into Nassau a couple of hours ago.

[Shoppie124]

1 minute ago, logan25 said:

The “empty” Breakaway sailed into Nassau a couple of hours ago.

Again?