Trouble Booking - Venting

[arpie05]

I have been inquiring about booking a cruise since Friday. Can't seem to get a call back, follow up email or anyone to answer the phone. Very frustrating. Hated the agent used on cruise earlier this year so don't have one like i do with Carnival.  I have CruiseNext certificates which is why I haven't just booked online w $50 deposit.  - I even called today and after all the questions to hit 1, 2, 3 etc - it rang for over 5 mins.  I hung up.

 

[esm54687]

It's not unusual for any customer service department to be swamped between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.........  grab a decaf coffee and call back. ☺ 

[TheDuckmom]

You can book online with cruise next certs. No need to call them or use a TA unless the TA is going to give you an extra bonus.

[erdoran]

book online unless you are past final payment already.  You can transfer to a travel agent at your leisure within the first 30 days, and most likely if you finally reach an agent and decide the cruise isn’t for you, you can cancel with no penalty (depending on country and final payment status of course).  But get that placeholder in there while the sale is on, if you like the price.

[trummy]

4 hours ago, arpie05 said:

I have been inquiring about booking a cruise since Friday. Can't seem to get a call back, follow up email or anyone to answer the phone. Very frustrating. Hated the agent used on cruise earlier this year so don't have one like i do with Carnival.  I have CruiseNext certificates which is why I haven't just booked online w $50 deposit.  - I even called today and after all the questions to hit 1, 2, 3 etc - it rang for over 5 mins.  I hung up.

 

5 minutes??  Next time, put your phone on speaker and go about your business until they answer.

Edited December 3, 2019 by trummy

[julig22]

You can also book what you want and put it on courtesy hold - they will give you somewhere between 24 and 72 hrs to complete your booking -how they determine how long is beyond me but it will show on the reservation and NCL will bombard you with email reminders.  When you get to the payment page, you just find the courtesy hold box.  That would give you additional time to contact NCL if you think it is necessary.

 

But you can book online with your CNext certificates - there is a pull-down menu that will get you to a list of the certificates you have available, assuming you are logged into your account.  If I remember correctly, you can only apply them one at a time, so if you are using 2, then you use the first one to pay your deposit, then open the reservation and make a payment using certificate #2.

[MrsKC08]

One of the main reasons we always book with a TA!

[jdvmd]

18 hours ago, julig22 said:

You can also book what you want and put it on courtesy hold - they will give you somewhere between 24 and 72 hrs to complete your booking -how they determine how long is beyond me but it will show on the reservation and NCL will bombard you with email reminders.  When you get to the payment page, you just find the courtesy hold box.  That would give you additional time to contact NCL if you think it is necessary.

 

But you can book online with your CNext certificates - there is a pull-down menu that will get you to a list of the certificates you have available, assuming you are logged into your account.  If I remember correctly, you can only apply them one at a time, so if you are using 2, then you use the first one to pay your deposit, then open the reservation and make a payment using certificate #2.

All good advice.

 

[cksv]

I called my big box TA twice yesterday and while they answered right away, they sat on hold with NCL for over 30 minutes on both calls. In total I spent over 2 hours between both calls! For whatever reason NCL seems to be really swamped right now. I've also been waiting for them to process my Shareholder Credit for my NYE cruise for the past 2 weeks. Wish they would hire more help and improve their customer service. In the meantime try calling in the afternoon on a weekday and you should have better luck getting through.

[WillandTam]

OP, 

This is why we always use our hometown T/A. She takes care of any headaches with the same pricing as booking myself. 

[SouthLyonCruiser]

Get a reliable travel agent; preferably referred to you by a friend and let the agent worry about getting through.