Norwegian Unresponsive to the Coronavirus in Asia

[SeaShark]

1 hour ago, blcruising said:

Oh, I see. I think that is an extreme position but I'll engage on it. If you are that concerned about getting sick with flu, then you might consider a different vacation option.

 

Business have to have cancellation policies in place for this very reason. Otherwise, people could just call up and say they were sick. I support the need for NCL to have the policy, and I certainly don't support the abuse of the policy by passengers. I believe it would have been wise for NCL to relax that policy for Feb 6 and Feb 17 Jade departures for the previously stated reasons.

 

What you've failed to explain is why NCL (or any other provider) should take the financial hit for someone who either decided to take no insurance coverage, or who had inadequate insurance coverage. Why should one party be made to pay for the risk assumed by another party....unless, of course, that the one party is an insurance provider.

[luv2kroooz]

15 minutes ago, SeaShark said:

 

Now you're arguing the opposite side...it isn't people calling and claiming to be sick, its people cancelling because they don't want to be sick (trust me, it is different). 

 

I just don't think not wanting to be sick (because, lets face it, who WANTS to be sick) is a reason to circumvent the cancellation policies.

Correct. Different situations can result in different outcomes....something that you apparently refuse to acknowledge. Like NCL, you are rigidly clinging to your belief that people can not cancel based on the fear of wanting to be sick. I reject that position. My world is not as black and white as yours may be.

Edited February 6, 2020 by blcruising

[luv2kroooz]

12 minutes ago, SeaShark said:

 

What you've failed to explain is why NCL (or any other provider) should take the financial hit for someone who either decided to take no insurance coverage, or who had inadequate insurance coverage. Why should one party be made to pay for the risk assumed by another party....unless, of course, that the one party is an insurance provider.

I didn't fail to explain anything. Not everything needs to have a documented explanation. Sometimes you do things because you believe it is the moral and ethical thing to do. 

 

Why do you think the other cruiselines and airlines relaxed their policies? Surely, they are taking a similar or greater financial hit that you mention, yet they reach a different conclusion. I'd encourage you to look beyond the dollars and cents and the black and white print in the contract as most of the travel industry has done as it relates to travel in or near infected areas.

 

 

Edited February 6, 2020 by blcruising

[SummmerInKefalonia]

All the 2020 Asia cruises of Norwegian Spirit are cancelled and the ship is redeployed to Eastern Mediterranean from 15/4 to 15/11 with weekly departures from Piraeus, Athens.

Info on the official cruise schedule of the port of Piraeus.

http://www.olp.gr/en/cruise-greece/cruise-programme

[hamrag]

11 minutes ago, SeaShark said:

 

What you've failed to explain is why NCL (or any other provider) should take the financial hit for someone who either decided to take no insurance coverage, or who had inadequate insurance coverage. Why should one party be made to pay for the risk assumed by another party....unless, of course, that the one party is an insurance provider.

Exactly, he's either unwilling or incapable of explaining that.....I believe it is the former! 😉 

[ziggyuk]

Just read Holland America Westerdam after being denied entry to both the Philippines and Taiwan has now been denied disembarkation in Japan due to a passenger suspected of having the virus.

 

The original disembarkation was Shanghai and was changed to Yokohama.

 

This ship could now end up in quarantine alongside the Diamond Princess.

 

I wonder how many people changed flights to Yokohama and will now end up with no ship to board, assuming the next cruise was still going ahead as planned.

[luv2kroooz]

2 minutes ago, ziggyuk said:

Just read Holland America Westerdam after being denied entry to both the Philippines and Taiwan has now been denied disembarkation in Japan due to a passenger suspected of having the virus.

 

The original disembarkation was Shanghai and was changed to Yokohama.

 

This ship could now end up in quarantine alongside the Diamond Princess.

 

I wonder how many people changed flights to Yokohama and will now end up with no ship to board, assuming the next cruise was still going ahead as planned.

Holland America equally as bad as NCL. They'll get what they get.

[FLConnie]

15 minutes ago, SummmerInKefalonia said:

All the 2020 Asia cruises of Norwegian Spirit are cancelled and the ship is redeployed to Eastern Mediterranean from 15/4 to 15/11 with weekly departures from Piraeus, Athens.

Info on the official cruise schedule of the port of Piraeus.

http://www.olp.gr/en/cruise-greece/cruise-programme

How can you read the info in the link?   Is this just the Greek port?  We are on the April 15 sailing that is supposed to be Singapore to Tokyo.  I know there was a 4 delay for those who were to sail the 11th from Rome.  Is that cancelled too?

[SummmerInKefalonia]

Download this: CRUISE_EXCEL_2020_6-02-2020_1.xls and read the dates. They were just added today. Also if you check NCL's site none of Norwegian Spirit's cruises are available...

[luv2kroooz]

33 minutes ago, SummmerInKefalonia said:

All the 2020 Asia cruises of Norwegian Spirit are cancelled and the ship is redeployed to Eastern Mediterranean from 15/4 to 15/11 with weekly departures from Piraeus, Athens.

Info on the official cruise schedule of the port of Piraeus.

http://www.olp.gr/en/cruise-greece/cruise-programme

Very interesting. I see that on the site you mentioned.

In my opinion, a wise move by NCL. I would imagine demand for Asia is not very high.

Of course, website not updated, but they haven't even updated it for the Feb 17th embarkation change from Hong Kong to Singapore. Sounds like conditions worsening in Singapore with two new cases confirmed today, one with no history of travel to mainland China.

Based on Jade, I assume NCL will do nothing for impacted Spirit travelers, but I hope I am wrong.

 

 

Edited February 6, 2020 by blcruising

[SummmerInKefalonia]

Just now, blcruising said:

Very interesting. I see that on the site you mentioned.

In my opinion, a wise move by NCL. I would imagine demand for Asia is not very high.

Of course, website not updated, but they haven't even updated it for the Feb 17th embarkation change from Hong Kong to Singapore.

I assume they won't do anything for impacted travelers. I hope I am wrong.

 

 

In a TA site there are Norwegian Pearl's cruises for summer 2021 from Piraeus, Athens. I supposed Spirit's will be the same for 2020.

[FLConnie]

My guess is that it isn't finished from Dry Dock because of the "strike" and it's easier to just leave it there than deal with all of this.  I just emailed my TA.  Thanks for posting.

[hamrag]

1 minute ago, FLConnie said:

My guess is that it isn't finished from Dry Dock because of the "strike" and it's easier to just leave it there than deal with all of this.  I just emailed my TA.  Thanks for posting.

 

I am not so sure that is the case, and I have a significant interest in this....we are booked on the 24 night Cape Town to Singapore, scheduled 22nd March, and I have been looking at the itineraries from Rome to Dubai (now shortened) and Dubai to Cape Town. 

 

When you look at the logistics of getting from Cape Town to Athens, rather than Singapore across 24 days, it is entirely feasible. In other words, it would do the reverse route and miss out most of the UAE ports and by ending up in Athens rather than Rome you miss out Israel too......so I now believe it might be true!! Soon it may be time for us to make Limoncello from lemons....and we will, if it comes to that.

 

Interesting times indeed!

[FLConnie]

Just now, hamrag said:

 

I am not so sure that is the case, and I have a significant interest in this....we are booked on the 24 night Cape Town to Singapore, scheduled 22nd March, and I have been looking at the itineraries from Rome to Dubai (now shortened) and Dubai to Cape Town. 

 

When you look at the logistics of getting from Cape Town to Athens, rather than Singapore across 24 days, it is entirely feasible. In other words, it would do the reverse route and miss out most of the UAE ports and by ending up in Athens rather than Rome you miss out Israel too......so I now believe it might be true!! Soon it may be time for us to make Limoncello from lemons....and we will, if it comes to that.

 

Interesting times indeed!

I just wanted to get this out there because I know several are on four legs and we are scheduled to join them in Singapore April 15th to Tokyo, so we have been watching as well.  And then with the change of ports a couple days ago and delays .......  Hopefully travel insurance will kick in for everyone now!

[hamrag]

24 minutes ago, SummmerInKefalonia said:

Download this: CRUISE_EXCEL_2020_6-02-2020_1.xls and read the dates. They were just added today. Also if you check NCL's site none of Norwegian Spirit's cruises are available...

 

Here in the UK the cruises are still showing, and I just tried a dummy booking and got all the way to the payment card screen. Not suggesting it isn't being redeployed back to Athens from Cape Town, but the original cruises are definitely still bookable!

 

Time will tell.....

[smplybcause]

2 hours ago, GA Dave said:

Okay, switching gears a little bit here.  Based on how everyone here is reacting to this whole situation and cruises, maybe you can tell me how you feel about this.  My wife was called in for jury duty here this week for our county court.  She said there were about 200 people stuffed into the jury room on Tuesday morning, many sneezing and coughing.  I also have been summoned for next week to serve on a jury at our US District Court.  If this virus is as contagious as everyone is saying, and can be passed from a person not yet displaying symptoms to others, should they not be closing the courts?  It seems really irresponsible for a government that has issued a state of emergency to force hundreds of people into tight quarters while this virus is growing.

Thoughts?

 

Honestly you should be more concerned about getting the flu than corona at this point. Corona is around 25,000 worldwide while the flu is over 25,000,000 in just the US just for this season with over 25,000 killed this season. 

[notes21]

I was able to still find Asia cruises on NCL's site, but the spreadsheet definitely shows the Spirit  in Greece on 5/10.  The day after we were supposed to be boarding in Tokyo.  I  sure hope if this is accurate that they will allow refunds, changes, future cruise, etc.  We did a Venice, Croatia, Montenegro, & Greece cruise last summer and have no interest in repeating it.  Plus I'm supposed to be in Fiji for 5 days before going to Tokyo.   I definitely understand that they have the right to make this large of a change, and I would have been happy to go on a revised Asia itinerary.

[smplybcause]

59 minutes ago, blcruising said:

I didn't fail to explain anything. Not everything needs to have a documented explanation. Sometimes you do things because you believe it is the moral and ethical thing to do. 

 

Why do you think the other cruiselines and airlines relaxed their policies? Surely, they are taking a similar or greater financial hit that you mention, yet they reach a different conclusion. I'd encourage you to look beyond the dollars and cents and the black and white print in the contract as most of the travel industry has done as it relates to travel in or near infected areas.

 

 

 

Did Royal cancel their cruises out of Singapore too? I can only find articles referencing the cancellation of cruises out of Shanghai. 

[luv2kroooz]

11 minutes ago, smplybcause said:

 

Did Royal cancel their cruises out of Singapore too? I can only find articles referencing the cancellation of cruises out of Shanghai. 

I don't believe so. I think they are round trip runs out of Singapore, as opposed to one way runs to Hong Kong.

[mips]

1 hour ago, blcruising said:

Very interesting. I see that on the site you mentioned.

In my opinion, a wise move by NCL. I would imagine demand for Asia is not very high.

Of course, website not updated, but they haven't even updated it for the Feb 17th embarkation change from Hong Kong to Singapore. Sounds like conditions worsening in Singapore with two new cases confirmed today, one with no history of travel to mainland China.

Based on Jade, I assume NCL will do nothing for impacted Spirit travelers, but I hope I am wrong.

I cannot get this site to load for me.  Can anyone share a screen shot?  We were just about to make a final payment (actually not due until April) on an August cruise to Japan and China.  We are not really willing to do a revised port cruise as, we are working on bucket list things and was booked a year ago.

 

 

 

[luv2kroooz]

3 minutes ago, mips said:

I cannot get this site to load for me.  Can anyone share a screen shot?

[SummmerInKefalonia]

This was updated today. So the company probably called today the port to inform them.

[mips]

1 minute ago, blcruising said:

Thank you, Well we already did Greece, amazing place to visit.   Now I suppose we have to decide if we book a cruise to Australia instead or just hold off.  

[luv2kroooz]

I would like to say this is an amazing platform for sharing information. It is too bad NCL is delayed with it's communication. Here someone was thinking about making final payment under the reasonable belief that it was business as usual, but there is information out there that indicates it may not be business as usual. People may be booking a cruise thinking they are going to Asia, when in fact they aren't. And NCL is remote silent again. It is too bad we have to learn these things from each other, but it is a great forum for this!!

Edited February 6, 2020 by blcruising

[luv2kroooz]

2 minutes ago, mips said:

Thank you, Well we already did Greece, amazing place to visit.   Now I suppose we have to decide if we book a cruise to Australia instead or just hold off.  

Happy to help. I would love to go to Greece or Australia👍.