Should I stay or should I go?

[JamieLogical]

Today we received confirmation of what we had suspected for a few days: our Joy sailing out of Jamaica for September was being canceled. Cruise cancelations are nothing new for us at this point. We have had five cruises canceled due to COVID, including one with only 2 days' notice for March 15, 2020. But this one is especially painful, because we booked this specific sailing as our first "post-COVID" cruise. It was billed as a "Return to Sea" for NCL. Because it was sailing out of Jamaica, it would not be subject to the CDC's conditional sail order or any of the other issues with sailing from US ports. We booked this as a sure bet... a cruise we could finally be certain would actually sail.

 

Well this time it wasn't COVID or the CDC that put the kibosh on our sailing, it was greed. NCL decided to pull the crew from the Joy so they could quickly staff up the Bliss for their more lucrative Alaska sailings. Rather than offer to transfer our booking or offer us some sort of additional FCC for screwing us over, they offered us the same 10% coupon they've been offering on all canceled sailings for months. And, by the way, you can only have one 10% coupon on your account, so if you already have one from one of your five previously canceled cruises, tough luck.

 

Needless to say, I feel incredibly wronged. Unfortunately, we have thousands of dollars of FCC from our canceled March 2020 sailings, four CruiseNext certificates, $500 of CruiseFirst, and $690 of FCC from a price drop on our last pre-COVID sailing in December of 2019. If we walk away from NCL altogether, we can request refunds of our FCC from the canceled March sailings, but we will lose our $690 of additional FCC and we will lose $1500 in CruiseNext/CruiseFirst.

 

Right now, our options are:

• Cash out, try to sell our CruiseNext/CruiseFirst, give up that $690 of FCC and move on from NCL altogether.
• Try to book some other sailings on NCL for the same weeks in September as we were booked on the Joy, pray those too don't get canceled, burn through all of our FCC and CruiseNext, sell/gift our CruiseFirst, and leave NCL in our rearview mirror in 2022.
• Forgive NCL for this egregious slight, try to put it behind us, and continue to sail with NCL for years to come.

 

Cast your vote and feel free to explain your answers in the comments.

 

 

[Seany527]

If you have to question it, it means your hearts not in it. You likely won’t enjoy your new NCL cruise and will constantly be comparing it to what could have been in the Haven. I say “run.”

[Red-Sol]

I can appreciate your anger and frustration Jamie...but at least for me whenever I feel wronged by NCL it ends up ending like this:

 

"You can check-out any time you like, But you can never leave!"

 

Or:

 

 

 

[trivimp]

Understandable to be utterly pissed off... but you'd also be walking away from any perks that you've accumulated with NCL, yes?  Aren't you Platinum?  I'm at the point of saying, yeah it's a pain that I've had so many cruises cancelled, but all of the cruise lines are dealing with the same issues.  At some point, they're going to sail again, & I'll cruise whatever line gives me the best bang for my buck.  

[pghflyer]

Thing is this is an unprecedented time and generally they are all not doing a great job.  I think you should abandon any hope of teaching them a lesson or righting a wrong.........and the questions end up being (1) have you enjoyed your previous ship experiences and (2) can you get a similar or better experience for an equal or lower price elsewhere?

 

As much as many of these things irritate me, I can't seem to find anything equivalent at a price that I can stomach and thus far, I have had great experiences (other than all this COVID craziness).

[JamieLogical]

3 minutes ago, trivimp said:

Understandable to be utterly pissed off... but you'd also be walking away from any perks that you've accumulated with NCL, yes?  Aren't you Platinum?  I'm at the point of saying, yeah it's a pain that I've had so many cruises cancelled, but all of the cruise lines are dealing with the same issues.  At some point, they're going to sail again, & I'll cruise whatever line gives me the best bang for my buck.  

 

I definitely don't blame NCL at all for the COVID cancellations. But this one feels so wrong, because they made the conscious CHOICE to cancel this cruise and offer no compensation to their most loyal customers who had jumped on the chance to "Return to Sea".

[BermudaBound2014]

I have empathy for you and would likely also feel wronged (because you were). I think you know by now that I do not stick up for the cruise lines, so I am suggesting this on your behalf only.

 

My recommendation is to wait a week and see how you feel. It's raw right now. If, after a week, you still feel passionately I always vote with my dollar. 

[sid_9169]

I was just reading over the T&C for the Cruise First certificate that the representative talked me into... Apparently, the only way I will ever get my value with it is to book again, as it's non refundable. Of course, this cruise I booked was NCL's grand "Return to the Sea", and it was "definitely happening"... Fast forward to today, and now I just lost that money forever, unless I give them my business again, which I'm hesitant to do at this point. At least all of the other sailings that I had cancelled were because of the "pause in operations" and not corporate greed... 

[forgotmyCCname]

14 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I definitely don't blame NCL at all for the COVID cancellations. But this one feels so wrong, because they made the conscious CHOICE to cancel this cruise and offer no compensation to their most loyal customers who had jumped on the chance to "Return to Sea".

Agreed. We would have become Platinum after this cruise but I.m not loyal. We are Diamond Plus on RCl and I did not hesitate to book first a 5 day on RCL out of Tampa until I saw a 7 day on the huge Symphony. I'm almost feeling excited that we will finally get to celebrate our 25th,,,

Edited May 26, 2021 by forgotmyCCname

[Gen X Life]

27 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

Today we received confirmation of what we had suspected for a few days: our Joy sailing out of Jamaica for September was being canceled. Cruise cancelations are nothing new for us at this point. We have had five cruises canceled due to COVID, including one with only 2 days' notice for March 15, 2020. But this one is especially painful, because we booked this specific sailing as our first "post-COVID" cruise. It was billed as a "Return to Sea" for NCL. Because it was sailing out of Jamaica, it would not be subject to the CDC's conditional sail order or any of the other issues with sailing from US ports. We booked this as a sure bet... a cruise we could finally be certain would actually sail.

 

Well this time it wasn't COVID or the CDC that put the kibosh on our sailing, it was greed. NCL decided to pull the crew from the Joy so they could quickly staff up the Bliss for their more lucrative Alaska sailings. Rather than offer to transfer our booking or offer us some sort of additional FCC for screwing us over, they offered us the same 10% coupon they've been offering on all canceled sailings for months. And, by the way, you can only have one 10% coupon on your account, so if you already have one from one of your five previously canceled cruises, tough luck.

 

Needless to say, I feel incredibly wronged. Unfortunately, we have thousands of dollars of FCC from our canceled March 2020 sailings, four CruiseNext certificates, $500 of CruiseFirst, and $690 of FCC from a price drop on our last pre-COVID sailing in December of 2019. If we walk away from NCL altogether, we can request refunds of our FCC from the canceled March sailings, but we will lose our $690 of additional FCC and we will lose $1500 in CruiseNext/CruiseFirst.

 

Right now, our options are:

• Cash out, try to sell our CruiseNext/CruiseFirst, give up that $690 of FCC and move on from NCL altogether.
• Try to book some other sailings on NCL for the same weeks in September as we were booked on the Joy, pray those too don't get canceled, burn through all of our FCC and CruiseNext, sell/gift our CruiseFirst, and leave NCL in our rearview mirror in 2022.
• Forgive NCL for this egregious slight, try to put it behind us, and continue to sail with NCL for years to come.

 

Cast your vote and feel free to explain your answers in the comments.

 

 

I am sorry. You were treated very shabby; as were we all who were cancelled in such an egregious and appalling manner.  It was an intentional money grab and we were the flotsam. 

 

 I have the same decision to make. I do not know what we are going to do yet - it has not sunk in again.    

You do whatever is best for you; with all of those FCCs, whatever it is I support you and wish you the best!

 

***.  BUT remember it in the future and when some one asks you for a recommend!!  I will not forget my treatment.

 

Good Luck - Your Money; Your Choice

[YVRBassElectric]

can you Cash out, sell your CruiseNext/CruiseFirst, try another line (or 3) before giving up the $690 of FCC and moving on from NCL altogether?

 

NCL corp office has irritated me in the past (nothing like this cr*p with the Joy) but I haven't found another line that I like the onboard experience as much as NCL

[coastcat]

18 minutes ago, sid_9169 said:

I was just reading over the T&C for the Cruise First certificate that the representative talked me into... Apparently, the only way I will ever get my value with it is to book again, as it's non refundable. Of course, this cruise I booked was NCL's grand "Return to the Sea", and it was "definitely happening"... Fast forward to today, and now I just lost that money forever, unless I give them my business again, which I'm hesitant to do at this point. At least all of the other sailings that I had cancelled were because of the "pause in operations" and not corporate greed... 

Like CruiseNext certificates, CruiseFirst is transferable with no fee. I assume that means that, like with CruiseNext, you can sell yours to get the value back. 

Edited May 26, 2021 by coastcat

[JamieLogical]

Just now, YVRBassElectric said:

can you Cash out, sell your CruiseNext/CruiseFirst, try another line (or 3) before giving up the $690 of FCC and moving on from NCL altogether?

 

NCL corp office has irritated me in the past (nothing like this cr*p with the Joy) but I haven't found another line that I like the onboard experience as much as NCL

 

We will likely lose the $690 FCC before we've had time to try many (any?) other lines. That specific FCC was set to expire in Dec. 2020 but they extended it to Dec. 2021, since we didn't have the opportunity to use it. If we don't use it this year, I doubt they would extend it again.

[SSFun]

I too was booked on Joy (in a Haven room - probably my only opportunity because the price was *too good to be true*). I am very disappointed as well. I feel that NCL has done its loyal customers wrong. However, I am going to throw this out there... NCL is a business, they are in this to make money. If they do not make money and if the rollout of cruising does not go well, we will likely see bigger problems in the cruise industry. They pulled the crew from our wonderful Joy sailings to try to get the ball rolling in a place that they know will have excursions and a place where they will not need to worry about foreign port requirements. They are also giving business to Alaska ports (which are a part of our United States) rather than to those aforementioned foreign ports. This will boost the economy of Alaska which will not have the opportunity to get tourism income during the winter months like Caribbean ports of call will. I am trying really hard to look at this situation from all angles in an attempt to rid myself of that "cheated" feeling. I am relatively sure that if all goes well with the Alaska return to sailing (which I am not entirely convinced will actually happen - but hopeful of) and the first cruises into the Caribbean, we will be all set to sail in 2022 and forward. Am I upset? Yes. Do I feel cheated? Yes. Do I feel awful for Jamaica and the economic blow this likely is for them? Yes. Will I sail again? Yes. Will it be on an NCL ship? Most likely, as I have always loved my experiences on and the friends I have made through the cruises I have taken on NCL ships. Everyone will work through this in their own way and at their  own pace, I only hope to be able to see many of you on future cruises on NCL (or other cruise lines 😉). 

[Gen X Life]

5 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

We will likely lose the $690 FCC before we've had time to try many (any?) other lines. That specific FCC was set to expire in Dec. 2020 but they extended it to Dec. 2021, since we didn't have the opportunity to use it. If we don't use it this year, I doubt they would extend it again.

NoWAY  --$700.00 is a chunk of change, that is a left Louis Vuitton,  LOL!!  I don't know, I am so angry right now I might just say I'll go bare foot!!  Well maybe not , but it sounded good right!?  LOL

Edited May 26, 2021 by Gen X Life

[JamieLogical]

1 minute ago, SSFun said:

I too was booked on Joy (in a Haven room - probably my only opportunity because the price was *too good to be true*). I am very disappointed as well. I feel that NCL has done its loyal customers wrong. However, I am going to throw this out there... NCL is a business, they are in this to make money. If they do not make money and if the rollout of cruising does not go well, we will likely see bigger problems in the cruise industry. They pulled the crew from our wonderful Joy sailings to try to get the ball rolling in a place that they know will have excursions and a place where they will not need to worry about foreign port requirements. They are also giving business to Alaska ports (which are a part of our United States) rather than to those aforementioned foreign ports. This will boost the economy of Alaska which will not have the opportunity to get tourism income during the winter months like Caribbean ports of call will. I am trying really hard to look at this situation from all angles in an attempt to rid myself of that "cheated" feeling. I am relatively sure that if all goes well with the Alaska return to sailing (which I am not entirely convinced will actually happen - but hopeful of) and the first cruises into the Caribbean, we will be all set to sail in 2022 and forward. Am I upset? Yes. Do I feel cheated? Yes. Do I feel awful for Jamaica and the economic blow this likely is for them? Yes. Will I sail again? Yes. Will it be on an NCL ship? Most likely, as I have always loved my experiences on and the friends I have made through the cruises I have taken on NCL ships. Everyone will work through this in their own way and at their  own pace, I only hope to be able to see many of you on future cruises on NCL (or other cruise lines 😉). 

 

As an NCL shareholder, I definitely don't fault a business for making a business decision. If the revenue from the Bliss to Alaska will help keep them "afloat" then great! That doesn't mean they have to wrong us. Would it have killed them to throw us some kind of a bone? Some kind of additional FCC or even just let our 10% off coupons stack? I feel like it is short-sighted to disenfranchise your most loyal customers by pulling a move like this.

[CaptainWoody]

The logical thing to do, Jamie, is to just suck it up and keep sailing NCL when their cruises suit you.  This is all business, and NCL's duty is to their shareholders.

 

The thing that some folks did that was less than logical was to take the FCC's in lieu of cash refunds.   I refused the FCC last year.  I would likely have come out ahead if I had taken it, but I really haven't ran the numbers.  Too many variables.

[JamieLogical]

Just now, CaptainWoody said:

The logical thing to do, Jamie, is to just suck it up and keep sailing NCL when their cruises suit you.  This is all business, and NCL's duty is to their shareholders.

 

The thing that some folks did that was less than logical was to take the FCC's in lieu of cash refunds.   I refused the FCC last year.  I would likely have come out ahead if I had taken it, but I really haven't ran the numbers.  Too many variables.

 

Those of us who took the FCC can now still just get a cash refund if we want. It would have been NUTS for me to turn down 150% FCC when I had every intention of sailing NCL for years to come way back in March of 2020.

[YVRBassElectric]

4 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

We will likely lose the $690 FCC before we've had time to try many (any?) other lines. That specific FCC was set to expire in Dec. 2020 but they extended it to Dec. 2021, since we didn't have the opportunity to use it. If we don't use it this year, I doubt they would extend it again.

extending it would be my first demand of my PCC! As far as I'm concerned expiry dates should be extended for the amount of time COVID shut down cruising. We have 8 CN that expire Sept 2022, how they are handled by NCL will weigh in on my decision to cruise again

[SSFun]

11 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

As an NCL shareholder, I definitely don't fault a business for making a business decision. If the revenue from the Bliss to Alaska will help keep them "afloat" then great! That doesn't mean they have to wrong us. Would it have killed them to throw us some kind of a bone? Some kind of additional FCC or even just let our 10% off coupons stack? I feel like it is short-sighted to disenfranchise your most loyal customers by pulling a move like this.

Well said and I agree! I'm just trying really hard to find a silver lining. LOL

Edited May 26, 2021 by SSFun

[YVRBassElectric]

1 minute ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Those of us who took the FCC can now still just get a cash refund if we want. It would have been NUTS for me to turn down 150% FCC when I had every intention of sailing NCL for years to come way back in March of 2020.

we were scheduled on he Joy in DOS in April of 2020, when it was canceled I looked to book a Haven AFT (same cruise April 2021) and the 125% FCC didn't cover the cost, so I took a refund. 

[Yinster]

Your heart is telling you one thing and that's run. Whilst your head say stay cos of his much you stand to lose. The fact you are asking random people what they would do says you are in two minds about this. .

 

NCL is a business and unfortunately even though you are can be the most loyal customer out there, personally you won't get any more than what will be given. Is it right? Probably not. But they know that there's customers who have to book soon cos they had cancelled cruises. They don't need to chase for custom right now.

 

 

The harsh reality is you are one of the thousands of people who sail with them. You leave for another cruise line and NCL will not miss you one bit. It will have to take the majority of us to leave before a dent is felt by NCL.

 

Before Covid, I remember the queues for platinum and above check-in was just as long as regular check in. That shows how many regular customer NCL has. 

 

You have every right to be angry. Wait a week and see how you feel about NCL then. 

 

If you have a good PCC, ask what viable options you have

 

 

 

[HBCcruiser]

I would be super pissed too! Have you asked NCL to extend your FCC, 10% and CruiseNext/Cruise First coupons into 2023? I emailed a request to have my FCC and 10% extended to December 2023 so I could use them on the Prima. There is NO WAY between all of the cancellations of the 3 cruise lines I had booked/cancelled/rebooked that I would be able to schedule and take those cruises before December 2022. IMO that is the LEAST NCL could do for you. That and give you a free Haven upgrade.. Just Sayin' 

 

NCL form link - if nothing else, just vent to NCL: www.ncl.com/case-submission 

Edited May 26, 2021 by HBCcruiser

[DCGuy64]

49 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

I have empathy for you and would likely also feel wronged (because you were). I think you know by now that I do not stick up for the cruise lines, so I am suggesting this on your behalf only.

 

My recommendation is to wait a week and see how you feel. It's raw right now. If, after a week, you still feel passionately I always vote with my dollar. 

I 100% agree with @BermudaBound2014 here. This all went down today and I absolutely understand @JamieLogical's reaction. (I'd be right there with you) But I would also wait a week and see what happens, and consider drafting a polite but firm letter to NCL about this. The more people push back, and in the right manner, the greater the company's chances of doing right by you.

I have to wonder if any of the other cruise lines will be eyeing this decision by NCL and seeing what blowback there might be.

[Cruising Lynne]

Hi Jamie. While I think it would be nice if NCL gives cruisers on the cancelled Joy trips a bigger future cruise discount, I do not feel that you should give up on NCL yet. Use your credits up first, and try other cruise lines. 

 

We have enjoyed cruises on Royal Caribbean just as much, but mostly cruise with NCL. I just like the crew better on NCL and enjoy the Freestyle dining. 

 

When I booked the Gem trip out of DR, I told my husband that I would be surprised if it did not get cancelled. Feeling like these cruises would definitely happen, has caused a lot of disappointment, but no one should be shocked.

 

I hope they extend the expiration date of your credit so that you do not have to feel rushed into choosing a new trip.