NCL pulling visits to St Petersburg

[Turtles06]

8 hours ago, IrieBajan54 said:

Agree! It's like banning athletes. There's no way a worker on a cruise ship or an athlete can tell a country's leader what to do.

Big difference between athletes and workers on a cruise ship. The latter aren’t part of state-sponsored doping, nor being used to represent their country or burnish their country’s image. 

Edited March 3, 2022 by Turtles06

[silverlady59]

On 2/24/2022 at 10:32 PM, Lindysu said:

I am Australian and I am really annoyed and peeved at this move by NCL. The only reason I booked on the cruise was St Petersburg. I am not due to cruise until August. Surely NCL can wait and see what pans out in the interim before cancelling. As another poster pointed out, the Ukraine is nowhere St Petersburg. By the way, the whole world is not American. Plenty of other nationalities cruise too! I don't think I'll be booking with NCL again. I vote with my feet!

I'm British, booked to do the Baltic in May, carried over from last year. At Petersburg was a place that I had looked forward to seeing. NCL are right to cancel the port, it's nothing to do with the proximity to Ukraine but more likely to be because Putin has invaded Ukraine and is now bombing the heck out of the country because he wants to control the Baltic countries, shame on you and others who think that NCL is being unreasonable, do you really want to fill Putin's war coffers with any money that you would spend in St Petersburg?

[BklynBorn47]

17 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

Big difference between athletes and workers on a cruise ship. The latter aren’t part of state-sponsored doping, nor being used to represent their country or burnish their country’s image. 

Exactly!  Banning their athletes from international events is also one visible way to let the Russian people know that the world is not OK with this regardless of what their controlled news service tells them.  Also a means to support the anti invasion, anti Putin people within Russia.  

[Bama357]

As many have said , SPB was our primary reason for the cruise . Also , when one looks at prices of cruises that INCLUDE STP to those in Europe that do NOT include STP, there is a significant premium paid . We wanted to cancel the cruise , but NCL said that we would lose 25% of our full payment . Our cruise is not until June. We asked if we could have full credit towards a future cruise . The answer was no , with a smart 🐴response of “ You are paying for a room on the ship and if we decide to float around for 9 days and no ports, then we can do that !” This is the LAST money NCL will ever get from me . 

[Bama357]

4 hours ago, silverlady59 said:

I'm British, booked to do the Baltic in May, carried over from last year. At Petersburg was a place that I had looked forward to seeing. NCL are right to cancel the port, it's nothing to do with the proximity to Ukraine but more likely to be because Putin has invaded Ukraine and is now bombing the heck out of the country because he wants to control the Baltic countries, shame on you and others who think that NCL is being unreasonable, do you really want to fill Putin's war coffers with any money that you would spend in St Petersburg?

I fully agree with you , and am glad it has been removed . BUT I think NCL should have either allowed cancellation with no penalty , refund part of money, or allow us to have credit on another cruise .

[Bama357]

On 2/28/2022 at 10:19 AM, Kol said:

apologies if this is a stupid question but I’m an NCL first timer (or was!) but  is this change regarded as a “significant change” sufficient to cancel without loss of deposit under the T & C ,s please ? 

We attempted to cancel and asked for credit on another cruise . They refused and said we could get a 75% refund only . 
we have cruises several time with NCL , but NEVER again .

[butterfly4108]

If this war continues they will have no choice but to cancel the cruise entirely on their own as Putin will just march into other countries...that being said I'm appalled at the way they are treating everyone that wants to cancel.  I have alway loved NCL but was treated rudely last week by one of their agents when I simply asked about repricing and that's NEVER happened.  I wonder if they're desperate for decent help right now. Definitely always do the survey at the end of your call though and I would call back and get a different person on the line to assist me.  NOT dealing with rudeness when I'm giving them my money!  If they continue to try to charge you a penalty for something as serious as what's happening I would start causing some noise with supervisors and above.....we have a right to be concerned!

 

[cybergremlin]

Just received another email from NCL advising a 20% discount of the fare will be applied within 30 business days. If you have already paid then a refund will be given if not then it’ll be applied to your fare 

[Middleager]

15 minutes ago, cybergremlin said:

Just received another email from NCL advising a 20% discount of the fare will be applied within 30 business days. If you have already paid then a refund will be given if not then it’ll be applied to your fare 

Just received same for the Baltic cruise we booked for 9.3.  It also removed Tallin, Estonia, which we had really wanted to go.  It was the only port in any of the 3 Baltic nations.  Now we have to re-evaluate if we want to go.

[cybergremlin]

I’m also sailing on the 3rd Sep (Prima) and Talin is still on our list of stops

[Travelling2Some]

Just got the itinerary change email for the September 31 Getaway sailing.  20 per cent off the cruise fare and three new ports - Oslo, Norway, Skagen, Denmark, and Kiel, Germany replace SPB and Warnemunde (Berlin) is also dropped.  We would like to stick with it if political events allow.  Final payment not until May 24 so we will see.

[emmtee]

Our sailing(6/20 on the Dawn) just got an email with our revised itinerary.  In place of St. Petersburg, we have Hamina (Kotka) Finland and one sea day.  I'm relieved to have a sea day since our itinerary is 11 ports in 12 days.  The sea day will fall right in the middle of the cruise, so the timing is perfect.  We're also getting a 20% refund of the cruise fare.  

 

Edited March 5, 2022 by emmtee

[CruiseMH]

On 3/4/2022 at 3:08 AM, Bama357 said:

We attempted to cancel and asked for credit on another cruise . They refused and said we could get a 75% refund only . 
we have cruises several time with NCL , but NEVER again .

I am really surprised about that NCL only offers refund and no rebooking. Usually they do try everything to keep your money. Usually they prefer a rebooking to another cruise cause then the money stays with NCL.

 

 

[Con5421]

On 3/4/2022 at 3:08 AM, Bama357 said:

We attempted to cancel and asked for credit on another cruise . They refused and said we could get a 75% refund only . 
we have cruises several time with NCL , but NEVER again .

I had booked a other cruise  and we changed our booking to this one. Where so happy we are not going to St Petersburg. But if we had canceld our cruise we also must pay the 25 %. But we booked this cruise and there was no problem at all.

[MichiganBound]

Personally, I would not plan to be anywhere near the Baltic Sea or Russia this year. Who knows what Putin will do next and when....or where.   Things are moving and changing so quickly with Putin's war.  Anything is possible.  It's not out of the realm of possibility that NATO could be forced to get directly involved. I would not want to be on a cruise ship docked at Tallin (or any other Baltic port) if that were to happen.

 

I could easily see Baltic cruises scrapped for the 2022 season if there is even a hint at the current conflict spreading.  

 

 

[Con5421]

I had contact whit my travelagent and they got last night a email from NCL. We get all 20% back, it's 20% off the cruisefare whitout the taxes. This will be in 30 days, if you paid in full you get it back on your cc and if you still must pay the rest you will see the 20% off.

 

Also you or your travelagent will get in 7 days the new itinerary. They need the time to get it touch whit the ports if we can come there. And what they think is safe for us. And that's what's important saftey. But give them time.

 

As a result of this unforeseen circumstance, we will be issuing a discount of 20% off the voyage fare to all guests. No further action is required. If you have paid for your reservation in full, the value of the 20% discount will be refunded and processed within 30 business days to the original form of payment used at the time of reservation. If you have not yet paid for your reservation in full, the discount will be automatically applied to your reservation within 30 business days.

 

[susiesan]

I'm on Aug. 16 Dawn Baltic, my itinerary still has 2 days at sea in place of SPB and no credit. My cruise is Dawn's last Baltic that ends in Stockholm, positions the ship for the fall to sail around Great Britain.

 

Looks like NCL is switching the ports in a random order, not based on sail dates.

[AppleDumpling]

I'm not wild about the prospect of St Petersburg being replaced wholly or in part with sea days on our 9 day Norweigian Getaway cruise, but was very excited about the cruise, so hope replacement ports are announced.

 

St Petersburg was the star of the cruise and the itinerary value is quite diminished now. As a result, NCL's discount is most welcome but for the more experienced here, is 20% a good discount from the Line or do you think they'd be open to negotiate a better deal if we called?  We have paid a deposit only to NCL direct. Literally no idea, what goes on, but I've seen a few people saying that discounts, upgrades and deals are possible and wondered what peoples thoughts were.

[Con5421]

40 minutes ago, susiesan said:

I'm on Aug. 16 Dawn Baltic, my itinerary still has 2 days at sea in place of SPB and no credit. My cruise is Dawn's last Baltic that ends in Stockholm, positions the ship for the fall to sail around Great Britain.

 

Looks like NCL is switching the ports in a random order, not based on sail dates.

They will do this in 7 workingdays. And read my messages it's from NCL. Maybe you must ask your travelagent if they got a email.

 

[Con5421]

3 minutes ago, AppleDumpling said:

I'm not wild about the prospect of St Petersburg being replaced wholly or in part with sea days on our 9 day Norweigian Getaway cruise, but was very excited about the cruise, so hope replacement ports are announced.

 

St Petersburg was the star of the cruise and the itinerary value is quite diminished now. As a result, NCL's discount is most welcome but for the more experienced here, is 20% a good discount from the Line or do you think they'd be open to negotiate a better deal if we called?  We have paid a deposit only to NCL direct. Literally no idea, what goes on, but I've seen a few people saying that discounts, upgrades and deals are possible and wondered what peoples thoughts were.

I put the text of the mail in m messages.

 

[AppleDumpling]

4 minutes ago, Con5421 said:

I put the text of the mail in m messages.

 

? Did you mean to reply to someone else? 

[njhorseman]

1 hour ago, susiesan said:

I'm on Aug. 16 Dawn Baltic, my itinerary still has 2 days at sea in place of SPB and no credit. My cruise is Dawn's last Baltic that ends in Stockholm, positions the ship for the fall to sail around Great Britain.

 

Looks like NCL is switching the ports in a random order, not based on sail dates.

I'm sure it's not being done in random order. The availability of ports will vary by date and they are undoubtedly filling out the itineraries in the order that they are able to secure alternative ports. The first changes will be to cruises where it was easiest to construct the new version.

[BermudaBound2014]

On 2/24/2022 at 12:32 PM, Lindysu said:

I am Australian and I am really annoyed and peeved at this move by NCL. The only reason I booked on the cruise was St Petersburg. I am not due to cruise until August. Surely NCL can wait and see what pans out in the interim before cancelling. As another poster pointed out, the Ukraine is nowhere St Petersburg. By the way, the whole world is not American. Plenty of other nationalities cruise too! I don't think I'll be booking with NCL again. I vote with my feet!

I am rarely shocked, and I do try to respect opposing viewpoints,  but my IQ just dropped 10 points reading this. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kierste]

Anyone know if you booked with a big box TA if you are still getting the 20% back? Already paid in full, we leave in July, and have seen zero communication… 

[BklynBorn47]

On 3/3/2022 at 9:08 PM, Bama357 said:

We attempted to cancel and asked for credit on another cruise . They refused and said we could get a 75% refund only . 
we have cruises several time with NCL , but NEVER again .

We looked into canceling our cruise on a different cruise line for reasons not related to Putin's war and it was the same situation.
We could get only a 75% refund and of course would lose the amount we paid for insurance.
(Our reason for canceling disappeared so we're going)
We were just curious & checked the current policy of another line and that was only a 50% refund. Note both were before the final payment date.  

It is now a different world but we still have booked 80 days cruising this year and 90 in 2023.