NCL Prima - Observation Lounge closed for the entire cruise

[cruiseny4life]

9 minutes ago, robinium said:

Success! All guests have been given some compensation as a result of the situation… 

 

This letter has been placed outside every stateroom. Now, as to whether it will result in NCL ceasing to hire out key venues, I’m not sure, but getting them to acknowledge that they “got it wrong” is a start!

 

 

2023-06-09 18.40.59.pdf 165.78 kB · 5 downloads

Obviously I'm not onboard, so my opinion is...well, worthless. I'll give it anyway, because it's Cruise Critic. 🤡

 

That does seem like a great resolution and an acceptable one. I hope it is to you and fellow passengers. Now, if only NCL would tell folks ahead of time when this is going to happen so alternative arrangements could be made...probably not going to happen, but at least they are providing compensation to you fine folks. Thanks for sharing the resolution with all of us that have been following your journey.

[robinium]

10 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Fantastic!!!  This is reassuring, as it indicates that they clearly got the message that removing the OL is totally unacceptable.  Thank you for your reports and your actions.  I have this itinerary booked in the future and find it reassuring that they've (hopefully) learned their lesson here.  For anybody planning to sail by the end of 2024, that 20% FCC can be a lot of $$$.

We actually have the Prima transatlantic 16 day itinerary booked for November 2024, so we’ll be using it for that, which is a pretty nice saving! 
 

Is that 20% FCC calculated as 20% of the base cruise fare?

Edited June 9, 2023 by robinium

[ChiefMateJRK]

4 minutes ago, robinium said:

Is that 20% FCC calculated as 20% of the base cruise fare?

In my experience, yes it is.  It shows up not as a payment but a reduced base fare.

[JGmf]

41 minutes ago, robinium said:

Success! All guests have been given some compensation as a result of the situation… 

 

This letter has been placed outside every stateroom. Now, as to whether it will result in NCL ceasing to hire out key venues, I’m not sure, but getting them to acknowledge that they “got it wrong” is a start!

 

Thanks for (1) bringing this issue to all of us; and (2) following-up.  Glad there was some NCL contrition and compensation. 

 

Geez, what a bone-headed move by NCL in the first place?  What the heck were they thinking?

 

Can we start a similar thread to push NCL to reconsider the early closing time for the buffet on Prima?

[vacation44]

1 hour ago, robinium said:

Success! All guests have been given some compensation as a result of the situation… 

 

This letter has been placed outside every stateroom. Now, as to whether it will result in NCL ceasing to hire out key venues, I’m not sure, but getting them to acknowledge that they “got it wrong” is a start!

 

 

2023-06-09 18.40.59.pdf 165.78 kB · 36 downloads

So happy to read NCL came through for you and your fellow passengers.   I think it was a very fair response and I would be happy about it.  However, I still think it never should have happened.  

 

Enjoy the rest of your cruise and thank you for keeping us updated.

[reveur15]

1 hour ago, robinium said:

Success! All guests have been given some compensation as a result of the situation… 

 

This letter has been placed outside every stateroom. Now, as to whether it will result in NCL ceasing to hire out key venues, I’m not sure, but getting them to acknowledge that they “got it wrong” is a start!

 

 

2023-06-09 18.40.59.pdf 165.78 kB · 40 downloads

I'm regaining faith in NCL...

[ChiefMateJRK]

30 minutes ago, reveur15 said:

I'm regaining faith in NCL...

Yeah, somebody has to take the heat for this.  This is plain awful publicity, and (rightfully) they had to bite the bullet, admit their stupidity, and spend some $$$ to try to fix it.  I'm envisioning an internal NCL memo to all management today:

 

"Due to a recent incident on our latest ship, the Prima, any function wishing to remove any public venue from use by the general passenger population must receive advanced approval from the VP of (whatever)."

 

IOW: "if any of you clowns do this again, we wish you well in your future employment endeavors." 

 

Followed by, "I am happy to announce that fancy title Joe who has previously led our special events department has accepted a new position leading our green waste disposal team.  In this role, Joe will be in charge of determining optimal methods to dispose of human 💩 at sea without upsetting governments, regulators, whales, residents, protestors and anybody/everybody else who gives a 💩about 💩.  We wish Joe well in this roll and expect all teams to provide support to Joe as he deals with his new pile of 💩."

 

MegaCorp taught me a lot.😎

Edited June 9, 2023 by ChiefMateJRK

[The Traveling Man]

23 hours ago, hallux said:

The person you're quoting is currently on board for their trip.  The default is that the DSC is deferred, the passenger needs to select to pre-pay it either during booking or at some point after booking.

Yes, I realize that.  My comments were directed more the plural "you" of all the others who may read these comments than to the singular "you" of the OP.

[The Traveling Man]

23 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Because your room steward, waiters, cruise staff, cooks, dishwashers took the observation lounge away from you????

No, because NCL did.  The same company that all the passengers have paid for their cruise.  The same company that hired the room stewards, waiters, cruise staff, cooks, and dishwashers whose job it is to provide those passengers with an enjoyable cruise experience.

[ChiefMateJRK]

I'm guessing that the OBC and FCC will drop the percentage of "extremely upset" folks from about 90% to 30%.  It certainly wouldn't be a surprise if that remaining 30% still demand removal of DSC, complain to the staff and post damning things about NCL on social media for the foreseeable future.  There are a lot of people who scrape and save to take a cruise like this.  They may have to "settle" for the cheapest cabins, figuring "well the ship has that fantastic OL to enjoy the scenery."  They likely aren't even in a position to use the FCC for another cruise in the next year and a half, nor are they necessarily going to get much benefit from non-refundable OBC.  At the end of the day, NCL hasn't made anything "right."  They can't unless they have a time machine.  They've (hopefully) admitted that it was an extremely boneheaded decision and have disciplined those responsible.  I hope I never read anything like this again.

[njkate]

1 hour ago, vacation44 said:

So happy to read NCL came through for you and your fellow passengers.   I think it was a very fair response and I would be happy about it.  However, I still think it never should have happened.  

 

Enjoy the rest of your cruise and thank you for keeping us updated.

Agree! Hopefully NCL realizes what a major blunder that was and won't repeat it

[The Traveling Man]

18 hours ago, uneamie said:

Joy is going to be losing a significant amount of space in their observation lounge when it goes into dry dock in January. Supposedly they are going to add 24 new cabins in it's place and adding more room to their spa. 

Then I guess I'll need to add the Joy to my "do not sail" list.

[yakcruiser]

The adding of 24 rooms to the Joy might only be a rumor but I guarantee you that some bean counter at Mega Corp is pushing the idea to senior management. Maybe the response to the rumor will be enough to keep the rumor from becoming reality.

[The Traveling Man]

13 hours ago, insidecabin said:

If they are planning to add cabins in 9 months time  you would expect to see them for sale at some point soon.

As @ChiefMateJRK pointed out, the Joy is only scheduled for about three weeks of retrofit.  That seems like insufficient time to install a couple of dozen new staterooms.

[insidecabin]

3 minutes ago, The Traveling Man said:

As @ChiefMateJRK pointed out, the Joy is only scheduled for about three weeks of retrofit.  That seems like insufficient time to install a couple of dozen new staterooms.

That's my point you normally get the cabins on sale along with  the before and after deck plans for these type of changes.

 

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, njkate said:

Agree! Hopefully NCL realizes what a major blunder that was and won't repeat it

Yes, they could not completely undo what they had done, but they can hopefully learn to not make the same mistake in the future.

[JandC_Cruising]

5 hours ago, robinium said:

Success! All guests have been given some compensation as a result of the situation… 

 

This letter has been placed outside every stateroom. Now, as to whether it will result in NCL ceasing to hire out key venues, I’m not sure, but getting them to acknowledge that they “got it wrong” is a start!

 

 

2023-06-09 18.40.59.pdf 165.78 kB · 86 downloads

While it cannot be known to all of us how many complained, YOU deserve tremendous kudos for posting the issue on CC and bringing the issue to everyone's attention.

While it sounds as if several "issues" are getting compensated here, there is no doubt that by putting the rationale in this letter, they acknowledge utilizing the OL in the way they had planned was inappropriate.  

I hope you enjoy the balance of the cruise!  

[ChiefMateJRK]

1 minute ago, JandC_Cruising said:

While it sounds as if several "issues" are getting compensated here, there is no doubt that by putting the rationale in this letter, they acknowledge utilizing the OL in the way they had planned was inappropriate.  

Exactly.  They've publicly acknowledged that they made a very stupid move.  That's the only positive I've taken out of this.  Please fellow cruisers weigh in so that NCL has no reason to believe that this was anything other than an awful business decision.  

[ggTexasGal]

1 minute ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Please fellow cruisers weigh in so that NCL has no reason to believe that this was anything other than an awful business decision.  

NCL: The loss of the Observation Lounge for an entire cruise would be infuriating!!!

[ontheweb]

12 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Exactly.  They've publicly acknowledged that they made a very stupid move.  That's the only positive I've taken out of this.  Please fellow cruisers weigh in so that NCL has no reason to believe that this was anything other than an awful business decision.  

Hopefully, there is another positive---they never even consider doing this again!

[robinium]

Headed up to Observation Lounge to enjoy our departure from Ålesund, and was greeted by the Park West art presenter spending ten minutes (and counting) fawning over Peter Max. 
 

I don’t understand why they need to have the speakers playing so loud either. Can they not turn them off in the passenger section… or at least turn the volume down? From the sounds of the claps, there are less than 10 people in there. 

 

I’m glad we’re getting that 20% off FCC. Seriously hope they don’t do this again, as it is impossible to enjoy being here with this audio, I’m leaving after this drink. 
 

Update: The staff operating the bar here just told us they are so unhappy as they have to listen to this sh*t all day long 😂

Edited June 10, 2023 by robinium

[dexddd]

25 minutes ago, robinium said:

Headed up to Observation Lounge to enjoy our departure from Ålesund, and was greeted by the Park West art presenter spending ten minutes (and counting) fawning over Peter Max. 
 

I don’t understand why they need to have the speakers playing so loud either. Can they not turn them off in the passenger section… or at least turn the volume down? From the sounds of the claps, there are less than 10 people in there. 

 

I’m glad we’re getting that 20% off FCC. Seriously hope they don’t do this again, as it is impossible to enjoy being here with this audio, I’m leaving after this drink. 
 

Update: The staff operating the bar here just told us they are so unhappy as they have to listen to this sh*t all day long 😂

From experience, the 20% off will be off base fare and an amount that will be hard to figure out and will be the lowest you'd normally calculate.

[insidecabin]

5 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Hopefully, there is another positive---they never even consider doing this again!

 

Given the rapid response they had already factored in the potential refund/compensation into the exclusive use.

 

Try it on and hope people just let it slide.

 

Now if no one takes it further they have the price point people will put up with.

 

[tony s]

Maybe they should have held the Park West auction in a more suitable public space, such as the public restroom 

[mking8288]

18 minutes ago, tony s said:

Maybe they should have held the Park West auction in a more suitable public space, such as the public restroom 

Haven's private courtyard ? 😁 😆 😁