Our NCL Getaway experience was bad, but thankfully not THIS bad

[PrecisionSwingTrader]

Our NCL Getaway experience (Lisbon to London; July 31st - Aug 8th) started going south after a couple missed ports and NCL did little to help the matter (or their reputation with their passengers).  It culminated with an epic night of astonishly-bad decision making by NCL on full display.  That saga was outlined in part by several posters here: 

 

Then a friend of ours stumbled upon this gem:

 

https://roanoke.com/news/local/norwegian-cruise-line-jewel-denies-refund-to-family-that-missed-ships-departure/article_15dbad74-3e0a-11ee-a545-cba280027d28.html

 

I honestly cannot say I'm surprised by the decisions, communications, or behavior displayed by NCL.

 

RIP NCL

[sansroof]

Truly cannot imagine paying $60k for a vacation and not getting travel insurance or making the effort to book your own flights. 

[Homosassa]

Interesting.

 

OP certainly has an axe to grind.

 

Read through the linked thread.  HORRORS!!!!!! Some ports were deleted due to weather.

 

The OP, who was on the cruise, felt all types of compensation was due to them because of bad weather.

 

Not sure what the problem was with the family that missed the cruise as article is behind a pay wall.

 

However, I don't know why the OP feels that NCL is responsible for the family missing the ship and owes them a refund. 

[All-ready2cruise]

I'm afraid some of us might have a difficult time agreeing but... who knows. 

I'm afraid I love Mother Nature... what she can do is amazing and how our wonderful crewmen can handle it is even more amazing... I love the motion of the ocean and grateful that the ships we're on are able to keep us safe most of the time.  

I will not stop cruising!

[kitkat343]

It is crazy to not get insurance for a 50,000 trip.  However, the second family in the story did purchase insurance.  I don't really understand how it can be that if NCL  airfare is cancelled you don't get a refund for the cruise if you've purchased NCL insurance.  I always book independent flights and insurance anyway, but this always struck me as unfair.  The first family I can understand losing their money because they chose to not get insurance, but I do feel sorry for the second family since I think it is reasonable to assume if you purchase NCL insurance you will either get to sail or get a refund.  

[cruiseny4life]

22 minutes ago, kitkat343 said:

 I don't really understand how it can be that if NCL  airfare is cancelled you don't get a refund for the cruise if you've purchased NCL insurance.

It sounds like AON, the insurance company refused to refund the second family for their cruise. This means Norwegian should offer a 75% or 90% Future Cruise Credit to the family depending on which insurance package they purchased through AON. If the family only purchased the Essentials Insurance package, then they would not be eligible for a refund.

 

Trust me, I'm all for blaming NCL in these circumstances. They're a terribly disreputable company that hides behind their (unfortunately) legal terms and conditions. They have no empathy, yet I, and plenty of others, still book cruises with them. Shame on us for being complicit. 

 

Here's a link to NCL's page describing available insurance: https://www.ncl.com/freestyle-cruise/booksafe.

[kitkat343]

2 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

It sounds like AON, the insurance company refused to refund the second family for their cruise. This means Norwegian should offer a 75% or 90% Future Cruise Credit to the family depending on which insurance package they purchased through AON. If the family only purchased the Essentials Insurance package, then they would not be eligible for a refund.

 

Trust me, I'm all for blaming NCL in these circumstances. They're a terribly disreputable company that hides behind their (unfortunately) legal terms and conditions. They have no empathy, yet I, and plenty of others, still book cruises with them. Shame on us for being complicit. 

 

Here's a link to NCL's page describing available insurance: https://www.ncl.com/freestyle-cruise/booksafe.

Thanks for the clarification - I always book independent insurance, so I don't know anything about the specifics of NCL's insurance plans.  

[cruiseny4life]

23 minutes ago, kitkat343 said:

Thanks for the clarification - I always book independent insurance, so I don't know anything about the specifics of NCL's insurance plans.  

Of course! We did book NCL's insurance for last August's cruise which we wound up canceling as we found a much better deal. We were well within final payment (think three weeks from the cruise), so insurance denied our claim finally in February. Within a month we received 90% FCC from NCL which we recently used to book a cruise in November...I'm hoping common sense prevails after November and we switch to more honest and ethical providers, but I don't know what hasty travel decision we might make in the future. 🙂

[Ellis1138]

I was able to read about both families. The $60,000 people did not get any insurance and also made the mistake of flying from the East Coast of the US to the West Coast of Canada on flights with layovers on the same day as the cruise. They probably could have made the ship if they had Ubered from Seattle to the border, crossed over, then called another Uber to take them to the port. They mistakenly thought that if they purchased the airfare through NCL, that it would be like an NCL excursion and the ship would wait. (Not the case)

 

In the case where the family bought insurance, they only bought Essentials, which did not cover the circumstance that happened to them.

 

It's very important to know what kind of policy you need and to read all the fine print as to what is covered.