A Lesson for NCL in Customer Service

[KarenMF]

No comparison...I'm intrigued that your focus is on the customer service lesson that NCL should learn, rather than being really annoyed that your itinerary has been, in my opinion, downgraded.

 

I've been to both towns...and there is simply no comparison between the two. There is nothing "wrong" with New London, but it is not Newport.

 

Being from New England, Rhode Island, specifically, I have to agree.

[Chorts]

On the recent thread about what we would do if we were President of NCL for a day, one of the top responses was to improve customer service and that included notifying customers of changes in cabin assignments and of itinerary changes.

 

We booked the Dawn in Sept. 2005 for a June 2006 cruise. When we booked it, the itinerary was Cape Canaveral, Miami, Great Stirrup Cay and Nassau. Sometime in November, NCL changed the itinerary to Bermuda, Great Stirrup Cay and Nassau and more sea days. In December, I heard of the itinerary change through THESES boards. Since I (or anyone else in our group, including one couple who booked directly through NCL) had not heard anything about the itinerary change, I was skeptical. Called our Travel Agent and she called NCL to find out, YES the itinerary had been changed. No one had been notified. It couldn't have been a case where the TA was not notified because the couple who booked direct through NCL didn't know either. NCL simply never bothered to tell the passengers. (probably out of fear of people cancelling.) We discussed it and decided to continue with our plans because we hadn't been on the then "flagship" of the NCL fleet and we hadn't been to Bermuda. (and the other cruises available that week on NCL and other lines didn't appeal to us and vacation time had already been requested.)

 

 

Next year, our large extended family group is booked on RCCL's Explorer of the Seas to Canada and New England. (one reason being NCL's cruise offerings next summer aren't appealing.).

 

I got a phone call this morning from our TA. RCCL had just informed her that they were changing the itinerary for our cruise and if any of her clients wished to cancel, they would understand. Here I was, all set for the news...no Canada & New England....BUT, the itinerary change was the exchange of ONE port! (from Newport R.I. to New London, Connecticut.) No other changes whatsoever in the itinerary! RCCL went to all the trouble to notify everyone and UNDERSTOOD if anyone wanted to cancel over one MINOR change!! NCL couldn't bother to notify their passengers of a MAJOR itinerary change last year??????

 

NCL, you really need to take a lesson on customer service from RCCL. I haven't even sailed on RCCL yet and their customer service already impresses me more than NCL.

 

 

Trust me......this had to have been a fluke on RCCL's part. We are booked on a cruise for next Nov of 2008 and we heard, through CC, that it had been chartered. We have not heard word one about being bumped due to a charter. We have received absolutely no notification whatsoever. Neither has our TA and neither have other TA's that are involved in this booking. So, before you start touting how wonderful RCCL was in notifying you, wait until you get a cruise pulled out from under you due to a charter and NOT getting any notification. Then you'll see that cruiselines are no different from each other when it comes to customer-no-service.

[waltd]

Ok so I took a peak at the NCL board. I'm sitting here laughing. I have the same opinion about Princess Customer Service as you do about NCL. As long as nothing goes wrong Princess is great but if a problem develops watch out. Weather it's Corporate Customer Service or the ship Purser desk they are extremely un-helpful. They must send them to nasty school before they stick them in the job. :) But I still love cruising.

 

Joe