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Planning a cruise over the past 12 months has been a roller coaster ride, for sure! Last May, we booked a fantastic cruise with NCL, originating in Amsterdam, stopping once in Brugge, Belgium, and then making two stops in Norway and three in Iceland. We had booked hotel rooms for before and after the cruise, as well as excursions on our own, after the cruise and during our extra days planned in Reykjavik. We made payments during the course of the year, and everything was paid in full a couple of months ago. Embarkation date was August 15, 2022.
We were especially excited because this was to be the maiden voyage of NCL's newest ship, the Prima. We anticipated some special perks and fun events to celebrate the maiden voyage.
Then - uh oh! - I received an email on April 27, 2022, informing me that, sadly, the cruise had to be canceled due to supply chain issues. We were so disappointed. But we were not angry. The cruise line is presently unable to procure furnishings and equipment to complete the ship. The world is such a mess right now; can't blame the cruise line for canceling. I feel sorry for the thousands of employees and vendors affected by the cancellation.
Good news, however, is that NCL's email stated that 100% of our money would be refunded, PLUS we were offered a 25% extra discount for our next booking (in addition to the best advertised deal). The refund would be processed within 30 days and then we'd receive the refund within 7-10 business days after that. Amazingly, we received our full refunds (my boyfriend and I split costs between our two accounts) less than one week after the date of the email letter. I'm impressed!
Even better news is that we have already booked our new cruise. We found a great deal on a 9-day cruise from Athens to several Greek isles and three ports in Turkey, and we were able to use our extra 25% off that deal. Since we've already received our refund from NCL, we were able to pay for entire trip without any financial burden. So we're good to go!
Cancellations stink, but in our case, it worked out just fine. We may lose a bit of money on a couple of our events booked on our own (not through NCL), but it won't be too bad.
We went from very excited about the Norway/Iceland cruise to very disappointed about the cancellation to very excited about our Greek isles/Turkey cruise. Yay!
PS - Some of you were talking about Alaska cruises. We almost booked an AK cruise through NCL, as they have some fantastic deals right now while trying to book the remaining staterooms. As of a few days ago, they had some "spa suites" available for their August AK cruises for a price that was less than the price for the smallest balcony stateroom. If you can travel this August and you want to cruise to AK, you may want to check out the cruises NCL has to offer.
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Planning a cruise over the past 12 months has been a roller coaster ride, for sure! Last May, we booked a fantastic cruise with NCL, originating in Amsterdam, stopping once in Brugge, Belgium, and then making two stops in Norway and three in Iceland. We had booked hotel rooms for before and after the cruise, as well as excursions on our own, after the cruise and during our extra days planned in Reykjavik. We made payments during the course of the year, and everything was paid in full a couple of months ago. Embarkation date was August 15, 2022.
We were especially excited because this was to be the maiden voyage of NCL's newest ship, the Prima. We anticipated some special perks and fun events to celebrate the maiden voyage.
Then - uh oh! - I received an email on April 27, 2022, informing me that, sadly, the cruise had to be canceled due to supply chain issues. We were so disappointed. But we were not angry. The cruise line is presently unable to procure furnishings and equipment to complete the ship. The world is such a mess right now; can't blame the cruise line for canceling. I feel sorry for the thousands of employees and vendors affected by the cancellation.
Good news, however, is that NCL's email stated that 100% of our money would be refunded, PLUS we were offered a 25% extra discount for our next booking (in addition to the best advertised deal). The refund would be processed within 30 days and then we'd receive the refund within 7-10 business days after that. Amazingly, we received our full refunds (my boyfriend and I split costs between our two accounts) less than one week after the date of the email letter. I'm impressed!
Even better news is that we have already booked our new cruise. We found a great deal on a 9-day cruise from Athens to several Greek isles and three ports in Turkey, and we were able to use our extra 25% off that deal. Since we've already received our refund from NCL, we were able to pay for entire trip without any financial burden. So we're good to go!
Cancellations stink, but in our case, it worked out just fine. We may lose a bit of money on a couple of our events booked on our own (not through NCL), but it won't be too bad.
We went from very excited about the Norway/Iceland cruise to very disappointed about the cancellation to very excited about our Greek isles/Turkey cruise. Yay!
PS - Some of you were talking about Alaska cruises. We almost booked an AK cruise through NCL, as they have some fantastic deals right now while trying to book the remaining staterooms. As of a few days ago, they had some "spa suites" available for their August AK cruises for a price that was less than the price for the smallest balcony stateroom. If you can travel this August and you want to cruise to AK, you may want to check out the cruises NCL has to offer.
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The Greek Isles and Turkey are going to be amazing!
I'm having a hard time understanding the shock and surprise that the cruise industry is still having covid issues, and might not be the best bet for a vacation right now.
Good decision! We just went through that w/ travel pals & it was the worse thing I've ever seen.
~10% of the ship was imprisoned in their cabins, and leaving the ship as soon as we got to a port with a real airport.
You don't know squat until you live through it, or are traveling w/ people who are.
I understand that it's frustrating beyond words that your friends were quarantined - and I understand completely about how it changed the nature of the trip, but can you be more precise about why it was HELL? I'm not trying to be a pain and there are the obvious inconveniences of being sick, even when not presenting symptoms. But knowing that one could get sick at any time as well as knowing the rules for getting sick with Covid, what was the issue? Truly not trying to be obtuse here - but being "stuck" in your cabin doesn't sound like the end of the world to me - not in today's world anyway.
If the cruise line tried to make it better with future credits or something of that nature, isn't that a nice thing? It's not THEIR fault one got sick with the virus? They're following the rules - your friends probably did, too - but still, stuff happens all the time and most of the time, no one shells out cash or future credit because one is inconvenienced.
Your comments just made me think that something really horrible happened so details would help my perspective, I'm sure.
I agree that it would seem obvious that beach43ofus has made it abundantly clear over many threads that they are not in the market for a cruise. We get it. Move along.
In my instance, Putin got my scheduled cruise cancelled this week. Princess is abandoning the entire Baltic cruise season as it has St Petersburg as an overnight stop along with several stops that border Russia. Not thrilled about this idiot and his war but I get why Princess pulled the plug. On to planning something else with the future discount.
I agree that it would seem obvious that beach43ofus has made it abundantly clear over many threads that they are not in the market for a cruise. We get it. Move along.
In my instance, Putin got my scheduled cruise cancelled this week. Princess is abandoning the entire Baltic cruise season as it has St Petersburg as an overnight stop along with several stops that border Russia. Not thrilled about this idiot and his war but I get why Princess pulled the plug. On to planning something else with the future discount.
Yes, beach43ofus is really upset - s'pose I won't get my answer?
Oh wow, what a bummer! Yea, they're just being safe so from that perspective, fine - but what a disappointment to not be able to go. My parents did that cruise (can't remember which line) along the Baltic - from St. Petersburg to Copenhagen, I think - and everything in between. They were gone about 3 weeks. I really hope you can reschedule - sorry, not sorry to say, that Putin is ill and maybe something will happen sooner than later. I hate to speculate - but I hope you can find something spectacular until you get to go!
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We were so disappointed. But we were not angry. The cruise line is presently unable to procure furnishings and equipment to complete the ship. The world is such a mess right now; can't blame the cruise line for canceling. I feel sorry for the thousands of employees and vendors affected by the cancellation. 
The refund would be processed within 30 days and then we'd receive the refund within 7-10 business days after that. Amazingly, we received our full refunds (my boyfriend and I split costs between our two accounts) less than one week after the date of the email letter. I'm impressed!
