DO NOT BOOK WITH NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINES (NCL)

DO NOT BOOK WITH NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINES (NCL) Our family booked a Mediterranean Cruise with Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) and we were excited to be departing the port of Venice on April 13, 2022, ONLY IT DID NOT ACTUALLY DEPART FROM VENICE, ITALY. Without providing any communication or notification to us, NCL changed the departure port from Venice, Italy to Trieste, Italy some 163 kilometers away. Upon arrival at departure port in Venice we learned of the change of the departure port and scrambled to book a taxi for 300 Euros to travel between Venice and Trieste. A discussion with an NCL representative over the phone as we were racing across the Italian countryside was that if we missed the departure time the ship would sail without us. We made the departure time with 25 minutes to spare. We later learned that there were several other families that ran into the same difficulty and the ship’s departure was ultimately delayed by over two hours. We raised the issue for reimbursement of the taxi ride on the ship and we were assured that this issue would be dealt with post-cruise. We were concerned about handling this post-cruise as once off the ship, we felt that this would be a battle with NCL but I did not want to be “that guy” so we took NCL at their word that this issue would be amicably resolved post-cruise which of course it has not been. Post-cruise we were asked to complete an NCL form as this was the only way that NCL would consider the reimbursement. When we indicated that we had difficulty completing the form the NCL representative said that “no other guests ever had difficulty completing the form”. After essentially being told, in a not so subtle way, that I was an idiot, I asked if I could handle it the old fashioned way and simply be allowed to tell the NCL representative what the issue was however the NCL representative refused and shortly thereafter the call was mysteriously disconnected. Thereafter we contacted another NCL representative who through a direct quote out of his email to me referencing the NCL form he stated, “Unfortunately I am encountering a similar problem and I was unable to submit the case for you.” After having contact with 7 different representatives with NCL I finally was able to submit the form. Within one week I received a response back from NCL, which frankly was the only aspect of this experience where NCL exceeded my expectations. However, the response was a form letter with minimal changes to reflect my specific concerns and rejecting our reimbursement claim. It stated in part and again directly out NCL’s letter: “No other portion of our scheduled itineraries were impacted by this change.” This is akin to stating that every other meal was fine except the meal that caused food poisoning. Further directly quoting from NCL’s letter it stated: “Under the terms and conditions of our Passenger Ticket Contract, Norwegian Cruise Line in its sole discretion may cancel, postpone or delay any port of call without prior notification.” Frankly this would make sense and would be understandable if you were scheduled to dock in a port and inclement weather prevented the docking for safety reasons. This situation is not analogous, as NCL had ample warning of the situation (my understanding over 2 months) with the change in the departure port and informed some of its guests but not other guests as became readily apparent in discussing our circumstances with other guests. What makes it even more egregious on the part of NCL is that we received several emails after we booked our cruise from NCL offering upgrades and other options but no mention that a fundamental term of the cruise itinerary changed. I can’t imagine booking a flight with any airline in the world whereby if I were scheduled to fly out of one city that the airline would not contact me to indicate that the departure city had changed to one 163 kilometers away. Heck, airlines will inform you if a departure time is changed by 10 minutes. Any rational, reasonable individual would anticipate that if the departure port was changed that they would be forewarned. It would be interesting to see the reaction of an NCL representative who arrived at an airport in New York for a flight only be told that the flight had been rescheduled to fly out of Boston without notification to you and if you want to make that flight you have two hours to get to Boston. NCL references their Passage Ticket Contract for me to review its terms and conditions. When attempting to access it online it states: “Looks like this page took a permanent vacation.” It is only recently that they have now fixed this error. Further I find it ironic that NCL referred me to their website for their terms and conditions (which at the time were unavailable) but the same website does not even list Trieste as a departure port and still has Venice as a departure port even though NCL is no longer able to sail out of Venice. Even after alerting NCL of this, the website page has changed but the error remains. I suspect that NCL will now revise that portion of their website. Lastly, NCL states in its letter: “Regrettably, we are unable to honor your request for compensation or refund, as it would be inconsistent for us to make an exception when other guests were not offered compensation.” I find it absurd that NCL would argue that since they have treated other guests unreasonably that they would handle my situation in the same unreasonable manner under the guise to remain consistent. If consistency is NCL’s guiding principle, this is easily solvable, reimburse all guests their out-of-pocket expenses incurred as a result of not notifying some guests of the change to the departure port. I have reiterated my request of NCL for reimbursement in a similar fashion to this post. Regrettably, but unfortunately not unexpectedly, I have yet to hear back from NCL. If this in itself is not enough to reconsider and “Not book with Norwegian Cruise Lines” then I also offer the following: I find it remarkable that after two years of dealing with COVID which has had a debilitating effect on the cruise industry that NCL would handle this matter in this way. It was apparent to us very early on that NCL’s handling of COVID is not in line with the COVID policies that they purport to uphold and are required to abide with under the EU Healthy Gateways Policy. On April 7, 2022, six days prior to departure of our cruise we were informed that the EU Healthy Gateway policy had changed as of April 1, 2022. The policy now stated that: “In addition to above, EU Healthy Gateways currently defines individuals as 'Fully Vaccinated' against COVID-19 if they carry proof of vaccination with at least 14 days and no more than 270 days passed since the last dose of the primary vaccination series or if they have received a third or booster dose. To clarify, guests that have received a booster dose can travel regardless of the amount of time that has passed since their booster dose. Guests who cannot meet the EU Healthy Gateways definition of 'Fully Vaccinated' should not travel to the ship as they will be unable to board.” This was no difficulty for my wife and I as we were triple vaccinated but my 15-year-old son last vaccination had been approximately 285 days earlier and prior to departure for Europe he was not yet eligible to receive a booster shot. After some discussion with NCL they made an exception for my son to travel if he received a booster shot prior to departure on April 13, 2022. This of course was also outside of the minimum 14 days that he needed to have his booster shot as he ended up only being boosted 3 days prior to departure, which NCL was well aware of. Again directly out of an email sent to me by an NCL representative on April 8, 2022 he states: “Further to our discussion, I would like to confirm to you that as long as a guest have received a booster dose, they can travel on NCL vessels regardless of the amount of time that has passed since their booster dose. And in other words in your son’s case, as long as he can get his booster shot before embarking on 13th April, 2022, he is fulfilling our vaccination requirements for sailing in Europe.” As a result, it became readily apparent that NCL was willing to breach the EU Healthy Gateways policy that they were required to adhere to. This is an illustration that NCL’s commitment to protect their guests from a COVID outbreak is moreso about optics and does not reflect what happens in practice. Please consider this real-life story when assessing whether to book with Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL). If you are concerned with customer service, I would suggest that you should not book with Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL). If you are concerned with adherence to government mandated COVID policies, I would suggest that you should not book with Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL). I would be interested to hear of any other customer service issues that guests have encountered with Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL).