They booked a cruise with stops in Israel. Then, war broke out

Shelley Martin, Alrene Allen-Martin, David Harris and Ezra James all shared the same dream of visiting Israel someday.

“It’s just a dream and then you realize that this is something that can be realized,” Shelley Martin said.

It is why they booked a 10-day cruise aboard the Norwegian Gem, with stops in Israel earlier this year. Then, on October 7^th, about a month before their scheduled departure, war broke out. The group became concerned by the images they were seeing from the region.

“I think everybody was like dazed,” Shelley said.

Each of them had paid several thousand dollars. They reached out to the cruise line to explore their options.

“We were told that they were reviewing the situation,” Shelley said. “They would give us a revised itinerary.”

That itinerary, they said, arrived about a week before their scheduled departure. The stops in Israel had been removed. But as violence in the region escalated, so did their safety concerns.

“I’m not going to risk my life to go out there,” Alrene said.

“I want my money back,” David said. “I want everyone that pays into that cruise to get their money back.”

Norwegian sent NBC6 a statement saying in part, “We are deeply saddened by the tragic situation. Our thoughts are with all those impacted during this time. As always, the safety and security of our guests, crew and communities we visit is our top priority. As a result, we have made the decision to cancel all calls to Israel for the remainder of 2023 and 2024. We are also canceling and redirecting certain calls to the surrounding region for the remainder of 2023.”

As far as the group’s request for a refund, the cruise line told NBC6 they were “not eligible” based on their cancellation fee policy.  To read more about that policy click here: https://www.ncl.com/about/cancellation-fee-schedule

“Under extreme, extraordinary circumstances, the cruise lines will have the flexibility of changing their cancellation policies,” said Stewart Chiron, a cruise industry expert. “But in this case, they altered their itineraries. They’re not going anywhere that at this moment they deemed to be unsafe.”

It is not unusual for a cruise line to have to change an itinerary in order to continue with a sailing, Chiron said.

“Going to certain parts of the world, there could always be issues,” Chiron said. “If the itinerary is the main reason you’re going on a particular itinerary, you want to make sure that you have the ability to cancel for any reason and you want to make sure that you bought the proper insurance policy to cover that.”

Travel insurance policies that allow you to cancel for any reason tend to be more expensive, but may allow you to recover a significant portion of your money if something like this happens.

Each of the four passengers who spoke to NBC6 purchased separate insurance policies. They said they filed claims and were waiting to hear if they will be able to recover the money they paid for the cruise.