Sundodger2

Yes the Le Harve port is still the same and they are still offering tours to Normandy (I think?) and some local tours around Le Harve. That's why we were/are so confused -- nothing about the port/time changed. If we had to miss LeHarve or had to leave at like 2 or 3pm then it's, OK I get why. But seems nothing would have changed between last week and last year 😛

It's also a bit eyebrow raising that this did not happen until the moment after our 45 day cancellation window passed.

To those wondering "Why on Earth would this be the way you'd want to see Paris?" Agree it's not like we would be at home thinking "Hey, let's go to Paris and I know just how to do it! We'll take a cruise from London that lands in a city 3 hours away and we'll take a long bus and get to see the sights for 3 hours then race back and spend $600 to do it! It'll be the perfect way!" 🙂 Our kids are teens; one graduates next year and family cruising has been our jam through their lives though all around North America as travelling/flying far in school breaks and summer is difficult and $$$. We were looking to splurge for that one last big hurrah before kid 1 goes off to college next summer. The kids have only been to Europe once -- we did the best TA ever from ORL to Copenhagen but that was several years ago when they were young enough that missing two weeks of school wasn't the end of the world. This cruise was the perfect length at the perfect time to shoehorn into our summer and OMG it had an opportunity for the kids to see Paris too?!? It was one of the main selling points of selecting that sailing. We'd love to have someday planned a trip just to Paris and spend some time there to really see the sights but that wasn't going to happen (especially trying to dodge the Olympics) . But 3 hours was better than 0. My wife spent a few days in Paris years ago but none of the rest of us have ever been there. It was an awesome way to "Sneak it in" for the rest of us and add an awesome bow on top of the trip so we are very disappointed the option appears to have been lost and we would have likely chosen another route/trip/time had we known Paris wasn't an option.

Did they give any reason why? That would about jive when it seemed to disappear off our schedule.

As you pointed out the Olympics end on Aug. 11. Le Harve port date is Aug. 17. We made sure when choosing this cruise we would not be in Paris during the Games and we figured being there after was better than being there before. Those were the same dates for the Olympics when Princess took our money to book the excursion last summer? If it were port related issue wouldn't it affect all excursions?

Hello all -- Have a bit of a mystery. We're booked on the Regal 12 day British Isles leaving Aug. 7. Among the most excited ports was Le Harve to get to Paris -- we did a TA years ago that was supposed to stop there and it was shifted from Le Harve to Cherbourg last min due to "port congestion" and missed Paris so we were very excited to get a second shot this time. We booked an excursion through Princess to get the bus into Paris for the city tour plus river cruise on the Rheine. It was perfect. Fast forward to a few days ago when we got a mystery small ($30pp) partial refund notice from our credit card from Princess with no accompanying note or email or anything. It's been days, still nothing from Princess. But panicked I logged onto our app. Reservation still there. Itinerary still there (well the modified one after they lost Dublin/Liverpool 😞 ). Shore excursions still there.....except for Le Harve... now blank. Noooo! But it's $30? Skipping the story on the money part because that will just confuse everything, a call to my TA and then linked call to Princess and 4 transfers later and a very frustrated TA, all we could get from them was "the excursion was not available for that date." What does that mean? "you booked an excursion that was no longer available." No I booked this excursion like 8 months ago. It's been fine for 7.9 months. Anyway that's all I got from them - no explanation why or what. And we're heartbroken but there's a deeper mystery... Le Harve is still on our ship itinerary, same dock time as before and there are still more than a dozen shore excursions available --around Le Harve and Normandy, but none of the ones that go to Paris are there. But subsequent cruises same ship/nearly same itinerary -- excursion still there. My TA pointed me to another company that does cruise tours and I excitedly went over there to find... the same thing -- tours available close to the port; nothing to Paris. Choosing the sailing after ours and all the tours to Paris are available. We're supposed to be in Paris on Aug. 17 -- that several days after the Olympics end so we figure that's not it. Anyone know what gives? Seems like it can't be port related issue because then it'd be all or nothing right? Why *just* the Paris tours for *just* that sailing? (PS if also on that sailing - check your tickets!) And also does anyone have any ideas on how else to get to Paris from Le Harve? Too risky? Good experiences?

@OrcaGirl Thank you for this awesome blog! We were following closely as we were sailing on the cruise right after yours (just got back) and it was immensely helpful to learn some "what to expects". One question we had -- were there any unusual delays getting into LA at the end? We were very surprised at the long delay in cabins being ready on embarkation day. We've sailed NCL a few times before -- just got our gold status with this cruise but we haven't sailed them since before the pandemic.But most cruises it seems like by 1pm you're good to get your cabin but it was well past 3:30 -- so much so that they came on just after 3 and called decks whose cabins were "in acceptable enough condition" to at least allow you to drop off your luggage. We weren't given the "Ok you can stay in cabins" until like 335-350. Also we were surprised there was only one cabin service per day and it was at really random times - sometimes it was morning; sometimes mid afternoon, sometimes late like during or after dinner. We did hang out in our cabins a bit each day but not like there weren't several hour gaps each day. I could understand if there are fewer cabin attendants these days and it was never an issue as we're not really *needing* twice a day service it was just always a nice touch to come back from dinner and find it turned down with maybe a towel animal. Didn't know if that was something unique to our steward or just a modern sign of the times? We still had a good time. I hope to write my own recap here in a few days of our experiences. Glad you all made it back safely! We're back with a family member on crutches that didn't start the trip needing them but it was post-cruise and not NCL related. But we certainly got to experience the travel challenges when you're down a fully functioning ankle.