Breakaway 9/23 no Berlin

We are on the 9/23 breakaway Baltic cruise and found out this morning we are staying in Copenhagen until 3 pm tomorrow at 2pm. The ship can’t leave since there is some kind of bad weather They are trying to get the people embarking in Warnemunde to Copenhagen by 2 pm tomorrow

Wow. Seems a stretch to notify everyone to get to the port early for a bus. I seem to remember a discussion that NCL does not offer transportation from airports to Warnemunde? If true then everyone has to modify their own travel if that is even possible. Will be watching for your departure time.

Good thing is there is a day at sea to try to make up time to Tallin.

Wonder if everyone made it.

It's not that far from Berlin to Copenhagen, I think about a 6 hour train ride.

I feel your pain. We were on the cruise prior and embarked in Warnemunde but were forced to disembark in Copenhagen and find our own way back to Germany. So instead of casually enjoying Copenhagen we spent the day trying to arrange travel back to Berlin to connect with our flight back to the US.

What happened?

It's not that far from Berlin to Copenhagen, I think about a 6 hour train ride.

True, but it's short notice for a few hundred people who are likely already on their way to Berlin, and have ground transportation that must get to Warnemunde in time to catch a bus... hopefully they delayed leaving Copenhagen a bit for the buses to get there. I presume NCL sent some buses to Warnemunde which have to take a Ferry to get to Copenhagen.

And today we heard they have to skip the stop in Russia - which is arguably the highlight stop of the cruise for many. Too bad.

skip they both days or only one?

At the moment Breakaway is still at Tallin, stay they overnight?

I was also on the Breakaway 9/15 to 9/24 - well actually only until the 23rd since they made us get off the ship in Copenhagen. I was astounded at the lack of customer service provided by NCL. They informed us around 11am on the 22nd (while we were at sea) that we would be responsible for arranging our own transportation and lodging to get back to Berlin. Their "help" consisted of providing access to 6 laptops to try and arrange this. It honestly never occurred to me that I could be stranded in a port that was not where I was supposed to disembark in a totally different country. Outrageous!

that´s a shame how ncl handle this

I was also on the Breakaway 9/15 to 9/24 - well actually only until the 23rd since they made us get off the ship in Copenhagen. I was astounded at the lack of customer service provided by NCL. They informed us around 11am on the 22nd (while we were at sea) that we would be responsible for arranging our own transportation and lodging to get back to Berlin. Their "help" consisted of providing access to 6 laptops to try and arrange this. It honestly never occurred to me that I could be stranded in a port that was not where I was supposed to disembark in a totally different country. Outrageous!

Dang! That's frustrating to say the least!! What was going on in Warnemunde-a hurricane? Oh man and skipping St. Petersburg?! The best port?! What the what? For many, that itinerary is a once in a life time cruise. I know it was for us.

It is pretty bad. But similar to a disappointing cruise we had on Breakaway last year. We were 1-2 hours late in 3 ports because of wind and waves. Captain waited a long time to decide if we could dock in Ocho Rios and Cozumel and inched up slowly. Had an alternate anchorage that required extra busing (no charge). Ports had many excursions canceled due to weather and shortened hours.. so not much more than a little shopping was possible. And because we weren't see anchoring off Georgetown, Grand Cayman many shops did not open assuming we did not stop!

We were on this cruise that departed out of Germany on September 15th. Received a letter in our stateroom on the 22nd that we had to leave the ship a day early in Copenhagen. Seems none or the staff nor other passengers knew about the German port being cancelled. We spent our lovely day at sea trying to rebook our air and get hotels in Copenhagen. Interesting they did not allow us to at least stay in our rooms overnight on the 23rd. They made us leave the ship which sat in port overnight and did not depart until the 24th at 2:00 pm. I checked the cruise ship tracker and there were other ships that arrived in Germany on the 24th. I do not buy the weather excuse, I am a weather nerd and pilot and was constantly watching it. I think somehow they overbooked the cruise, not to mention we did not stop in Sweden. I checked our location and speed on the morning of the 20th and realized we could not even arrive to the port at Sweden until 1:00 in the afternoon. Thirty minutes later they told us they cancelled the port of call. We are out about 2K extra, they offered up to 300.00 for travel expenses and a refund for one day of the cruise to be determined at a later date. Of course they hit my Amex for expenses on the cruise, I am sure we will be chasing this for a while. We felt so sorry for the people that have saved for years for this cruise and were hit with all these extra expenses with limits on their credit. As far as the business center to use the free laptops there was a 2 hour wait, thank goodness we had the unlimited internet packages and were able to rebook on our phones. I feel we should also be refunded for our day at sea which spent hours trying to fix this problem. I will not mention how much the air was from Copenhagen to London with less than 48 hour notice. Overall NCL dropped the ball, we will never use them again. Had they been smart they would at least offered a discount on another cruise to get us back. Oh well, live and learn.

Warnemuende is pretty bad with winds. So with heavy wind the ships can´t go in. The Viking Sky arrived a day early and stayed in port.

I don´t understand why they didn´t go to Kiel instead. The port was open and the cruise pier empty. It´s easier to get to Kiel from Warnemuende (or vice versa). They could have even provided buses for that transfer.

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We overnighted in Tallinn. We are leaving St. Petersburg now but will not go to Helsinki or Stockholm

I am so disappointed with how NCL has handled this

On the bright side the captain does actually speak over the PA system now. A far cry from how he handled the New Year’s Eve cruise

We heard they have missed Stockholm the last 2 sailings so ours makes 3

Sadly NCL has been our favorite cruise line but they are not just breaking the camel’s back. They are burning him alive at this point

Poorly done NCL. Poorly done

We overnighted in Tallinn. We are leaving St. Petersburg now but will not go to Helsinki or Stockholm

I am so disappointed with how NCL has handled this

On the bright side the captain does actually speak over the PA system now. A far cry from how he handled the New Year’s Eve cruise

We heard they have missed Stockholm the last 2 sailings so ours makes 3

 

Sadly NCL has been our favorite cruise line but they are not just breaking the camel’s back. They are burning him alive at this point

Poorly done NCL. Poorly done

I am so sorry. I would be very disappointed too.

Warnemuende Also has issues with dense fog. I was on regal in May and the ship was delayed arriving as the port was closed till 9 am. All the Berlin tours were cancelled as a result and departure was delayed by the same amount of time as the arrival delay to allow passengers to enjoy the same amount of time ashore

Warnemuende is pretty bad with winds. So with heavy wind the ships can´t go in. The Viking Sky arrived a day early and stayed in port.

 

 

I don´t understand why they didn´t go to Kiel instead. The port was open and the cruise pier empty. It´s easier to get to Kiel from Warnemuende (or vice versa). They could have even provided buses for that transfer.

 

 

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That is a really good question. Regal Princess did it 2015 too. Warnemünde was closed and they went to Kiel. Would be a much better decision. But maybe they don't know Kiel?

A captain should know about the port of Kiel. It´s a pretty large one actually. Although it´s not used by NCL.

I can understand about Stockholm as going in (and not only to Nyshamna) takes several hours (and same time out again). So that takes a lot of time. But Helsinki is just opposite Tallinn. So - in case there was an open docking space - they could have gone from Tallinn to Helsinki and then St. Petersburg instead of staying in Tallinn overnight. I don´t know whether the ship wasn´t able to leave Tallinn due to high winds or whether they just stayed overnight due to the closure of St. Petersburg.

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Re Kiel: NCL may not have wanted to go to a port where they have no contract, no agent, no arrangement for excursions, etc. And an hour walk from the pier to downtown. Takes some logistics and people on the ground.

And an hour walk from the pier to downtown.

Ostseekai is directly located downtown. You´re obviously talking about Ostuferhafen. Ostseekai was empty on Monday and is large enough for the Breakaway. As for the agents... Warnemünde is pretty close. They could have moved over to Kiel and I´m pretty sure they know that port too. Many cruise lines do use the same port agencies.

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Ostseekai is directly located downtown. You´re obviously talking about Ostuferhafen. Ostseekai was empty on Monday and is large enough for the Breakaway. As for the agents... Warnemünde is pretty close. They could have moved over to Kiel and I´m pretty sure they know that port too. Many cruise lines do use the same port agencies.

 

 

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Oh thanks I missed the closer port. Well it would have been open Oct. 1. Here's 3 days for the port schedule. But I will bet it is still difficult to call on any port short notice without a port agent and existing excursion relationships. I've been to ports 3 times on short notice - all 3 existing high volume NCL ports and with 12hrs to 3 days notice - and those were pretty poor stops in all 3 cases. Odd schedules, very few excursions. More than half the ship stayed aboard.

Kiel29-Sep-2018AIDAvitaAIDA Cruises

Kiel30-Sep-2018AIDAbellaAIDA Cruises08:00

Kiel2-Oct-2018Viking SkyViking

Kiel has much experience with unplanned cruise calls because they know really well that Warnemünde has problems with wind situations. I saw one time MSC Sinfonia when she tried to dock in Warnemünde on 7 a.m but it was to risk. So they went just 5 hours later to the port of Kiel without problems.

Warnemünde and Kiel also have the same port agent "Sartori & Berger". I think it would have been no problem to go to this port. But I don't know why NCL did not do it.

I was also on the Breakaway 9/15 to 9/24 - well actually only until the 23rd since they made us get off the ship in Copenhagen. I was astounded at the lack of customer service provided by NCL. They informed us around 11am on the 22nd (while we were at sea) that we would be responsible for arranging our own transportation and lodging to get back to Berlin. Their "help" consisted of providing access to 6 laptops to try and arrange this. It honestly never occurred to me that I could be stranded in a port that was not where I was supposed to disembark in a totally different country. Outrageous!

Wow, that's horrible. So sorry this happened to you. It makes our recent experience on the HAL Zuiderdam seem like peanuts. We were just on a 20-night TA to New York from Copenhagen; a week before our scheduled arrival at the Manhattan Cruise Terminal we were informed, while we were at sea (off the coast of Greenland no less), that we were being bumped to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal because of repairs being made to our pier in Manhattan. (We later learned that the Carnival Horizon had damaged the pier while it was docking.) HAL curtly told passengers to "plan accordingly," and offered no assistance (not even internet access) to anyone in rearranging disembarkation plans. It was a hassle for my wife and me to wind up in Brooklyn rather than in Manhattan, but at least we were in the same city and in the same country!

I realize that cruise lines have given themselves all sorts of "outs" in the cruise contract for things not within their control, but I still think they need to get you back to where they said they were going to disembark you. And if for some reason they can't get to that port, they really need to do more than provide a few laptops free of charge. It may not be a legal obligation, but I still think they should step up, especially in a very unusual circumstance such as this. Certainly it's terrible in terms of business goodwill for them to do nothing.

Kiel has much experience with unplanned cruise calls because they know really well that Warnemünde has problems with wind situations. I saw one time MSC Sinfonia when she tried to dock in Warnemünde on 7 a.m but it was to risk. So they went just 5 hours later to the port of Kiel without problems.

Warnemünde and Kiel also have the same port agent "Sartori & Berger". I think it would have been no problem to go to this port. But I don't know why NCL did not do it.

Exactly! And as I said before Kiel had no cruiseship last Monday. So Ostseekai was empty. And they are used getting in more ships on a short notice due to the closure of Warnemünde. And it wouldn´t even have been on a short notice as NCL new about the wind problems on the 22nd - two days ahead.

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