What Are the Odds

[PunkiC]

This thread scares me!!! We booked an Alaskan cruise as the "easier" way to attend my brother's wedding in Skagway on July 27th. I will be heartbroken if we don't make it!!!

 

Man proposes and God disposes.

 

I really wouldn't worry too much. I have never actually heard of an Alaska cruise not making a port. Sometimes they have to switch fjords due to weather, but not ports. It's all pretty protected.

[Sea Day Cruiser]

I've missed all of these ports: Lahaina and Kauai in Hawaii (two different cruises), Santonini, Grand Cayman, Dunedin in New Zealand, also scenic crusing of Fjordland National Park in New Zealand, Edinburg, Liverpool, Princess Cays and Bar Harbor. I did get to Santorini, Lahaina, Kauai, and the New Zealand ports on later cruises.

[Coral]

This thread scares me!!! We booked an Alaskan cruise as the "easier" way to attend my brother's wedding in Skagway on July 27th. I will be heartbroken if we don't make it!!!

 

I wouldn't worry about this. I have never missed Skagway! Haven't heard of any ships missing Skagway.

[sunsetbeachgal]

As other said, never read anything about a ship missing ports on an Alaska cruise...have heard of cancelled glacier viewing, but that is a completely different story...

[Gbeman]

I just have to add that I'll never forget the look on all of our faces when one distraught passenger proposed "pushing the Iceberg out of the way". We were being blocked by a very respectable berg and she was livid we were missing this little fishing village.

 

A wonderful Scottish accent came from the crowd, "aye lass, that werrrked out weel for the Titanic, din'it!

 

I almost peed my pants!

[UpcountryTravelers]

In 9 Princess cruises, we have missed only two ports. Grand Cayman due to storm in Jamaica stranding some passengers on a tour, and Limon last month due to a storm closing the port to ALL shipping.

 

I think the OP is way above average and can look forward to making most ports in the future. :)

[2BeOnaBoat]

In 9 Princess cruises, we have missed only two ports. Grand Cayman due to storm in Jamaica stranding some passengers on a tour, and Limon last month due to a storm closing the port to ALL shipping.

 

I think the OP is way above average and can look forward to making most ports in the future. :)

 

7 cruises so far 2 missed ports. I missed Princess Cays in July - maybe missed was a blessing. I missed Bermuda during Sandy - but got 2 days in Boston and almost half my cruise fare back.

 

I hope to miss more in the future! :)

[DeepWaterMariner]

Man proposes and God disposes.

 

I really wouldn't worry too much. I have never actually heard of an Alaska cruise not making a port. Sometimes they have to switch fjords due to weather, but not ports. It's all pretty protected.

 

Unless your really unlucky. A cruise ship hitting a rock and breaching the hull...that's been done in Alaska. Catching fire and sinking...also done (original Prisendam) but that was in the Gulf of Alaska when it happened. More common than these are engine problems. I think we missed Sitka once due to that issue. But otherwise you are good to go!

[Sea Hag]

I think we've only been rerouted twice, and both those were on NCl. Never have missed a port or been rerouted on Princess.

[alfieisgod]

Six cruises to date. Missed one port in Jamaica due to high winds. Six hours late to Ketchikan last year when the Star had to turn around and sail 3 hours south for a rescue at sea - two people, a dog and a cat on a disabled sailboat. We arrived on the scene at about the same time as the Canadian Coast Guard who made the recovery.

 

 

 

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Sapphire Princess2013Alaska - Future

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Emerald Princess2010Caribbean

Crown Princess2009Caribbean

Star Princess 2007Caribbean

Caribbean Princess2006Caribbean

[dchip]

I just have to add that I'll never forget the look on all of our faces when one distraught passenger proposed "pushing the Iceberg out of the way". We were being blocked by a very respectable berg and she was livid we were missing this little fishing village.

 

A wonderful Scottish accent came from the crowd, "aye lass, that werrrked out weel for the Titanic, din'it!

 

I almost peed my pants!

 

LOL!!!!!!!! Thanks for a good laugh on a tragic news day!

 

Cheers, Denise

[caribill]

We have missed a number of ports over the number of cruises we have had with Princess. On one cruise we missed four of nine ports.

 

Among the ports we have missed with Princess:

o Inchon, South Korea (too foggy to enter the lock just a couple of miles from the dock)

o Devil's Island (sea too rough to tender)

o Shetland Islands (big storm in area, stayed hundreds of miles away)

o Nanortalik, Greenland (iceberg was sitting where the ship needed to anchor--and it would not move out of the way)

o Airlie Beach, Australia (seas too rough to tender)

o Dover, England (seas too rough to get into port)

o Sydney, Canada (emergency medical evaculation caused too much of a delay to be able to make that port)

o Reykjavik (big storm in area, stayed hundreds of miles away)

o St. John's. Canada (big storm in area, stayed hundreds of miles away)

o Hiva Oa, French Polynesia (sea too rough to tender)

 

and also a bunch of others

[gators70]

OP,

 

Please post your future cruise schedule so I will know which sailings to avoid!:p

 

Just kidding, but you do seem quite unlucky.

[geoherb]

This thread scares me!!! We booked an Alaskan cruise as the "easier" way to attend my brother's wedding in Skagway on July 27th. I will be heartbroken if we don't make it!!!

The odds are you'll make it. But I would never book a cruise to attend a wedding in a port. There's always a chance of the ship skipping a port due to weather or other circumstance.

 

In our 12 Princess cruises, we've missed Princess Cays twice. Once was due to hurricane damage weeks beforehand, so our itinerary was changed to Nassau the day we were supposed to be in Princess Cays. On another cruise, the seas were too rough to tender. We ended up with an extra sea day. We half-missed St. Thomas once. Our ship had engine problems plus got called off course by the Coast Guard to assist in a rescue. We arrived in St. Thomas about four hours later than planned--but still left at the originally scheduled time.

[windsor26]

We have been on a lot of Princess cruises and so far have only missed Princess Cay (no great loss), and Livorno. Instead of Livorno, we went to La Spezia and we were quite happy with that port.

 

We did once arrive into Dublin too late to really do anything. I think we docked at about 4:00 p.m. and had to make a 6:00 p.m. tide.

 

Not bad considering all of the cruises we have taken.

 

When this happened to us on a P&O cruise due to engine trouble we got 100 pounds sterling each back.

 

On our 200 odd days cruising we have only missed Falklands, San Juan Nicaragua, one in Alaska on a Celebrity cruise so your percentage average seems to be quite high

[ShipsandDipper]

We've been pretty fortunate. In nine cruises (different lines), we've missed only one port so far--Chios, Greece, due to high winds that made tendering dangerous. Although we were a little disappointed, we appreciated the extra sea day since one sea day hadn't really been enough to recover from our whirlwind tour of Egypt anyway.

[jpthomas27]

Seems to me that you are missing many more ports than most people experience. But I would theorize (not knowing all of your cruises and when you took them) that you could be picking the more risky season to cruise those particular itineraries. If you are getting great deals and scooping up cheaper fares then you are probably taking more risks than others do. If you cruise the Caribbean during huricane season you have a greater chance of missing ports or changing itinerary compeltely than someone that takes the same exact cruise in the spring.

 

So...what are the odds? You ask... Thats up to you. The odds seem to be slim that someone would have this percentage of issues, but then again, you may be the reason you are bucking those odds and seeing more issues than most.

[bjkTX]

Probably higher than normal.

 

Canada/NE cruises seem to have issues, especially with Bar Harbor and Newport (tender ports). We missed Newfoundland on our cruise there and in Newport, only the first hour or two the tenders ran. It was too windy otherwise.

 

Victoria, Canada is a port I have missed several times due to winds.

 

I seem to miss more ports whenever Captain Nash is our Captain.

 

We've done Canada/New England five times and haven't ever missed a port...but our Alaska cruise with Crash Nash lost us Victoria...and our flights home :-)

[shastatroy]

Missed -

Kauai (Nawiliwili), Hawaii - too windy

Vladivostok, Russia - rough seas passing the Aleutian Islands

[Holomoku]

Since we were commemorating the centennial of the Titanic sinking on that particular cruise, heading south to avoid icebergs sounded like a really good idea to me. ;) Did you go up an throw flowers when we crossed the site of the Titanic sinking?

 

Sure did, and went to the Titanic exhibits in the Maritime Museum in Halifax. I was disappointed when I learned we would go 200 N. of the site, but then when we changed course I had to be up there then. All in all a great cruise and mahalo for all the help getting that large group to the subway on the buses in N.Y. Glad someone knew their way around from the ship to the city on the local transportation.:D

[JustinPlusLauren]

In my four cruises, we've only missed one port....and it was Roatan for high winds. definitely nothing that could have been done and our safety was way more important! We just enjoyed another day on the ship.

[caber]

Out of 19 cruises we have missed only 2 ports, one in Newfoundland and one in Jamaica where we were tendering. We missed climbing Dunns River Falls which is my main regret so far.

[framer]

In 12 cruises we ran from 2 hurricanes, Wilma and Sandy. In Wilma we went from the Western to an Eastern Caribbean cruise and missed all scheduled stops. With Sandy we missed Barmuda and went to Boston.

 

framer

[H2O skier]

In 12 cruises we ran from 2 hurricanes, Wilma and Sandy. In Wilma we went from the Western to an Eastern Caribbean cruise and missed all scheduled stops. With Sandy we missed Barmuda and went to Boston.

 

framer

Was that 2nd pic taken in 2011?

[caribill]

Was that 2nd pic taken in 2011?

 

The 2nd picture was from 2012 at Red Hook after Sandy.