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Missed Port Thread

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krehberg

krehberg

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Been somewhat lucky in 14 cruises to have only had missed/changed ports once. In June 2013, missed Belize and Roatan due to tropical storm and picked up Ocho Rios instead. Had so much fun at Ocho Rios, planned a cruise last year that stopped there again. Still need to take DW to Belize and Roatan, though our 2017 and 2018 bookings aren't going there :(

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cruzeluver

cruzeluver

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It seems like Costa Maya is impacted by weather on occasion.

 

 

Yep. On our Carnival Magic cruise last month we met a woman and her son who are now 0 for 5 on making Costa Maya. Crazy.

 

 

Question for those who have missed ports because of bad weather: Are announcements made about this at the last minute, or are passengers given a warning (perhaps the evening before) that bad weather may impact docking?

 

 

In our experience no advanced warning has been given (the one exception was when they knew we would miss Grand Cayman due to propulsion issues even before the cruise started. we were given a revised itinerary at check-in). In every other instance we were not informed till within an hour of our scheduled docking time. They are not going to cancel until they are absolutely sure they have to.

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pghsteelerfan

pghsteelerfan

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Question for those who have missed ports because of bad weather: Are announcements made about this at the last minute, or are passengers given a warning (perhaps the evening before) that bad weather may impact docking?

 

 

My signature

 

When we missed Grand Cayman on Liberty in April 2014, it was announced, by our captain, about a half hour before our scheduled arrival there that morning. I don't know if they knew the forecast for GC/poor weather conditions ahead of time (day or evening before) or not though. In GC, there is a back up tendering area on the southern end of Grand Cayman called Spott's Bay, but the Grand Cayman port authority made the decision to close both that day. As we sailed past GC, we could see the waves crashing in to the normal tendering area in George Town.

 

I do know that if there is a hurricane/tropical storm around, they will change itineraries ahead of time but sometimes passengers won't know until they actually check in for the cruise. Sometimes ports will be reversed or an eastern Caribbean itinerary will turn into a western Caribbean and vise versa. Many times, ships will miss port due to high winds, even on sunny days, and the announcement won't be made until that day. But the hard part is that weather and sea conditions can change almost without notice.

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Pellaz

Pellaz

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Question for those who have missed ports because of bad weather: Are announcements made about this at the last minute, or are passengers given a warning (perhaps the evening before) that bad weather may impact docking?

 

It depends on the circumstances. I've missed HMC 3 times out of 5 itineraries.

 

The first time, we pulled up to the island on Liberty and we waited in the Victoria Lounge with other excursion people for an hour before the Captain came on the PA and announced we were bypassing the port and heading directly for Grand Turk. (We got an extra hour in port there, though.) The weather was clousy and the seas may have been too high for tendering.

 

The second time, I had booked the Private Oasis for our CC roll-call group and the Captain announced the miss as we were leaving Nassau the day before, "due to weather concerns at HMC." We didn't notice any unusual weather or swells on our way south to GT. THAT one hurt a lot; I had to refund a lot of money back to people for the Private Oasis.

 

The third time (last October), our onboard accounts already reflected the port-fee credit when we boarded, but we weren't told until later; that miss was due to damage from Hurricane Mattthew and I'd booked a 2-story villa that time.

On that same trip we cut short our last port stop by an hour because we had to take the longer route past Cuba back to Florida instead of "up and over" the Bahamas, due to heavy swells from another hurricane. We were shadowed by a Cuban warship as we passed by. :o

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Pellaz

Pellaz

Posted
Posted
Grand Turk

Carnival Conquest

October 2016

Rough seas/wind

 

Huh. We made it to GT last October on Conquest (mid-month), but a couple of years ago we BARELY made it, as a hurricane was out at sea and moving away but kicking up 30 mph winds and lots of waves. The limit is 35 mph, and the Captain told us on the bridge that Grand Turk is "tricky" so we were barely able to dock, and all sea excursions were cancelled. The waves at Margaritaville, even in the lee of the ship, were 1-2 feet, and I've never been happier with a good dry-top snorkel as I was that day. :D

On the way home we were encountering long-period swells from the hurricane and the ship was literally bucking from stem to stern like a horse and throwing bow-spray 100 ft to either side. It rocked us to sleep like babies. :)

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mebjar

mebjar

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Falmouth, Jamaica

Carnival Freedom

December 20, 2016

High winds

 

 

I was on the exact same cruise!

:( We were really disappointed.....

 

We were on it, too. I think everyone would've felt a whole lot better about missing it if we all hadn't seen the RCL ship already docked. Oh well, safety first. However, spending the ENTIRE morning cruising the coast of Jamaica felt a little like salt in our wounds. But from what I could see from my chair on Deck 10, it looked like a beautiful country! :')

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Doggielover68

Doggielover68

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Huh. We made it to GT last October on Conquest (mid-month), but a couple of years ago we BARELY made it, as a hurricane was out at sea and moving away but kicking up 30 mph winds and lots of waves. The limit is 35 mph, and the Captain told us on the bridge that Grand Turk is "tricky" so we were barely able to dock, and all sea excursions were cancelled. The waves at Margaritaville, even in the lee of the ship, were 1-2 feet, and I've never been happier with a good dry-top snorkel as I was that day. :D

On the way home we were encountering long-period swells from the hurricane and the ship was literally bucking from stem to stern like a horse and throwing bow-spray 100 ft to either side. It rocked us to sleep like babies. :)

 

 

We were on a back to back the last week of October /first week of November. Missed it the first week but made it the next. I'm glad we were at least able to get there.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

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Athankfulheart

Athankfulheart

Posted
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We have sailed a bunch but only missed 3 ports. Sadly, 2 those were on the same cruise.

 

Dream

JAN 4 2014

Missed Roatan and Belize for weather

Poured on at Cozumel and CM

Received a 25% off voucher for future sailing, which was very generous.

 

Dream

March 2012

Missed CM due to waves at dock

 

I think Mossimo Marino was captain both times.

 

Sent from my SM-N920V using Forums mobile app

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JawjaFatBoy

JawjaFatBoy

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Port: Freeport

Ship: Victory

Date: October 2016

Reason: Hurricane Matthew beat us there!

 

Out of 7 cruises, I've only ever missed one port. That was last October when we missed Freeport due to damage caused by Matthew. We knew about it when we boarded as they were passing out the adjusted itineraries, showing an overnight stay in Nassau, while we were in line to board.

 

It actually turned out great though. This was the first time that we had booked a balcony and only the second time that we had booked port side. The captain docked us at the very last slip on the pier so we had an unobstructed view of the ocean for the whole stay. We spent a LOT of time on the balcony with our daughter and the camera (and a few drinks while DD was at Camp Carnival!) watching the sea and listening to the waves breaking. We both agreed that it was well worth missing Freeport for!

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estillcrew

estillcrew

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We missed Costa Maya in March of 2014 because the captain said he could not dock the boat. The skies were beautiful, but it was windy.

We were credited about $15 per person for missing the port and we had an extra sea day instead. If you were lucky enough to be on the lido deck, the bartenders came around with a round of free drinks for every single person on deck. We had booked an excursion through a third party vendor and were able to get our money back no problem. We were really looking forward to Costa Maya and would have preferred another port instead of an additional sea day.

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Cruise Envy

Cruise Envy

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Sailed with Carnival 7 times, three other cruises, only missed two ports, both on the same cruise.

 

Port: Belize

Ship: Carnival Pride

Date: 11/26/14

Reason: Rough seas/wind

 

Our ship was LISTING that morning. I wasn't sorry we cancelled, although I was sorry to miss Belize.

 

Port: Grand Cayman

Ship: Carnival Pride

Date: 11/28/14

Reason: Rough Seas Wind

 

The told us the night before as we sailed late from Roatan in the pouring rain that we would miss GC. They substituted Costa Maya instead. For those who have asked, our shore excursions were refunded within a day to our sign and sail accounts.

 

Both of these were tender ports. We met folks at Roatan who missed Cozumel the day we were there because they had to tender in. It was not a great week for weather.

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Doggielover68

Doggielover68

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We wanted to do our first cruise May of 2010 but my PVP advised against it because of hurricane season so we changed to mid November and 7 cruises have not missed any ports

 

 

Hurricane season is August 1 to November 30...

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

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stargate fan

stargate fan

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We wanted to do our first cruise May of 2010 but my PVP advised against it because of hurricane season so we changed to mid November and 7 cruises have not missed any ports

 

Hurricane season is August 1 to November 30...

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

Hurricane season is June 1 (not August 1) to November 30.

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Alaskan Joe

Alaskan Joe

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11 cruises and no missed ports--- I must be lucky and I hope I didn't just jinx myself.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I swear cjcrowder, when I first was reading this thread I thought to myself 5 cruises and we have never missed a port, how lucky. I was thinking if I post that would I jinx myself...LoL:confused:

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