Rescheduling ports of call question

[Playtennis]

The cruise we'd like to take in November 2021 travels through the Caribbean and spends 6 days on the Amazon River area of Brazil.

Currently Brazil has the second highest number of deaths attributed to Covid19 (You know which country is #1 ?!!😪).  If the vaccine isn't widely available by late 2021 what is your opinion of the possibility that O would reroute the cruise?  (Quite frankly this may be a moot question as we probably will cancel the cruise)

 

[pinotlover]

Come back this time next year and ask. Perhaps a higher percentage guess will be available.

[Redtravel]

Yes. They can reroute you or skip ports anytime.  Oceania doesn’t refund port charges too!  On one cruise, we had 3 ports changed for a variety of reasons. It was tough luck if you wanted to visit one of those ports.  On my last cruise in March, we only stopped in 2 ports. We skipped St. Barts supposedly for high seas. Stopped in Martinique and St. Lucia.   We stopped quickly in Antiqua only to put off EU nationals. We were not allowed off. We then skipped all other scheduled stops.  After requesting port charges and being told that Oceania didn’t charge them, got a small amount of fcc.  Since cruises are not sailing, I hesitate to book again.

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

1 hour ago, Redtravel said:

Yes. They can reroute you or skip ports anytime.  Oceania doesn’t refund port charges too!  On one cruise, we had 3 ports changed for a variety of reasons. It was tough luck if you wanted to visit one of those ports.  On my last cruise in March, we only stopped in 2 ports. We skipped St. Barts supposedly for high seas. Stopped in Martinique and St. Lucia.   We stopped quickly in Antiqua only to put off EU nationals. We were not allowed off. We then skipped all other scheduled stops.  After requesting port charges and being told that Oceania didn’t charge them, got a small amount of fcc.  Since cruises are not sailing, I hesitate to book again.

Missing a port due to weather, sea conditions, wildfires, terrorism, etc. happens to ships on other lines besides Oceania.  The situation described above sounds really unusual, but perhaps Covid issues or hurricanes or something else contributed to so many missed ports. We generally cruise on Oceania and Viking Ocean, and both lines can miss a port or possibly two for every 12-14 day cruise.  However, missing a port is the exception, not the rule.  

 

I wouldn't even begin to guess whether things will calm down enough by November 2021 to make it possible for Oceania to go to Brazil.    If you've already booked, were you able to get Oceania's Travelers Assurance cancellation policy?  If so, you might be able to re-assess the situation in September or October 2021 and cancel if you feel things might be shaky.  

 

[ORV]

1 minute ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

perhaps Covid issues

You think? I believe it is a bit unfair the she left that part out. Not at all a normal situation. 

[floridatravelersforlife]

This issue is my main concern for the foreseable future.  Yes testing will mitigate onboard breakouts, but if any ports have a break out, there will be a shut down and in the worst case, the cruise will be long long transatlantic cruise.  

 

We'll take a cruise next year, but it will be out of our .home state (Florida).  

[clo]

3 hours ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

I wouldn't even begin to guess whether things will calm down enough by November 2021 to make it possible for Oceania to go to Brazil. 

I assume you're talking about will Brazil be open to the US citizens and also whether their dreadful situation with COVID has calmed down. We love Brazil and have been to Rio a lot but unsure if we'll ever return.

[Mura]

Getting back to OP's question ...

 

While it isn't unusual for occasional ports to be skipped -- we were on a cruise a couple of years ago, for example, that had scheduled a stop at a Greek coast town where the  port was cancelled because of flooding in Greece.  Understandable.

 

But I would guess that if the Amazon has to be cancelled because of Covid, or weather, or anything else, then at some point you would receive an updated advisory about a real change in itinerary.  If you are booking this itinerary because of the Amazon portion, then you want to keep an eye on what is happening and cancel in advance if it doesn't look like the Amazon will indeed be on the itinerary.

 

Not that I can imagine what replacement could be made for the Amazon portion ... it's not like you are talking one or two ports.

 

Good luck!

 

Mura