Cruise shortened - what happens?

[Evilmuffin]

I saw this morning on the Roll Calls, that a cruise has been shortened by two days as two ports were removed apparently.

Since the cruise I am on is right after, I will not be surprised if mine is also shortened.

My question is what happens in this case?   If my cruise gets altered, ie sea day in lieu of a port, I have no issues.  

But if they shorten the actual amount of days, do they prorate the cost of the cruise and refund you the equivalent of the cancelled days?

 

I know that my original booking was 11 days in 2020, and my PCC said she would book me on the same one for this year.   When I finally 

received the itinerary for the new cruise, it was not only one day shorter, but they wanted another $1000.   My PCC managed to get me the cruise at the price I was paying in 2020.

 

Now that I have paid in full, I am wondering what will happen if two days are cancelled.   Has anyone experienced this?

[vwlmember]

We had our transatlantic cruise with Norwegian cut short by two days back in April 2019. We received a 25% refund and 25% off a future cruise.  

[NCTribeFan]

Here's the content of the email I received yesterday...

 

Dear Valued Guest,

 

We are writing to advise you of some changes to our deployment schedule that affect your 10-Day Panama Canal Sunfarer voyage on board Eurodam (booking xxxxxx).

 

Your voyage will now be an 8-day cruise, and will begin on Tuesday, November 16, 2021 rather than Sunday, November 14. This change is necessary due to updated mandatory testing and inspection requirements for ships returning to the United States from international homeports that must take place before the beginning of your cruise and in order to obtain necessary permissions to embark guests in the U.S.

 

Your cruise fare will be automatically reduced by 20% based on the shorter cruise length and we will recalculate Cancellation Protection Plan Standard or Platinum and Taxes, Fees and Port Expenses based on the updated booking. Guests with Holland America Line's Flight Ease air will have their embarkation flight automatically rebooked based on the new sailing date.

 

As a gesture of goodwill and gratitude for your understanding, each guest who sails will also receive $100 USD per-person Shipboard Credit. The credits may be used toward specialty dining, spa treatments and shore excursions, as well as all purchases in the bars, boutiques, and photo gallery.

 

We will no longer call to Oranjestad, Aruba or Willemstad, Curaçao, and some call times and dates have been adjusted. Your updated itinerary will be as follows:

 

Date	Destination	Arrive	Depart
Tuesday, November 16	FORT LAUDERDALE, FL, USA		4:00 PM
Wednesday, November 17	Half Moon Cay, Bahamas	8:00 AM	3:00 PM
Thursday, November 18	At Sea
Friday, November 19	At Sea (Caribbean Sea)
Saturday, November 20	Enter Panama Canal at Cristobal	5:00 AM	5:00 AM
	Cruising Panama Canal & Gatún Lake
	Gatún Lake, Panama	9:00 AM	10:00 AM
	Cruising Gatún Lake & Panama Canal
	Exit Panama Canal at Cristobal	1:00 PM	1:00 PM
	Colon, Panama	3:00 PM	8:00 PM
Sunday, November 21	Puerto Limón (San José), Costa Rica	6:30 AM	2:00 PM
Monday, November 22	At Sea (Caribbean Sea)
Tuesday, November 23	At Sea (Caribbean Sea)
Wednesday, November 24	FORT LAUDERDALE, FL, USA	7:00 AM

 

Guests with Holland America Line shore excursions booked for the cancelled ports will receive refunds to the original form of purchase.

*****

My booking was a "free" casino fare (paid $200, get $200 OBC) so I don't expect any pro-rated refund but if I get one, it will fairly minimal.  I had not booked any excursions, dining, spa, etc., but I had recently pre-paid my gratuities, so I imagine I'll get a small refund for that.  No future discount of any type.  I'll happily take the $100 OBC.

 

I see no reason why the following cruise would be impacted at all.

 

I actually was expecting our sailing to be cancelled since there was the question of whether the ship would have to go into quarantine upon arrival in the states.  I believe what has happened is that only US citizens/residents are being allowed on the preceding sailing - the TA.  I was in that roll call this morning and apparently Canadians are not being allowed to sail.  I imagine this is all to avoid that 14-day quarantine.

 

Edited September 17, 2021 by NCTribeFan

[mcrcruiser]

Seems to me that things are getting pretty dicy  on some HAL cruises .  Hope that our March Mexican Riviera  cruise is not  upset like this one because it is only a 7 night sailing .any less days would be a huge disappointment as we hate  short cruises . i do know that Hawaii has a lot of  restrictions 

 

 In reality this virus is not going away as nee mutations keep cropping up  . The real issue is that there is almost 8 billion people in the world &  it seems to be necessary that 80 to 85% of all these people need to be vaccinated it really get sort of herd immunity on this virus  . This also seems to me to be a daunting undertaking 

 

 Sadly ,I feel that these hard conditions are going to be with us for a very long time .Wish it weren't that way 

[Evilmuffin]

@NCTribeFan   Thank you so much for your information.   I thought the reason Aruba and Curacao were cancelled for other reasons.   Since my cruise is to go to Aruba, and Curaçao, I thought it may be cancelled as well.  But if its to do with the 14 day quarantine problem resulting from the Schengen Area problem, then yes, it may be mine is fine.   But good to know the information regarding shortened cruises for the future.   Again, thank for taking the time to answer the question.    Hope all goes well with your cruise.

[CruiserBruce]

1 hour ago, mcrcruiser said:

Seems to me that things are getting pretty dicy  on some HAL cruises .  Hope that our March Mexican Riviera  cruise is not  upset like this one because it is only a 7 night sailing .any less days would be a huge disappointment as we hate  short cruises . i do know that Hawaii has a lot of  restrictions 

 

 In reality this virus is not going away as nee mutations keep cropping up  . The real issue is that there is almost 8 billion people in the world &  it seems to be necessary that 80 to 85% of all these people need to be vaccinated it really get sort of herd immunity on this virus  . This also seems to me to be a daunting undertaking 

 

 Sadly ,I feel that these hard conditions are going to be with us for a very long time .Wish it weren't that way 

There is no current issue with Mexico and cruises. Mexico has been wide open all through out Covid, with essentially no restrictions on travel. That can't be said for the ABC Islands.

[msmayor]

2 hours ago, NCTribeFan said:

 

 

We will no longer call to Oranjestad, Aruba or Willemstad, Curaçao, and some call times and dates have been adjusted. Your updated itinerary will be as follows:

 

Date	Destination	Arrive	Depart
Tuesday, November 16	FORT LAUDERDALE, FL, USA		4:00 PM
Wednesday, November 17	Half Moon Cay, Bahamas	8:00 AM	3:00 PM
Thursday, November 18	At Sea
Friday, November 19	At Sea (Caribbean Sea)
Saturday, November 20	Enter Panama Canal at Cristobal	5:00 AM	5:00 AM
	Cruising Panama Canal & Gatún Lake
	Gatún Lake, Panama	9:00 AM	10:00 AM
	Cruising Gatún Lake & Panama Canal
	Exit Panama Canal at Cristobal	1:00 PM	1:00 PM
	Colon, Panama	3:00 PM	8:00 PM
Sunday, November 21	Puerto Limón (San José), Costa Rica	6:30 AM	2:00 PM
Monday, November 22	At Sea (Caribbean Sea)
Tuesday, November 23	At Sea (Caribbean Sea)
Wednesday, November 24	FORT LAUDERDALE, FL, USA	7:00 AM

 

 

 

 

While I loved prior visits to Aruba and Curacao, I would really like this itinerary...adore HMC and my prior partial transit of the Canal was a fascinating day.  The rest of the trip would be just lazy days on my balcony reading...

[NCTribeFan]

I'm not unhappy with the resulting itinerary. 

 

Actually, I did the 11-night itinerary on Zuiderdam a few years ago.  It was great.  I did the small boat excursion all the way thru the canal.  I had planned to stay on board this time.

 

Evilmuffin:  I have no insider info.  I'm making assumptions as to why they just moved us back a couple of days rather than needing to cancel the whole thing.  As far as I know, there are no known issues to keep ships from calling at the ABCs.  At least, I haven't heard about any. If they now don't have time to call at both A &C, I imagine they figured it made sense to cut them both and keep the Canal day.  I know it's why I booked Zuiderdam and I imagine a lot of people book these mainly for that day.