Any idea why NCL dropped Costa Rica as a port?

[v3cruiser]

i wouldnt mind a drop of limon but I hope they substitute a reasonable port. cruising on jewel late feb out of panama city. still have Limon on cruise itinerary. 

 

is the dropped costa rica stop from the atlantic side or pacific?? Pacific side seems to have better excursions and more to see. 

[Montanagirlalways]

2 hours ago, kapper said:

We sail the Panama Canal cruise on the Bliss from Miami on Feb. 25. We were advised that Nicaragua was taken off the itinerary about a month or so ago, and this morning we were advised that Costa Rica is gone now, and Acapulco has been added to the schedule.

 

It's not a safety issue - if it was, we wouldn't be going to Acapulco when the governments of Canada, US and UK all advise against travel to the Guerrero (where Acapulco is) region of Mexico. So, if there's several government advisories against going there, why are we? Is NCL going to take responsibility/liability if something happens there and our travel insurance is null and void?

 

This boils down to NCL not wanting to have to deal with unvaccinated travellers. Costa Rica will not allow unvaccinated travellers to leave the ship, and NCL doesn't want to be put in the position of having to verify vaccination status of their passengers - so screw safety.

If Bermuda can demand negative covid tests and vaccination and the ships stop there why not do the same for Costa Rica.  Such a shame!!!!!! Won't exit the ship in acapulco most likely

[Gramma10]

Not sure why Costa Rica was dropped as a port but anything I’ve found online says any traveler can enter whether vaccinated or not. 

[kapper]

4 minutes ago, Gramma10 said:

Not sure why Costa Rica was dropped as a port but anything I’ve found online says any traveler can enter whether vaccinated or not. 

If you click on the Sail Safe banner on the NCL website, select Cruise Requirements by Country, scroll down to Costa Rica, you’ll see it says unvaccinated passengers are unable to go ashore. 

[v3cruiser]

37 minutes ago, kapper said:

If you click on the Sail Safe banner on the NCL website, select Cruise Requirements by Country, scroll down to Costa Rica, you’ll see it says unvaccinated passengers are unable to go ashore. 

yes which contradicts costa ricas policies online but hey, if they dont want unvaxxed cruise passengers going to shore hopefully ncl can substitute a worthwhile place. 

 

what has ncl substituted on other cruises???

[kapper]

13 minutes ago, v3cruiser said:

yes which contradicts costa ricas policies online but hey, if they dont want unvaxxed cruise passengers going to shore hopefully ncl can substitute a worthwhile place. 

 

what has ncl substituted on other cruises???

On our 2/25/23 Panama Canal cruise they’ve substituted Acapulco. That’s now three ports in Mexico for our cruise. 

[v3cruiser]

3 minutes ago, kapper said:

On our 2/25/23 Panama Canal cruise they’ve substituted Acapulco. That’s now three ports in Mexico for our cruise. 

its sounds like they substituted a west coast costa rica port then. were you originally going to puntearenas? thanks for info. i dont think those of us that have an east coast stop have many options but maybe nicaragua. i dont know if ships stop in nicaragua on the eastern side. maybe we will hit colon if costa rica is cancelled. 

[Sailing12Away]

10 hours ago, kapper said:

On our 2/25/23 Panama Canal cruise they’ve substituted Acapulco. That’s now three ports in Mexico for our cruise. 

Our sailing is still very much messed up on the NCL website. Despite getting multiple emails that Costa Rica & Nicaragua were dropped, Costa Rica is still showing up as a port - but the entire trip isn't even showing up as a Panama Canal journey. You can only find it if you search for the Joy - if you search for Panama Canal transits it doesn't show up at all.

 

 

But when you try to price it out as it looks like prices have dropped yet again, you get this dreaded message.

[Karaboudjan]

12 hours ago, Montanagirlalways said:

If Bermuda can demand negative covid tests and vaccination and the ships stop there why not do the same for Costa Rica.  Such a shame!!!!!! Won't exit the ship in acapulco most likely

 

Those are often 'Bermuda cruises' with 2-3 days there so switching to a different port defeats the whole purpose.  But they did start dropping shorter Bermuda stops on TAs.

[2boyzmom]

Our upcoming Breakaway 14 night cruise November 6th removed 2 ports (Cozumel and DR) due to "upcoming mechanical maintenance" at sea but left Costa Rica. We now have 9 sea days which is ridiculous. If i wanted that i would've done transatlantic sailing for half the price! 

Edited October 13, 2022 by 2boyzmom

[Captain-John]

19 hours ago, farringtonb said:

On the Joy on 30th April but now revised to 1st May. Limon was on this. New itinerary still not on NCL website though. Don't want to lose Cayman and Limon

 

Booked on the same cruise, it will basically become an entirely different cruise if they drop Costa Rica too. I wouldn't mind if they substitute with Bonaire to complete the ABCs but if it's another sea day, I'll probably cancel.

Edited October 13, 2022 by Captain-John

[swmichigan cruiser]

3 hours ago, Captain-John said:

 

Booked on the same cruise, it will basically become an entirely different cruise if they drop Costa Rica too. I wouldn't mind if they substitute with Bonaire to complete the ABCs but if it's another sea day, I'll probably cancel.

Not sure if you can change your dates if that happens but you might want to consider the April 15 twelve night cruise on the Joy. Of course no guarantees NCL won't change that cruise later.

 

[Captain-John]

50 minutes ago, swmichigan cruiser said:

Not sure if you can change your dates if that happens but you might want to consider the April 15 twelve night cruise on the Joy. Of course no guarantees NCL won't change that cruise later.

 

 

Yes, had thought about that thanks. The base fare is bit more and there would be a couple of flight change fees but nothing drastic so if there are further changes to the 05/01 sailing I will revisit.

 

When they shortened the cruise, I thought they'd offer cancellation or moving date as an option - sadly not.

[swmichigan cruiser]

3 hours ago, Captain-John said:

 

Yes, had thought about that thanks. The base fare is bit more and there would be a couple of flight change fees but nothing drastic so if there are further changes to the 05/01 sailing I will revisit.

 

When they shortened the cruise, I thought they'd offer cancellation or moving date as an option - sadly not.

Not on NCL but next fall we had a 14 or 15 night TA cruise booked on another cruise line that they canceled  but they offered and we took it a 17 night  TA cruise at the same very low price. Hadn't booked airfare yet so that helped.

[Tricialy]

On 10/12/2022 at 3:17 PM, kapper said:

 

This boils down to NCL not wanting to have to deal with unvaccinated travellers. Costa Rica will not allow unvaccinated travellers to leave the ship, and NCL doesn't want to be put in the position of having to verify vaccination status of their passengers - so screw safety.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was the reason, but they haven't dropped it from our Dec. 10th cruise on the Pearl.  

[tracyfitzs]

2 hours ago, Tricialy said:

I wouldn't be surprised if this was the reason, but they haven't dropped it from our Dec. 10th cruise on the Pearl.  

Puerto Limon Still showing on our Dec 22 maimi roundtrip on the Pearl. 

[kapper]

4 hours ago, Tricialy said:

I wouldn't be surprised if this was the reason, but they haven't dropped it from our Dec. 10th cruise on the Pearl.  

I hope they keep the port for you guys! We had booked the excursion to the sloth sanctuary, and I’m so bummed that we’re going to miss it. 

[farringtonb]

19 hours ago, Captain-John said:

 

Booked on the same cruise, it will basically become an entirely different cruise if they drop Costa Rica too. I wouldn't mind if they substitute with Bonaire to complete the ABCs but if it's another sea day, I'll probably cancel.

Can you cancel if they change so many ports though?

[fox02554]

6 hours ago, kapper said:

I hope they keep the port for you guys! We had booked the excursion to the sloth sanctuary, and I’m so bummed that we’re going to miss it. 

if you are going to the Jaguar Rescue Center please think about bringing a can of powered goat milk with you , weired I know , but they can not purchase in CostaRica , it's on their AMAZON wishlist ❤️

[Travelling2Some]

3 hours ago, fox02554 said:

if you are going to the Jaguar Rescue Center please think about bringing a can of powered goat milk with you , weired I know , but they can not purchase in CostaRica , it's on their AMAZON wishlist ❤️

Wow - the unexpected sight of this can is so nostalgic for me.  One of my kids was allergic to both cow's milk and soy so I remember using this stuff to make baby formula many years ago.

[Homosassa]

10 hours ago, kapper said:

Okay - I was just watching La Lido Loca, and this might be the answer to the question of why NCL cancelled Costa Rica! (Keep an eye out for any other cruises that has Costa Rica as a port that hasn’t cancelled yet). 

 

If you fast forward to the 9:58 mark, Tony explains that last year NCL won a Freedom of Speech lawsuit against the state of Florida, which had a law that said a business couldn’t ask a persons vaccination status. 
 

The state of Florida appealed, and the Court of Appeals overturned the judgment on Thursday, October 6/23. Long story short, NCL can no longer ask a passenger for proof of their vaccination status, Costa Rica needs to know the vaccination status of passengers because unvaccinated passengers can’t go ashore there. 

 

While NCL may still be pursuing this in court (maybe to obtain Florida shore side employee status?), there has always been a loophole in first the Executive Order and then the law that a cruise ship could sail through.

 

This is a very old discussion (starting in the spring of 2020) and there were numerous explanations here on Cruise Critic across the different forums by those of us who could read and understand the language in the Executive Order and later law.

 

Suffice it to say the loophole allowed the cruise lines to implement Covid controls including requiring vaccinations, for all cruises out of Florida.

 

The cruise lines can still do so.

[kapper]

5 hours ago, fox02554 said:

if you are going to the Jaguar Rescue Center please think about bringing a can of powered goat milk with you , weired I know , but they can not purchase in CostaRica , it's on their AMAZON wishlist ❤️

Our port day for Costa Rica has been cancelled.