warning to families about Norwegian

[kitkat343]

We are booked on an upcoming cruise on Norwegian and I just wanted to notify other families about our experience.  

 

Last March, the NCL Escape hit the seabed as it was exiting Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic.   They have been trying to dredge the port at Puerto Plata, but for now only smaller ships can dock there.  NCL had been diverting ships to Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic when there was space available, but Amber Cove is owned by Carnival and only has room for two ships.

 

On NCL's website there is no warning to passengers sailing large ships that are scheduled to dock in Puerto Plata on days when Amber Cove is full that it is unlikely they will be able to make it to the DR.  We booked our cruise for January in November, and at that time Norwegian knew it was highly unlikely they would be able to make this port stop (2 Carnival ships were already scheduled for Amber Cove) and they did not warn customers.  Some ships have been rescheduled to their private island in the Bahamas, and others to Nassau and the rest get a sea day when Puerto Plata is cancelled.  19 days out, we just received an email telling us our stop will be replaced by a sea day, plus another port shortened by 3 hours because they are trying to help the environment (they can burn less fuel by sailing slower).  I now don't know if I will be able to visit the turtles in the rescheduled stop (that was originally scheduled in the morning, and the ship isn't arriving now until 12).  We chose this cruise primarily for the itinerary, and would have understood if an emergency (hurricane, port strike, civil unrest) had required the cruise line to change the itinerary but they knew months in advance this could be a problem.  It's difficult to travel with children, and we would have chosen a different cruise that didn't have 3 sea days in a row if they had told us in November this was a problem.  They sent the notification out to us yesterday, and on their website they are still advertising this cruise as Caribbean Round-trip New York: Barbados & Dominican Republic, and listing the DR as a stop.