Are NCL selling cruises to ports they have no intention of going to.

[DCGuy64]

6 minutes ago, Cruising Lynne said:

Missed ports are disappointing, but I would rather be kept safe than sail where you could be affected by tides, or dense fog. I have been on a ship with dense fog. It is scary when you can't see anything, and the constant fog horn can be a little annoying. 

 

I just finished watching some vlogs of a Baltic cruise on Princess that had at least two missed ports. It happens. 

 

 

Exactly what I was thinking. I would be disappointed, too, but at least they're keeping people safe. What other lines do is up to them, but I'd hate to be in their shoes if they sail into a fog and end up hitting something.

[Luvsparties]

Do we know what the tide is supposed to be to dock in Bruges.  I am completely ignorant about all of that and my googling makes it worse.  On the 9/7 Prima cruise.

[kitkat343]

5 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

Exactly what I was thinking. I would be disappointed, too, but at least they're keeping people safe. What other lines do is up to them, but I'd hate to be in their shoes if they sail into a fog and end up hitting something.

I totally agree.  All cruises lines should be able to make as many changes as they need for safety.  The problem is when NCL does things like on the January 8 Getaway cruise in which NCL canceled one port and the morning of another after final payment to help the environment and refused to let people switch or cancel.     Helping the environment is wonderful, but they have plenty of time prior to final payment to make changes for that reason (and if they can't then they should let people switch.  And when they do things like that after final payment, and when they do things like they tell passengers that UK laws don't let them serve alcohol in the UK while other ships are able to do so it makes it harder to trust them when things happen that are beyond their control (which might very well be happening in Iceland - the government of Iceland is responsible for the dredging project, and it is possible the tides in Brugges make docking dangerous).

[ontheweb]

Just to clarify, there are no tides in Brugge. The port is Zeebrugge, and that is where the problem of the low tides is occurring.

[DCGuy64]

16 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

I totally agree.  All cruises lines should be able to make as many changes as they need for safety.  The problem is when NCL does things like on the January 8 Getaway cruise in which NCL canceled one port and the morning of another after final payment to help the environment and refused to let people switch or cancel.     Helping the environment is wonderful, but they have plenty of time prior to final payment to make changes for that reason (and if they can't then they should let people switch.  And when they do things like that after final payment, and when they do things like they tell passengers that UK laws don't let them serve alcohol in the UK while other ships are able to do so it makes it harder to trust them when things happen that are beyond their control (which might very well be happening in Iceland - the government of Iceland is responsible for the dredging project, and it is possible the tides in Brugges make docking dangerous).

Wow, considering the number of things NCL is getting wrong in your view, sounds like it's time to find a better cruise line!

[RocketMan275]

On 7/27/2023 at 9:13 AM, Cruising Lynne said:

Missed ports are disappointing, but I would rather be kept safe than sail where you could be affected by tides, or dense fog. I have been on a ship with dense fog. It is scary when you can't see anything, and the constant fog horn can be a little annoying. 

 

On 7/27/2023 at 9:25 AM, DCGuy64 said:

Exactly what I was thinking. I would be disappointed, too, but at least they're keeping people safe. What other lines do is up to them, but I'd hate to be in their shoes if they sail into a fog and end up hitting something.

Not all share your thoughts on safety.  

I recall a Princess cruise that cancelled a port in Israel because of terrorist activitie.

Several passengers complained that Princess should not have cancelled and let passengers decide for themselves if it were to dangerous to go ashore.

[DCGuy64]

11 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

 

Not all share your thoughts on safety.  

I recall a Princess cruise that cancelled a port in Israel because of terrorist activitie.

Several passengers complained that Princess should not have cancelled and let passengers decide for themselves if it were to dangerous to go ashore.

Wow, that beggars belief. I'd have handed said passengers a form to fill out, fully indemnifying the cruise line, its successors and/or assigns from any and all liability, henceforth and forever, in case they got in trouble. People amaze me: they'll say "I'm willing to take the risk" and then "it's the cruise line's fault, they shouldn't have let me go, I'm suing!" 🤣😂

[RocketMan275]

3 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

Wow, that beggars belief. I'd have handed said passengers a form to fill out, fully indemnifying the cruise line, its successors and/or assigns from any and all liability, henceforth and forever, in case they got in trouble. People amaze me: they'll say "I'm willing to take the risk" and then "it's the cruise line's fault, they shouldn't have let me go, I'm suing!" 🤣😂

That is no different from passengers complaining about a captain who won't dock because of the risk.

[DCGuy64]

I'm not even making this up: a guy I used to work with told me the story of a customer who once barged into his office, interrupting an appointment with another customer in the process, and demanding he allow her to withdraw $10,000 in cash because she'd just met someone in the parking lot who promised to "invest" her money and pay her back 5x over in just a month. He implored her to reconsider but she protested with "it's my money, you can't stop me." He complied. A month later when she hadn't gotten anything, she had the gall to come back and tell my colleague "you shouldn't have allowed me to do that." Needless to say, it wasn't our fault and she got $0. Some people have such nerve!

[scottzee]

I'm scheduled to set sail on the Norwegian Viva on September 4, with stops in Italy, Croatia, Turkey, and Greece. It sounds like most of the instances of port changes in this thread have been Canada or the Caribbean. Do they miss Mediterranean ports frequently? And if so, how much notice do they typically give? This is my first Mediterranean cruise so I'm just trying to figure out what to expect and not get my hopes too high for any particular port.

Edited July 28, 2023 by scottzee

[Bouyant]

I'm wondering if cruise lines (not specifically NCL) look to do "new and exciting" destinations (in good faith) that may be difficult to sustain and ultimately get discontinued. Just completed NCL's 10 day Iceland-Greenland (7/13-23) on the Star: 

Port 1 Djupivogur: Ship pulled into the bay, dropped anchor, attempted tender and canceled the port due to rough seas. (Note that this cruise's itinerary includes this port, but the map does not.)

Port 2 Akureyri: Docked without incident.

Port 3 Isafjordur: Tendered without incident.

Port 4 Nanortalik: Tendered, but village has only one spot to dock a tender, so process is painfully slow. As the ship gives priority to excursions & gold members, it was hours before others would land. Places were in the village were already closing up. It was also over an hour waiting in the rain to tender back. Back on the boat, they announced that Ports 5 and 6, Paamiut and Nuuk would would be canceled due to weather and ice. Instead, they would cruise halfway through Prince Christian Sound, then Qaqortoq. Captain said that the ice was unusual for this time of year.

Day at sea, took hours to get out of Nanortalik due to ice. Waited for a cargo ship to break the ice. (BTW, scenery was amazing.) Announced that tender tickets for Qaqortoq would be distributed at 7 AM.

Port 5 Qaqortoq: 7 AM announcement that port is canceled. Sailing back to Reykjavik. Offered shipboard credit and discount toward future cruises.

Arrived a day early in RVK. Passengers were free to enjoy RVK an extra day and enjoy the ship.

 

My sense is not that NCL did anything wrong here. The captain seemed to make every effort to get to the places that they said they would go. They could have bypassed Djupivogur entirely. They could have switched Norway for Greenland, as they did on a sailing in 2022. (We were ready for this and had a Norway guidebook.) Or headed back to Reykjavik right from Nanortalik. But if you want to visit Greenland, it's probably best to choose a method other than cruise ship, be flexible and allow yourself more time.

 

 

Edited July 29, 2023 by Bouyant

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, Bouyant said:

I'm wondering if cruise lines (not specifically NCL) look to do "new and exciting" destinations (in good faith) that may be difficult to sustain and ultimately get discontinued. Just completed NCL's 10 day Iceland-Greenland (7/13-23) on the Star: 

Port 1 Djupivogur: Ship pulled into the bay, dropped anchor, attempted tender and canceled the port due to rough seas. (Note that this cruise's itinerary includes this port, but the map does not.)

Port 2 Akureyri: Docked without incident.

Port 3 Isafjordur: Tendered without incidenkt.

Port 4 Nanortalik: Tendered, but village has only one spot to dock a tender, so process is painfully slow. As the ship gives priority to excursions & gold members, it was hours before others would land. Places were in the village were already closing up. It was also over an hour waiting in the rain to tender back. Back on the boat, they announced that Ports 5 and 6, Paamiut and Nuuk would would be canceled due to weather and ice. Instead, they would cruise halfway through Prince Christian Sound, then Qaqortoq. Captain said that the ice was unusual for this time of year.

Day at sea, took hours to get out of Nanortalik due to ice. Waited for a cargo ship to break the ice. (BTW, scenery was amazing.) Announced that tender tickets for Qaqortoq would be distributed at 7 AM.

Port 5 Qaqortoq: 7 AM announcement that port is canceled. Sailing back to Reykjavik. Offered shipboard credit and discount toward future cruises.

Arrived a day early in RVK. Passengers were free to enjoy RVK an extra day and enjoy the ship.

 

My sense is not that NCL did anything wrong here. The captain seemed to make every effort to get to the places that they said they would go. They could have bypassed Djupivogur entirely. They could have switched Norway for Greenland, as they did on a sailing in 2022. (We were ready for this and had a Norway guidebook.) Or headed back to Reykjavik right from Nanortalik. But if you want to visit Greenland, it's probably best to choose a method other than cruise ship, be flexible and allow yourself more time.

 

 

At least you got to tender without incident in Isafjordur. NCL refuses to do this with the Prima.

[Bouyant]

1 hour ago, ontheweb said:

At least you got to tender without incident in Isafjordur. NCL refuses to do this with the Prima.

Is that due to size? Prima's a big ship. Star, small by today's standards. Is it NCL, or the port saying they can't land there? FWIW, the anchored ship is the biggest object in any of these ports. People on shore can hear the cruise director's onboard announcements.

Edited July 29, 2023 by Bouyant

[ontheweb]

42 minutes ago, Bouyant said:

Is that due to size? Prima's a big ship. Star, small by today's standards. Is it NCL, or the port saying they can't land there? FWIW, the anchored ship is the biggest object in any of these ports. People on shore can hear the cruise director's onboard announcements.

For the Prima NCL was expecting the dock to be finished. It is not. The lifeboats on the Prima are not certified to be used as tenders. I am assuming those on the Star are certified as for use as tenders.

[RocketMan275]

48 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

For the Prima NCL was expecting the dock to be finished. It is not. The lifeboats on the Prima are not certified to be used as tenders. I am assuming those on the Star are certified as for use as tenders.

Interesting.  I don't think anyone else has raised the issue of whether Prima lifeboats are certified as tenders.  Pretty big point.

[Travelling2Some]

2 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

Interesting.  I don't think anyone else has raised the issue of whether Prima lifeboats are certified as tenders.  Pretty big point.

Yes, interesting.  We are considering a Prima itinerary that includes Grand Cayman, which is always a tender port.  We have been there before but I cannot remember if the ship's life boats were used to tender or if that port has tenders.  Does anyone know?

[ontheweb]

12 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

Interesting.  I don't think anyone else has raised the issue of whether Prima lifeboats are certified as tenders.  Pretty big point.

I do know the issue has been raised previously (possibly in the Ask a Cruise Question forum.) I specifically asked about whether all lifeboats were certified as tenders. And @chengkp75 shared his knowledge and explained how there were different certifications for lifeboats and boats that could be used as tenders.

[DMP609]

We were on the 6/25 sailing of the Prima (had a fabulous time) and the Captain was part of a Q&A towards the end. He was asked about Isafjordur and said they are waiting for the dock work to be completed. They don't know when that will be. They get updates every week or so from the dock and I think that's why they don't cancel too far in advance because as soon as it's ready, they will be docking there. He also addressed the tender issue. They do not have tenders on the ship. I think he said the size of the tenders didn't work well with a ship that size or something to that effect. He said if they have to tender at a port, the port must be the one to provide the tenders and Isafjordur does not. 

[Travelling2Some]

13 hours ago, Travelling2Some said:

Yes, interesting.  We are considering a Prima itinerary that includes Grand Cayman, which is always a tender port.  We have been there before but I cannot remember if the ship's life boats were used to tender or if that port has tenders.  Does anyone know?

Okay, Google was my friend.  Cayman does provide large tenders.

[kitkat343]

On 7/28/2023 at 5:09 PM, scottzee said:

I'm scheduled to set sail on the Norwegian Viva on September 4, with stops in Italy, Croatia, Turkey, and Greece. It sounds like most of the instances of port changes in this thread have been Canada or the Caribbean. Do they miss Mediterranean ports frequently? And if so, how much notice do they typically give? This is my first Mediterranean cruise so I'm just trying to figure out what to expect and not get my hopes too high for any particular port.

Thankfully none so far in Southern Europe, except for Venice in which all the cruise lines are scrambling to find the best way to navigate Venice's decision to ban large cruise ships.   It's been a rough season for the Prima in Iceland/Norway.

 

It's a little hard to tell how widespread the changes are, since people usually don't come to CC to post if there is a port cancellation for only one cruise.  This thread was actually started by someone who had this experience happen to them on two separate cruises, and other people just happened to mention cancellations on other cruises because they were posting for other reasons.

 

Someone who was sailing on the the Bliss 1/27 sailing to the Panama Canal was responding to a thread about construction at the LA port, and they happened to mentioned that  the port stops in Nicaragua and Costa Rica were cancelled for safety reasons after final payment (which makes sense in Nicaragua but not for Costa Rica) , and replaced with Acapulco and Jamaica.  The port stop in Panama was changed from a full day and overnight and replaced with 4 pm - 11 pm, knocking out shore excursions.   I only learned of similar changes being made to another cruise in the Panama Canal because that poster happened to make a live review, and the only reason I remembered all of that is that the Panama Canal is one of the cruises I always recommend to families (usually the 10 day roundtrip, which has a lot of great ports for children and is really easy to reach from the East Coast).

 

Your best bet to see what is happening would be to check the roll calls for similar sailings on your ship earlier in the season.  That's how people on my sailing were able to monitor the issues in the Dominican Republic and we all knew it would be cancelled prior to NCL announcing it a month ahead of time.  We just didn't know if it would be replaced with a sea day, GSK or Nassau. 

 

And best of luck!

[CAKEisgood]

On 2/27/2023 at 4:18 PM, jdc987 said:

And this makes it right?  What about my rights to receive goods paid for?

I understand how upsetting it can be to have a dream trip not go as planned. Maybe the NCL customer experience department could help? If you’ve contacted them already, my apologies if I haven’t read that info. 
Good luck with your concern, and have an enjoyable trip! 

[Bouyant]

7 hours ago, CAKEisgood said:

I understand how upsetting it can be to have a dream trip not go as planned. Maybe the NCL customer experience department could help? If you’ve contacted them already, my apologies if I haven’t read that info. 
Good luck with your concern, and have an enjoyable trip! 

When you sign up for the cruise, you do agree to accept changed itineraries, so you are getting what you paid for.

[ontheweb]

10 hours ago, Bouyant said:

When you sign up for the cruise, you do agree to accept changed itineraries, so you are getting what you paid for.

It is one thing to change ports for a good reason, for instance we are disappointed that our port in Belgium is cancelled, but we understand that if the low tide is only 1 foot, the ship cannot dock. It is quite another when a port is listed, and the ship misses it every cruise or that they still advertise a port after they know they have cancelled it.

[plc22]

Yesterday I made my final payment  to NCL for the Greenland/Iceland cruise in June 2024. This morning I received an email that all the ports to Greenland have been cancelled due to the weather!

It is dishonest to sell a port you have no intentions on going to and to wait till the final payment is made  to notify the guest. I am canceling the trip and should get a full refund since the final payment is not due till Feb 22, 2024. This is not the first time that this has happened to us. 

 

Due to seasonal weather implications that may impact our ability to call to Greenland during the month of June and out of an abundance of caution, our calls to Qaqortoq, Paamiut and Nuuk, Greenland have been cancelled. To provide you with the best experience possible, we will now call to Kristiansund, Maloy, and Alesund, Norway. In addition, our call to Djupivogur, Iceland has been replaced with a call to Grundarfjordur, Iceland. The modified itinerary is as follows:

Original Day Destination Arrive Depart   Fri REYKJAVIK, ICELAND   4:00 pm   Sat DJUPIVOGUR, ICELAND 11:00 am 7:00 pm   Sun AKUREYRI, ICELAND 10:00 am 8:00 pm   Mon ISAFJORDUR, ICELAND 7:00 am 3:00 pm   Tue AT SEA       Wed QAQORTOQ, GREENLAND 11:00 am 8:00 pm   Thu PAAMIUT (FREDERIKSHAB), GREENLAND 8:00 am 7:00 pm   Fri NUUK, GREENLAND 6:00 am 4:00 pm   Sat AT SEA       Sun AT SEA       Mon REYKJAVIK, ICELAND 6:00 am

Revised Day Destination Arrive Depart   Fri REYKJAVIK, ICELAND   4:00 pm   Sat GRUNDARFJORDUR, ICELAND 7:00 am 4:00 pm   Sun AKUREYRI, ICELAND 10:00 am 8:00 pm   Mon AT SEA       Tue KRISTIANSUND, NORWAY 2:00 pm 9:00 pm   Wed MALOY, NORWAY 8:00 am 5:00 pm   Thu ALESUND, NORWAY 9:00 am 6:00 pm   Fri AT SEA       Sat HUSAVIK, ICELAND 8:00 am 6:00 pm   Sun ISAFJORDUR, ICELAND 6:00 am 3:00 pm   Mon REYKJAVIK, ICELAND 4:00 am

 

[Travelling2Some]

Wow!  I would definitely cancel too.  Thank goodness it is before final payment and hoping you did not buy the airfare yet.  They did a real "hatchet job" on our Panama Canal itinerary last winter but we were after final payment.  Our last 3 cruises with NCL had iffy itinerary changes and it has definitely put me off the brand.  We did book the Viva but we've also booked with several other lines whereas we used to look at NCL first.  Now I also check the port schedules before making final payment to at least see if they really intend to call there!