Who to believe on schedule, NCL or port schedules?

[fcccruiser]

I am taking a Baltic cruise this August on the Dawn.  I was looking at the port schedules to see if there would be other boats in port on the same day at our stops (to anticipate potential crowds) and noticed that which port we are scheduled to be in on which day is different according to the port schedules (and I checked multiple sites) than in my official NCL agenda.  This hasn't been the case on any of my previous cruises, so I don't know if the port schedule is fluid or if I should be expecting a notification of change from NCL at the last minute.  While not a huge deal I like to arrange independent excursions and don't want to book several tours only to not be in that port on that day.  Any help or insight is appreciated.

[FloridaNative8]

I noticed this on our March 2024 sailing as well - 2 of the ports are flipped from the NCL itinerary. I'd love to know which one is correct for the same reasons you listed!

[BirdTravels]

8 minutes ago, fcccruiser said:

I am taking a Baltic cruise this August on the Dawn.  I was looking at the port schedules to see if there would be other boats in port on the same day at our stops (to anticipate potential crowds) and noticed that which port we are scheduled to be in on which day is different according to the port schedules (and I checked multiple sites) than in my official NCL agenda.  This hasn't been the case on any of my previous cruises, so I don't know if the port schedule is fluid or if I should be expecting a notification of change from NCL at the last minute.  While not a huge deal I like to arrange independent excursions and don't want to book several tours only to not be in that port on that day.  Any help or insight is appreciated.

Your official NCL itinerary for your ship is the only thing you should consider. Don't believe everything you read on the internet. Even if NCL was coordinating changing the itinerary, it is not official until you get notified by them. 

Edited April 5, 2023 by BirdTravels

[davencl]

My experience: Sailing from Australia this January NCL documents had the Spirit docked at the Overseas terminal but the port authority listed White Bay.  The port authority documents were accurate and had listed White Bay for three months prior. NCL didn't notify us of the change until the last week before sailing.   Note this was not a date change or city change.  So I would keep close tabs.  Note I relied on the official port authority web site.

Edited April 5, 2023 by davencl

[Travelling2Some]

After being burned on our last two cruises (multiple ports dropped after final payment for obviously bogus reasons) I have lost a significant amount of trust in NCL itineraries.  I rely more on the port authorities' schedules simply because they have zero motive to be deceptive.

[Mlake09]

In my experience the port pages have been updated well before NCL notifies customers. We cruised out of NYC in February and saw on port schedules that Bermuda was replaced with Miami. Multiple people (including myself) called NCL to verify, but their answers were mixed- the live person told me there was no itinerary change while the chat agent said Bermuda was replaced. Others talked to PCC’s who verified the change while

others denied it. It was hit or miss. We did go ahead and cancel our car in Bermuda prior to the trip, in order to ensure we didn’t lost the money.  It was a good thing we did, because NCL didn’t announce the change until days into the trip. 

[insidecabin]

Prefer to believe any official port pages rather than the cruise line 

 

Southampton updates their information regularly (every few minutes) using live information.

 

Generic itinerary sites are often well out of date.

[DorothyB]

I'm having the same issue with my Mexican Riviera cruise that departs this coming Sunday!!  I have one meet up w/ a friend and excursion, but the itinerary and the port schedule show different days in port!

[luv2kroooz]

Yes, always go directly to the primary source, which is the port authority for the most up to date information. They know which ships are coming when. It is very sad that you can not rely on Norwegian to be upfront and honest. Norwegian has many times been delayed with providing complete and accurate information about itineraries. It is my opinion that they are routinely altering itineraries behind the scenes in the name of green initiatives. This opinion is confirmed by the experienced documented in this thread. In all cases I have seen, they have shortened port calls or eliminated ports altogether in a clear effort to keep their ships out at sea longer. This decreases fuel spend for their convenience at the inconvenience of the paying public. But they couldn't care less. I find it interesting that ports never get added or port times extended. They are usually eliminated and/or times reduced.

 

They always start out the announcement with all the platitudes, thank you for sailing, it is always our intention, blah blah blah, trying to attribute randomness to these itinerary changes. Yet, these apparent random situations always result in decreased port times and cancellations. If they were truly random, the law of averages dictates that port calls would be extended and ports added on occasion, yet that never happens.

 

An educated consumer is NCLs worst customer.

Edited April 5, 2023 by luv2kroooz

[Ulsteinvik]

7 hours ago, fcccruiser said:

I am taking a Baltic cruise this August on the Dawn.  I was looking at the port schedules to see if there would be other boats in port on the same day at our stops (to anticipate potential crowds) and noticed that which port we are scheduled to be in on which day is different according to the port schedules (and I checked multiple sites) than in my official NCL agenda.  This hasn't been the case on any of my previous cruises, so I don't know if the port schedule is fluid or if I should be expecting a notification of change from NCL at the last minute.  While not a huge deal I like to arrange independent excursions and don't want to book several tours only to not be in that port on that day.  Any help or insight is appreciated.

I live in the Baltic and I know all official port sites of the Baltic ports. Are you sure you checked the official port sites and not unofficial cruise pages with the old itineraries when St.Petersburg was in? I don't know in which of the 2 Baltic cruises you're booked in on August but I've checked the official port sites for both baltic trips and the NCL Dawn is registered everywhere as it says in NCL's schedule. Last year there were many changes in the Baltic where you could see the changes in the official Baltic ports before NCL officially announced them. But this year there are no changes so far.

 

 

Edited April 5, 2023 by Ulsteinvik

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, luv2kroooz said:

Yes, always go directly to the primary source, which is the port authority for the most up to date information. They know which ships are coming when. It is very sad that you can not rely on Norwegian to be upfront and honest. Norwegian has many times been delayed with providing complete and accurate information about itineraries. It is my opinion that they are routinely altering itineraries behind the scenes in the name of green initiatives. This opinion is confirmed by the experienced documented in this thread. In all cases I have seen, they have shortened port calls or eliminated ports altogether in a clear effort to keep their ships out at sea longer. This decreases fuel spend for their convenience at the inconvenience of the paying public. But they couldn't care less. I find it interesting that ports never get added or port times extended. They are usually eliminated and/or times reduced.

 

They always start out the announcement with all the platitudes, thank you for sailing, it is always our intention, blah blah blah, trying to attribute randomness to these itinerary changes. Yet, these apparent random situations always result in decreased port times and cancellations. If they were truly random, the law of averages dictates that port calls would be extended and ports added on occasion, yet that never happens.

 

An educated consumer is NCLs worst customer.

I am not sure that there is anything in this post which is technically accurate. Lots of unsubstantiated claims which mislead. 

[luv2kroooz]

2 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

I am not sure that there is anything in this post which is technically accurate. Lots of unsubstantiated claims which mislead. 

Predictable response. Good luck to you.

[Brian V]

We have a similar situation - port schedule list on another site shows us in Juneau and Skagway at the exact same time on the same day...

 

Going to defer to NCL's itinerary 🙂

[fcccruiser]

1 hour ago, luv2kroooz said:

Predictable response. Good luck to you.

I appreciate the general responses, but would particularly appreciate comments that relate to direct experience on disconnects between NCL and port itineraries.  Literally all sources I can find other than NCL (local port sites, general sites) suggest a shuffled itinerary.  Any direct experience suggesting that this will be the real itinerary or not?

[Ulsteinvik]

Did you read my comment on #10?

tell me what your sources are, they are never the officials..

 

Copenhagen = cmport.com

Warnemunde = rostock-port.de

Gdynia = port.gdynia.pl

Klaipeda= portofklaipeda.lt

visby= cmport.com

Helsinki= portofhelsinki.fi

Kiel=  Portofkiel.com

Edited April 6, 2023 by Ulsteinvik

[kitkat343]

57 minutes ago, Ulsteinvik said:

Did you read my comment on #10?

tell me what your sources are, they are never the officials..

 

Copenhagen = cmport.com

Warnemunde = rostock-port.de

Gdynia = port.gdynia.pl

Klaipeda= portofklaipeda.lt

visby= cmport.com

Helsinki= portofhelsinki.fi

Kiel=  Portofkiel.com

If the official port schedule is different than NCL, I would trust the official port site.  At this point, if you chose to sail NCL you need to examine the independent operator polcies to learn their refund policy and check your insurance prior to making any nonrefundable deposits.  On my last NCL cruise, one fellow passenger first learned that the DR was cancelled because when he contacted the private tours, they kept asking "are you sure you're docking here?" and selling him on their cancellation policies instead of their tours.    Because NCL cancelled a bunch of DR ports before our cruise, I wound up having to research both Nassau and GSK because the sometimes replace the DR with those ports.  In our case, they gave us a third sea day in a row so the planning was a waste but with three small children I can't just not know what the options are of where we are going.   

 

Please also note that the Baltics were really easy for me to DIY with local transportation in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Tallin and Helsinki so I didn't need tours there (not sure exactly where you are going but the Baltics are amazing) 

 

 

Edited April 6, 2023 by kitkat343

[Ulsteinvik]

Just now, kitkat343 said:

If the official port schedule is different than NCL, I would trust the official port site.  

 

 

I also trust only the official port sites. The user who started that topic said he sails in the Baltic on August with the Dawn but no Baltic port shows other cruise dates than NCLs schedule in this case. 

[kitkat343]

2 minutes ago, Ulsteinvik said:

I also trust only the official port sites. The user who started that topic said he sails in the Baltic on August with the Dawn but no Baltic port shows other cruise dates than NCLs schedule in this case. 

Great - the Baltics are wonderful and I'd hate for the itinerary to change on that cruise (someone posted on this forum their Baltic cruise turned into a Greek Island one).

[ziggyuk]

 

The port authority are normally right but you have to follow what NCL say or it's your problem if you are in the wrong place, follow NCLs instructions and let them sort it out.

We had the same a few weeks ago on on NZ cruise departing Sydney.
NCL were saying we departed the rocks in the CBD but the port authority always listed the ship as white bay which is a long drive.
24hrs before the cruise NCL suddenly send an email announcing it was White Bay, something the port authority were saying for 6 months!

Because I did not believe NCL we just got an airport hotel and it turned out to be the right call.

[luv2kroooz]

2 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

The port authority are normally right but you have to follow what NCL say or it's your problem if you are in the wrong place, follow NCLs instructions and let them sort it out

But it could also be your problem if you follow what NCL says and book independent tours only to have times adjusted and ports cancelled. If there are conflicts noted between NCL and port authority, make sure independent tours are fully refundable. NCL will not help you if they change the itinerary and you have money tied up with independent tour operators.

[ontheweb]

10 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

If the official port schedule is different than NCL, I would trust the official port site.  At this point, if you chose to sail NCL you need to examine the independent operator polcies to learn their refund policy and check your insurance prior to making any nonrefundable deposits.  On my last NCL cruise, one fellow passenger first learned that the DR was cancelled because when he contacted the private tours, they kept asking "are you sure you're docking here?" and selling him on their cancellation policies instead of their tours.    Because NCL cancelled a bunch of DR ports before our cruise, I wound up having to research both Nassau and GSK because the sometimes replace the DR with those ports.  In our case, they gave us a third sea day in a row so the planning was a waste but with three small children I can't just not know what the options are of where we are going.   

 

Please also note that the Baltics were really easy for me to DIY with local transportation in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Tallin and Helsinki so I didn't need tours there (not sure exactly where you are going but the Baltics are amazing) 

 

 

The only Baltic port for which you really need an excursion is St. Petersburg, and since no cruise is going to take you there, you do not need any excursions. You can get a Rick Steves or other travel book and plan for yourself what you wish to do.

 

[ziggyuk]

28 minutes ago, luv2kroooz said:

But it could also be your problem if you follow what NCL says and book independent tours only to have times adjusted and ports cancelled. If there are conflicts noted between NCL and port authority, make sure independent tours are fully refundable. NCL will not help you if they change the itinerary and you have money tied up with independent tour operators.

 

That is true for independent tours, but I don't recall ever instructing a tour provider where to pick us up, they have either given me a location to meet (tourist information in city centre for example) or more commonly simply said they will collect us at the ship.

[insidecabin]

Its not just NCL.
MSC have been using Horizon terminal in Southampton for over a year.

In their app they still says City terminal on the booking information.
(They are 5min walk apart so not a major issue for those walking local transport know where the ships are)

 

When using Southampton the official public facing pages are worth keeping an eye on, they will show changes well before a cruise line will tell you especially things like late arrival or departures.

https://www.southamptonvts.co.uk/Live_Information/Shipping_Movements_and_Cruise_Ship_Schedule/

[SeaShark]

16 hours ago, luv2kroooz said:

In all cases I have seen, they have shortened port calls or eliminated ports altogether in a clear effort to keep their ships out at sea longer. This decreases fuel spend for their convenience at the inconvenience of the paying public.

 

Help me understand...are you saying that they try to "keep their ships out at sea longer" in and effort to "decrease fuel spend"? How does that work? I'm no engineer, but I figure a ship in port burns less fuel than a ship at sea.

 

16 hours ago, luv2kroooz said:

I find it interesting that ports never get added or port times extended. They are usually eliminated and/or times reduced.

 

They always start out the announcement with all the platitudes, thank you for sailing, it is always our intention, blah blah blah, trying to attribute randomness to these itinerary changes. Yet, these apparent random situations always result in decreased port times and cancellations. If they were truly random, the law of averages dictates that port calls would be extended and ports added on occasion, yet that never happens.

 

The author of this thread would beg to differ: 

 

[luv2kroooz]

8 minutes ago, SeaShark said:

Help me understand.

Respectfully, I am not here to help you understand. You are free to read the message boards and draw your own conclusions. How you process information is out of my control. Nothing I can do about that. My response was written in a very intentional, deliberate manner and based on my understand of others experiences and personal knowledge. I stand by what I wrote with the intention of helping other members on these message boards. Over and out. Peace.