Second Itinerary change for British Isles cruise.

[iowacruiser]

Just received an email from HAL about another itinerary change for the Aug 2025 sailing on Statendam.

Dublin was dropped a week after we booked in April.

Now Cobh is replacing Waterford. HAL citing "operational issues"

 

[keysey222]

There's a rumor Liverpool might be dropped as well. Same with Killybegs. Notice how the excursions were taken off the website for those ports. I'm really considering dropping this cruise or at least postponing it til 2026. Dublin was a huge loss and I haven't really gotten over that.... Liverpool is another big blow. 

[Sir PMP]

15 minutes ago, iowacruiser said:

Just received an email from HAL about another itinerary change for the Aug 2025 sailing on Statendam.

Dublin was dropped a week after we booked in April.

Now Cobh is replacing Waterford. HAL citing "operational issues"

 

The conditions in Waterford are always unpredictable, Cobh is a very good replacement, last stop of the Titanic, and you can take the train to Cork right off the ship.

[keysey222]

2 hours ago, keysey222 said:

There's a rumor Liverpool might be dropped as well. Same with Killybegs. Notice how the excursions were taken off the website for those ports. I'm really considering dropping this cruise or at least postponing it til 2026. Dublin was a huge loss and I haven't really gotten over that.... Liverpool is another big blow. 

My mistake. I'm referencing the one leaving July 27 in 2025. Hopefully yours remains unaffected. 

[syesmar]

7 hours ago, iowacruiser said:

…Dublin was dropped a week after we booked in April….

What port is now in place of Dublin?

[JeffElizabeth]

We lost Liverpool on a Holland cruise. The captain took the blame, said he had used the tides from the wrong day to go into that port. I forgot where they sent us instead. 

Dublin? I prefer Ireland's smaller towns. Have a great trip. 

[CHOPPERTESTER]

16 hours ago, Sir PMP said:

The conditions in Waterford are always unpredictable, Cobh is a very good replacement, last stop of the Titanic, and you can take the train to Cork right off the ship.

Our NS British Isles last month moved East Dunsmore (Waterford) tender to Cobh (Cork) docked. Reason provided was East Dunsmore wanted all passengers going ashore to use a mandatory costed shuttle to Waterford and for passengers not to be allowed to just get off the ship in East Dunsmore. Ship said that wouldn't work with tendering and then no guarantees of sufficient shuttles to meet the passenger demand.

[syesmar]

9 hours ago, JeffElizabeth said:

We lost Liverpool on a Holland cruise. The captain took the blame, said he had used the tides from the wrong day to go into that port.

That is an interesting reason! 🤔

 

12 minutes ago, CHOPPERTESTER said:

Our NS British Isles last month moved East Dunsmore (Waterford) tender to Cobh (Cork) docked. 

I recall in 2009 our Waterford port was changed at the last minute (Belview?) and there was a shuttle issue. I had been warned here on CC, and was prepared for the change, thankfully.

 

—On our first British Isles cruise aboard ms Prinsendam, we had to forego Scrabster, Scotland because the weather conditions were too dangerous. While at Portree, tendering was shut down for several hours mid-day as winds were strong, but thankfully resumed so passengers could re-board the ship before our scheduled departure.

Edited July 12 by syesmar

[VMax1700]

18 minutes ago, CHOPPERTESTER said:

Our NS British Isles last month moved East Dunsmore (Waterford) tender to Cobh (Cork) docked. Reason provided was East Dunsmore wanted all passengers going ashore to use a mandatory costed shuttle to Waterford and for passengers not to be allowed to just get off the ship in East Dunsmore. Ship said that wouldn't work with tendering and then no guarantees of sufficient shuttles to meet the passenger demand.

That is unusual and strange.  I have sent the information to a journalist friend to see if they can ascertain the true facts as the reason you have quoted does not make a lot of sense.  

Dunmore East is always a tender port and also it is the place where the pilots board the ships which are continuing up the harbour towards Bellview (a container port) and Waterford itself.   Celebrity Silhouette recently tendered in Dunmore East and there was no mention of mandatory shuttles.

That said, one of the main problems of Dunmore East is access into Waterford City etc.  There is currently no local bus service, so without shuttles you would end up with a couple of thousand cruisers wandering around a small village.  I don't know if cruise lines provide shuttles (either free or paid) at Dunmore East and I have found no mention of the port supplying them.  I can understand it being difficult to quantify the number of shuttle buses required and perhaps some form of guarantee was required as to the income that the shuttle buses would receive, whether cruisers used them or not.

[JeffElizabeth]

We were supposed to go to Waterford but the fog was so bad that they landed us elsewhere and bussed us in. Nice town we landed in so we really go to visit two locations that day.