Memoculus

Oh crap- now I can't re-open it without a fee! lol. So here is some of what I encapsulated-during the pandemic, many citizens in Key West moved to " try to limit the size and number of vacation vessels on the tiny island. This was initally successful and limited the ships from docking but also created momentum for further arguments. Some of the further arguments that I could see were environmental concerns such as for prep./protection for the sea bed (important!), potential evidence that the tourism industry to the area was not hurt over time by the ban but rather that the hotels etc. could now compensate by charging land tourists more, plus some political funding things for some politicians. It is easy to google. No further opinion from me except that NCL should have been as transparent as they could.

Hey Comp! Here is a link to a recent NY Times article all about it. I hope it opens for you. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/25/us/key-west-cruise-ships-desantis.html#:~:text=Since the early days of,pandemic to argue for continuing I have another chance to visit Key West on a cruise this June and since we never have, I hope we do. Thanks for your input though. The article will make sense to you.

At the time of our sailing on the Dawn, Key West had already voted to disallow cruise ships from docking. It has since been modified, but from my research at that time, it was clear that NCL already knew in advance we would not be permitted to dock there. That port was a big reson why we chose that cruise. I tried on the phone to have NCL explain it to me but all they said was it was for "environmental" reasons. I told them that it was clear that they knew in advance that the dock would be closed to us. They did not admit to this and also said there would be no compensation. There is probably a disclaimer for this type of thing in long contract we are required to sign. I like NCL too, but there are too many instances of this to ignore. Feels like a "bait and switch" situation.

This happened to us on the Norwegian Dawn at the end of 2022. They knew we would not be able to visit Key West then canceled the port just after final payment was made. It was my first cruise and I thought it was a fluke- but apparently not.