Replacing Missed Ports During Cruise?

We missed ChristChurch in New Zealand due to fog.

Just wondering, do they every replace the port with something else once the cruise starts.

For example, if there's something wrong with Juneau, can we go to Sitka instead? Probably make more sense to do Skagway, assuming there's room.

When bad stuff happened on the Emerald last year, I think they went to Juneau early.

We missed ChristChurch in New Zealand due to fog.

 

 

 

Just wondering, do they every replace the port with something else once the cruise starts.

 

For example, if there's something wrong with Juneau, can we go to Sitka instead? Probably make more sense to do Skagway, assuming there's room.

 

When bad stuff happened on the Emerald last year, I think they went to Juneau early.

If they have to skip a port, it may or may not be replaced with another port. Or you get an extra sea day. Depends on if there's room/time to port elsewhere.

Depends, Most times they do a sea day. We have missed many ports in our travels for various reasons. Weather, Can't get in through the break waters (rough seas). We have spent the night in the next port of call if they can get a berth. Depends on what's available and time to next port.

My experience is most often, skipped ports are replaced with a sea day. On my 2016 cruise, we missed 2 ports due to weather, and in that case we had one extra sea day, and then we arrived at the next port on the itinerary early and it was made an overnight stop.

My experience is that if a port is skipped once the cruise is underway, it's usually for weather-related reasons, or an emergency situation in the port causing it to be closed. In most weather-related cancellations, it's usually a fairly large weather system that would affect other ports in the area as well, which is why most of the time it's just a sea day.

Cruise itineraries are very fluid things and can change rapidly. I never count on a port stop until we actually make it. If a particular port is the reason you are going on that cruise, it's probably better that you book a land tour to ensure you see what you want.

It can b e way too complicated to visit an alternative port and rarely, if ever happens, It is usually a 'sea day' as substitute for the missed port.

Usually a sea day with a credit to passengers of the fees for the missed port.

I forget what port we missed, but went to Sarande in Albania instead. The locals were not used to having a lot of cruise ships visit and we had a wonderful few hours in port.

Sandra

When I was on the Voyage of the Vikings we missed two ports, one in Newfoundland and one in Greenland, due to weather. But they did add Molde, a port in Norway, and that turned out to be an excellent addition.

It really does depend. We have had itinerary changes, ports substituted as well as sea days. If there is no other port nearby or one available or weather has caused the issue then there is no choice but to have another sea day.

When I did South America/Antarctica in 2011, we missed Punta Arenas due to a labor strike at the docks. We added in Puerto Chacabuco, which hadn't been on the original itinerary, but is now included.

On one of my 7 day Alaska RT from Seattle, we had to skip Sitka due to weather. It was the last Alaska port, then we were on to Victoria. Instead of the planned 6 p.m. docking in Victoria, we arrived early in the day and stayed until the originally planned departure time. I had taken this itinerary before, so had been to Sitka and only had an evening in Victoria. It was really nice to have full day in Victoria.

We missed many ports due to various reasons. There are ports that can not handle extra ships thus many times we have had an extra sea day.

We missed Christchurch in 2016. Nothing was added, it just became a Sea day.

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We had a late a fog delay in Port Chalmers, and got stuck when the fog came back.

I think they had to visit Port Chalmers, since the Milford to Port Chalmers land excursion returned to the ship there.

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I think it's more likely a new port will be added (if feasible) if it's a grand voyage or similar.

My experience is that they will substitute a port if it makes sense and can be done. Last year we did several back to backs on the Prinsendam and missed a total of 4 ports and managed 3 substitute ports. First was Horta due to sea conditions and Brest, France was substituted. We also missed ports in the Channel islands and Wales with substitutions of Belfast and Greenock, Scotland. Often there isn't a pier available or insufficient infrastructure at an alternative port so you get a sea day instead and a refund of port charges.

We once did a crossing on Royal Caribbean starting in Lisbon and ending in Galveston which, due to sea conditions in the Azores, ended up with an itinerary that bore little resemblance to what we booked. It was a great trip which everyone on board called the magical mystery tour.

We were on the Voyage of the Vikings and missed 4 ports. Red Bay due to Icebergs and fog. Nanertorlik Greenland due to huge storm. We did get an extra half day in Reykjavik Iceland. We missed Djupivogur Iceland due to swells (Tender Port). Molde Norway was substituted. And we missed St Anthony Newfoundland (Tender). We had an extra half day in St John. and we also missed the scheduled Prince Christian Sound due to the storm and icebergs. Fortunately, for us they did do the Prince Christian Sound on our return to Boston.

On the Rotterdam there was a strike in Ajaccio Corsica and we substituted Villafranche Sur Mer, France

We missed Ephesus and they substituted Rhodes.

On our most recent cruise, we had to miss Port Arthur due to huge storm. But due to the storm and having to cruise on the shelter east side of Tasmania, we were unable to substitute a port. And we were late for our call at Kangaroo Island. Naturally, we were disappointed as we really wanted to see Port Arthur. But the storm was the worst we have ever sailed through. Force 10-12 on the Beaufort Scale. And in Captain Mercer’s blog he mentioned winds gusting up to a 100miles per hour.

And on our Volendam Cruise in the fall of 2017, we were suppose to only be in Shanghai for 3 days. We ended up in Shanghai for 4.5 days due to a typhoon off the China coast. Chinese authorities would not let us depart and we also could not leave the ship as we had already cleared customs. It looked like were were going to miss our next two port calls. Nagasaki and Fukuoka. HAL did try to make the Nagasaki port call, but unfortunately the berths were taken. We did go to Fukuoka which made us happy. And those who really wanted to see Nagasaki, HAL made special tour excursion to Nagasaki. We did miss Ishigaki.

So HAL does supposed ports when possible.

We missed Heimaey, Iceland last year on a Prinsendam voyage, due to weather. They replaced it with Scrabster, Scotland. But then the seas were too rough to get into Scrabster, so that was cancelled as well! We moved on to our next port of call, Kirkwall, and arrived the evening before we were due. Had to wait for another ship to leave before we could dock there for an unplanned overnight.