How many ports have you missed?

The wife and I have been on 5 Oceania Cruises and have only missed one port due to a passenger's heart attack. Over the past few months we have been hearing about such passenger occurrences more frequently for example: GI or other related sicknesses, causing ports to be missed.

We are thinking about giving up cruising and going back to traveling on our own as we cannot afford to miss a port, well we can but you see our point. How many ports have you missed out of the cruises that you have taken either on OC or some other CL?

Four that I can think of & one the Captain managed to find another port where we could dock for a few hours

another was Bermuda were we had an extra day there

They were all weather related issues

we have been late to arrive because of leaving late due to medical issues

If you really need to see a specific port then yes go by a land trip

If you look hard enough you can find problems everywhere

we almost missed our flight one time because people do not know how to drive in rain

If a particular port is really important to you and the reason you are booking a cruise do NOT book that cruise. Travel there by land. Cruises can cancel ports at will and imo O does it more often than other lines.

Seven on four different O cruises. None on other lines.

I don't know if Oceania does it more than other lines. I don't think we missed any. The one that Oceania misses but advertises as a port of call is Pitcairn Island. The islanders do come on board, but I don't think any mainstream cruise line actually visits the island.

I was disappointed to miss Ravenna with RCCL and I just missed Valletta on NCL. (We got an overnight in Messina instead and a refund of some port fees.) We missed a day of cruising and several ports on Variety Cruises, but was a very small ship (large yacht really) and we all agreed with the captain.

But it is true - if you really want to see a particular port, you need to see it another way. You could find out whether or not it is one that is fairly likely to be missed. However even those places that I would not have thought would be challenging like Amsterdam are sometimes missed!

Seven on four different O cruises. None on other lines.

Seven out of how many nights or ports of call? Just curious. Oceania does offer some longer cruises!

If a particular port is really important to you and the reason you are booking a cruise do NOT book that cruise. Travel there by land. Cruises can cancel ports at will and imo O does it more often than other lines.

Wripro and LHT you are right. On our last Barcelona to Barcelona trip in April we were a bit nervous about missing Florence and Rome although we thought that Rome had the hospitals for special treatments. Usually on our cruises, some of the places that we went to were take it or leave it places but were just icing on the cake to where we really wanted to go. We use to travel to ports we liked before finding OC but really thinking about going back to traveling by land again. To each their own I guess.

yes land trip is better if you are afraid of missing a port/city/town

Ships may miss a port on one cruise but not on another

the question is really moot as you never know if bad weather will strike or someone will need to be offloaded due to death or medical issues

Drive yourself & you are on your own schedule

JMO

I've never missed a port on Oceania, but I have on other cruise lines. I'm also one who believes that land travel is best for those "cant miss" places.

One cruise on Oceania with one missed port, Rio Grande. They said it was too rough to dock.

Numerous cruises with other lines and numerous missed ports. The tender ports I always expect to miss and look on it as a bonus if we make it in.

Worst was missing two ports in one two week cruise, due to a force 11 in the Bay of Biscay. The captain said if we went into Lisbon we wouldn’t be able to get out again! And when we arrived at La Gomera in the Canaries, another ship was in our dock unable to move out due to the strong winds. Luckily they were able to add one extra port, La Palma, so we were only one down overall. But La Gomera was the port I particularly wanted to visit as we had already been to the others before, so I was disappointed.

But as has been said, you have to expect the unexpected when cruising!

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The ports of call are our only reason for cruising. The ship is not the destination for us and we attempt to minimize cruises with very many sea days. Most our our cruises are to get to out of the way places either difficult or overly expensive to get to via land cruise. Places we really want to see, we do land tours. I would never waste my money booking a cruise to the Easter Islands, for example, especially if the rest of the itinerary didn’t excite me. To high of a risk of disappointment.

We still do, and have booked for this summer, river cruises on Uniworld that provides far greater exposure to exotic ports of call than ocean cruises. We also still do self guided tours of some want to see areas.

The ports of call are our only reason for cruising. <snip>

Places we really want to see, we do land tours. I would never waste my money booking a cruise to the Easter Islands, for example, especially if the rest of the itinerary didn’t excite me. To high of a risk of disappointment.

Well, I cruise for ports as well. But I am willing to deal with the occasional disappointment. But interestingly, we had two days on shore on Easter Island!

Frances

Lucky You!

We average 10-20% missed ports over time, not including over 1 hr late arrivals .

Just wondering whether it is the same incidence on R ships as O ships.

Am I the only that truly doesn't remember? I've got to stop getting that drink package.

Neither of us keeps a journal either, just enjoy as we go. We do make notes once home.

How many ports have you missed out of the cruises that you have taken either on OC or some other CL?

7 total ports missed out of 158 total cruise days.

2010...2 ports missed because of weather. Substituted 1 sea day and one day of cruising the fjords of Greenland.

2011...1 port missed because of weather. Sea day instead.

2014...1 port missed because of weather. Added a stop in the Azores.

2015...3 ports missed because of a fire in the ship's engines. Got to stay an extra day in one port, plus 2 extra sea days.

It's going to happen if you cruise long enough.

We have only missed one port out of many, many, many days. Unfortunately it was a very expensive proposition as we had three suites and two of our grown kids and wives with us. Bad scene.

However, if you have to count, one cruise we missed Naxos/Taormina, but had friends who picked us up in Messina and we did make it to Taormina which we love.

I know of many people who have missed many ports. It is the captain's call lots of times and some of those times it may be a good thing.

The cruise is our thing, so never a deal breaker.

Am I the only that truly doesn't remember? I've got to stop getting that drink package.

 

Neither of us keeps a journal either, just enjoy as we go. We do make notes once home.

No, you are not the only one (and I can’t even blame it on the drinks package) :D

In 25+ O cruises we must have missed some ports but none come to mind. Late arrivals - yes. One time we had 2 days in Bermuda scheduled and captain left one day earlier as there was a storm coming. That 2nd day in Bermuda was substituted for a stop in the Azores - a welcome bonus for us.

Am I the only that truly doesn't remember? I've got to stop getting that drink package.

 

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You are not alone

some of us just go with the flow

we have missed Holyhead Wales twice now

if on a cruise again that goes there maybe 3 times lucky & we will actually make it :halo:

If not life continues

I hate bus tours & getting too old for road trips on the motorcycle so cruising still works for us even if we miss a port

We’ve missed quite a few ports on a variety of cruise lines.

We missed both days at Easter Island, by far the biggest disappointment,

We’ve missed Greenland fiords, Falkland Islands, Bermuda altogether, Ketchikan Alaska, Montreal, Santa Barbara, among others.

We haven’t had the best luck on land tours either. We did a Northern lights trip to Iceland in February. 80 some percent of visitors see the lights, but we didn’t see them in four nights of trying. BTW it is really exhausting to try to see the lights. Tour operators drive you out to the boonies and you are out late sitting in parking lots or walking around in clamp on boots.

+1 on not counting on a cruise for a bucket list destination-stuff happens. River cruises are not always better-we just had too short a time on a bucket list river cruise destination-damn the locks and sometimes low or high water. On O, we missed Hiva Oa in 2014 when O was first cruising French Polynesia etc. They were able to substitute Fakarava on that cruise and by the next year were no longer trying for Hiva Oa. Sometimes a port is not doable-I too would never try for Pitcairn Island after what I have read here.

+1 on not counting on a cruise for a bucket list destination-stuff happens. River cruises are not always better-we just had too short a time on a bucket list river cruise destination-damn the locks and sometimes low or high water. On O, we missed Hiva Oa in 2014 when O was first cruising French Polynesia etc. They were able to substitute Fakarava on that cruise and by the next year were no longer trying for Hiva Oa. Sometimes a port is not doable-I too would never try for Pitcairn Island after what I have read here.

The only time I remember missing a port was Libya in 2005. The US & Libya were having a diplomatic tiff.

Mura was on that cruise, too.

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We're silver category cruisers and have only missed 2 ports over 11 years. First was Monte Carlo in 2012 on Riviera due to high winds and rough seas. We also missed the 2 days at Easter Island a couple of years ago due to weather. We did circumnavigate the island and could see the moai from a distance. On the plus side, we did get into the Falklands to see the penguins Dec before last. Frequently, ships can't dock there. The Pitcairn island stop is listed as an "on board" experience with the residents coming on the ship. They don't really have a place where tenders can dock safely. We did circumnavigate the island which was very interesting. We've always been satisfied that O makes the health and safety of passengers a top priority.

We've done 8 O cruises and missing Montreal due to high water 2 weeks ago was our second missed port. Missed Salaverry, Peru on Regatta last year due to horrific flooding in the days before our scheduled stop that left the port closed.

Since the ship is our interest rather than the ports, in neither case were we disconcerted.

Are we counting the ones where the itinerary changed before the cruise even started? I've had a few of those, Oceania as well as other cruise lines.