How do you feel when Ports are 'dropped' ?

[Tizzy]

I have been on a couple of cruises when a Port of Call has been cancelled.

It is usually somewhere I am particularly keen to visit and therefore it causes huge disappointment. I obviously understand if the weather conditions are bad but sometimes this has not been the case. It is frustrating if you have booked a hire car or booked an organised trip. Has this ever happened to you ? I am not a great fan of 'sea' days as the ships are always too busy !

[KirkNC]

It depends on the reason, weather related are out of the cruise lines control, problems with the ship are another story.

[jenny wren]

How about 'following discussions with Head Office..possibility of Civil unrest..' as happened to us with Sharm el Sheikh on our recent Oriana cruise.....when we knew package holidays were still flying people in for their holidays but it was deemed 'unsafe' for us to visit !!!:confused::confused:

[Host Sharon]

It's normally only done when weather conditions prevent the ship berthing or tendering, or if there are engine issues requiring reduced speed. If the latter then compensation has usually been offered. If weather - then that is the luck of the draw unfortunately. The other possibility is civil unrest. We have already lost Egypt from our Christmas cruise and I suspect Haifa may be the next to go, which will really upset me, but hardly P&O's fault.

 

I lost 3½ ports on one 18 night Med cruise, but since it was hot and sunny. the sea days were lovely, just relaxing on deck.

[jenny wren]

Interesting to note that Thomson Celebration is currently still cruising the Red Sea itinerary and embarking/disembarking at Sharm el Sheikh which was deemed 'unsafe' for us on Oriana to visit ! :confused:

[davecttr]

Interesting to note that Thomson Celebration is currently still cruising the Red Sea itinerary and embarking/disembarking at Sharm el Sheikh which was deemed 'unsafe' for us on Oriana to visit ! :confused:

I sometimes wonder if the excuse given is more to do with the company saving money than anything else. with thousands of tourists still flying to sharm for holidays it hardly consitues a security risk high enough to justify cancellation. After all they save the port fees and you remain aboard spending money :rolleyes:

[room010]

It's one of the hazards of cruising. Disappointing but not enough to ruin the whole trip, plus we love extra sea days. If its imperative you visit a particular port then perhaps think about getting there on a different type of vacation.

[Brayman]

It's one of the hazards of cruising. Disappointing but not enough to ruin the whole trip, plus we love extra sea days. If its imperative you visit a particular port then perhaps think about getting there on a different type of vacation.

 

or even next year! there's always more opportunities in the future.

[jenny wren]

[quote=davecttr;36230714]I sometimes wonder if the excuse given is more to do with the company saving money than anything else. with thousands of tourists still flying to sharm for holidays it hardly consitues a security risk high enough to justify cancellation. After all they save the port fees and you remain aboard spending money :rolleyes:

 

That's exactly what we felt Dave ! It didn't matter too much to us as we have been several times before, but there were alot of disappointed passengers...

[Tizzy]

I was amused by your reply Brayman as we did the exact same Cruise the following year and STILL missed Tobago ! Guess we just weren't meant to go there. Lots of Ports in Egypt and surrounding areas have been dropped, but for safety reasons. The companies do usually try and find a good alternative if they can. My son suddenly found his ship visiting Malta last week which he was more than happy with.

[dorsetlad]

I don't think I'd be too bothered, as long as another port was substituted. I wouldn't fancy an additional sea day, as the ship can get very busy. We missed Dubrovnik a couple of years ago on Ocean Village because of the weather, and just spent the day at sea, which to us was a terrible disappointment. Didn't spoil the cruise though.:)

 

Brian

[jenny wren]

Well on this particular cruise we then had 15 days at sea out of 30 day cruise (another two days transitting the Suez Canal) so really 17 days at sea !! and it was deemed 'safe' to go to Cairo from Port Said and Luxor from Safaga, so somewhat of a surprise that we couldn't go to Sharm el Sheikh. :confused:

[jeanlyon]

Just recently on Fred O, we had bad weather all the way to Madeira so got there late. Captain decided to stay overnight and all the following day, thus missing a port in the Cape Verdes. I was pretty annoyed. So many cruise ships go to Madeira, and hardly any go to the Cape Verdes, but I guess there was money to be made with all the excursions in Madeira.

[PRINCESSTHE BEST]

http://sthelenaonline.org/2012/04/21/island-loses-100000-but-po-declines-to-express-any-regrets/#comment-427:mad:

[Brian Raine]

The answer is quite simple TEED OFF. We have just come back from a Princess cruise.

Villa Franche was substituted for NICE- Naples for Sorrento - Genoa for Porto Fino.The water in Naples harbour was rough, OK, the wind was gusting to 40mph plus.At VF we used tenders go figure, why we could there but not in Nice.Porto Fino was allegedly "rough" for tendering so Genoa it was. We wanted to visit 2 of the 3 missed ports,Porto Fino- Sorrento, we had actually been to Kotor-Korcula- these 4 ports were the reason for this cruise.

What are the chances of the Azura missing any of the ports scheduled for the 04Dec sailing, not many I think.

[jeanlyon]

Porto Fino is absolutely tiny. I'm not surprised they chose Genoa!

[simonpjd]

I am afraid this is just something usually beyond the call even of the captain. And the safety of the ship and his passengers is his primary duty.

But it still can be very annoying. We went on a cruise to Greenland and never got there. They took us to Iceland instead. Some very very angry passengers who had all done Iceland before and were only on board because of Greenland. And it turned out they knew before sailing from the UK that Greenland was OFF but they only told us after we were past the Faroes.

But it means we are still looking out for another Greenland cruise for the future hurrah.

[davecttr]

I am afraid this is just something usually beyond the call even of the captain. And the safety of the ship and his passengers is his primary duty.

But it still can be very annoying. We went on a cruise to Greenland and never got there. They took us to Iceland instead. Some very very angry passengers who had all done Iceland before and were only on board because of Greenland. And it turned out they knew before sailing from the UK that Greenland was OFF but they only told us after we were past the Faroes.

But it means we are still looking out for another Greenland cruise for the future hurrah.

I have heard of other instances where the captain knew that the ship would not be calling at one or more of the intended ports but this was not communicated to the passengers until after the ship sailed.

 

I think this is a dispicable smart practice which can only result in the alienation of passengers.

 

IMO if they are aware that a expected port of call is cancelled they should be required in law to tell you . If you book a cruise going to greenland because you want to go to greenland then they sail knowing you are not going to get there you are not getting the holiday you paid for.

 

the small print should be irrelvant here. if they lie to you they should pay.

[simonpjd]

We believe in just making the best of it. So we didn't get to Greenland but we made the best of Iceland and the Faroes and the Shetland Islands instead. And now Greenland is still on our 'Places still to visit' list and we will get there one day.

I think there are far too many whingers who seem to revel in anything that isn't exactly what they want and then try and get compensation. If you cannot make the best of being on a modern liner, where 99% of us have to put up with a luxury lifestyle while on board, then you should take a long hard look at yourself. Just enjoy yourself and have a great time.