Tampa Dropped as Departure Port?

[tulch]

It does not look like Tampa is scheduled as a departure port past April 2017 (and February 2017 has been dropped).

 

Does anyone have insight as to the reasons?

[AtlantaCruiser72]

Over half the NCL fleet has not had it's fall/winter 2017/18 deployments announced, and any ship home ported in Tampa would be part of that. No one is sure why NCL are so late to the table with deployments. Like the rest of us, you will just have to be patient, or book another line if you just cant wait :eek:

[NMLady]

It does not look like Tampa is scheduled as a departure port past April 2017 (and February 2017 has been dropped).

 

Does anyone have insight as to the reasons?

 

The Jade will probably do ta to Europe in April and not return until November.

 

Is the Jade scheduled for drydock in February??? I thought March, but maybe not?

Edited May 29, 2016 by NMLady

[Vyhanek]

I have 2 guesses.

 

1. The size of the ship. Only the oldest ships are small enough to fit under the Sky Bridge.

 

2. Fog.

 

I can speak about the fog. The Tampa port gets fogged in often. So much so that it has caused many cruises to be cancelled. I can speak to that. Imagine (me) flying into Tampa the day before the cruise. This was an RCCL cruise last winter 2015. Everything's great. The next morning, as IU'm checking out of the hotel and packing up to get on the ship I get a text from the cruise line......"The Port of Tampa is fogged in and your cruise is delayed. WE will respond by 6pm". You think, OK my cruise is delayed. I'll check out of my hotel, return my rental car and go to the International Mall to hang out until 6pm. Then 6pm comes you get another text from the cruise line: "The port of Tampa is still closed due to fog. We will be unable to check passengers in tonight. Please expect another text tomorrow morning at 8am."

 

So now thousands of cruise passengers scrambling for last minute hotels. The passengers already on the ship from the previous cruise are stuck at sea for another night, missing their flights, late for work, etc. It's a mess.

 

The next day it's 8am, I get a text......"The port of Tampa is still closed due to fog. We will update at 2pm". Then at 2pm (this is the following day) finally they cancel the cruise all together!! Cancelled cruise. Can you imagine, OMG, traveling from New England where we have 25 ft. of snow, I just want to get on my cruise!!. It really, really, really sucked.

 

Of course I'm in Florida with my family so can't be too upset but now with no plans. Booking any hotel at the last minute is ridiculously expensive. So is renting a car at the very last minute. But you think....""hey, I have trip insurance, this will all be covered."......Nope. The cruise line refunded everybody's cruise 100% in full so my trip insurance was voided. But, I spent so much more money than the cost of the cruise because I had to book everything last minute. Hotels were booked solid. It was ridiculously expensive all at the last minute and then with no real plan.

 

Yes, fog is a problem.

[AtlantaCruiser72]

The Jade will probably do ta to Europe in April and not return until November.

 

Is the Jade scheduled for drydock in February??? I thought March, but maybe not?

 

I believe the February/March plan for the Jade to be Dry-docked has been scuttled and those missing cruises are now charter dates. I'm guessing the Jade will now have her Dry-dock post Europe season in 2017 - either in a European shipyard before doing a transatlantic, or in the Bahamas after doing a transatlantic and before re-positioning to her winter home port, possibly Tampa. Of course NCL could throw a huge curve ball and send the Jade somewhere else completely and send another ship to Tampa instead.

 

Tampa is too important a market for NCL to drop completely - fog issues or not.

[fabnfortysomething]

The sixthman music charter cruises are sailing out of Tampa in February 2017 on the Jade

[cml4958]

The sixthman music charter cruises are sailing out of Tampa in February 2017 on the Jade

 

Was going to post that. They've got "Keep the Blues Alive at Sea" from the 6th - 10th, "The Rock Boat XVII" from the 10th - 15th, "Sail Across the Sun" from the 15th - 19th, and "CAyamo" from the 19th - 26th.

 

Carrie

[AtlantaCruiser72]

The sixthman music charter cruises are sailing out of Tampa in February 2017 on the Jade

 

February 6th to March 6th as per their website - 6 cruises in total.

 

Just looked in the NCL Travel agent portal - there is one revenue cruise listed on March 6th of 4 nights, then drydock listed for 21 days and a 7nt Caribbean cruise on 4/9 - so now we at least know that the drydock is confirmed - March 10th 2016 for 21 days :D

[zqvol]

It does not look like Tampa is scheduled as a departure port past April 2017 (and February 2017 has been dropped).

 

Does anyone have insight as to the reasons?

 

Tampa is always seasonal. You have to wait until the itineraries for Oct 17 and later come out before you can decide if they are dumping Tampa, though I suspect that it would have been announced if it were true.

[cml4958]

February 6th to March 6th as per their website - 6 cruises in total.

 

Just looked in the NCL Travel agent portal - there is one revenue cruise listed on March 6th of 4 nights, then drydock listed for 21 days and a 7nt Caribbean cruise on 4/9 - so now we at least know that the drydock is confirmed - March 10th 2016 for 21 days :D

And I definitely wouldn't book the first cruise after dry dock. That's been a problem for several ships now that the first cruise after dry dock has either been cancelled or pushed back a day! Save yourself the headache and wait a couple of weeks!

[fshagan]

2. Fog.

 

I was surprised the time we sailed into San Francisco on the Disney Magic with fog so thick it was hard to see the bottom of the Golden Gate bridge from the upper decks (there were about 100 of us out there, at 5 AM, hoping to see something other than a total white out type of condition).

 

I wonder what the difference is with Tampa and also Houston (I've heard similar complaints about Houston). Maybe it's navigating the reefs prior to the harbor that make the difference?