How often does NCL changes itineraries for "berthing conflicts"?

[dave.s]

My wife and I were booked on a December Southern Caribbean sailing of the Jade. We recently received a notice that the itinerary was changed because of a "berthing conflict"; instead of visiting Dominica and Martinique, we're going to St. Kitts and St. Lucia instead. We haven't been to Dominica since 2003 and my wife has never been to Martinique, but we went to both St. Kitts and St. Lucia on our last Caribbean cruise, so we're not happy with the change. We're going to cancel and book a Princess cruise.

 

How often does NCL make itinerary changes due to berthing conflicts? I did see other threads about this for different NCL sailings. I've been on many cruises before, but most have been on other cruise lines, and I don't recall ever having my itinerary change for this reason. Is this something that NCL does more than other cruise lines, or is it just happening more because there are more cruise ships?

 

We were actually planning to take a Southern Caribbean cruise on the Jade last December, but NCL had to completely overhaul the itinerary because of hurricane damage to the ports, which was understandable. We cancelled that cruise also, but we were past final payment so we didn't get everything back.

[RossE]

They changed the itinerary for four Bliss sailings this winter due to the lack of dock space

 

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[Captain-John]

They did the same for us in Stockholm on our upcoming Baltic cruise, changing it to Nynashamn.

 

 

 

I refuse to accept 'berthing conflict' as a sufficiently detailed reason, given these things are booked so far in advance. So either someone else is paying more for that spot, or NCL were overly enthusiastic when they said they could get a ship as big as the Breakaway through the Stockholm archipelago.

 

 

NCL are notoriously lacking in detail around changes such as this, even when they are probed and can't admit to making a mistake even if they have. 'Berthing conflict' is a coverall for any number of true reasons, it would seem.

[YVRBassElectric]

For the Bliss inaugural Panama cruise the stop in Puerto Chiapas was cancelled due to the port realizing the boat was to big for it's dock! I have been to Puerto Chiapas and was shocked that it was on the itinerary in the first place.

[njkate]

They did the same for us in Stockholm on our upcoming Baltic cruise, changing it to Nynashamn.

 

 

 

I refuse to accept 'berthing conflict' as a sufficiently detailed reason, given these things are booked so far in advance. So either someone else is paying more for that spot, or NCL were overly enthusiastic when they said they could get a ship as big as the Breakaway through the Stockholm archipelago.

 

 

NCL are notoriously lacking in detail around changes such as this, even when they are probed and can't admit to making a mistake even if they have. 'Berthing conflict' is a coverall for any number of true reasons, it would seem.

yes, that was disappointing and Stockholm is an hour away now :mad:

[Captain-John]

yes, that was disappointing and Stockholm is an hour away now :mad:

 

I was having quite intense e-mails with them immediately after the announcement of the change (before they announced the free transfers). The free transfers was the least they could do really, and I'm glad they did, but it's still a big disappointment to miss stunning scenery and have to sit on a bus or train for 2 hours + on vacation.

 

Could have saved a bit of aggravation if they included the 'free transfer' offer in the original e-mail telling us of the change.

Edited July 11, 2018 by Captain-John

[zqvol]

My wife and I were booked on a December Southern Caribbean sailing of the Jade. We recently received a notice that the itinerary was changed because of a "berthing conflict"; instead of visiting Dominica and Martinique, we're going to St. Kitts and St. Lucia instead. We haven't been to Dominica since 2003 and my wife has never been to Martinique, but we went to both St. Kitts and St. Lucia on our last Caribbean cruise, so we're not happy with the change. We're going to cancel and book a Princess cruise.

 

How often does NCL make itinerary changes due to berthing conflicts? I did see other threads about this for different NCL sailings. I've been on many cruises before, but most have been on other cruise lines, and I don't recall ever having my itinerary change for this reason. Is this something that NCL does more than other cruise lines, or is it just happening more because there are more cruise ships?

 

We were actually planning to take a Southern Caribbean cruise on the Jade last December, but NCL had to completely overhaul the itinerary because of hurricane damage to the ports, which was understandable. We cancelled that cruise also, but we were past final payment so we didn't get everything back.

 

IMO this change is related to hurricane damage that has not been repaired.

[dave.s]

IMO this change is related to hurricane damage that has not been repaired.

 

Maybe so for Dominica, but Martinique wasn’t impacted by the hurricanes last year. I also found another NCL itinerary visiting Dominica in December, unless they haven’t gotten around to changing that one yet.

[jaapie]

Not sure how often it happens, but today I received an email from NCL notifying us that our February 2019 cruise on the Sun has one port substituted for another because of "

port congestion

"

[S.S.Oceanlover]

IMO this change is related to hurricane damage that has not been repaired.

 

we were booked on the Dawn 10 day cruise on Dec 6 and they changed 5 of the 8 ports we were to visit.

 

Since we just did most of the islands they changed to last October we canceled and booked RCI

 

Bill

[napper777]

Maybe so for Dominica, but Martinique wasn’t impacted by the hurricanes last year. I also found another NCL itinerary visiting Dominica in December, unless they haven’t gotten around to changing that one yet.

My Jade cruise in November was supposed to go to Dominica as well but that port was cancelled because of "birthing" issues too.

[newmexicoNita]

My wife and I were booked on a December Southern Caribbean sailing of the Jade. We recently received a notice that the itinerary was changed because of a "berthing conflict"; instead of visiting Dominica and Martinique, we're going to St. Kitts and St. Lucia instead. We haven't been to Dominica since 2003 and my wife has never been to Martinique, but we went to both St. Kitts and St. Lucia on our last Caribbean cruise, so we're not happy with the change. We're going to cancel and book a Princess cruise.

 

How often does NCL make itinerary changes due to berthing conflicts? I did see other threads about this for different NCL sailings. I've been on many cruises before, but most have been on other cruise lines, and I don't recall ever having my itinerary change for this reason. Is this something that NCL does more than other cruise lines, or is it just happening more because there are more cruise ships?

 

We were actually planning to take a Southern Caribbean cruise on the Jade last December, but NCL had to completely overhaul the itinerary because of hurricane damage to the ports, which was understandable. We cancelled that cruise also, but we were past final payment so we didn't get everything back.

This is problem that often seems to happen and will probably continue due to mega ships. We have been lucky, only twice has this happened to us and luckily, in both cases there have been more that one port on the island.Both times it was Roatan. I can't answer the question as to how often it happens.

I am hoping this doesn't happen to us on our Feb cruise. We have only 2 ports we have not visited. I would be very disappointed if we didn't get to visit them. Right now we are scheduled for 9 ports in 10 days, which is a lot. Some in our party would just as soon see one or two ports cancelled as they enjoy sea days.