Has this happened to you ?

[room with a view]

Our  22nd December - 3rd January cruise has been changed. We now miss Palma, Majorca on the 1st January and will return to Civitavecchia on the 2nd January. The reason given is that the Spirit is going into an early dry dock.

Is this a regular occurrence with cruise lines ?

[bobsfamily]

8 minutes ago, room with a view said:

Our  22nd December - 3rd January cruise has been changed. We now miss Palma, Majorca on the 1st January and will return to Civitavecchia on the 2nd January. The reason given is that the Spirit is going into an early dry dock.

Is this a regular occurrence with cruise lines ?

I've been on a cruise (or 2) that the itinerary has changed. I would not regular but it does happen...

[newmexicoNita]

Most of us who have cruised often have been affected by itinerary changes at least once for various reasons. It can be disappointing but it doesn't usually affect the fun of the cruise that much. it isn't just NCL but most cruise lines. 

[KeithJenner]

I’ve had a number of itinerary changes in my time, from a port being changed (ie Marseilles changed to Cannes), to one leg of a back to back being chartered, so having to delay the cruise by a week, to the multiple changes on a Spirit Easter cruise a couple of years ago when our Canary Isles cruise was changed to a Venice to Istanbul itinerary and then a Venice round trip.

 

Both of those major changes happened about a year in advance, so there were no issues with flights, and in the case of the Spirit one we got a great deal and far better itinerary (in my opinion).

 

The Christmas Spirit one is certainly less warning, but as they are offering hotels or compensation, we shouldn’t be out of pocket, in fact we are getting the same number of nights for less money although one night is in a hotel. I do feel for those people who were looking forward to Palma.

 

It does seem to be an issue with dry docks and NCL at the moment. When I heard that the dry dock was scheduled for directly after the cruise I suspected that the last day was at risk (I wish I’d mentioned it at the time, as I’d have looked smarter than I really am). The Getaway had even bigger issues earlier this year as changes were made just a few weeks out and there were lots of complaints. So far, we have got off quite lightly in comparison. Luckily, I think New Year protects us from further disruption.

[mertziek]

We are the Spirit right after dry dock and have been informed our cruise is shortened by one day, too.  We also are getting either a hotel stay with transfer to port or $300 OBC.  It happens and think due to them needing the extra day for dry dock.  Many have surmised they need the extra day to get Spirit from Marseille to Rome.  Who knows because, as usual, NCL did not give a specific reason.  Not sure if other cruise lines give specific reasons for their adjustments to itineraries.  But this has happened to us before where Itinerary changes or cruises are shortened.  Being seasoned travelers, you learn to go with the flow and look at traveling as an adventure but I sure wish NCL would be more forthcoming about the reasons for the changes.  On the other hand, we are loving an extra day in Rome!

[Georgia_Peaches]

Seems like it's becoming more the norm with NCL, especially with non-Caribbean itineraries.   

[Peachypooh]

Yes. One time our Pearl cruise was changed from 7 days to 9 days. We got the extra

2 days plus a price reduction. For us it worked so it was a good thing. One time

our Jade cruise was the same length but all of the ports were changed. This was after

final payment. It was due to a hurricane but still it would have been nice to have had

the option to cancel or at least transfer the reservation to a different cruise.

 

[room with a view]

Thanks to bobsfamily, Nita, Keith, Mertziek , Georgia Peaches , Peachy pooh and all you seasoned cruisers.

As a newby to cruising (4 on the Spirit ,1 on RCCL) this is my first experience of this.

We are taking the OBC option and have booked the same hotel that we have for 3 nights pre-cruise, with the pro-rata adjustment we are happy .

See you in the bar, Keith

[scootersdad]

We were on the NCL STAR, Asia to NZ, several years ago and missed  every other port.

Only one engine was working.  Apparently an issue they were aware of for months.

 

Missed quality ports/excursions until Both Failed in the middle of the Tasman Sea.

We had to be Tugged back to Melbourne.  Australian TV covered it extensively. 

 

We Abandoned ship there as we were just going to skip ALL the NZ ports/sounds and go directly to Auckland.

No guarantee we'd make our flight back to Oz.

 

Only after passenger demonstrations in the Atrium did NCL provide Reasonable compensation. (SEE U tube video)

 

 

 

[room with a view]

Wow !!!! what a horror story .. hope it all worked out well for you.

[mugtech]

7 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Seems like it's becoming more the norm with NCL, especially with non-Caribbean itineraries.   

It is a rookie mistake to book the last cruise before a dry dock or the first cruise after a dry dock.  Ask anyone who was on the Sun or the Getaway in said situations.

[BirdTravels]

8 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Seems like it's becoming more the norm with NCL, especially with non-Caribbean itineraries.   

What? A dry dock schedule changing? Agree that drydock and vendor schedules do change. And you have to be aware of this fact if you book before or after a drydock. Drydocks are orchestrated down to the minute and will change if there are conflicts. 

 

Or "becoming the norm" meaning that every cruise changes duration? Not accurate,,,, at all. 

Edited August 16, 2019 by BirdTravels

[Georgia_Peaches]

51 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

What? A dry dock schedule changing? Agree that drydock and vendor schedules do change. And you have to be aware of this fact if you book before or after a drydock. Drydocks are orchestrated down to the minute and will change if there are conflicts. 

 

Or "becoming the norm" meaning that every cruise changes duration? Not accurate,,,, at all. 

Was referring to dry-dock....

[Georgia_Peaches]

2 hours ago, mugtech said:

It is a rookie mistake to book the last cruise before a dry dock or the first cruise after a dry dock.  Ask anyone who was on the Sun or the Getaway in said situations.

agree

[nwcruiselover]

I was on the Getaway TA from New York to Southampton, April 27, 2019 which was originally 12 days but shortened to 10 days with one week’s notice before sailing.  The cruise was cut short by 2 days, and we had only 2 ports of call rather than 4.  The reason given was that Getaway needed to get into dry dock 2 days early.  When this was first announced, the 2 ports of call that were eliminated were Le Havre (Paris & Normandy) and Belgium.  Due to a huge outcry from the passengers, several days later these two ports were reinstated and we missed the Azores and Portland, England.  This was all done on such short notice that there were actually people boarding the ship in New York who knew nothing about it.  They did give us a 25% refund, 25% credit towards a future cruise, and up to $300 per person to reimburse for airline changes or hotels for the 2 days we got to England early.  There were many “unhappy campers” on the cruise.  

[Birdie And Sue]

15 hours ago, room with a view said:

Our  22nd December - 3rd January cruise has been changed. We now miss Palma, Majorca on the 1st January and will return to Civitavecchia on the 2nd January. The reason given is that the Spirit is going into an early dry dock.

Is this a regular occurrence with cruise lines ?

 

It all depends on how one define 'regular'.  Itinerary changes happen on ALL cruise lines from time-to-time.  As id often said, if youa re cruise with your heart dead set on a particular port you are selecting the wrong type of vacation.

[casofilia]

Never had that specific situation.   But I think that someone in Miami thought that if the ship is docking in Civitavecchia on the 3rd in the morning that the ship would be able to get to the dry-dock in Marseilles the same day and booked the dry-dock to start on that day.   (S)he didn't realize that it would take over 24 hours at full speed to get from Civitavecchia to Marseilles.

[tomk3212]

Well, well, this sounds familiar!!!

 

NCL shortened our Getaway TA crossing cruise this past April-May from 12 days to 10 & eliminated the 2 best ports (Bruges & LeHavre) to boot for the same reason; Getaway was scheduled to go into dry dock in France immediately following our cruise.  Oh, yeah & they gave us ONE week's notice!!!  We all received emails on Good Friday for a cruise leaving the following Sunday out of NYC.  What also made it so galling was because this was a holiday weekend  ALL the senior execs (Andy Stuart, are you listening?), "Got out of Dodge" and left all their mid & lower level employees to handle the HUGE barrage of irate pax on the phone.  Not exactly the kind of company I'd like to work for!

 

So we complained (A LOT...lol) via phone &  right here on CC & they adjusted the itinerary & gave us Bruges & LeHavre back (eliminating two other ports), gave us more comp $$, etc.  As an FYI we put in a compensation request in mid-May right after we got back.  We got our check from NCL just last week.   According to some other posters NCL had ONE person working this issue.

 

I asked some of the senior officers while we were aboard Getaway why this occurred & the explanation I was given was if the dry dock facility can accommodate the ship earlier then NCL is contractually obligated to bring the ship there early.  If they don't it's big $$.  I don't know if this is true or not but it sounds logical.

 

Your cruise is leaving in December?  Well at least you're getting a LOT more notice than we did!  Hopefully NCL will give you some kind of compensation.  Despite this glitch I hope you have a great cruise!

[Cruisercl]

18 hours ago, mugtech said:

It is a rookie mistake to book the last cruise before a dry dock or the first cruise after a dry dock.  Ask anyone who was on the Sun or the Getaway in said situations.

How does a person know the dry dock schedules?

Where are they located so a rookie knows?

I have been cruising over 30 years and do not know this. 😏

[mertziek]

19 hours ago, mugtech said:

It is a rookie mistake to book the last cruise before a dry dock or the first cruise after a dry dock.  Ask anyone who was on the Sun or the Getaway in said situations.

You’re mistaken to say it’s a rookie mistake without knowing all of the facts.  In our case the only itinerary we were interested in was immediately following a dry dock so we booked the cruise fully realizing there could be some changes.  We select our cruises primarily for the itinerary.  We are Plat Plus so we are not “rookie” cruisers.

[mugtech]

4 hours ago, Cruisercl said:

How does a person know the dry dock schedules?

Where are they located so a rookie knows?

I have been cruising over 30 years and do not know this. 😏

I check online to see if there are any holes in the schedule, see where the last cruise ends and the next cruise begins.  Since a dry dock is required every 5 years it is not too difficult to get info.  On RCI the Radiance is pulling into Singapore on 9/30/20 and the next cruise is 5 weeks later going from Singapore to Australia.

[KeithJenner]

It was well known that the Spirit was due to go into dry dock at some point over this winter, as NCL stated it was before it goes to Asia.

 

I honestly can’t remember now whether we knew the exact dry dock date when I booked the Christmas cruise. I think that we did know as the dates afterwards were never scheduled, but it didn’t make any difference anyway. It was well worth the risk of disruption for us, given all the factors.

 

As I’ve said a few times, New Year should protect us from the cruise being shortened any more, and I kind of suspected we may lose the last day. For me it is a positive change as we get the same length holiday for less money with the last day in Rome rather than in Palma, so it has certainly been a risk worth taking so far. Certainly no rookie mistake here.

Edited August 17, 2019 by KeithJenner

[bluesea777]

42 minutes ago, KeithJenner said:

It was well known that the Spirit was due to go into dry dock at some point over this winter, as NCL stated it was before it goes to Asia.

 

I honestly can’t remember now whether we knew the exact dry dock date when I booked the Christmas cruise. I think that we did know as the dates afterwards were never scheduled, but it didn’t make any difference anyway. It was well worth the risk of disruption for us, given all the factors.

 

As I’ve said a few times, New Year should protect us from the cruise being shortened any more, and I kind of suspected we may lose the last day. For me it is a positive change as we get the same length holiday for less money with the last day in Rome rather than in Palma, so it has certainly been a risk worth taking so far. Certainly no rookie mistake here.

 

There originally was a Jan 3 2020 cruise on the Spirit (East Med + Israel) out of Civitavecchia on the radar, but it disappeared several months ago when NCL decided to extend Miss Spirit's drydock.

 

You'll enjoy an extra day in Rome!

 

We, booked on the Feb 11 (was 10) Arabian Odyssey, opted to take the $300 OBC so we can drive into the countryside prior to the cruise.

 

[mertziek]

4 hours ago, KeithJenner said:

For me it is a positive change as we get the same length holiday for less money with the last day in Rome rather than in Palma, so it has certainly been a risk worth taking so far. Certainly no rookie mistake here.

Not rookies here, either.  And our Feb Spirit cruise shortening with the extra day pre-cruise in Rome is a delightful happenstance.  Now we can do that early morning tour to the Vatican museums (take every opportunity we can to get back there) that we originally could not book due to embarkation on Monday and no Vatican tours on Sunday.   As with all travel, you learn to go with the flow and make the best of it.  But I will add when unexpected changes do occur, we are in a bit better situation financially than many other travelers and can make our fallback plans very quickly.  

[chk-gnt]

Found out my cruise had been shortened by a day just now when I read these posts. Curious how you were notified? I booked through AARP/Expedia and have heard nothing. I did see on my Norwegian account that the date was changed there.