NCL Sky to return to a B'more departure

[herbanrenewal]

I love cruising. I love NCL. I love Baltimore. 

Then I came across this September 7-18, 2024 cruise. Its been awhile since Majesty sailed from Baltimore. So, of course, I booked the return of NCL to B'more. Now I have to wait until Fall of 2024.

I've done a few web searches. I've not seen any announcements, so it seems like an unheralded event that i found by chance. Are others aware of this one singular event almost 2 years from now? I know there are people who book several Bermuda, Bahamas, Canada cruises each year on Royal Caribbean and Carnival just to be able to enjoy cruising and the ability to sail from Baltimore. Would more NCL fans jump on the opportunity if more Baltimore cruises were offered? Is this an exploration of potential market for NCL? 

Just curious to see if others are aware of this, or if interest in a return of NCL from Baltimore has potential.

[ljrfrm]

We've been waiting/hoping for Baltimore for a long time!  We saw this cruise and have been pricing it out. So expensive right now, but I'd love to do it. The thought of an easy drive to port is so nice! Fingers crossed there will be more!!

[TravelMark]

We sailed out of Baltimore in December 2022 on another line(currently it's RCCL and CCL who home port in Baltimore).  The port facilities are a little spartan but OK.  Parking is right off the dock and convenient.  With age, have learned that $20 for a porter is a bargain when it comes to debarkation.

We cruise NCL for their specialty restaurants and having a ship within a 5 hr drive is attractive to us.

[mimi05052012]

We are sailing the Sky out of Baltimore in September 2023!

[BirdTravels]

It is actually the Sky and Sun doing a couple of cruises from Baltimore. Baltimore as a cruise port and destination is not very nice. Even the touristy areas are not places you want to be out after dark. Up until the pandemic, Royal only out its oldest, most run down ship there. 

[2Cruise4Ever]

I didn't think any of the NCL ships could fit under the Key Bridge and that's why they weren't sailing out of Baltimore.  I guess that's not true!  Love to see this as an option!

[wxtrix]

17 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

It is actually the Sky and Sun doing a couple of cruises from Baltimore. Baltimore as a cruise port and destination is not very nice. Even the touristy areas are not places you want to be out after dark. Up until the pandemic, Royal only out its oldest, most run down ship there. 

 

we've sailed the Carnival Pride twice out of Baltimore, prior to the pandemic. the ship may have been older, but that's because of the height restrictions for the Key Bridge--that's the only reason older ships sail from there, and those ships also sail from other ports, including Europe, and have scheduled dry docks to bring them as current as possible. in addition, they were easily our favorite cruises, first because of the crews who were incredible, and second because our fellow passengers were--for the most part--the same friendly, genuine, diverse, and non-pretentious people we knew from daily life in the DC/Baltimore metro area.

 

after a long absence from cruising we're sailing from Baltimore in May on the Pride's sister ship, the Legend, and we can't wait. and we're also booked on the Norwegian Sun in November and really looking forward to sailing NCL again from Baltimore since we know our fellow passengers are going to be awesome people looking to relax and have fun.

 

 

[leen50]

We recently moved to Michigan from Texas. Baltimore is now the closest port that we can drive to. Since we moved, we've been on a few Carnival and about to go on our 2nd Royal.

Since the 1990's we've been on several NCL sailings including 2 Transatlantics

We looked at the Sept 2024 but aren't thrilled about flying back from Quebec City.

Question for those who keep up with itineraries, how is the Sky getting to Baltimore? I don't see a repo or is she 

'deadheading '? Thanks 

[usahawk1]

On 3/23/2023 at 6:28 AM, TravelMark said:

We sailed out of Baltimore in December 2022 on another line(currently it's RCCL and CCL who home port in Baltimore).  The port facilities are a little spartan but OK.  Parking is right off the dock and convenient.  With age, have learned that $20 for a porter is a bargain when it comes to debarkation.

We cruise NCL for their specialty restaurants and having a ship within a 5 hr drive is attractive to us.

How much was parking at the port ? We sailed out on carnival about 20 years ago and it was free parking but now I hear you have to pay 

[leen50]

17 minutes ago, usahawk1 said:

How much was parking at the port ? We sailed out on carnival about 20 years ago and it was free parking but now I hear you have to pay 

$15.00 per day 

[wally4ever]

As a Northern Virginian, I'd love to see more cruises leave from Baltimore.  A nice Christmas cruise from Baltimore to Bermuda or just down the East Coast would be lovely.

[DCGuy64]

12 minutes ago, wally4ever said:

As a Northern Virginian, I'd love to see more cruises leave from Baltimore.  A nice Christmas cruise from Baltimore to Bermuda or just down the East Coast would be lovely.

Ditto! We live in Fairfax County and it'd be awesome to have cruises that close by.

[pghflyer]

3 hours ago, leen50 said:

Question for those who keep up with itineraries, how is the Sky getting to Baltimore? I don't see a repo or is she 

'deadheading '? Thanks 

Looks like dropping off in Miami on Aug 29 and then departing B'more on Sept 01 so yeah I guess travelling empty 3 nights, kind of odd.

https://www.cruisemapper.com/ships/Norwegian-Sky-543?tab=itinerary#itinerary

[leen50]

50 minutes ago, pghflyer said:

Looks like dropping off in Miami on Aug 29 and then departing B'more on Sept 01 so yeah I guess travelling empty 3 nights, kind of odd.

https://www.cruisemapper.com/ships/Norwegian-Sky-543?tab=itinerary#itinerary

Thanks for the info. That's too bad. We like Repos. In May we took RCI Vision of the Seas from Ft Lauderdale to Baltimore 10 days with 3 ports. Aruba Bonaire and Curacao. It was great! Vision now sails from Baltimore.

[pghflyer]

Nice yeah big fan of the Bmore departures and thrilled to have NCL back there. We are trying Vision next year (I assume pretty dang similar to Grandeur).  I really wish one of these lines would leave/return via different routes (ex. the C&D canal and Chesapeake), but seems no one does the C&D, I am guessing more of a bridge clearance issue than a water issue. Too bad.

[Disney Deb]

Just booked the Sun out of Baltimore over Thanksgiving! So excited to see Norwegian have a ship here. We sailed out of Baltimore years ago on RCI's Enchantment of the Seas. This is a very convenient port for us in SE PA.

[Deb and Jack]

This port intrigued me so I'm booked on Sky 9/21-10/2. As a long time south Florida resident I'm looking forward to changing weather and views. Been on sky several times 

[BirdTravels]

28 minutes ago, Disney Deb said:

Just booked the Sun out of Baltimore over Thanksgiving! So excited to see Norwegian have a ship here. We sailed out of Baltimore years ago on RCI's Enchantment of the Seas. This is a very convenient port for us in SE PA.

We are still considering that short cruise for Thanksgiving. Someone else gets to do the cooking, and we sit back and eat! The last time we did a Thanksgiving cruise was on the Encore before the pandemic shutdown.

[Disney Deb]

BirdTravels-go for it! Our Thanksgiving plans dried up this year and rather than try to force something different on our kids (grown) I started looking for things to do. Looking for a really relaxing 5 days! 🙂 Our last Norwegian cruise was over New Years' in 2015/2016. So much fun!