Itinerary Changes and no good Excursions at replacement port :(

[NCgirl242]

Booked NS for January 7, 2024 to January 14, 2024.  Eastern Caribbean.  I was REALLY looking forward to Grand Turk as my husband worked there on projects when he was in the Navy and said it was beautiful.  It got changed to Amber Cove Dominican Republic.  I was bummed but knew there was nothing I could do.  Going with my 75 y/o mom for her last cruise ever and my first.  Looked at excursions and saw Amber Cove had shore excursions with dolphins.  Now the excursions have been posted an it's not an option.  I guess another cruise line arrives an hour before us and got that excursion.  Now we're really bummed about it all and it doesn't appear there are any independent dolphin excursions.

Just need advise or cheering up I guess.  I wanted this to be so perfect for mom and it seems like it's all falling apart.  Like I never should have even chosen HAL.  I mean we spent 6k and keep getting disappointed.  I hope once she's on the ship it's not a letdown. 

[waiting2retire]

Have you considered cancelling the Nieuw Statendam and booking the Nieuw Amsterdam for January 6?  It goes to Grand Turk. 

[Tampa Girl]

14 minutes ago, NCgirl242 said:

Booked NS for January 7, 2024 to January 14, 2024.  Eastern Caribbean.  I was REALLY looking forward to Grand Turk as my husband worked there on projects when he was in the Navy and said it was beautiful.  It got changed to Amber Cove Dominican Republic.  I was bummed but knew there was nothing I could do.  Going with my 75 y/o mom for her last cruise ever and my first.  Looked at excursions and saw Amber Cove had shore excursions with dolphins.  Now the excursions have been posted an it's not an option.  I guess another cruise line arrives an hour before us and got that excursion.  Now we're really bummed about it all and it doesn't appear there are any independent dolphin excursions.

Just need advise or cheering up I guess.  I wanted this to be so perfect for mom and it seems like it's all falling apart.  Like I never should have even chosen HAL.  I mean we spent 6k and keep getting disappointed.  I hope once she's on the ship it's not a letdown. 

 

1 minute ago, waiting2retire said:

Have you considered cancelling the Nieuw Statendam and booking the Nieuw Amsterdam for January 6?  It goes to Grand Turk. 

But what was the reason for cancelling Grand Turk and might it also be cancelled for the January 6th cruise?  Surely there must be independent excursions which would be of interest.  Cancelling ports is an unavoidable occurrence in any cruise and on any cruise line.  If Grand Turk is so  important to OP, she might consider a land trip to the island, assuming it has an airport.

[OlsSalt]

Port over-saturation is a built -in and now self-inflicted cruise industry problem.

 

Perhaps the mega ships with all their onboard entertainment should all become "cruises to no where" and leave the travel destination-oriented smaller ships to the currently available ports. 

 

Or confine the mega ships to their own port entertainment landside resorts only. 

Just thinking out loud here. 

[FOPMan]

The Amber Cove and Grand Turk ports areas have some things in common including shops and a pool. AC does not have a beach, as such.

 

The DR has more trees and is more mountainous than T&C. There is a more diverse array of things to do, but many more of them are more active than experiences at Grand Turk.

[Sea42]

4 hours ago, NCgirl242 said:

Now we're really bummed about it all and it doesn't appear there are any independent dolphin excursions.

It is available in ST. Thomas

https://coralworldvi.com/dolphin-splash-swim/

[3rdGenCunarder]

Maybe, if the change was very recent, HAL hasn't got all the tour options listed yet. So keep checking the website. 

[Hlitner]

3 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

Port over-saturation is a built -in and now self-inflicted cruise industry problem.

 

Perhaps the mega ships with all their onboard entertainment should all become "cruises to no where" and leave the travel destination-oriented smaller ships to the currently available ports. 

 

Or confine the mega ships to their own port entertainment landside resorts only. 

Just thinking out loud here. 

The irony of what you say is that I believe (correct me if wrong) that the facility at Grand Turk was built with CCL funds and is controlled by CCL.  If there is an over saturation issue (too many ships for one day) it is likely because CCL has created that problem.  Priority is usually given to the regularly scheduled cruise ships such as those of Carnival Cruises.

 

Hank

[carnivaljunkie]

We were in Amber Cove in February 2023 and were disappointed with the tour choices.  We decided on a tour to a chocolate farm and factory.  We were both very impressed with this tour. 

Dean

[kochleffel]

I have been to Grand Turk once, on the Nieuw Amsterdam. Divers love it, and beach-lovers probablby do as well, but other people maybe not so much. If it were in my itinerary and changed to the DR, I wouldn't mind. Come to think of it, I have two DR ports in an itinerary for January (not HAL).

[NCgirl242]

Looks like they added Dolphin tours in Amber Cove!  🥳

We did discuss with the travel agent about changing to the other cruise regarding Grand Turk but after further discussion, we determined that maybe my husband and I could go there together on a shorter cruise sometime

[OlsSalt]

3 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

Maybe, if the change was very recent, HAL hasn't got all the tour options listed yet. So keep checking the website. 

 

We had two port changes on an upcoming cruise with no excursions offered (LA San Pedro and Avalon Catalina), then a few were offered for LA.  None of them were very good, and just last week we started getting some better LA choices.  

 

So good advice, hang in there.

 

Plus the roll call for this cruise got creative and came up with many splendid private options. But  the general feeling is LA-San Pedro might be a good embarkation port, it is a lousy day tripper mid-cruise port stop. The process of trying to figure out what to do, was interesting.

 

Hope we can compare notes  what each of us ended up doing that day, or hope the spa has some really terrific port day specials. 

[Haljo1935]

Native of Grand Turks.

I'm glad you're thinking it through and leaning toward keeping the cruise. I know you'll enjoy it, whatever you decide, and make wonderful memories with your mom.