Why Has Homer Been Dropped from Noordam's 9/2024 & 9/2025 Great Alaskan Explorer Cruises?

[redraider1966]

This inquiring mind would sure like to know and whether other HAL Alaska cruises' itineraries are also affected.

[highfields]

Cruuse Mapper shows the only Holland America ship visiting Homer in 2024 is the Westerdam on June 28th.

Edited January 25 by highfields
Correct the year

[Crazy For Cats]

I received notice overnight that Homer was dropped from our May 2025 NA itinerary.  It was replaced with Sitka.

[CruiserBruce]

1 hour ago, redraider1966 said:

This inquiring mind would sure like to know and whether other HAL Alaska cruises' itineraries are also affected.

Not many cruise ships stop at Homer. So, it sounds like 2 out of 3 HAL stops for 2024 have been dropped.

[RuthC]

That's a shame. Homer was on the itinerary on my first Alaska cruise, and I have been back several times since. It's been one of my favorite Alaska ports since that first cruise there. 
Perhaps some other year? The museum in town is definitely worth a visit, and there is loads of fun to be had out on the Spit. 

[TRLD]

1 hour ago, RuthC said:

That's a shame. Homer was on the itinerary on my first Alaska cruise, and I have been back several times since. It's been one of my favorite Alaska ports since that first cruise there. 
Perhaps some other year? The museum in town is definitely worth a visit, and there is loads of fun to be had out on the Spit. 

Homer is a wonderful town  Great scenery, excellent fishing. Have been there several times. My wife's brother and sister in law run a b&b there in the summer. Not sure what excursions they would come up with there other than the museum.  Maybe an excursion to seldovia?

Edited January 26 by TRLD

[Vict0riann]

It’s been dropped from ours as well.  I do like Sitka!  

[RuthC]

7 minutes ago, TRLD said:

Not sure what excursions they would come up with there other than the museum.  Maybe an excursion to seldovia?

I did that excursion out of there once. We spent quite a bit of time in a boat visiting many islands near Homer itself, then headed up to Seldovia for a while, before heading back. It was a very pretty day, and a lovely day to go boating. 

[Suzanne123]

On ours in 2025 they did drop Homer, but they added Glacier Bay in addition to Sitka.  

[clueless2]

The old Statendam in Homer in 2015.

[syesmar]

We had such a nice time in Homer! I would return in a heartbeat.

 

I will never forget seeing the area from a distance as we sailed, several days before visiting the port. Oh, my, the sky was simply perfect and the snow-covered mountains were majestic. I can remember being in such awe of the scenery.

[OlsSalt]

9 hours ago, redraider1966 said:

This inquiring mind would sure like to know and whether other HAL Alaska cruises' itineraries are also affected.

 

Sept Majestic Japan on the Westerdam just had Kodiak Island and Anchorage pulled off the Sept 2024 itinerary, and only one port added - Haines. 

 

Could these smaller Alaska ports be also saying no to cruise ships.

 

Or could it be possible  are other cruise lines putting the squeeze on these smaller Alaska ports, and demanding they take their mega-franchise cruise industry shops in their little towns,  or else they won't bring their ships into any Alaska ports?  

 

(Speculation only,  but reasonable after seeing what Diamonds International, Del Sol etc did to the other major Alaska cruise ports, chasing out all the local Made in Alaska industry and losing the special uniqueness of an Alaska cruise almost entirely.)

[ScottishMaid]

We did the 14 day Statendam cruise including Homer in 2015. That cruise was running all summer and we did a 14 day cruise in 2017,   I believe on the Amsterdam. From Cruise Mapper I see Oceania, Seabourn and Hanseatic have small ships going a few times. I think there are very few possible shore excursions and that would greatly annoy guests and give negative feedback. The bigger Westerdam has a 28 day cruise and so will have more guests used to doing their own thing in the many ports on that cruise.

Homer is a very pretty town if the weather is good but there would be little to do if a windy or very rainy day, especially given the very exposed pier and Spit area.

 

[luv2travel06]

On 1/26/2024 at 12:42 AM, ScottishMaid said:

We did the 14 day Statendam cruise including Homer in 2015. That cruise was running all summer and we did a 14 day cruise in 2017,   I believe on the Amsterdam. From Cruise Mapper I see Oceania, Seabourn and Hanseatic have small ships going a few times. I think there are very few possible shore excursions and that would greatly annoy guests and give negative feedback. The bigger Westerdam has a 28 day cruise and so will have more guests used to doing their own thing in the many ports on that cruise.

Homer is a very pretty town if the weather is good but there would be little to do if a windy or very rainy day, especially given the very exposed pier and Spit area.

 

We docked in Homer on our 14 day cruise on the Amsterdam in 2018 and enjoyed it so much we were looking forward to going again in September when my sister joins us for her first ever cruise, but then they changed the itinerary.  Nevertheless, we are still planning to have a great cruise.