Question for HAL 2024 Antarctic Cruisers

[cruisemom42]

I've just been reading about several NCL cruises that were scheduled to do South America + Antarctica "drive by" cruises, similar to those offered by HAL. Apparently NCL has unexpectedly told passengers at the last moment that Antarctica is being dropped on at least some of these. NCL has so far provided only vague reasons for this. One report has them citing "operational reasons", another has heard there is a "go slow" order in effect -- If it's the latter, it's unclear whether it's something official, although no one seems aware of any recent change, or whether it's an NCL directive due to some undisclosed mechanical issue.

 

My question is, have any 2024 passengers on HAL SA + Antarctic cruises experienced any slow downs or itinerary changes due to some new regulations?  Or is this just an NCL thing?

 

[Dutchman48]

1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

I've just been reading about several NCL cruises that were scheduled to do South America + Antarctica "drive by" cruises, similar to those offered by HAL. Apparently NCL has unexpectedly told passengers at the last moment that Antarctica is being dropped on at least some of these. NCL has so far provided only vague reasons for this. One report has them citing "operational reasons", another has heard there is a "go slow" order in effect -- If it's the latter, it's unclear whether it's something official, although no one seems aware of any recent change, or whether it's an NCL directive due to some undisclosed mechanical issue.

 

My question is, have any 2024 passengers on HAL SA + Antarctic cruises experienced any slow downs or itinerary changes due to some new regulations?  Or is this just an NCL thing?

 

Not sure if HAL has a problem.

NCL's problem was poor planning on their part. The reason for slower speeds was the new regulation that went into effect this year to protect migratory whales. The regulation was passed a few years ago and not sprung on the cruise lines suddenly.

Understand when regulations change without much notice, but this was not the case this time. All cruise lines had ample time to correct itineraries for this year.

[TravelBluebird]

1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

My question is, have any 2024 passengers on HAL SA + Antarctic cruises experienced any slow downs or itinerary changes due to some new regulations?  Or is this just an NCL thing?

 

Not that I am aware of, and besides my recent cruise, I’ve closely followed two other HAL Antarctica LIVE blogs here on Cruise Critic.

 

We did miss a port (Port Montt) but that was due to leaving Santiago very late (weather and delayed passengers).

[TravelBluebird]

1 minute ago, Dutchman48 said:

The reason for slower speeds was the new regulation that went into effect this year to protect migratory whales.

 

So it was the migratory whale regulation? Wow. Yes, our captain mentioned that but it was not at all a problem for our HAL cruise since it had evidently been planned for.

[Mary229]

Just back from the 22 day Antarctica cruise and there were no deviations in the Antarctic itinerary 

[foodsvcmgr]

Not HAL, but just disembarked Celebrity Eclipse last week.

Our itinerary was just two days of scenic cruising, during which we went from Paradise Bay on the first day to Elephant Island the next with no difficulty whatsoever exactly as scheduled.

This is an NCL issue, there are lots of stories on cruise news sites about them constantly changing itineraries, dropping ports, etc. lately around the world with little or lame explanations.

[cruisemom42]

Thanks for the feedback -- appreciated it. I'm not surprised that it is apparently an NCL issue, but before I pointed the finger I just wanted a sanity check!