Which port in Europe have you missed

[stipmom]

due to weather or ship problems?

[Sea Day Cruiser]

We were on the Golden Princess in October, 2006. We missed Santorini because of high winds. The captain announced it wasn't safe to tender into the island and we left. We understood and didn't complain, but it would have been nice if he'd stayed around long enough for it to get light enough for people to at least be able to take a picture from the ship. That's probably the closest I'll ever get to Santorini.

 

Another time I was on the old Royal Princess for the Norwegian Fjords cruise. We missed the northernmost port - again because of high winds. I think it was Honningsvag, but I'm not sure of the spelling.

[megabill]

We missed Santorini because of high winds.

 

Such a shame, Santorini was definitely among my favorites.

 

I was on Millennium this past summer and very happy to report that we never missed any ports. If you're interested in what port i wouldn't have mind skipping - it definitely has to be Athens. Sure its cool to see all those ancient "Marvels"... but it was just such a dirty dirty city that i would have rather just picked up a postcard at the pier then venture there again. (but thats probably just me)

[winewanderer]

On the Carnival Liberty in May we missed our last port stop, Livorno (northern Italy) due to high winds.

 

It was ok though as we were so exhausted from the itinerary that we needed the sea day.

 

We spent the day trolling the waters off Corsica.

[bubbadog]

weve been twice in oct and in april and didnt miss any ports and weather was good both times outside of a spinkle here and there,hope this helps you:))):p

[Queenk2]

On the Galaxy in July 2005, we missed Ephesus due to some acts against tourists. I was thankful that Celebrity was watching us so carefully. They substituted Katakalon and we had a great day!

[Ms Understood]

due to weather or ship problems?

We have done 6 cruises and only ever missed one port. We did the Baltics/Russia with Regent in Oct 2004 and did not get to Helsinki due to weather. I was told that this was a fairly common situation for that port.

[dbh62ark]

We're leaving for our 15th cruise to Europe in a few months and have had some issues due to weather. You can increase your chances of not having issues by going in high season, but we've had situations in high season too.

 

Your greatest chance of missing a port will be in port where you are tendered in. If the winds are high, the captains just can't take a chance on passenger safety. All of the details below are for tender ports.

 

We missed the port of Portofino one year, and that was a shame. We had been there on another cruise, but other passengers were very disappointed. A storm developed quickly and unexpectedly while we were in St. Tropez, also a tender port, with 10 - 12 foot swells. I don't know if you can imagine trying to get passengers back on a ship in those conditions, but it's something that we will never forget! The captain skipped Portofino the next day and took us straight to Rome, our port of disembarkation. A couple of years ago we were due to call into Sete, France and were redirected to Marseille, which is a larger industrial port. This caused issues with private drivers and changed some of the ship's tours. One year we were scheduled to call in Ceuta (sp?), Spain and were redirected to Gibraltar. We got caught in one of the classic power struggles regarding Gibraltar--Spain decided to enforce a law that was rarely enforced so that we would have had to sail back into international waters or miss Barcelona if we called at Gibraltar--and were unable to get off the ship so did a cruise by. On that same windy trip in May, we were tendered into Monte Carlo and advised when we entered the tender that we might be leaving at 7:00 p.m. instead of 11:00 p.m. that day due to the winds. We had a wonderful private tour with Dream Tours that day and returned to find that the ship had been moved! Dream Tours found the new location, and the captain had moved to another spot in that area to avoid the winds on the water. We were two hours late getting into Livorno one year due to weather and were pleased to find our private driver waiting for us with no issues.

 

I have some friends who were on the Norwegian Dream in 2003 who were unable to sail their Baltics itinerary due to weather issues. It was a very cold winter that year (ice so bad in Russia that the shipping lanes had to be moved), so they were unable to go to St. Petersburg, which is the highlight of a Baltics cruise. The cruise line knew in advance and didn't advise passengers, so most of the passengers received full or partial refunds, but your vacation is precious, so that was a shame. I was shocked that they were taken into the Norwegian fjords because we have cruised that area, and you do NOT want to travel there in early May (cloudy, rainy, and cold). So NCL took them to alternate ports, but the ports were not as good as those originally planned. That cruise was scheduled for April 28th, and NCL and other cruise lines do not sail into the Baltics that early in the season now, so that was just bad planning on NCL's part.

 

Every now and then we've had a pleasant itinerary surprise and have had the captain drop anchor to visit a small village for a few hours, or we get a few extra hours in port.

 

The odd thing is that in all of the situations we experienced other than St. Tropez, the sun was shining with pleasant weather other than the winds on the water that didn't feel that strong to us, so it's just an issue with tender boats.

 

If you have your heart set on a particular port, you might consider spending time there before or after your cruise. Other than that, I advise you to ensure that any private drivers that you are using won't charge you if you can't make it to port due to weather issues--we won't use drivers that charge us for issues when we are not at fault and most of the good ones won't charge passengers for weather issues. The good news is that there are so many wonderful places to visit in Europe, so if your ship is redirected, you will likely end up in yet another great port.

 

Have a great trip,

Donna

[Nanatravel]

We missed Barcelona as the port was blocked by "striking fishermen" due to increased Fuel Charges. Also, Brussells was having roadway strikes too which prevented tours from enjoying this major city. We had chosen Brugge which was our best tour in Europe. Also, had a delayed arrival at Livorno due to a rain storm; we sat out at sea until the ocean calmed down. By noon, we were allowed to dock but tours to Florence were cancelled. We went to Pisa instead. However, tablemates, took the train into Florence with no difficulty getting back on time!

 

Bon Voyage