Cancelled Port More Than A Year In Advance?

Princess_Iliana_of_Avalor

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Feb 6, 2018
So I just got an email this morning that our December 2, 2019 cruise that it won't be stopping at Nassau, Bahamas and we're getting a day at sea instead. It was definitely unexpected because the cruise is so far away and I'm also disappointed as I was kind of looking forward to exploring Nassau for the first time, and was partially the reason as to why we booked this specific cruise. They didn't give any reason as to why they cancelled that port and when I called they didn't have a reason either. Does this happen often? I know in the contract it says they can make itinerary changes at any time, but it kind of sucks when you've booked this so far in advance with Nassau in mind and it gets changed like that without any sort of compensation for it. I'm frankly just confused if I should just stick to this cruise or pay $200 more to switch to another cruise with the risk of Nassau being cancelled on that one as well. I don't know if we'll be able to keep busy for both days we'll be at sea, but then again, I've never been on a cruise before. Hope you can all provide some insight. :confused3
 
So I just got an email this morning that our December 2, 2019 cruise that it won't be stopping at Nassau, Bahamas and we're getting a day at sea instead. It was definitely unexpected because the cruise is so far away and I'm also disappointed as I was kind of looking forward to exploring Nassau for the first time, and was partially the reason as to why we booked this specific cruise. They didn't give any reason as to why they cancelled that port and when I called they didn't have a reason either. Does this happen often? I know in the contract it says they can make itinerary changes at any time, but it kind of sucks when you've booked this so far in advance with Nassau in mind and it gets changed like that without any sort of compensation for it. I'm frankly just confused if I should just stick to this cruise or pay $200 more to switch to another cruise with the risk of Nassau being cancelled on that one as well. I don't know if we'll be able to keep busy for both days we'll be at sea, but then again, I've never been on a cruise before. Hope you can all provide some insight. :confused3
There could be any number of reasons why a port would be cancelled. The contract with the port could have run out. There may be special activities going on in port that day, and there's no space in the port.

Chances are another cruise will not have the port cancelled. There's also the possibility that the port will be put back on the itinerary. Or some other port substituted. This far out, all sorts of things are possible.

When you called DCL did you tell them you booked that cruise so you could go to Nassau? Seems to me that switching you to another cruise with the original itinerary should be offered. But, then, I'm not running the company.

You won't run out of things to do onboard. We've taken 12 DCL cruises and we've still got things we haven't done onboard.
 
Not sure how common it is for them to do that. We always do 7 night cruises and I've never had a problem finding fun things to do on the ship. Usually it's the opposite of not having enough time to do everything we want, even when we have 3 sea days. Sorry about your port being cancelled though, that would be disappointing.
 
Sorry for the changes, as I know how frustrating that can be when you specifically picked out a trip with certain plans in mind. I just looked up the new itinerary and found the schedule is now Day 1 Miami, Day 2 At Sea, Day 3 Castaway Cay, Day 4 At Sea, Day 5 Key West, Day 6 Miami

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Me personally, I would love that schedule, but I don't particularly like Nassau and would have stayed on the ship anyway. I think 2 Sea Days and the overall schedule looks great to me, but if your heart is set on Nassau it's probably better to just change sail dates.
 


I've only been on 12 cruises and the only time there was an advance change of port was on our Magic 12 British Isle cruise last year. They replaced Guernsey (St. Peter) with Portland. This was announced in advanced but they didn't provide a reason.

It was very disappointing since I was looking forward to going to Guernsey. It's not like we can easily visit there. I didn't think Portland was a comparable substitute but sometimes they do make changes. I just wished they provided a reason.

Just wanted to add that some people like Nassau, but I'd be fine with a sea day. Actually for my family, Nassau is a sea day.
 
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So I just got an email this morning that our December 2, 2019 cruise that it won't be stopping at Nassau, Bahamas and we're getting a day at sea instead. It was definitely unexpected because the cruise is so far away and I'm also disappointed as I was kind of looking forward to exploring Nassau for the first time, and was partially the reason as to why we booked this specific cruise. They didn't give any reason as to why they cancelled that port and when I called they didn't have a reason either. Does this happen often? I know in the contract it says they can make itinerary changes at any time, but it kind of sucks when you've booked this so far in advance with Nassau in mind and it gets changed like that without any sort of compensation for it. I'm frankly just confused if I should just stick to this cruise or pay $200 more to switch to another cruise with the risk of Nassau being cancelled on that one as well. I don't know if we'll be able to keep busy for both days we'll be at sea, but then again, I've never been on a cruise before. Hope you can all provide some insight. :confused3

Cruises to Nassau are not special, I mean, you can go to Nassau pretty much every week or on any cruise line. They are the cheapest cruises you can have departing from Florida.

Also, I don't think Nassau is that interesting (it's very run down and not super clean, DH and I usually stay on the ship)... Worst port I have visited so far. They have some fun excursions that will bring you to cute beaches but that's about it. Definitely NOT worth paying 200$ more.
 
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Trust me, knowing a year in advance so that you have time to change cruises if you want to is much better than having a port canceled during a cruise, when you can do basically nothing about it. Also as others have said, Nassau is kind of “meh” so you honestly aren’t missing that much.
 
We've always found fun things to do in Nassau. Many people don't get off the ship in Nassau so the ship can be as crowded as a sea day. Personally I wouldn't be thrilled with another sea day. Whether or not to change cruises is up to up. I'd suggest taking a look at some of the Navigators to see what there is to do on board (you can Google for those).
 
We are on the Northern Europe September 2019 cruise. Disney notified us a couple weeks ago that one of our Norway ports was being replaced with a different port. The reason given was to enhance the guest experience. We are good with the change.
 
We are on the Northern Europe September 2019 cruise. Disney notified us a couple weeks ago that one of our Norway ports was being replaced with a different port. The reason given was to enhance the guest experience. We are good with the change.

This sounds like a great reason to have had it changed! I think the one thing that had bothered me was that we got no explanation for the change.
 
My wife and I have gone on a couple of cruises where DCL changed itineraries months in advance. We found out in April 2014 that our Copenhagen to Dover cruise was substituting Kirkwall. Scotland for the original port on Faroe Island "In order to provide them with a premier family experience". The speculation was that was due to the whaling hunt they do there.

We also got the following email from DCL about our Mediterranean cruise about 8 months before that cruise.
"We continually evaluate our cruise offerings and have recently decided to modify the August 1, 2016, sailing to include ports in the Western Mediterranean instead of those in Turkey, Greece and Malta." For this change, they did provide a stateroom credit as compensation. We could have cancelled, but decided that we had never been to the Med, we went and enjoyed it.

The other change we knew about in advance was for a 7 night Fantasy Merritime cruise last year. Due to hurricane damage to the islands, our Eastern Caribbean was turned into a Western
 
I think sometimes they don't give a specific reason for a change as that would open up a whole new can of worms. People would argue that it's not a sufficient reason, or "you could do this, instead." I know I like knowing the reason behind things, but I can understand why it's sometimes better not to give one.
 
I think sometimes they don't give a specific reason for a change as that would open up a whole new can of worms. People would argue that it's not a sufficient reason, or "you could do this, instead." I know I like knowing the reason behind things, but I can understand why it's sometimes better not to give one.

This exactly. And technically the cruise contract does give them the right to change the route and/or port at any point - and says nothing about giving a reason why.
 
I personally prefer sea days especially over Nassau but I've been there 3-4 times already. This far out, it's possible you may get a different substitution closer to the time. We had a Western Caribbean cruise booked the year Wilma hit Mexico. We were supposed to go to Cozumel but the port had been damaged so we were told about 6 weeks ahead of time that we wouldn't be going there but would instead go to Nassau. I was kind of bummed out by that; Cozumel was the primary reason we picked that cruise and I'd been to Nassau before and wasn't interested in it. But, it's a vacation so - whatever. When we checked in they told us we were going to Costa Maya instead of Nassau. Lined up immediately at the Port Adventures desk as soon as we boarded to book a tour and ended up going to some Mayan ruins (Kohunlich) a couple of hours inland. It was one of the best tours ever. I've since been to Cozumel twice and seen both Chichen Itza and Tulum so being able do this one at Kohunlich first and to be able contrast them was a huge bonus for me.

You may still just get a day at sea (which can be a lot of fun) or Nassau may get put back on the schedule or they may substitute something else. Either way, it will still be enjoyable. And maybe it will justify doing another cruise later if you don't get to see Nassau on this one.
 
It's funny how many dislike Nassau. I felt that way, too, until last week on NCL when they gave us Port Canaveral and their island (abysmal) and took away Nassau at the last minute. I would have taken Nassau in a heartbeat over the other two crappy ports we ended up with. They have not, however, refunded our port fee. I hope you get that back.

We've been 3 times and if we had gone as planned last week, we were going to do the fort (via taxi) and the gardens/zoo. I was actually disappointed we didn't go -- but that could be because of the ports we did go to.

However, I'd be thrilled that they kept Key West. That's the upscale port over Nassau. You'll have a great time.
 

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