Cruise skipping port?

[dawnyp]

We are researching a cruise next year some combination of Italy, Greece, Turkey, Croatia. H has read somewhere that it is possible for a ship to skip a port due to weather conditions. The only cruise I've ever taken was to Alaska and we didn't skip any ports. Is this common? What weather conditions would result in port being skipped? Is this only common during certain months?

[dorothyinAus]

I have never been on a Mediterranean cruise, but I have have been on several cruises that skipped ports. Wind and wave conditions are what usually causes it. We skipped a port in Mexico because the dock was exposed and the wind would have been across the decks for docking, so it was unsafe to attempt docking -- the wind would have pushed the ship into the dock. On another cruise, the wave heights were too great to allow for tender operation, so we missed Grand Cayman.

Usually if you skip a port, those port charges will be refunded to your on-board account and the sip will plan special on-board activities.

There is no real way to predict the weather or which ports may be skipped. It can also happen that weather conditions will require that the ship leave port early or arrive later than originally scheduled. I have had that happen on cruises as well.

[Deleted]

We did a Caribbean cruise for our honeymoon, and the ship skipped a port because it was rainy and windy. It wasn't a crazy storm or anything, just poor weather - the ship said it was too choppy for the tenders to go ashore. They put together other onboard activities for the day, and we were credited for the excursion we had booked through the ship. This was 3 years ago.

My parents were on a different Caribbean cruise and skipped Roatan citing "unrest." I don't know much about what was going on at that time, it was maybe 4-5 years ago.

My grandmother was on a cruise (I think maybe Mediterranean) and they skipped a port but rerouted to a different port instead. I don't remember the details, but I think it was weather related.

There's language somewhere in the booking information that says the cruise reserves the right to make necessary changes to the itinerary, or something like that.

[GilliC]

The biggest weather issues that lead to skipping a port are wind and surf. This is especially the case if it's a tender port, because it can be extremely difficult to load the tenders in rough conditions. I have also missed a port call to the Cayman Islands for this reason. You're less likely to miss larger ports, because they tend to be located near major harbors, which were typically built in places with more favorable conditions.

Outside of hurricane-prone areas, there generally aren't any times of year that are more or less likely to have ports skipped for weather reasons.

However, weather is not the only reason you might have to skip a port. This spring a bunch of the port workers and pilot boat captains in Norway went on strike, and a few of the cruises to the Norwegian fjords had to change their itineraries. I was on a cruise that was supposed to end in Oslo, but the port was closed for the strike, so we had to disembark in Sweden and take a bus back to Oslo. Other Oslo port calls that week were canceled, and most cruiselines replaced it with other nearby ports.

Last year I had a port call at the Seychelles shortened due to the pirate threat in the area. But if you're sailing the Mediterranean, you're more likely to encounter workers' strikes than pirates!

Generally in Europe if one of the major cruiselines has to skip a port, they will try to find an alternative if possible. If not, it just means another sea day. In general they try very hard to make it to the major ports, because they know that this is a key reason people from overseas book these cruises, but in some cases it's unavoidable. It's something to keep in mind, but it's always a chance.

You will find that some ports are more likely to be canceled than others, so if there's someplace that's very important to you or where you are considering pre-paying for a private tour (excursions booked through the cruiseline will be refunded if you miss the port, but private tours will have their own cancellation policies), you might want to ask on the CruiseCritic Ports of Calls board if anyone has heard of the port being skipped. For example, someone recently posted on the Northern Europe board that their St.Petersburg port call (a highlight of most Baltic cruises) was canceled due to high winds. This is the only time anyone has heard of this happening, so it's clearly not very common and probably not something people need to worry too much about, but it's important to remember that it can happen.

[travelingturtle]

I had it happen on a caribbean cruise and the port cancelled was the whole reason I booked that cruise in the first place. Instead of planning extra activities on the ship, though, they extended our stay in Nassau to be overnight instead of just the normal 8 hours or whatever they usually do. It wasn't bad. I would also suggest calling the cruiselines to see if they'll tell you more information of what happens if they have to cancel a port.

[basilosaurus]

I've skipped Cayman which apparently happens to that port fairly regularly. They compensated with some free rum punch :eyeroll:

I'm sure you can find some sort of information on your specific ports to see how often a cancellation happens. I agree with Gilli that a labor strike is a more likely cause in that area.