I find this all interesting as we have now done 2 Seabourn cruises and both had port changes, mostly w/ no explanation. 1st) May '23 Med cruise on the Quest, 3 ports cancelled but at least as I recall all were replaced and the cruise ended up well. We went to some very small ports. Granted little to do, but nice small picturesque ports, easy to wander around. THEN, the biggy - Quest in January MIA-BA, Argentina. Not enough space nor time to list all that happened, but numerous port changes, granted Peru stops were ultimately cancelled "due to unrest". Duh, this had been brewing for months, numerous State Department warnings to get out now!, don't go/avoid.... Even so we went to Lima, protests/riots erupted on day 2 there. Ship was held in port an extra day as Peru would not allow it to leave. At least they finally cancelled the pricey side trip to Machu Picchu. Speculation was that they still went into Lima (other cruise lines had cancelled Peru stops well before this), as they had passengers, crew and the expedition team getting on. That would have taken a lot of juggling to have them get on elsewhere. It felt to many though that convenience to Sb and money was more important than passengers. NOT a good message to send.
Other small ports were simply "expedition cruise by" "ports" for of course the zodiac tour price of around $199 p.p. Those were cancelled, "for operational reasons". What an excuse to give for something using the zodiacs that we would be dependent upon for Antarctica, So. Georgia and the Falklands! So WHAT operational reason? as in a problem with the zodiacs? they never got clearance/permits or whatever was required to do the zodiac cruises? Who knows as they never said, but these were uninhabited by people - only had birds and wildlife. The list of issues goes on but the real topper was not having enough parkas for everyone! Seriously - an expedition cruise where special parkas were to be included and are obviously needed. Not just a few were missing, but several! So that meant one flimsy excuse after another, basically stall tactics waiting for the Venture to eventually make it somewhat close so they could drop off some extras they magically had. Still not enough for everyone. And yes, this cost us time in Antarctica. We shake our heads and it is obviously a very sore wound. We have another cruise coming up and are within the full cancellation penalty otherwise we would have cancelled it. We do however have yet another one booked for '24. We will see how this next cruise goes, especially watching for port cancellations, none yet. If it actually goes well, we may keep the '24 booking. Otherwise, there are plenty of other ships in the sea. The pattern of port cancellations is important as most of us book cruises due to particular ports. When those get cancelled for some odd unknown reason, or worse yet screwed up for a clear serious HQ operational screwup that would have been so easy to avoid with simple basic inventory control procedures ... it just isn't worth using the company again. Sad as we had really hoped to like this line, especially with Crystal gone. We really hope the new Crystal can be great again.