Is It Me or Does The Breeze Miss Ports Often?

[TravelGal22]

I was on the Dec. 2nd cruise and we skipped Grand Turk. I've read other posts where ports were skipped. Then someone on the cruise said a port was skipped when his son was recently on board. On Face Book today John Heald (think that is his name) posted a note he received from a unhappy cruiser about missing two ports in Europe. The guest quoted what was said on the PA system and it was almost word for word what we were told about Grand Turk. I'm just wondering if anyone else sees a pattern here.

Thinking about writing a review of the cruise tomorrow but it seems like there are so many already. I will see.

[Cruizinman]

I think you will find the larger ships will miss ports where there is a chance that the ship may have a problem docking.

 

Hence ,to big for the winds ;)

[bbohbbneedacruise]

The thing with Grand Turk is that there is no harbor pilot like other ports.

In Grand Turk if the winds are too strong then the Captain cannot navigate into the pier area.

At least that is what we were told by the island locals we hung out with for the afternoon.

One of the ports in Europe .. for some reason I am thinking either Venice or Monaco the port authority will not allow larger ships to enter the harbor if the winds exceed 10 knots.

[cyntil8ing]

We were on HAL Nieuw Amsterdam last week and also missed Grand Turk because of weather. Our apology was a glass of champagne at dinner and a refund of port taxes.

[EnTnSA]

I have a lot of experience trying to manuever small boats (30' and under) in high winds and it can be a mess.

 

I was really surprised when we docked in Key West back on my Magic cruise, as the winds had to be over 20 knts. I was certain we would turn away, but he ran it right up there and slid over to the dock no problems...

[scgamecock]

Not sure if you noticed or not, but there were 40+ knot winds for a good part of our sailing. That's tropical storm force winds. We had crazy high winds and rough seas for much of this cruise.

 

My cabin-mate and I were talking about it the night before and we both said, no way we're docking at Grand Turk tomorrow. We were right.

 

I took a pic of the TV screen. At one point, winds were over 50 knots.

 

 

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[RuthlessBoss]

When on Dream missing Roatan, the weather was perfect to us, breezy, no whitecaps. The explanation revolved around the direction of the wind hitting broadside on the ship making maneuvering too difficult getting through the channel to the dock.

[golfadj]

Considering how expensive the ships are and the end of a career if the capt has an accident kind of surprised more ports are not missed.

 

No guarantee you will get to the ports the itinerary covers but generally they will do the itinerary as planned.

[Cruizinman]

Not to mention the Concordia disaster created all sorts of new safety regulations.

[Brenna's Mom1]

I have never missed a port (except for Monaco) in all my cruises, but then I choose to cruise during April, May in the Caribbean and July and August in the Med or Baltic when weather doesn't seem to be such an issue. If my intention is to "port" I wouldn't be cruising, though. 8 Hours is a blink of an eye for most destinations and does very little to educate me about the port, town, city or country. In fact most "ports" are little more than a trip to town for some shopping or some water sport activities....they have very little to do with "seeing or experiencing" anything. To me, the cruise is the vacation and I do it because it is relaxing and stress relieving....ports are just another activity and never the purpose.

[nofishforme]

we were on the glory last week dec 2 to the 9th this had to be the roughest cruise i have ever had in all 8 cruises the wind and rocking never stoped except the last sea day no wind or rocking we did make grand turk all i can say is you missed a good port

[OKCruiseMan]

I assume the Captain makes this call? I bet some are more conservative or experienced than others.

[TravelGal22]

The thing that bothered me the most wasn't about missing the port but about them letting us know last minute, literally. There were many things I wanted to do on the ship the night before but because we were docking so early, at 7 AM, I wanted to go to bed early. My husband was up earlier than I and said he thought he saw us pass the island so when room service came to our cabin around 6 AM he asked if we would be in port on time. He was told yes. Then at 6:30 AM I called guest services and asked the same thing. They said yes. So then around 7 AM they came on the PA and said we were not stopping. Wouldn't they have known before that the time we were set to get into port? I would have loved to just sleep in. Also, I heard a few people say on the ship that the decision was made already the night before to skip Grand Turk. I think it is a simple matter of consideration to let the guests know right after the decision is made.

[LHP]

We were on the Nov 22 and 24 sailing and we missed a port on the 24th because of a medical emergency.

 

Our ship had to sail towards the Coast Guard helicopter in order to save someone's life. And yes, people actually complained.

 

Europe experienced horrible weather. In fact, a ship broke its mooring and dented the Breeze.