Is Isafjordur ALWAYS CANCELLED????

[ontheweb]

It is now cancelled for our cruise on the Prima leaving August 6th and we were supposed to be there August 15th. I believe those on previous cruises had said they had an extra day in Akureyri. We have it converted into a sea day.

[RockyDAGA]

We are sailing on the Prima early August and this stop has just been cancelled on our voyage!!! Unbelievable. My son’s devastated and on the verge of tears as this was the stop he was looking forward to most! Called NCL but they just said changes can happen to the schedule. I asked for a supervisor and waited but then the line just disconnected.

 

Our itinerary now just says we’ll be ‘at sea’. Will they make an effort to change this does anyone know?

[Capt_BJ]

Standard cruise contract allows ports to be dropped for 'no reason' ...... ir happens all the time.

 

We DID stop there about a week ago and frankly I was not impressed.  Saw pretty much nothing in terms of wild life just a small town area with the equivalent of Iceland WalMart! A store selling everything.... from booze to stuffed animals to food ....

[imstewart]

It looks as though the NCL Prima cruise on the 6th of August (Southampton to Iceland) has cancelled at 2 ports on this cruise, so that means that we have 4 sea days. Now that they have cancelled a quarter of the ports on this cruise, NCL just expects us to take this sitting down. It looks as if they have known about these issues for a while. I'm going to speak to our Travel Agent about cancelling the cruise.

[PhillyTravelBug]

We are sailing on the prima beginning the 17th and got the notification too. I doubt the prima will be sailing there this year.

[Turtles06]

1 hour ago, Capt_BJ said:

 

We DID stop there about a week ago and frankly I was not impressed.  Saw pretty much nothing in terms of wild life just a small town area with the equivalent of Iceland WalMart! A store selling everything.... from booze to stuffed animals to food ....

Iceland really isn’t about the towns but rather the spectacular scenery outside the towns. From Isafjordur, for example, one can take a fascinating drive out to the 330-feet high Dynjandi Waterfall. 

[jael001]

1 hour ago, imstewart said:

It looks as though the NCL Prima cruise on the 6th of August (Southampton to Iceland) has cancelled at 2 ports on this cruise, so that means that we have 4 sea days. Now that they have cancelled a quarter of the ports on this cruise, NCL just expects us to take this sitting down. It looks as if they have known about these issues for a while. I'm going to speak to our Travel Agent about cancelling the cruise.

 what was the other port that's been cancelled?

[imstewart]

3 minutes ago, jael001 said:

 what was the other port that's been cancelled?

 The first port : "Mon    ZEEBRUGGE (BRUSSELS/BRUGGE), BELGIUM" is now a Sea day, as we going direct to Amsterdam and don't arrive until middle/late afternoon and stay overnight at the port... 

[ontheweb]

11 hours ago, imstewart said:

 The first port : "Mon    ZEEBRUGGE (BRUSSELS/BRUGGE), BELGIUM" is now a Sea day, as we going direct to Amsterdam and don't arrive until middle/late afternoon and stay overnight at the port... 

I count that day as 1/2 a sea day since we are going to Amsterdam that day, but not arriving until 3 PM.

[ontheweb]

I have been e-mailing our tour operator the last few days to let her know the Prima is skipping the port. I included the e-mail from NCL showing the new schedule.

 

Her terms included a refund if the ship did not dock, less 5% to cover her expenses. That was ok with me as we would lose only a little over $10, not a big deal.

 

Her e-mail started with there were acceptable reasons for the ship not showing up and the port is not finished and the ship refuses to tender is not one of them. So, she was only going to refund 40%. I think that would have led to me calling the credit card company to challenge the charge in its entirety.

 

She then went on to say that it was neither her fault or mine that the ship was not going to be there, and she would hold back 10% and return the rest. She had just processed this though it could take some time. It's not worth the hassle to fight this over approximately $20 instead of about $10. And I do feel sorry for her as a small businesswoman who gets hurt by this. NCL is hurting local business people as well as their passengers with port cancellations.

[fishman620]

13 hours ago, ontheweb said:

I have been e-mailing our tour operator the last few days to let her know the Prima is skipping the port. I included the e-mail from NCL showing the new schedule.

 

Her terms included a refund if the ship did not dock, less 5% to cover her expenses. That was ok with me as we would lose only a little over $10, not a big deal.

 

Her e-mail started with there were acceptable reasons for the ship not showing up and the port is not finished and the ship refuses to tender is not one of them. So, she was only going to refund 40%. I think that would have led to me calling the credit card company to challenge the charge in its entirety.

 

She then went on to say that it was neither her fault or mine that the ship was not going to be there, and she would hold back 10% and return the rest. She had just processed this though it could take some time. It's not worth the hassle to fight this over approximately $20 instead of about $10. And I do feel sorry for her as a small businesswoman who gets hurt by this. NCL is hurting local business people as well as their passengers with port cancellations.

Ontheweb.....we had an excursion with Arctic ShoreEx in Isafjordur, I sent the email that NCL had sent us and they got back promptly stating they would refund back to us 100% of the money.  I am so disappointed that Isafjordur was cancelled on our Prima cruise, it would have been a fantastic excursion!

[ontheweb]

11 hours ago, fishman620 said:

Ontheweb.....we had an excursion with Arctic ShoreEx in Isafjordur, I sent the email that NCL had sent us and they got back promptly stating they would refund back to us 100% of the money.  I am so disappointed that Isafjordur was cancelled on our Prima cruise, it would have been a fantastic excursion!

We also had what we thought was going to be a fantastic excursion. And I am sure anyone reading this this board, the NCL board, and/or our roll call knows how disappointed we are.

 

I have a feeling that you were booked with a relatively (at least for Iceland) large tour provider. We were booked with a small businesswoman. And I really feel for her. NCL has not only inconvenienced the passengers, but also hurt the business people from this port.  

[PhillyTravelBug]

I don’t think this project at the port is funded by NCL. Not sure how they can be blamed??

[ontheweb]

11 hours ago, PhillyTravelBug said:

I don’t think this project at the port is funded by NCL. Not sure how they can be blamed??

They could have had lifeboats that are certified to use as tenders instead of the lifeboats that they have.

[McGarrett5oh]

Two photos of the port at Isajfordur taken from the Viking Saturn on 7/29/23.  Didn't see any dredging equipment, just earthmoving on shore.  

[fishman620]

4 hours ago, ontheweb said:

They could have had lifeboats that are certified to use as tenders instead of the lifeboats that they have.

Maybe that could have solved the cancelled port in Bruges too!!  I see that the NCL Getaway (bigger ship than the Prima) is in port in Zeebruges on the 6th, and it is a lower tide than the 7th,  so how can it be a tide issue🤔

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, fishman620 said:

Maybe that could have solved the cancelled port in Bruges too!!  I see that the NCL Getaway (bigger ship than the Prima) is in port in Zeebruges on the 6th, and it is a lower tide than the 7th,  so how can it be a tide issue🤔

OMG, is this supposed to be an improvement from their newer ships, lifeboats that cannot double as tender boats? 🤦‍♂️😒

[gerelmx]

Celebrity Summit August 2021, our stop was cancelled due to high winds. not safe for tendering, the worst is NO money back for tax and port fees

Edited August 4, 2023 by gerelmx

[relo]

The extended dock is in use, although far from ready (no pavement, just gravel for example). Regent’s Seven Seas Voyager was moored at the existing dock, the Rotterdam at the extension of it when we were there last Friday. When we left the Rotterdam just sailed backwards until the point we could turn. That is of  course only possible when the other shipshape already left. 

[flying_dutchman]

Any updates? I’m on the 27 August 11-day from Southampton - which would bring us to Ísafjördur on 5 September. Thanks in advance!

[bespin]

On Celebrity Summit now (August 17) - we were able to tender at Isafjordur with no problem. Weather was overcast and windy on land, but that was good because it meant no bugs on our tour to Dynjandi! (The bugs were horrible the day before in Akureyri, Bug hoods are your friend! You can buy them in places in Greenland and Iceland, but I ordered mine ahead of time on Amazon, and was very glad to have them in hand the instant we needed them.)

[imstewart]

If you are in the NCL Prima then you are going to be out of luck, just off the ship this week and we got the offical reason from the captain, NCL Prima will not be able to go into Isafjordur as the pier to not deep enought for Prima to go along side and that it will not be to do for another year until the pier area is deeped. The Prima is not designed / able to tender at any port, so it is just skipped the port..

Edited August 18, 2023 by imstewart

[McGarrett5oh]

Prima was scheduled to be in Isafjordur today (8/18/23) and appears to be planning to spend an overnight in Akureyri instead.

 

In looking at the size and weight of the ships that did make it into Isafjordur this summer, Prima is the largest by Gross Volume Weight (GVW): 143,500 Gross Tons. As a comparison, Celebrity Apex weighs 129,500 Gross Tons and tendered last Sunday (8/13/23). Most of the ships that did dock this summer with closer or below 100,000 GTs. As an example, the Holland America Rotterdam, which is also 2 years old an can hold a slightly smaller but similar number of passengers, only weights 99,800 GTs.

 

On September 6, when the 139,072 Gross Ton MSC Preziosa is scheduled for Isafjordur and is the largest ship, besides the Prima, to come to port in the past 2 months. It is the only cruise ship scheduled in port that day. If it tenders, I would say we can count on what @imstewart says above, that Prima will be skipping Isafordur on its remaining schedule port calls this year (last one is 9/24/23)

 

 

[ontheweb]

4 hours ago, McGarrett5oh said:

Prima was scheduled to be in Isafjordur today (8/18/23) and appears to be planning to spend an overnight in Akureyri instead.

 

In looking at the size and weight of the ships that did make it into Isafjordur this summer, Prima is the largest by Gross Volume Weight (GVW): 143,500 Gross Tons. As a comparison, Celebrity Apex weighs 129,500 Gross Tons and tendered last Sunday (8/13/23). Most of the ships that did dock this summer with closer or below 100,000 GTs. As an example, the Holland America Rotterdam, which is also 2 years old an can hold a slightly smaller but similar number of passengers, only weights 99,800 GTs.

 

On September 6, when the 139,072 Gross Ton MSC Preziosa is scheduled for Isafjordur and is the largest ship, besides the Prima, to come to port in the past 2 months. It is the only cruise ship scheduled in port that day. If it tenders, I would say we can count on what @imstewart says above, that Prima will be skipping Isafordur on its remaining schedule port calls this year (last one is 9/24/23)

 

 

And that will make it skipped every single cruise for the Prima this season! But, I am sure if you call the NCL excursion number they will sell you an excursion for Isafjordur.

 

I asked on our just completed cruise, and the Captain said there were too many passengers on the Prima for them to tender. It seems they keep having different answers; the only consistent thing is they miss the port.

[MkeCruzn]

We just visited Isafjordur on Sep. 10, 23 on the Norwegian Star. We took an independent tour to Dynjandi with Arctic Shorex and it was great! Much cheaper than the ship’s shore excursion.