Itinerary Changes

[FlaMariner]

FWIW

 

Yesterday must have been itinerary update day at Holland America Line.

 

We received email notifications for two of our upcoming cruises.

 

Our October Westerdam cruise has the time extended in Kushiro, Japan from a 5pm departure to a 10pm departure (not sure there is much to do in Kushiro after 5pm but we shall see) as well as a 30 minute earlier arrival in Yokohama.

 

Our April Oosterdam cruise has the time extended in Villefranche, France from a noon arrival to an earlier 9am arrival (have time to go play roulette at the Monte Carlo casino now, LOL).

 

Both are positive changes.  

[POA1]

We received my favorite change this week. On a late March 9 Day Southern, we were supposed to go to the ABC islands. We now have a "sea day" between Bonaire and Aruba. This new day at sea has the Rotterdam making the 51 mile journey in place of Curaçao. This messes up my Dutch fast food stop in Curaçao. (Blues and sadness.) I'll have to get some recommendations for Aruba.

 

They did add in a short stop in Grand Turk. (Whee! 🤩)

[FlaMariner]

13 minutes ago, POA1 said:

They did add in a short stop in Grand Turk. (Whee! 🤩)

 

Skip the faux area and head to the left up the beach and enjoy a drink at Jack's Shack, pet the golden doodle and then head back to the ship. 

 

(Disclaimer:  just a suggestion not saying "you should")

 

Enjoy the journey.......even if it is Grand Turk. LOL. 

 

 

[3rdGenCunarder]

36 minutes ago, FlaMariner said:

 

Skip the faux area and head to the left up the beach and enjoy a drink at Jack's Shack, pet the golden doodle and then head back to the ship. 

 

(Disclaimer:  just a suggestion not saying "you should")

 

Enjoy the journey.......even if it is Grand Turk. LOL. 

 

 

 

Sounds like a good recommendation to me! But Grand Turk is not a good exchange for Curacao, one of my favorite ports. It seems an odd change, since Curacao can take several ships. My cruise is in February and I'm concerned about Bonaire and Key West since they've been more restrictive about ships lately. I want to snorkel in Bonaire!

[Wayfairers]

1 hour ago, FlaMariner said:

 

Skip the faux area and head to the left up the beach and enjoy a drink at Jack's Shack, pet the golden doodle and then head back to the ship. 

 

(Disclaimer:  just a suggestion not saying "you should")

 

Enjoy the journey.......even if it is Grand Turk. LOL. 

 

 

 

23 minutes ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

Sounds like a good recommendation to me! But Grand Turk is not a good exchange for Curacao, one of my favorite ports. It seems an odd change, since Curacao can take several ships. My cruise is in February and I'm concerned about Bonaire and Key West since they've been more restrictive about ships lately. I want to snorkel in Bonaire!

I 2nd the suggestion to go to Jack’s Shack.  Nice walk down the beach and a great place to hang out.  I love Grand Turk for a beach day. 

 

On Curacao we usually wander around in town or have lunch at Jaanchie’s on the other end of the island - we’ve gone by bus and will be taking a tour that includes the national park on that side.  Also thought about just taking a random bus and exploring wherever we end up.  Always have fun visiting Curacao - we have 2 stops there on 2 of our upcoming 3 cruises so I am looking for new ideas.  What makes Curacao one of your favorite ports?

[POA1]

1 hour ago, FlaMariner said:

 

Skip the faux area and head to the left up the beach and enjoy a drink at Jack's Shack, pet the golden doodle and then head back to the ship. 

 

(Disclaimer:  just a suggestion not saying "you should")

 

Enjoy the journey.......even if it is Grand Turk. LOL. 

 

 

It's sounds like a direct order! 😁 And a good idea. I'm only worried about missing Diamonds International in Grand Turk. It's a small, family owned boutique and you can only see it in this one particular cruise port.

[3rdGenCunarder]

12 minutes ago, POA1 said:

It's sounds like a direct order! 😁 And a good idea. I'm only worried about missing Diamonds International in Grand Turk. It's a small, family owned boutique and you can only see it in this one particular cruise port.

 

See? The change to Grand Turk is a good one! And don't worry, you can't miss it (or purposely avoid it) on your way to Jack's. 💎

[KAKcruiser]

The weird thing is that there are no ships in port in Curacao on April 2 so there is no reason that the Rotterdam couldn't have stopped there.  

[3rdGenCunarder]

18 minutes ago, Wayfairers said:

 

I 2nd the suggestion to go to Jack’s Shack.  Nice walk down the beach and a great place to hang out.  I love Grand Turk for a beach day. 

 

On Curacao we usually wander around in town or have lunch at Jaanchie’s on the other end of the island - we’ve gone by bus and will be taking a tour that includes the national park on that side.  Also thought about just taking a random bus and exploring wherever we end up.  Always have fun visiting Curacao - we have 2 stops there on 2 of our upcoming 3 cruises so I am looking for new ideas.  What makes Curacao one of your favorite ports?

 

I think part of it is that we lucked into a fantastic private tour on our first visit more than 30 years ago, and Caspar (see how good he was, I remember his name!) just made us all fall in love with the island. 

 

It's one of the few Caribbean ports with serious "content." DH loved museums, and we went to the Maritime museum at least twice over the years. There's a museum of history about Africa and slavery with an amazing gallery of African art. Kura Hulanda, near what I call the inner harbor. 

 

Willemstad is pretty. How can you not love a place that really lives up to its postcards? One time we docked early and I grabbed my camera and just wandered. I got some good shots of birds and flowers, even somebody's cat lounging in a garden. You can watch the swing bridge in action. 

 

Willemstad is real. You can walk down a main shopping street with real stores where locals shop. I wandered into a pretty church one time. I hadn't known it was there. 

 

beaches are nice. Snorkeling is pretty good, too. I've done the tour to the turtle area and got fantastic pictures. 

 

 

[Anubi]

2 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

Sounds like a good recommendation to me! But Grand Turk is not a good exchange for Curacao, one of my favorite ports. It seems an odd change, since Curacao can take several ships. My cruise is in February and I'm concerned about Bonaire and Key West since they've been more restrictive about ships lately. I want to snorkel in Bonaire!

We are on the Eurodam at the end of March and we're waiting to hear if we lose Bonaire.  If we do, we will cancel because we booked this cruise because of Bonaire.   Even if they don't make any change before final payment there is no guarantee that they won't after final payment.  We booked a back up cruise due to my husband's vacation policy but we really would like to do this one.  😞 

[3rdGenCunarder]

57 minutes ago, Anubi said:

We are on the Eurodam at the end of March and we're waiting to hear if we lose Bonaire.  If we do, we will cancel because we booked this cruise because of Bonaire.   Even if they don't make any change before final payment there is no guarantee that they won't after final payment.  We booked a back up cruise due to my husband's vacation policy but we really would like to do this one.  😞 

 

You're right, final payment doesn't guarantee anything. I always wonder about changes in the last few months. If HAL promotes an itinerary more than a year out, why so many changes a few months out? Yes, stuff happens--landslide in Skagway damaging a dock, a port getting pissy about ship size. But some of the changes seem to have nothing to do with port issues. @KAKcruiser said there are no ships in Curacao on April 2, so it doesn't look like the port caused this change for Rotterdam. "Operational reasons" covers a multitude of sins.

[FlaMariner]

8 minutes ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

"Operational reasons" covers a multitude of sins.

 

If I were a cruise line, I'd promote a cruise stop in Key West all the way up until a month before sailing and then I'd cancel it and add Bimini or Freeport and tell them "operational reasons".  

 

It's a good way to help fill up the ship.  Happened to us twice since the unpleansantness (Covid). 

 

You've gotta' wonder.......

[3rdGenCunarder]

2 minutes ago, FlaMariner said:

 

If I were a cruise line, I'd promote a cruise stop in Key West all the way up until a month before sailing and then I'd cancel it and add Bimini or Freeport and tell them "operational reasons".  

 

It's a good way to help fill up the ship.  Happened to us twice since the unpleansantness (Covid). 

 

You've gotta' wonder.......

 

DON'T GIVE THEM IDEAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

[sailawayward]

I think the people who actually live in these very popular port locations have a right to help control the impact of their own cruise traffic, especially when that impact has been so drastically demonstrated after a 2-year standstill in tourism in the global response to COVID.  Anyone who already knows about the natural wonders in Bonaire should understand their attempt to try to protect that.  In the meantime, if you're that interested in Bonaire, you'll find another way of getting there.

[KAKcruiser]

But, they didn't eliminate Bonaire.  They eliminated Curacao which has no limitation on ships regulation.

[PCruzer]

We will be on a 21-day B2B on Eurodam in February.  We have had 2 port changes so far.  Key West is replaced by Nassau, and St Lucia is replaced by Martinique.  Especially disappointed about losing St Lucia as I wanted to go to the Pink Plantation for lunch.  Hopefully these are the only changes being made.

[Heartgrove]

57 minutes ago, KAKcruiser said:

But, they didn't eliminate Bonaire.  They eliminated Curacao which has no limitation on ships regulation.

 

Where are you seeing an April 2, 2024 schedule? The Curacao Port Authority schedule only goes to 12/31/2023.

[FlaMariner]

37 minutes ago, PCruzer said:

Key West is replaced by Nassau

 

...there you go...keep selling it but rarely go there.....genius.....LOL

[KAKcruiser]

You can go to Cruise Timetables and look up the April schedule for Curacao.  It shows ships in port for April 1, 3 and 4 but not April 2.

[Haljo1935]

@FlaMariner @PCruzer no worries about giving "them" ideas - this is exactly what has happened to us the last 3 times we booked an itinerary that included Key West, Bimini or Bonaire. Sometimes they stay on the itinerary sometimes past boarding, then get pulled.

We know refer to Bimini as "Bummini" cuzed we're bummed we won't go and just know we will NOT be going to Key West or Bonaire so we spare the disappointment and save the excitement for something else. Like a 5pm arrival in Aruba 😞

Deep down, I believe the cruise line wants to provide the best itineraries it can, but part of me says they're doing what they know to do to fill seats - either way, it bites.

Edited October 1, 2023 by Haljo1935
Typo

[Seasick Sailor]

We got the change a few weeks ago for Key West. We expected it. My concern is an itinerary change for Panama Canal.