Another Itinerary Change Bliss Feb 25 2024

[PLW0520]

Just received a notice that Ensenada will be skipped so other ports stops have been changed. The only place we haven't been is cancelled. This seems to be happening a lot.

[1025cruise]

From my understanding, you aren't missing anything by skipping Ensenada. It's usually just used as a PVSA requirement.

[nadeki]

We are on March sailing with the same changes. 
 

While I agree it is not a big loss…. Why is it always announced after final payment? We have also lost SIX which was a big reason that we booked this ship. 
 

It is disappointing to have things taken away with no real explanation or apology. 

[drumming cruisers]

CDC announced a week or so ago, travelers to that area in Mexico are getting and some dying from Rocky Mountain Fever, a disease from ticks. 

[TwinMamainMN]

We are on a Bliss cruise to the Mexican Riveria. I’m not mad about missing Ensenada and we have longer times in both PV and Mazatlan, but we have a short time in Cabo. With tendering in Cabo, that’s going to be tough. Time will tell…

Edited December 14, 2023 by TwinMamainMN

[ready2cruzagain]

Our January Epic cruise itinerary has changed 3 times.

[Casolo]

I agree. I’m sailing in March, and while Ensenada isn’t the greatest port I was looking forward to the tacos there. I am more upset as a previous poster mentioned about them cancelling Six after we paid and changing the time in Cabo. Ugh docking at 6:45 am and leaving at 2. Now we don’t have time to have dinner there. We were getting a massage and going to a resort, but now we’ll be there too early.

[OrcaGirl]

Does anyone know if we get back any Ensenada port fees as OBC?

[BrianLo]

On 12/15/2023 at 4:38 AM, PLW0520 said:

This seems to be happening a lot.

It may very well be the nature of the cruises I book, but I’ve had exactly one itinerary ever with NCL that has fully stuck. Which ironically was this one on the Bliss. 

[luv2kroooz]

1 hour ago, BrianLo said:

It may very well be the nature of the cruises I book,

It's not you or your itineraries.

[hallux]

1 hour ago, lindaag said:

I have looked up and down for reasons that would account for NCL not refunding the port fees.

2 most likely reasons - 

• NCL overestimated the number of people that would book the cruise.  They ESTIMATE the per-passenger responsibility for the port fees and taxes based on the expected bookings for the cruise and the expected fees to be paid (they don't pay based on the number of actual passengers, they pay based on per-ship or the size of the ship).  If they under-estimated the bookings and a port is canceled the (now) over-payment would then fully cover the port fees from the other ports.
• Port fees for a port that was visited were higher than expected, the fees from the canceled port covered the higher fees for the visited port.

A port was missed on my cruise in 2022, we got a whole $12pp back.

 

In theory, if you examined NCL's financials the "port taxes & fees collected" are not higher than the "port taxes & fees paid".  Yes, that should be done at a per-cruise level.  The 'collected' line COULD be lower than the 'paid' line.

 

By the way - if the fees are higher than anticipated or if NCL under estimates the per-passenger fees would you be OK with them asking for more money?  Didn't think so.  They don't, they eat the higher costs.

[L1211]

On 12/14/2023 at 1:57 PM, nadeki said:

We are on March sailing with the same changes. 
 

While I agree it is not a big loss…. Why is it always announced after final payment? We have also lost SIX which was a big reason that we booked this ship. 
 

It is disappointing to have things taken away with no real explanation or apology. 

I’m working on a Bliss March sailing - how did they chance the itinerary?  Thanks!

[Casolo]

They removed Ensenada. Rather than having Cabo 1st and being from 11 to 7, it is the last stop and from 6:45 AM to 2:00 PM

[UKstages]

5 hours ago, luv2kroooz said:

It's not you or your itineraries.

it could be. 
 

i realized long ago that NCL just isn’t that into me.

 

but breaking up is hard to do.

 

 

[L1211]

2 hours ago, Casolo said:

They removed Ensenada. Rather than having Cabo 1st and being from 11 to 7, it is the last stop and from 6:45 AM to 2:00 PM

That’s a pretty terrible change!  Looking most forward to Cabo…

[vacation44]

A couple of months before our cruise this past March on the Epic, they changed the itinerary and took away Grenada (which was previously supposed to be Bonaire).   On the last day of the cruise, $10 per person showed up in everyone's account.    No one in our party of 14 requested it.  

[kitkat343]

On 12/19/2023 at 10:34 PM, UKstages said:

it could be. 
 

i realized long ago that NCL just isn’t that into me.

 

but breaking up is hard to do.

 

 

Honestly, I've found the mainstream lines are more alike than different except for the itinerary issues on NCL.   NCL had an itinerary I was interested in last summer, but after the cancellations after final payment on my last cruise I chose not to go.  And it turned out to be a good thing because that itinerary (Prima to Iceland) had a lot of problems too.

 

We're sailing Cunard next (not ideal with 3 small kids but less frustrating than having our itinerary changed by NCL (which is something that I'd totally understand if it was due to weather/ port unrest) but NCL needs to reroute their ships to help the environment prior to final payment.

 

This does seem to be a consistent issue:

 

 

On 12/19/2023 at 5:45 PM, hallux said:

2 most likely reasons - 

• NCL overestimated the number of people that would book the cruise.  They ESTIMATE the per-passenger responsibility for the port fees and taxes based on the expected bookings for the cruise and the expected fees to be paid (they don't pay based on the number of actual passengers, they pay based on per-ship or the size of the ship).  If they under-estimated the bookings and a port is canceled the (now) over-payment would then fully cover the port fees from the other ports.
• Port fees for a port that was visited were higher than expected, the fees from the canceled port covered the higher fees for the visited port.

A port was missed on my cruise in 2022, we got a whole $12pp back.

 

In theory, if you examined NCL's financials the "port taxes & fees collected" are not higher than the "port taxes & fees paid".  Yes, that should be done at a per-cruise level.  The 'collected' line COULD be lower than the 'paid' line.

 

By the way - if the fees are higher than anticipated or if NCL under estimates the per-passenger fees would you be OK with them asking for more money?  Didn't think so.  They don't, they eat the higher costs.

I'm not happy with NCL because I don't think itineraries should be changed after final payment unless there is an emergency but I do believe all the cruise lines estimate port fees, and return very little when ports are cancelled (we got back 10 on our cruise for missing the Dominican Republic and morning of another port). 

[hallux]

44 minutes ago, kitkat343 said:

but I do believe all the cruise lines estimate port fees, and return very little when ports are cancelled

Some 'back-of-napkin' calculations for my upcoming cruise through the Panama Canal.  I found a blog post updated this year with a cost of $5.25 per ton for the first 10,000 tons with a small discount (that was not noted of how much) beyond that.  Norwegian Bliss is 168,000 gross tons (give or take), that makes the toll itself $880,000 or so.  If the ship sails at capacity (which she probably won't), that's an average of $220 per person, just for the toll to transit the canal.  I'm assuming this is in the port fees and taxes category rather than built into the cost of the cruise.  There are also additional fees for the transit - the pilot being one.

 

That $220 is nearly HALF of the charged port fees and taxes for the entire trip that has 10 other ports if you include embarkation and disembarkation ports, leaving around $270 for the other ports and the other fees for the canal transit.  If one of those ports gets canceled, the average of port fees per port is around $27.  Is this more than NCL has typically refunded?  Sure, but it's not as bad as some might make it out to be.

 

Oh - and there may be a cancellation penalty from the port!  I used to work in a restaurant - if I showed up to work but no customers came in I still got paid.  I imagine workers showed up to the port and expect to get paid for their time, at least until the ship canceled the stop...

[Tradewinds4u]

On 12/21/2023 at 2:39 PM, kitkat343 said:

Honestly, I've found the mainstream lines are more alike than different except for the itinerary issues on NCL.   NCL had an itinerary I was interested in last summer, but after the cancellations after final payment on my last cruise I chose not to go.  And it turned out to be a good thing because that itinerary (Prima to Iceland) had a lot of problems too.

 

We're sailing Cunard next (not ideal with 3 small kids but less frustrating than having our itinerary changed by NCL (which is something that I'd totally understand if it was due to weather/ port unrest) but NCL needs to reroute their ships to help the environment prior to final payment.

 

This does seem to be a consistent issue:

 

 

I'm not happy with NCL because I don't think itineraries should be changed after final payment unless there is an emergency but I do believe all the cruise lines estimate port fees, and return very little when ports are cancelled (we got back 10 on our cruise for missing the Dominican Republic and morning of another port). 

It wasn't just the Mexican Riviera canceling Ensenada. NCL is cutting and altering fleet wide with the same blanket statement letter quoting streamlining efficiencies and costs. Just read an article in Cruise Hive.

[sjacobs11]

On 12/14/2023 at 10:15 AM, 1025cruise said:

From my understanding, you aren't missing anything by skipping Ensenada. It's usually just used as a PVSA requirement.

We just got off Bliss and really liked Ensenada. More than Cabo!

[Tradewinds4u]

1 hour ago, sjacobs11 said:

We just got off Bliss and really liked Ensenada. More than Cabo!

I totally enjoy Ensenada. So much to do and the wine country has really received some recent notariaty. If you're not into wine the fish tacos and beer are amazing. Truly disappointed at the cancellation/itenerary change!

[PLW0520]

On 12/27/2023 at 8:58 AM, Tradewinds4u said:

I totally enjoy Ensenada. So much to do and the wine country has really received some recent notariaty. If you're not into wine the fish tacos and beer are amazing. Truly disappointed at the cancellation/itenerary change!

That is why I am disappointed too. Been to Cabo many times. Even spent 2 weeks at a resort there.I don't understand why they would have to cancel Ensenada.

[tbizhop]

I am more upset about them changing every port to 7:00 am arrival time. And a departure time of 2:30 pm atCabo, that was they one place we are going to enjoy the Ocean and Beaches. We are really disappointed in NCL. This is the 3rd cruise in a row with itinerary changes. It might be out last NCL cruise sadly. We love the crew, the ships, and destinations, but we can longer handle the changes with zero compensation or flexibility to change to a different date or cruise.

[Panhandle Couple]

On 12/26/2023 at 11:18 PM, Tradewinds4u said:

It wasn't just the Mexican Riviera canceling Ensenada. NCL is cutting and altering fleet wide with the same blanket statement letter quoting streamlining efficiencies and costs. Just read an article in Cruise Hive.

Cruise Hive showed a very different itinerary for our recent PC cruise that had everyone all up in arms.

In reality we simply missed Acapulco due to the hurricane damage, not the 4 port changes stated by Cruise Hive.

 

So take anything they say with a large shaker of salt.