Jade 4/9: Grenada cancelled

[Distinctive-Destinations]

Just got an email that our 4/9 cruise has removed the Grenada stop on Monday 4/15. Extended time in Curaçao (before) and then Antigua (after).

[Distinctive-Destinations]

As part of our commitment to deliver exceptional vacation experiences at every step of the cruise journey, listening to our guests is instrumental. Given recent guest feedback, and to accommodate certain circumstances including but not limited to enhanced port and shore excursion availability for the ultimate vacation experience, fuel optimization as a part of our commitment to the environment and sustainability efforts, as well as global maritime regulations, we have adjusted the original itinerary as shown below. We apologize for any inconvenience these slight adjustments may cause.

We recognize the importance that destinations play in our guests' vacation decision-making process and assure you that these modifications were made with an optimal guest experience top-of-mind. While we will no longer be calling on St. George's, Grenada, we are pleased to share that we have extended our time in port in Willemstad, Curacao and St. John's, Antigua.

[Rick&Jeannie]

Sure...and I have some beachfront property for sale in Arizona....

[IrieBajan54]

39 minutes ago, Distinctive-Destinations said:

As part of our commitment to deliver exceptional vacation experiences at every step of the cruise journey, listening to our guests is instrumental. Given recent guest feedback, and to accommodate certain circumstances including but not limited to enhanced port and shore excursion availability for the ultimate vacation experience, fuel optimization as a part of our commitment to the environment and sustainability efforts, as well as global maritime regulations, we have adjusted the original itinerary as shown below. We apologize for any inconvenience these slight adjustments may cause.

 

Oh well, until people stop booking, NCL will continue this farce.

Edited March 28 by IrieBajan54
correction

[Distinctive-Destinations]

12 minutes ago, IrieBajan54 said:

Oh well, until people stop booking, NCL will continue this farce.

I called and they told me it was for my safety, lol. Is it 1983 again? 

 

We’re sailing between Haiti and Cuba, and the danger is in…Grenada?

[yakcruiser]

1 hour ago, Distinctive-Destinations said:

As part of our commitment to deliver exceptional vacation experiences at every step of the cruise journey, listening to our guests is instrumental. 

 

1 hour ago, Distinctive-Destinations said:

We recognize the importance that destinations play in our guests' vacation decision-making process and assure you that these modifications were made with an optimal guest experience top-of-mind. 

Really? Who writes this crap? Or maybe I should ask is this what they teach in hospitality management courses at the university now?

[Distinctive-Destinations]

1 minute ago, yakcruiser said:

 

Really? Who writes this crap? Or maybe I should ask is this what they teach in hospitality management courses at the university now?

I like the “listening to our guests” bit.

 

I can only speak for me, but I know I didn’t call and ask to skip Grenada.

[Travelling2Some]

4 hours ago, Distinctive-Destinations said:

I called and they told me it was for my safety, lol. Is it 1983 again? 

 

We’re sailing between Haiti and Cuba, and the danger is in…Grenada?

Yup, just like when they told us that they were ditching Costa Rica and substituting Alcapulco (Level 4 - do NOT travel per the State Department) "for our safety".  They obviously think the passengers are idiots.

[Distinctive-Destinations]

2 minutes ago, Travelling2Some said:

Yup, just like when they told us that they were ditching Costa Rica and substituting Alcapulco (Level 4 - do NOT travel per the State Department) "for our safety".  They obviously think the passengers are idiots.

Those nutmeg smugglers in Grenada are the real terrorists threatening the Caribbean waters.

[luv2kroooz]

Sounds about right. Itinerary changes just a few weeks out to disrupt your plans, for your convenience, of course.

 

As long as they say they are working hard to deliver and then apologize, everything should be ok, right, lol?

 

If they were being truthful, the time for working hard and optimizing experiences should happen at the itinerary development stage before the cruise is published and before they collect money from 2,000 guests. It's the typical sell X but deliver Y. NCL has mastered it and they will continue to do it because they can.

 

[Distinctive-Destinations]

2 hours ago, luv2kroooz said:

Sounds about right. Itinerary changes just a few weeks out to disrupt your plans, for your convenience, of course.

 

As long as they say they are working hard to deliver and then apologize, everything should be ok, right, lol?

 

If they were being truthful, the time for working hard and optimizing experiences should happen at the itinerary development stage before the cruise is published and before they collect money from 2,000 guests. It's the typical sell X but deliver Y. NCL has mastered it and they will continue to do it because they can.

 

Right, I’m already even checked in, not to mention paid in full. 

[edspec]

3 hours ago, luv2kroooz said:

 

If they were being truthful, the time for working hard and optimizing experiences should happen at the itinerary development stage before the cruise is published and before they collect money from 2,000 guests. It's the typical sell X but deliver Y. NCL has mastered it and they will continue to do it because they can.

 

Well, they can do it, that doesn't mean everyone is going to sail with them.  It's a shame since I liked NCL but I'm not paying for a "surprise" cruise.  I was looking at their Asian and African itineraries last night and then thought nope, can't count on any of these stops, need to book with a more reputable company.  

[luv2kroooz]

Just now, edspec said:

Well, they can do it, that doesn't mean everyone is going to sail with them.  It's a shame since I liked NCL but I'm not paying for a "surprise" cruise.  I was looking at their Asian and African itineraries last night and then thought nope, can't count on any of these stops, need to book with a more reputable company.  

Couldn't agree more. Our last two NCL cruises had multiple last minute changes for what I call matters of convenience - itinerary optimization, customer feedback,  etc. We caught on to their game. By the way, we support itinerary changes for safety reasons...unrest, weather, etc. 

 

Since that time, we have done one Princess and two Carnivals with a third on Carnival coming up next month. Fortunately, no itinerary changes due to matters of convenience. 

 

If you are truly committed to an itinerary, NCL is not your best choice. If you couldn't care less where you end up, then it might be a good, value-based option. Best way to vote on this is to take your business elsewhere. They can fill their ships with unsuspecting passengers or passengers that are indifferent to the itinerary they are purchasing. If we wanted to play  "guessing" games, we'd join the circus.

[floinnc]

Granada is cancelled for our May 28th cruise also. I wish they had cancelled the Dominican Republic instead. With the unrest and violence it Haiti, at least that would have made some sense!

[Distinctive-Destinations]

6 minutes ago, floinnc said:

Granada is cancelled for our May 28th cruise also. I wish they had cancelled the Dominican Republic instead. With the unrest and violence it Haiti, at least that would have made some sense!

That was what I was thinking.

 

Do they think that Grenada is where grenades are made?

[Distinctive-Destinations]

21 minutes ago, luv2kroooz said:

By the way, we support itinerary changes for safety reasons...unrest, weather, etc. 

So do I. We took a cruise on the Epic in November. It was scheduled to leave out of Haifa, Israel. Obviously that was cancelled due to the issues there. Our departure port was changed to Athens.

Now, the communication could have been a lot better, but it was reasonable and made sense. 

 

This though, I do not get. It is too far out to predict the weather yet, and that wasn’t cited as a reason. They stated it was for my safety, which I thought was laughable compared to some other much more dangerous locations I have visited. 

 

But what are the Grenada safety issues? I haven’t heard anything on the news.  Other than the standard minor petty theft issues that every port has (and has had forever), what’s the story?

[Haywood Jablome]

First we booked this cruise at a later date, they cancelled the whole thing, because someone booked the whole ship, so moved it to earlier nice inconvenience fir us, now they are canceling a port I really wanted to go too, we should get some kind of benefit, I bet there us a great benefit to them to cancel the stop,  at least some of our port fees since it's one less port we will be stopping at

[schmoopie17]

They probably looked at the low number of passenger debarkations in Grenada on our Jade cruise last month. That was the one day where the pool was crowded on a port day (including us, since we had no plans to get off in Grenada).

 

I say this only slightly in jest...

[The Traveling Man]

1 hour ago, luv2kroooz said:

If you are truly committed to an itinerary, NCL is not your best choice. If you couldn't care less where you end up, then it might be a good, value-based option. Best way to vote on this is to take your business elsewhere. They can fill their ships with unsuspecting passengers or passengers that are indifferent to the itinerary they are purchasing. If we wanted to play  "guessing" games, we'd join the circus.

NCL has been sailing recently with ships close to capacity.  In cases where more than two persons occupy a stateroom, some ships have sailed with more than the rated capacity.  So far, their practices have not scared off more passengers than they have been able to attract.  It seems that NCL is following the advice attributed to P.T. Barnum, that there's a sucker born every minute.  As long as NCL can continue to attract newbies or those who do not object to last minute itinerary changes, they will continue to make those changes if they think that will net them more profit.

[bluesea777]

17 hours ago, Distinctive-Destinations said:

As part of our commitment to deliver exceptional vacation experiences at every step of the cruise journey, listening to our guests is instrumental. Given recent guest feedback, and to accommodate certain circumstances including but not limited to enhanced port and shore excursion availability for the ultimate vacation experience, fuel optimization as a part of our commitment to the environment and sustainability efforts, as well as global maritime regulations, we have adjusted the original itinerary as shown below. We apologize for any inconvenience these slight adjustments may cause.

We recognize the importance that destinations play in our guests' vacation decision-making process and assure you that these modifications were made with an optimal guest experience top-of-mind. While we will no longer be calling on St. George's, Grenada, we are pleased to share that we have extended our time in port in Willemstad, Curacao and St. John's, Antigua.

 

Originally the port times were 07:00-13:30 in Curacao, 13:00-19:00 in Grenada and 12:30-19:00 ... these are basically half days and the pax would not have been able to partake full day excursions in those 3 ports. 

 

Grenada is way out of the way between Curacao and Antigua - see this map:

 

 

So it makes more sense to drop Grenada and lengthen the port times in Curacao and Antigua (for the full day excursions) and have a sea day steaming from Curacao and Antigua at reasonable speed to save fuel.

 

Disappointing yes, but ship happens.

 

 

[zqvol]

5 minutes ago, bluesea777 said:

 

Originally the port times were 07:00-13:30 in Curacao, 13:00-19:00 in Grenada and 12:30-19:00 ... these are basically half days and the pax would not have been able to partake full day excursions in those 3 ports. 

 

Grenada is way out of the way between Curacao and Antigua - see this map:

 

 

So it makes more sense to drop Grenada and lengthen the port times in Curacao and Antigua (for the full day excursions) and have a sea day steaming from Curacao and Antigua at reasonable speed to save fuel.

 

Disappointing yes, but ship happens.

 

 

Thank you for a logical explantation 

[luv2kroooz]

23 minutes ago, The Traveling Man said:

NCL has been sailing recently with ships close to capacity.  In cases where more than two persons occupy a stateroom, some ships have sailed with more than the rated capacity.  So far, their practices have not scared off more passengers than they have been able to attract.  It seems that NCL is following the advice attributed to P.T. Barnum, that there's a sucker born every minute.  As long as NCL can continue to attract newbies or those who do not object to last minute itinerary changes, they will continue to make those changes if they think that will net them more profit.

Undoubtedly true. The entire industry is experiencing record demand. I am so glad the other lines have not  adopted NCL's practices.

[luv2kroooz]

6 minutes ago, bluesea777 said:

So it makes more sense to drop Grenada and lengthen the port times in Curacao and Antigua (for the full day excursions) and have a sea day steaming from Curacao and Antigua at reasonable speed to save fuel.

What would make even more sense is to recognize this at the itinerary planning stage. The distances to Grenada haven't changed in a meaningful way since the itinerary was created and published or while NCL collected revenue on this sailing. 

[bluesea777]

8 minutes ago, luv2kroooz said:

What would make even more sense is to recognize this at the itinerary planning stage. The distances to Grenada haven't changed in a meaningful way since the itinerary was created and published or while NCL collected revenue on this sailing. 

 

This itinerary was created like 2 years ago. Surely the world has changed since then. Fuel prices for one; they haven't reduced.

 

 

[luv2kroooz]

Just now, bluesea777 said:

 

This itinerary was created like 2 years ago. Surely the world has changed since then. Fuel prices for one; they haven't reduced.

 

 

Wow, so you are advocating flexible pricing based on fuel costs. That is a dangerous proposition.