NCL... Bar Harbor... Why?

[Adam Packett]

So while I'm not new to cruising I am somewhat new to NCL (3rd cruise coming up).

 

Our next cruise is to Bermuda and Bar Harbor.

 

But wait, Bar Harbor has pretty much frozen all cruise ship traffic over 1,000 passengers.

(this is confirmed via multiple sources including this board)

 

Honestly this isn't a big deal for us one way or the other as far as the cruise is concerned as a stop in Portland or an extra at sea day would be just fine.

 

But why is it standard to wait until the last minute and not advertise the true itinerary?

 

Just weird...

[zqvol]

Bar Harbor for this year is not frozen to all cruise traffic over 1000 passengers. It all depends on when the cruise line booked their spot. Many cruises are still going to Bar Harbor as scheduled. 

[Adam Packett]

Well, Let's just say that I'll be surprised if it happens.

 

https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Bar-Harbor-starts-implementing-daily-cruise-limit

 

 

[Laszlo]

1 hour ago, Adam Packett said:

So while I'm not new to cruising I am somewhat new to NCL (3rd cruise coming up).

 

Our next cruise is to Bermuda and Bar Harbor.

 

But wait, Bar Harbor has pretty much frozen all cruise ship traffic over 1,000 passengers.

(this is confirmed via multiple sources including this board)

 

Honestly this isn't a big deal for us one way or the other as far as the cruise is concerned as a stop in Portland or an extra at sea day would be just fine.

 

But why is it standard to wait until the last minute and not advertise the true itinerary?

 

Just weird...

It does not go into effect until 2025. Unfortunately our cruise on the Gem which was supposed to stop in Bar Harbor on July 4th is going to Portland. We were notified about a month ago. Bar Harbor is using the pier tenders dock at for their fireworks. What pisses me off is NCL must have known about this months ago. I was looking at Bar Harbors Harbor Master's calendar in January and the Gem was not on the list for July 4th back then

[Adam Packett]

Yea,

Our cruise is in 2025.

Like I said, it isn't a huge deal for us but they shouldn't advertise it if they've known.

Edited May 21 by Adam Packett

[itsnotjustme]

Here is a good resource.

 

PortCall.com

 

The Gem and the Breakaway show multiple stops each in Bar Harbor in 2025, plus one for the Pearl.  Check your ship/date against this list.

 

Edited May 22 by itsnotjustme

[stinkyharriet]

1 hour ago, itsnotjustme said:

Here is a good resource.

 

PortCall.com

 

The Gem and the Breakaway show multiple stops each in Bar Harbor in 2025, plus one for the Pearl.  Check your ship/date against this list.

 

I’ll be on the Breakaway for the October 20 2024 cruise out of NYC.  We were informed a month or so back that Bar Harbor was removed & replaced with Boston.  On that site, I see the Breakaway listed for cruises before & after ours.  I wonder how many will actually end up going?  Annoyed that mine is off but so many others appear to be going to Bar Harbor.

[njkate]

They did a similar switch on my cruise next month of course after final! Switched Key West for Cozumel and they had to know Key West has been limiting cruise ships!

Switched Ocho Rios for Falmouth and they had to know a Carnival ship took out a dock in Ocho Rios back in February with repairs taking until at least late May

[shof515]

9 hours ago, stinkyharriet said:

I’ll be on the Breakaway for the October 20 2024 cruise out of NYC.  We were informed a month or so back that Bar Harbor was removed & replaced with Boston.  On that site, I see the Breakaway listed for cruises before & after ours.  I wonder how many will actually end up going?  Annoyed that mine is off but so many others appear to be going to Bar Harbor.

i am also on the breakaway, the week prior on the October 13 cruise. bar harbor  is not listed for the dates Norwegian said we are suppose to be there on October 16. When i look at the Boston port schedule website, i see it shows the breakaway as a port of call visit on october 15. October 15 is the day we are suppose to be in Portland according to Portland port schedule and Norwegian itinerary

 

So far Norwegian has not sent any itinerary changes. something is going to change and i think they are waiting until the middle of June when final payment is due

 

another oddity is all of Halifax shore excursion have a late afternoon start time of around 330pm, Halifax port schedule shows the arrival time of 3pm. It seems like someone at the shore excursion department knows about the late arrive however Norwegian has not sent out any notification about the port time change.

 

Norwegian communication is really really lacking about port time changes and itinerary changes. It sucks they are waiting until final payment to send any out, if any.

[craig01020]

Lately Norwegian's itineraries have become just suggestions of port stops. In many cases you won't really know until after final payment or even after you've boarded.

[wolfie11]

Bait and switch seems to be the new norm at NCL.

[Oakman58]

4 minutes ago, wolfie11 said:

Bait and switch seems to be the new norm at NCL.

 

So true!

[tasia202]

On 5/21/2024 at 9:04 PM, stinkyharriet said:

I’ll be on the Breakaway for the October 20 2024 cruise out of NYC.  We were informed a month or so back that Bar Harbor was removed & replaced with Boston.  On that site, I see the Breakaway listed for cruises before & after ours.  I wonder how many will actually end up going?  Annoyed that mine is off but so many others appear to be going to Bar Harbor.

Looks like they hadn’t update the site I checked today and October 9th is the last scheduled stop in 2024 for the Breakaway today.

[butterfly4108]

I'm on the Breakaway Sept. 1st 2024, they cancelled the first stop which was RI and made it a sea day.  So far we're still on the schedule for Bar Harbor and they recently added shore excursions there but the way things keep changing (the city leaders don't want ships) it could end up a cruise to nowhere😉.  I just don't count on anything going as planned anymore as they seem to be changing things constantly after final payment (yeah, not happy)...

[erisajd]

On 5/21/2024 at 9:19 AM, Adam Packett said:

So while I'm not new to cruising I am somewhat new to NCL (3rd cruise coming up).

 

Our next cruise is to Bermuda and Bar Harbor.

 

But wait, Bar Harbor has pretty much frozen all cruise ship traffic over 1,000 passengers.

(this is confirmed via multiple sources including this board)

 

Honestly this isn't a big deal for us one way or the other as far as the cruise is concerned as a stop in Portland or an extra at sea day would be just fine.

 

But why is it standard to wait until the last minute and not advertise the true itinerary?

 

Just weird...

When I lived in CT I’d fly my airplane up to Portland all the time for lobsta.  Back in the 2000s we’d fly up for a few pounds of lobsta meat at $5.99 / lb at harbor fish right there on main st. Always flew up on NYE too and we’d have lobsta races before dumping the losers (and the winner) in the big pot. 

Edited May 26 by erisajd

[luv2kroooz]

Advertised itineraries are just a suggestion on NCL. They regularly abuse the terms of their cruise contract which was never intended to allow deliberate false advertisement and itinerary changes made in the name of convenience. One day a group of passengers will unite and challenge NCL, but until then expect internal itinerary modifications to be made prior to final payment and announced after final payment to protect NCLs bookings and cash position.

 

We will only book NCL at rock bottom rates under 30 days out to try to alleviate the disappointment NCL routinely causes it's paying guests. This limits our ability to sail on NCL and we accept that, even though we enjoy the on board experience. We've done 5 cruises post COVID, but only 1 NCL. We have nothing booked on NCL going forward. All of our non-NCL cruises were enjoyable and, more important to us, operated the advertised itinerary without need for modifications to ports or scheduled arrival/ departure times. There are decent alternatives to NCL that offer consistency.

[schmoopie17]

On 5/22/2024 at 9:37 AM, craig01020 said:

Lately Norwegian's itineraries have become just suggestions of port stops. In many cases you won't really know until after final payment or even after you've boarded.

Even that is no guarantee. The only way to know for sure is when you're actually walking on dry land after the ship has docked. By then it's probably too late to change the destination...although I wouldn't put it past NCL to try.

[wolfie11]

6 hours ago, luv2kroooz said:

We will only book NCL at rock bottom rates under 30 days out to try to alleviate the disappointment NCL routinely causes it's paying guests. This limits our ability to sail on NCL and we accept that, even though we enjoy the on board experience. We've done 5 cruises post COVID, but only 1 NCL. We have nothing booked on NCL going forward. All of our non-NCL cruises were enjoyable and, more important to us, operated the advertised itinerary without need for modifications to ports or scheduled arrival/ departure times. There are decent alternatives to NCL that offer consistency.

Unfortunately, last minute bargains seem to be disappearing.  On my last (shoulder season) cruise, the ship was mostly full. It seemed like half the passengers were there on casino comps.  I think this may be the new norm.  Instead of selling discounted cabins to savvy cruisers who won’t spend that much onboard, give them away to committed gamblers who will buy the drinks package and lose in the casino.

[luv2kroooz]

28 minutes ago, wolfie11 said:

Unfortunately, last minute bargains seem to be disappearing.  On my last (shoulder season) cruise, the ship was mostly full. It seemed like half the passengers were there on casino comps.  I think this may be the new norm.  Instead of selling discounted cabins to savvy cruisers who won’t spend that much onboard, give them away to committed gamblers who will buy the drinks package and lose in the casino.

Exactly correct, which is why 4 of our last 5 were non-NCL. Too much instability with NCL for our desire.

 

Edited May 27 by luv2kroooz

[kitkat343]

9 hours ago, luv2kroooz said:

Advertised itineraries are just a suggestion on NCL. They regularly abuse the terms of their cruise contract which was never intended to allow deliberate false advertisement and itinerary changes made in the name of convenience. One day a group of passengers will unite and challenge NCL, but until then expect internal itinerary modifications to be made prior to final payment and announced after final payment to protect NCLs bookings and cash position.

 

We will only book NCL at rock bottom rates under 30 days out to try to alleviate the disappointment NCL routinely causes it's paying guests. This limits our ability to sail on NCL and we accept that, even though we enjoy the on board experience. We've done 5 cruises post COVID, but only 1 NCL. We have nothing booked on NCL going forward. All of our non-NCL cruises were enjoyable and, more important to us, operated the advertised itinerary without need for modifications to ports or scheduled arrival/ departure times. There are decent alternatives to NCL that offer consistency.

I completely understand this.  What makes this situation so frustrating is that NCL is one of the main cruise lines that have invested heavily in child friendly amenities.  For those of us with kids who are looking for interesting itineraries, it is much harder to avoid NCL because our children really want to be on cruises with water slides.  The adults have been really happy on Princess and Cunard, but our kids would prefer to be on NCL, RC, Carnival or Disney (and the Disney itineraries are usually less interesting than the competitors).  I hope NCL stops doing this soon because I'm quite certain Cunard will never add water slides!   

[luv2kroooz]

Just now, kitkat343 said:

I completely understand this.  What makes this situation so frustrating is that NCL is one of the main cruise lines that have invested heavily in child friendly amenities.  For those of us with kids who are looking for interesting itineraries, it is much harder to avoid NCL because our children really want to be on cruises with water slides.  The adults have been really happy on Princess and Cunard, but our kids would prefer to be on NCL, RC, Carnival or Disney (and the Disney itineraries are usually less interesting than the competitors).  I hope NCL stops doing this soon because I'm quite certain Cunard will never add water slides!   

What is also a little weird is they were talking about offering longer, more immersive itineraries, yet seem to be altering those itineraries regularly. 

[victory2020]

I just canceled a Europe cruise because 4 of the ports changed. I'm looking at New England instead but ports may change on that one too.

[ColdCruise]

1 hour ago, victory2020 said:

I just canceled a Europe cruise because 4 of the ports changed. I'm looking at New England instead but ports may change on that one too.

We just cancelled a much anticipated transatlantic because NCL dropped 1 of the 2 main ports we were looking forward to (St John’s Newfoundland) and has a less than stellar track record making the other port (Punta Delgada)

 

we also have cruise from Iceland to NY via Greenland,  St John’s & St Pierre/Miquelon …. Success in making those ports will determine new NCL bookings 

 

but we’re past final payment so if they’ve diabolically planned changes they haven’t shared, that should occur soon. 😳

[craig01020]

23 hours ago, luv2kroooz said:

Advertised itineraries are just a suggestion on NCL. They regularly abuse the terms of their cruise contract which was never intended to allow deliberate false advertisement and itinerary changes made in the name of convenience. One day a group of passengers will unite and challenge NCL, but until then expect internal itinerary modifications to be made prior to final payment and announced after final payment to protect NCLs bookings and cash position.

 

We will only book NCL at rock bottom rates under 30 days out to try to alleviate the disappointment NCL routinely causes it's paying guests. This limits our ability to sail on NCL and we accept that, even though we enjoy the on board experience. We've done 5 cruises post COVID, but only 1 NCL. We have nothing booked on NCL going forward. All of our non-NCL cruises were enjoyable and, more important to us, operated the advertised itinerary without need for modifications to ports or scheduled arrival/ departure times. There are decent alternatives to NCL that offer consistency.

Sad, but true. Very well said!

[ColdCruise]

I wonder if the proclivity to change ports frequently and often after final payment would be of interest to some Attorneys General or as class action for violating truth in advertising laws or other laws against bait and switch tactics?

 

people seem to sue over all kinds of stuff most people just shrug off…latest one I read about was a class action suing Reeses because the actual Reese’s bats and pumpkins don’t look like the drawings on the wrappers 

 

Or the federal government which I recall reading is going to force airlines, hotels,resorts and other travel related businesses to disclose all their fees in the up front pricing rather than lure you in with a low price, then add the fees and taxes at checkout?

Edited Thursday at 02:19 AM by ColdCruise