What should happen when a cruise port is changed or skipped?

 

Itinerary changes:

A couple of years ago, I took a 10-day Eastern Canada / New England cruise with my partner. We were interested in seeing 2 ports I had never visited on my previous cruises in this region: Sydney and Charlottetown.  Since this was an unusual itinerary that had never been offered out of New York, we jumped at the opportunity to take this cruise.  However, we were never able to see either of these ports, as our cruise sailed a day after a hurricane hit this region. Unfortunately, the hurricane hit the Maritime Provinces hard, and the 2 Canadian ports we were supposed to visit were inaccessible during our cruise, and Cornerbrook was substituted in their place.

Some people might wonder: Why didn't the cruise just skip the Canadian ports and stay in less affected United States waters?  The answer to that lies in the US Passenger Vessel Services Act which prohibits a foreign flagged vessel from sailing between US ports without porting in a foreign country.  Since the nearest foreign nation is Canada, the cruise added extra sea days before porting in Cornerbrook to fulfill the requirements of US law.

This cruise had both elements which cruisers should consider when planning a cruise.  What happens to planned shore excursions already purchased?  And what can one do when making a visit to an unplanned port?

Skipping a cruise port:

Bad weather is the most common reason why a port is skipped or changed.  Usually, the captain of the cruise ship will make an announcement on the PA system to inform cruisers that the cruise itinerary has been changed.  (This has happened to me on several cruises.)  If one has bought cruise line excursions for the skipped port, the cruise line will usually apply a refundable cruise credit to the cruiser's account. However, the cruise line will not give any refunds for shore excursions purchased from other vendors.  Some vendors may give refunds, others may not.  Each shore excursion vendor has its own policy for refunding money for excursions that cannot be taken.

Many ports that get skipped are tender ports.  For example, Kona on Hawaii's "Big Island" is often skipped by the Pride of America as it sails its usual 7-day Hawaiian circuit.  Some cruise lines' private islands (e.g. NCL's Great Stirrup Cay and MSC's Ocean Cay Marine Preserve) are often skipped in Bahamian cruises.  Although my experiences with skipped ports were all weather related, some cruise lines have skipped ports due to mechanical issues on their ships, labor problems at some ports, and medical problems on the ship.  In all of these cases, passengers have been able to request refunds of port fees assessed to dock at the port.

Changing a cruise port:

In 2022, a rockslide in Skagway, AK made it impossible for many ships to dock at its Railroad pier.  As a result, most cruise ships bound for this port made itinerary changes to visit other Alaskan ports such as Icy Strait Point (Hoonah) and Sitka.  Assuming that the cruise line has had the time to prepare for the changed itinerary, it will often have some shore excursions at the new port for sale.  My 2023 cruise to Florida and the Bahamas had an itinerary change.  Instead of going to the cruise line's private island, they sailed to Miami in its stead, and had 3 shore excursions for cruisers to choose from.  This is not always the case, as my 2022 cruise which was meant to port in Sydney, NS and Charlottetown, PE replaced these ports with Cornerbrook, NL, a port where no shore excursions were offered.  One unexpected consequence of a cruise port change may be a premature reentry into US waters and a US port.  When this happens, US Customs requires all passengers to clear customs before proceeding onward with the cruise.  Procedures for this may vary between ports and agreements with cruise lines.

Conclusion:

Cruise itinerary changes are a common part of the cruise experience.  All cruisers should be aware that ports may be skipped or added with little notice.  Very rarely will cruisers see itinerary changes that cause a ship to sail to/from a different region than that on the ship's original itinerary.  For example, the ship on which I sailed my Florida and Bahamas cruise was forced by bad weather to change its next itinerary to sail to Canada in the middle of December.  At the Canadian port, cruisers were greeted with a sign that read: "Welcome to the Northern Bahamas."  Hopefully, none of us will have that drastic an itinerary change.