Norwegian Cruise Line reroutes Antarctica cruise, angering passengers
Before she set out on a 14-day cruise to Antarctica and South America, Helen Midler dreamed of seeing an iceberg dotted with penguins as she sailed by the world’s southernmost continent.
“This trip was definitely bucket list,” Midler, 61, of Melbourne, Australia, wrote in an email from the Norwegian Star, which is owned by Norwegian Cruise Line. She and her husband traveled from Melbourne to Santiago, Chile, to Buenos Aires to get on board.
But when the itinerary changed during the trip to no longer include cruising along the mainland of Antarctica — and the overall amount of time in Antarctic waters was cut — Midler said the voyage was no longer what she and thousands of others aboard had paid for. An update to the cruise line’s app even changed the name to remove Antarctica from the title, she said, and the operator provided only vague explanations.
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Under the new schedule, the ship would no longer visit Paradise Bay off the coast of the Antarctic mainland, but instead sail by Admiralty Bay, part of the South Shetland Islands. While technically part of Antarctica, the substitution is located more than 200 miles north of the original location.
With the help of her daughter on land, Midler uploaded her ire to TikTok under the name @ruinedvacation. Her first video shows a crowd of passengers gathered to demand answers — with a security officer urging people to calm down. The videos have gone viral, with the first one getting more than 3.4 million views.
“It has been absolutely ruined because the main part of this trip as far as we were all concerned was taken away from us after we boarded,” she said in her email. She said “hundreds” were very upset, and many have been talking about whether they could get any compensation through insurance, the cruise line or a class-action lawsuit. While staff said an email went out and printed notices were supposed to have been displayed, Midler said neither she nor many fellow passengers received those.
Her experience is the latest reminder that cruise lines can — and often do — change course before or during a sailing. Several operators have canceled voyages in the Red Sea recently due to Houthi militant attacks on ships. Weather frequently upends itineraries; in an extreme example, a cruise meant to visit the Bahamas from New York ended up going to New England and Canada in December.
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Norwegian Cruise Line said in a statement that while the operator tries “to maintain original itineraries as much as possible, at times modifications are made to optimize the itinerary or to accommodate certain circumstances.”
The company pointed to two reasons for the change during the Feb. 4 cruise: Norwegian said that the revision was made “to enhance the guest experience” and that passengers would be able to spend more time in the Falkland Islands.
“In addition, due to a recent regulatory requirement in the area, the ship is operating at a reduced speed, also impacting its original itinerary,” the company said.
Norwegian did not clarify which regulatory requirement it was referring to, but a new speed reduction was introduced this season, which runs from November until March. The agreement to go slow in certain areas was reached in 2021 by the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, but members only agreed last year to include the South Shetland Islands in the speed-restricted area. The company did not respond to a question about whether the official description of the trip was changed to remove Antarctica from the title.
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“We’ve paid too much money, we’re too smart, and we’re too angry to just order another cocktail and sit down and accept the fact that our money has vanished into Norwegian Cruise Line’s pockets,” Midler said in her video. She said she and her husband spent roughly $13,000 to go on the trip after saving up for “a very long time.”
Travelers on the ship’s Feb. 18 voyage complained on social media and to The Washington Post that they have also received word via email that their trip’s schedule is changing. Instead of the previously planned two days in Antarctic waters, including Paradise Bay, the ship will spend one day sailing along Admiralty Bay and Elephant Island. Norwegian did not respond to questions about the upcoming sailing. Passengers do not get off the ship in Antarctica.
“They halved our time cruising Antarctica,” Caren Biberman, of Mays Landing, N.J., said in an email about her sailing that leaves from Buenos Aires on Sunday. She said the message she got from the cruise line said that the updates were made to “optimize the itinerary or to accommodate certain circumstances,” and that the changes would “enhance the guest experience.”
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“Well, it won’t optimize the itinerary for me nor will it enhance my experience. Quite the opposite,” she wrote. “I no longer consider it an Antarctica cruising experience.”
What are passengers’ rights?
Although passengers have argued that they are not getting what they paid for, travel and legal experts say they don’t have much of a chance to get money back.
“The key with NCL, like all the cruise lines, is if you read the ticket contract, it basically gives them a near-absolute right to make itinerary changes,” said Michael Winkleman, an attorney who sues cruise lines. Weather and regional conflict are typical reasons for changes.
“Does that mean that the cruise passenger has zero rights? According to the contract, pretty much,” he said, though he noted that there could “hypothetically” be a case if some kind of mechanical error were to blame for a switched-up itinerary.
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“Practically speaking, it doesn’t mean you can’t plead your case with guest relations,” he said.
Stephen Pratt, a professor at the Rosen College of Hospitality Management at the University of Central Florida, said cruise ships will often alter an itinerary mid-voyage to avoid inclement weather.
He said NCL’s explanation for the change was uncommon, however. He described the company’s claim that passengers still experienced Antarctica as “duplicitous.”
“They technically went to somewhere in Antarctica, but not where they originally meant to go,” he said. “It certainly didn’t match the customers’ experience and expectations.”
He said the company does not legally owe passengers compensation. But as a goodwill gesture, the cruise line should offer them a credit for a future cruise, a gesture that will benefit all parties.
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Steven Benna, a spokesperson for travel insurance comparison site Squaremouth, said travel insurance policies designed specifically for cruisers may include an itinerary change benefit. The plans cover prepaid tours or shore excursions affected by a cruise line’s decision to reroute a ship. Reimbursement can range from $200 to $500.
He said the policies would not cover missed stops or legs of a voyage. Nor would they protect cruisers who decide to cancel a future trip because of an itinerary change.
“It’s not something that’s going to be considered a covered reason under a standard trip cancellation plan. Reason being there, even if it happens a little bit before [departure time], it’s not something that’s preventing you from taking the trip. It would be more of a loss of enjoyment situation, and that isn’t a covered reason to cancel.”
A ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ cruise
Bridgett Quinn-Webber, a cruise travel agent who has visited Antarctica twice, said the trip is among the most expensive and unpredictable places people can visit, though she said the destination is “spectacular.” Voyages need to last at least 10 days, she said, “just because it takes a while to get down there.”
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“It’s usually also a once-in-a-lifetime for most people, so they want to see as much as they can in one trip,” she said.
Because the destination is often subject to last-minute changes, the best practice is for operators to be general about where their ships are going, said Kevin Moore, who has worked in Antarctica and is now a travel adviser who sells small-ship expedition cruises to the continent.
“No ship can promise a specific location to be visited, because this is way too dependent on good weather conditions, proper ice conditions, wildlife movement, and the location of other ships,” he said in an email. “So promising a specific location simply sets everyone up for disappointment.”
Many of the cruises he sells — on ships with 200 passengers or less, not the 2,300-plus the Norwegian Star can carry — spend between four and seven days in the waters between the South Shetland Islands, the mainland of Antarctica and other islands in between. The South Shetland Islands are part of the British Antarctic Territory.
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Moore said both Paradise Bay and Admiralty Bay were “stunning locations” replete with glaciers, wildlife and the potential for icebergs, but he acknowledged the disappointment in missing the Antarctic continent and only venturing as close as the South Shetland Islands.
Despite her frustration about the itinerary, Midler said she enjoyed a stop in Port Stanley, in the Falkland Islands, on Wednesday. On a “magnificent sunny day,” she said she saw dolphins and sea lions and penguins, had beer at a local pub, and fish and chips at a cafe.
“We’ve really worked hard to try and have a good time and we know that we look back on it with some interesting memories,” she wrote. “We certainly do feel very let down and disappointed and angry.”
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