Thursday, March 24, 2022
Repairs to the Norwegian Escape are taking longer than expected, so Norwegian Cruise Line has cancelled a second seven-night sailing of the Port Canaveral-based ship.
The Escape currently is undergoing repairs outside Port Canaveral’s Cruise Terminal 5, after the ship ran aground on March 14 while leaving the Dominican Republic port of Puerto Plata, sustaining what the cruise line initially described as “minor damage.”
Now, though, Norwegian said in a statement issued late Tuesday that repairs to Norwegian Escape will take longer than anticipated. As a result, the cruise scheduled to embark on March 26 has been cancelled.
They are optimistic the issue will be resolved shortly, and they will resume normal operations on April 2.
The damage forced the cruise line to cut short its March 12-19 cruise, and to cancel its March 19-26 and March 26-April 2 cruises out of Port Canaveral.
Norwegian arranged for passengers on the March 12-19 sailing to be flown back from the Dominican Republic to Orlando and other airports on charter flights.
But some passengers have complained about the delays in getting flights home.
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Diane Luensmann, Port Canaveral’s vice president for government and strategic communications, said the ship was carrying 3,157 passengers on the March 12 cruise.
Norwegian gave passengers on that cruise a full refund, plus a 100% credit for a future cruise through March 25, 2023.
Passengers scheduled to take the March 26 cruise were notified Tuesday that their cruise had been cancelled.
In an email, the cruise line apologized to the passengers for the inconvenience, as they understand that the desire to travel and reconnect with the places and people they have missed most.
Norwegian offered passengers the option of sailing on one of four Norwegian Cruise Line seven-night cruise leaving this weekend from other ports, plus a 100% credit on the price of their Escape booking that can be used for second Norwegian cruise sailing by April 4, 2023.
The cruise bookings for this weekend that were offered were:
Norwegian Joy leaving Saturday from Miami.
Norwegian Breakaway leaving Sunday from New Orleans.
Norwegian Dawn leaving Sunday from Tampa.
Norwegian Encore leaving Sunday from Miami.
As an alternative, passengers were offered a full refund, plus a future cruise credit for a sailing by April 4, 2023, valued at 50% of their current voyage fare paid.
In a statement, Norwegian apologized to their guests for the inconvenience this may have caused. They value their patience and understanding.
The Norwegian Escape — which was built in 2015 — has a double-occupancy capacity of 4,266 and a crew of 1,733.
Overall, cruising ‘looking bright’
During Wednesday’s Canaveral Port Authority meeting, the port’s chief executive officer, John Murray, briefly mentioned the Norwegian’s Escape’s repair issues, saying it is his understanding that the cruise line is “in good shape” for the ship to sail again on April 2.
Murray also reported that, in general, “things are looking really bright right now” for the port’s cruise business.
Murray said cruise ships based at Port Canaveral generally now are sailing at near or above 100% of their double-occupancy passenger capacity, something that has not happened since before cruising was halted for 16½ months in March 2020 by the coronavirus pandemic.
Port Canaveral Chief Financial Officer Michael Poole said combined revenue from cruise ship operations and cruise passenger parking for the current budget year to date (October 2021 through February 2022) is $31.57 million.
That’s $312,412 above budget projections for that time period.
The port’s overall operating revenue — including cruise, cargo, leases, recreation and other business lines — is $42.89 million for that time frame. That’s $1.29 million over budget.
The port’s profit to date for the current budget year — which the port refers to as “change in net position” — is $19.54 million, or $1.25 million under the budgeted amount.
There currently are 11 multiday cruise ships based at Port Canaveral, representing five brands — Carnival, Disney, MSC, Norwegian and Royal Caribbean.
Poole said cruise lines have carried 1.22 million passengers into and out of Port Canaveral during the first five months of the budget year that began Oct. 1 on a total of 283 sailings by ships based at Port Canaveral, plus 46 port-of-call stops by ships based elsewhere.
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