Miami Weather Delays Three Cruise Ships 6-7 Hours, Pushes Back Embarkations
If you were sailing on Queen Elizabeth or Norwegian Joy from Miami on October 27, do not arrive before your revised time; Queen Elizabeth guests were told to come seven hours after the boarding pass time. If you disembarked from Norwegian Getaway, Norwegian Joy or Queen Elizabeth, contact your airline about post-cruise flights. Norwegian guests with change or cancellation fees should keep receipts to claim up to $300 per person. Check with your cruise line for updates on sailings in the next few days.
My read is that this was a logistics squeeze rather than anything a cruise line could have fixed. Three ships arriving 6-7 hours late means a full turnaround compressed into the same terminal, and Queen Elizabeth was still putting its last debarkation group off around 5:30 p.m. The losers are the Queen Elizabeth and Norwegian Joy guests who had embarkations pushed back, plus anyone with a flight booked. Norwegian's offer of up to $300 per person, with receipts, is useful, but only after insurance and the airline have paid, so I would keep every receipt. The dry twist is Norwegian Getaway, which had no embarkation guests because this was its final Miami sailing before moving to Port Canaveral. Mein Schiff 1 simply skipped Miami and gets to San Juan a day early. If I were sailing in the next few days, with the gale warning running to 8 a.m. Wednesday, I would check my cruise line's notices before leaving for the terminal.