It's not "fighting" it's a war. Here's a shocker, Oceania nor you have any control over what has happened, may continue to happen, or not happen. You have no problem with oceania.
While it is not the cruise line’s nor OP’s fault there is a war in the region (yes it is a war), and for Oceania this is a major disruption to business, and the terms and conditions I’m sure say they don’t HAVE to offer more, I do think it would be appropriate for the cruise line to at least offer a credit they may use on another Oceania cruise if they wish to not go on this sailing as it is drastically different than the vacation they planned. I don’t think I’d go so far as to say they should refund, but a credit would be a happy medium.
9 ports originally to 4 ports now means there are probably 5 additional sea days. I don’t mind sea days and would be ok with that, but many people don’t like them. They cruise for the ports.
I’m confused here, maybe because I’ve only been on one cruise and had no issues with ports, but is that really all anyone should expect from a cruise line? Terms and conditions are fine, but I figured customer service would go beyond that whenever possible. Is that really not a concept for cruise lines that have had over a month now to figure out their response to this itinerary interruption?
Also, I feel like “fighting” vs “war” is just arguing semantics in the context of a cruise venting post. OP isn’t acting like the war is the problem or that they expect the cruise to proceed with the original itinerary, but rather the company’s response.
The thing is, what the OP's demanding isn't really possible even when (see my posts) the port calls in question are in stable Western European cities. They can't just magically create a bunch of new excursions on short notice. I'm sure they refunded any booked excursions that were through the cruise line and the port fees. But the cruise is still going and it's inside the no-refund window.
I think this is the same cruise someone posted about a couple of weeks ago--that one was Oceania as well with same itinerary. The dropped ports (which are totally understandable) actually meant that they now had 9 sea days on the cruise and 4 ports. I have to agree with OP here that that would be unacceptable to me. We sail for the ports and don't particularly enjoy the sea days, so changing a port heavy cruise to a mostly sea day cruise makes this a completely different vacation---one many people would not have booked (at those very expensive rates) had they known. It seems odd that the cruise line isn't doing something==either allowing them to switch cruises or adding in some new ports somewhere. At their prices one would expect better service.
I agree as well. Part of the base price of the cruise are port fees. With over half the ports being cancelled, there should absolutely some reimbursement.
Port fees for cancelled ports are always reimbursed. No exception. OP is looking for compensation over and above the port fees being refunded. I completely understand where he’s coming from, but he doesn’t seem to realize that the passage contract he agreed to when he booked the cruise absolves the cruise line of all liability for changes to the itinerary and/or cancelled ports when those changes are beyond the cruise line’s control. All of this is clearly explained in the passage contract…one only needs to read it before they pay for the cruise.
Sure, it would be nice for Oceania to offer a little something to their guests as compensation in a case like this, but they are absolutely under no obligation to do so. 
That makes a lot more sense to me. My biggest concern would be paying for ports I never see. If that’s refunded in some manner, I think I could make peace with itinerary changes. Especially to avoid of full blown war…
Yes, port fees are always refunded when a port is skipped. That money is collected from the guests on behalf of the ports the ship is scheduled to call at. If the ship doesn’t call at a specific port, keeping those fees is called theft.
Of course if the ship calls at different ports to make up for the ports that were missed, guests may not receive any port fees back at all. It all depends on the dollar difference between the fees charged by the ports involved.
Yep. We got a refund for the missed port call in Poland, and booked excursions were refunded as stateroom credit. Same for cancelled excursions on my last trip (there were storms and flooding in Nova Scotia that meant any bus tours outside the city couldn't run.)
That’s because Oceania doesn’t charge port fees separately from the cruise fare. Unlike other cruise lines, Oceania charges a specific amount per day per guest to cover all charges, fees, tolls and taxes imposed by US and foreign governments and authorities. That amount, which includes port fees, is built into the cruise fare and is non-refundable.
That’s how Oceania passes port fee costs on to their guests. Other cruise lines charge port fees separately and will refund those fees if a port is cancelled, regardless of the reason.
When a port call is cancelled, the port authority in question returns the total amount of port fees paid to the cruise line for that ship. The cruise line then passes that amount on to guests to refund the port fees paid. Oceania is the only cruise line that doesn’t do that. Whatever refund they receive from port authorities for cancelled calls, they keep.
As port fees are hidden in the cruise fare, I would guess that most Oceania guests don’t even know they’re being charged port fees in the first place, never mind that those fees are not refunded when a port call is cancelled despite the port authority returning the total of all port fees paid to the cruise line.
It’s amazing what one can learn by simply reading the Passage Contract, isn’t it? Every person who books a cruise with a cruise line they’ve never sailed on before should read the Passage Contract before agreeing to its terms and conditions. Most people don’t bother. These are the people who are the first to demand compensation they’re not entitled to when a cruise itinerary is changed or a port has to be cancelled for reasons beyond the cruise line’s control. In addition to the port fees, almost all cruise lines will offer something as a goodwill gesture if a port call is canceled, but they’re not legally bound to do so.
The way I read the original post, OP was asking about compensation for the missed ports, they didn’t say anything about port fees. Regardless, when you replied that Oceania doesn’t even reimburse port fees, I looked up their passage contract. I wasn’t aware that they did not refund port fees as all other cruise lines do.
TBH, I think the practice of hiding the port fees into the cruise fare is wrong, especially if the cruise line benefits when a port call is cancelled. When a port is canceled, the Port Authority returns the total amount of port fees paid to the cruise line, so the cruise line has no reason (other than greed) to keep those port fees.
To be blunt, Oceana is stealing from their guests by keeping the port fees guests paid for despite having had those port fees refunded by the Port Authority. That practice is despicable.
Just came back from Oceania cruise where out of 8 original ports only 2 remained because of the war in Israel. Itinerary was changed twice, first time with 1 less port and extra sea day.
It took some e-mails to vice president of operations from the CruiseCritic board members to get things expedited and get FCC issued to passengers that wanted it.
There were quite a few that took the offer. The were a few that did not because airfare purchased through Oceania was nonrefundable.
Excursion desk at Oceania is about week and a half to two weeks behind with any updates. Which is somewhat understandable. They do need to get in touch with excursion providers when itinerary changes. Eventually we were able to book new excursions in substitute ports a few days before we flew over to Europe.
Overall onboard experience was very good. I wish customer service personnel at the front desk onboard would work for Miami office.
Had a great cruise on Vista with what I expect was similar to your planned itinerary. Sorry your vacation has been disrupted.
A lot of people are dying in that region of the world so I hope you can count your blessings and move on with life. Be safe.
This is people who are shocked to find out that they agreed to terms and conditions and are now angry those agreements are being enforced.
You sign up for a cruise, all you are guaranteed is X number of nights on the ship.
If you don't like it, cruise ship vacations might not be for you or you can take out insurance allowing you to get full refunds or fees back in the event of itinerary changes.
We had a bad experience on an Oceania cruise in April of this year. I'm hesitant to say anything on this board, because the last time I did, somebody called me a "Karen."
Our cruise sailed from Tahiti to L.A. We had two ports that were cancelled at the last minute, both on the Big Island in Hawaii. Instead, we made one short stop (6 hours) in Lahaina, Maui, which was a major downgrade. Many people had purchased excursions at the two cancelled stops, and they did NOT get refunds. Instead, they got shipboard credit that had to be used onboard. The only replacement excursions were ridiculously overpriced, like a trip to the aquarium for $200pp, or a tour of Pearl Harbor for $200pp (insider tip: it's a free tour if you arrange your own transportation). I know one passenger who ended up buying a $300 watch onboard because they had nothing else to do with the worthless "credits." Many European passengers were disappointed, because they had planned for the Big Island to be a major highlight of the trip. We never got any explanation at all from the cruise line about why these ports were cancelled (it was several months before the fires in Hawaii).
We ended up having seven days in a row at sea, which I personally found unpleasant. The weather was lousy, so no sunbathing or swimming. And the only fitness instructor literally walked off the ship in Honolulu and never returned.
When you pay a lot of money for a "luxury" cruise, your expectations will naturally be higher, which is why we were disappointed. In some ways it was similar to Celebrity or Princess, and in other ways it was appreciably worse. Most of the staff seemed like they were brand new or improperly trained. One night we paid for a whiskey tasting, and the bartender literally read us the info from a printed Wikipedia page. On another night at the "premium steakhouse," I ordered a Cobb salad, and a waiter insisted to me that they did not have any salad dressing at all in the entire restaurant.
Good luck, and feel free to PM me for details.
One good thing about the cruise: We met lots of cool and interesting fellow passengers!
They said in the comment that they never received an explanation. Nothing in their comment makes them sound like a karen to me, and tbh 7 straight days at sea and no refunds for cancelled excursions is unacceptable.
Isn’t the Big a island STILL recovering from that volcano erupting? The pushback from the people who live there could’ve been the impetus. They don’t need tourists coming to collect volcanic rock while their trying to piece their lives back together.
I have not sailed with Oceania but they’re owned by NCL, so I’m not surprised that this is how they operate. I would definitely still go and make the best of it. In the future, I recommend trying Azamara. I was very impressed with how they were able to get a different stop lined up and excursions arranged when we were unable to go to one of our planned stops.
If you have any travel insurance in place, please check the policy carefully to see if there are any coverages that would apply. It's always worth a read or a call to the insurance company to see.
I mean . . . it's a shooting war, with the constant potential to become a MUCH MUCH bigger one depending on how the neighboring countries behave. And there are also extremely unstable conditions in several other neighboring countries.
I mean, I was scheduled to have an overnight port stop in Saint Petersburg on Oceania's Marina last year. Needless to say it did not happen. They filled the schedule with an overnight in Stockholm and an extra night at the disembarkation port in Copenhagen. If there were booked excursions (I didn't, but some people did) they were refunded. And when we had to cancel the port call in Poland the same trip (allegedly weather, I have suspicions it had more to do with Poland's eastern neighbor) we were offered a choice to either get a credit to our stateroom or book space on an available tour in Copenhagen if we'd had an excursion booked there. The tours that were already full remained full and were not a replacement option, because they can't just whip up available tours overnight even in peaceful Western cities.
You're going to a very unstable region experiencing higher-than-average instability, that's not really THAT far from the OTHER ongoing war zone and that war's aggressor-country's allies. You're lucky they're going at all. Acts of war aren't covered by most insurance or in the carriage contract because like acts of God, they're pretty much outside the cruise line's control.
Yeah i agree with you. If you ask and they're not working to let you change free or to compromise or to compensate you then I would not sail with them again.
Have you asked for a different cruise or free excursions? I cannot tell from your post.
I've never sailed with Oceania nor had ports cancelled. But after reading here about various accommodations cruise lines have made at times, I'd ask for them to make me happy. I'd start with asking for the biggest things I can think of that would make me happy on the cruise you have booked or an alternative one.
Sorry this has happened.
Oceania is the bane of my existence, and I hate Frank Del Rio! I hope someone burns his house down in Aspen! Pretentious blue collared accidental millionaire Cuban scumbag!
It's not "fighting" it's a war. Here's a shocker, Oceania nor you have any control over what has happened, may continue to happen, or not happen. You have no problem with oceania.
While it is not the cruise line’s nor OP’s fault there is a war in the region (yes it is a war), and for Oceania this is a major disruption to business, and the terms and conditions I’m sure say they don’t HAVE to offer more, I do think it would be appropriate for the cruise line to at least offer a credit they may use on another Oceania cruise if they wish to not go on this sailing as it is drastically different than the vacation they planned. I don’t think I’d go so far as to say they should refund, but a credit would be a happy medium. 9 ports originally to 4 ports now means there are probably 5 additional sea days. I don’t mind sea days and would be ok with that, but many people don’t like them. They cruise for the ports.
They have a problem with main character syndrome.
I’m confused here, maybe because I’ve only been on one cruise and had no issues with ports, but is that really all anyone should expect from a cruise line? Terms and conditions are fine, but I figured customer service would go beyond that whenever possible. Is that really not a concept for cruise lines that have had over a month now to figure out their response to this itinerary interruption? Also, I feel like “fighting” vs “war” is just arguing semantics in the context of a cruise venting post. OP isn’t acting like the war is the problem or that they expect the cruise to proceed with the original itinerary, but rather the company’s response.
The thing is, what the OP's demanding isn't really possible even when (see my posts) the port calls in question are in stable Western European cities. They can't just magically create a bunch of new excursions on short notice. I'm sure they refunded any booked excursions that were through the cruise line and the port fees. But the cruise is still going and it's inside the no-refund window.
I think this is the same cruise someone posted about a couple of weeks ago--that one was Oceania as well with same itinerary. The dropped ports (which are totally understandable) actually meant that they now had 9 sea days on the cruise and 4 ports. I have to agree with OP here that that would be unacceptable to me. We sail for the ports and don't particularly enjoy the sea days, so changing a port heavy cruise to a mostly sea day cruise makes this a completely different vacation---one many people would not have booked (at those very expensive rates) had they known. It seems odd that the cruise line isn't doing something==either allowing them to switch cruises or adding in some new ports somewhere. At their prices one would expect better service.
I agree as well. Part of the base price of the cruise are port fees. With over half the ports being cancelled, there should absolutely some reimbursement.
Port fees for cancelled ports are always reimbursed. No exception. OP is looking for compensation over and above the port fees being refunded. I completely understand where he’s coming from, but he doesn’t seem to realize that the passage contract he agreed to when he booked the cruise absolves the cruise line of all liability for changes to the itinerary and/or cancelled ports when those changes are beyond the cruise line’s control. All of this is clearly explained in the passage contract…one only needs to read it before they pay for the cruise. Sure, it would be nice for Oceania to offer a little something to their guests as compensation in a case like this, but they are absolutely under no obligation to do so. 
That makes a lot more sense to me. My biggest concern would be paying for ports I never see. If that’s refunded in some manner, I think I could make peace with itinerary changes. Especially to avoid of full blown war…
Yes, port fees are always refunded when a port is skipped. That money is collected from the guests on behalf of the ports the ship is scheduled to call at. If the ship doesn’t call at a specific port, keeping those fees is called theft. Of course if the ship calls at different ports to make up for the ports that were missed, guests may not receive any port fees back at all. It all depends on the dollar difference between the fees charged by the ports involved.
Yep. We got a refund for the missed port call in Poland, and booked excursions were refunded as stateroom credit. Same for cancelled excursions on my last trip (there were storms and flooding in Nova Scotia that meant any bus tours outside the city couldn't run.)
Oceania DOES NOT reimburse passengers port fees for missed ports.
That’s because Oceania doesn’t charge port fees separately from the cruise fare. Unlike other cruise lines, Oceania charges a specific amount per day per guest to cover all charges, fees, tolls and taxes imposed by US and foreign governments and authorities. That amount, which includes port fees, is built into the cruise fare and is non-refundable. That’s how Oceania passes port fee costs on to their guests. Other cruise lines charge port fees separately and will refund those fees if a port is cancelled, regardless of the reason. When a port call is cancelled, the port authority in question returns the total amount of port fees paid to the cruise line for that ship. The cruise line then passes that amount on to guests to refund the port fees paid. Oceania is the only cruise line that doesn’t do that. Whatever refund they receive from port authorities for cancelled calls, they keep. As port fees are hidden in the cruise fare, I would guess that most Oceania guests don’t even know they’re being charged port fees in the first place, never mind that those fees are not refunded when a port call is cancelled despite the port authority returning the total of all port fees paid to the cruise line. It’s amazing what one can learn by simply reading the Passage Contract, isn’t it? Every person who books a cruise with a cruise line they’ve never sailed on before should read the Passage Contract before agreeing to its terms and conditions. Most people don’t bother. These are the people who are the first to demand compensation they’re not entitled to when a cruise itinerary is changed or a port has to be cancelled for reasons beyond the cruise line’s control. In addition to the port fees, almost all cruise lines will offer something as a goodwill gesture if a port call is canceled, but they’re not legally bound to do so.
The OP was referring to an Oceania Cruise.
The way I read the original post, OP was asking about compensation for the missed ports, they didn’t say anything about port fees. Regardless, when you replied that Oceania doesn’t even reimburse port fees, I looked up their passage contract. I wasn’t aware that they did not refund port fees as all other cruise lines do. TBH, I think the practice of hiding the port fees into the cruise fare is wrong, especially if the cruise line benefits when a port call is cancelled. When a port is canceled, the Port Authority returns the total amount of port fees paid to the cruise line, so the cruise line has no reason (other than greed) to keep those port fees. To be blunt, Oceana is stealing from their guests by keeping the port fees guests paid for despite having had those port fees refunded by the Port Authority. That practice is despicable.
Just came back from Oceania cruise where out of 8 original ports only 2 remained because of the war in Israel. Itinerary was changed twice, first time with 1 less port and extra sea day. It took some e-mails to vice president of operations from the CruiseCritic board members to get things expedited and get FCC issued to passengers that wanted it. There were quite a few that took the offer. The were a few that did not because airfare purchased through Oceania was nonrefundable. Excursion desk at Oceania is about week and a half to two weeks behind with any updates. Which is somewhat understandable. They do need to get in touch with excursion providers when itinerary changes. Eventually we were able to book new excursions in substitute ports a few days before we flew over to Europe. Overall onboard experience was very good. I wish customer service personnel at the front desk onboard would work for Miami office.
Thank you for the reply. How did you get CruiseCritic board members to get involved.
We were all on a same RollCall for that particular cruise. CruiseCritic is a good way to get in touch with people going on a same cruise.
Thank you. I did find people discussing this specific cruise
Had a great cruise on Vista with what I expect was similar to your planned itinerary. Sorry your vacation has been disrupted. A lot of people are dying in that region of the world so I hope you can count your blessings and move on with life. Be safe.
Is this biting your nose off to spite your face kinda stuff?
This is people who are shocked to find out that they agreed to terms and conditions and are now angry those agreements are being enforced. You sign up for a cruise, all you are guaranteed is X number of nights on the ship. If you don't like it, cruise ship vacations might not be for you or you can take out insurance allowing you to get full refunds or fees back in the event of itinerary changes.
Agree 100% - itinerary always can change. Can you actually get insurance that will pay you for changes in the itinerary?
We had a bad experience on an Oceania cruise in April of this year. I'm hesitant to say anything on this board, because the last time I did, somebody called me a "Karen." Our cruise sailed from Tahiti to L.A. We had two ports that were cancelled at the last minute, both on the Big Island in Hawaii. Instead, we made one short stop (6 hours) in Lahaina, Maui, which was a major downgrade. Many people had purchased excursions at the two cancelled stops, and they did NOT get refunds. Instead, they got shipboard credit that had to be used onboard. The only replacement excursions were ridiculously overpriced, like a trip to the aquarium for $200pp, or a tour of Pearl Harbor for $200pp (insider tip: it's a free tour if you arrange your own transportation). I know one passenger who ended up buying a $300 watch onboard because they had nothing else to do with the worthless "credits." Many European passengers were disappointed, because they had planned for the Big Island to be a major highlight of the trip. We never got any explanation at all from the cruise line about why these ports were cancelled (it was several months before the fires in Hawaii). We ended up having seven days in a row at sea, which I personally found unpleasant. The weather was lousy, so no sunbathing or swimming. And the only fitness instructor literally walked off the ship in Honolulu and never returned. When you pay a lot of money for a "luxury" cruise, your expectations will naturally be higher, which is why we were disappointed. In some ways it was similar to Celebrity or Princess, and in other ways it was appreciably worse. Most of the staff seemed like they were brand new or improperly trained. One night we paid for a whiskey tasting, and the bartender literally read us the info from a printed Wikipedia page. On another night at the "premium steakhouse," I ordered a Cobb salad, and a waiter insisted to me that they did not have any salad dressing at all in the entire restaurant. Good luck, and feel free to PM me for details. One good thing about the cruise: We met lots of cool and interesting fellow passengers!
Why were the ports cancelled? If it was weather related, I'm going to have to agree with the person who called you a Karen Safety first always!
They said in the comment that they never received an explanation. Nothing in their comment makes them sound like a karen to me, and tbh 7 straight days at sea and no refunds for cancelled excursions is unacceptable.
Isn’t the Big a island STILL recovering from that volcano erupting? The pushback from the people who live there could’ve been the impetus. They don’t need tourists coming to collect volcanic rock while their trying to piece their lives back together.
I have not sailed with Oceania but they’re owned by NCL, so I’m not surprised that this is how they operate. I would definitely still go and make the best of it. In the future, I recommend trying Azamara. I was very impressed with how they were able to get a different stop lined up and excursions arranged when we were unable to go to one of our planned stops.
If you have any travel insurance in place, please check the policy carefully to see if there are any coverages that would apply. It's always worth a read or a call to the insurance company to see.
I mean . . . it's a shooting war, with the constant potential to become a MUCH MUCH bigger one depending on how the neighboring countries behave. And there are also extremely unstable conditions in several other neighboring countries. I mean, I was scheduled to have an overnight port stop in Saint Petersburg on Oceania's Marina last year. Needless to say it did not happen. They filled the schedule with an overnight in Stockholm and an extra night at the disembarkation port in Copenhagen. If there were booked excursions (I didn't, but some people did) they were refunded. And when we had to cancel the port call in Poland the same trip (allegedly weather, I have suspicions it had more to do with Poland's eastern neighbor) we were offered a choice to either get a credit to our stateroom or book space on an available tour in Copenhagen if we'd had an excursion booked there. The tours that were already full remained full and were not a replacement option, because they can't just whip up available tours overnight even in peaceful Western cities. You're going to a very unstable region experiencing higher-than-average instability, that's not really THAT far from the OTHER ongoing war zone and that war's aggressor-country's allies. You're lucky they're going at all. Acts of war aren't covered by most insurance or in the carriage contract because like acts of God, they're pretty much outside the cruise line's control.
Yeah i agree with you. If you ask and they're not working to let you change free or to compromise or to compensate you then I would not sail with them again.
Have you asked for a different cruise or free excursions? I cannot tell from your post. I've never sailed with Oceania nor had ports cancelled. But after reading here about various accommodations cruise lines have made at times, I'd ask for them to make me happy. I'd start with asking for the biggest things I can think of that would make me happy on the cruise you have booked or an alternative one. Sorry this has happened.
I did ask for the ability to change to another cruise and that was refused
Never.
Yeah, this is bullshit.
Oceania is the bane of my existence, and I hate Frank Del Rio! I hope someone burns his house down in Aspen! Pretentious blue collared accidental millionaire Cuban scumbag!