Two Cruise Ships Skip St. John's Over Forecasted Weather

Princess Cruises’ Crown Princess and Oceania Cruises’ Oceania Vista canceled planned calls at St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, on Tuesday, July 14, after the city cited forecasted weather. The two ships had been due alongside at 8 a.m., putting roughly 4,300 lower-berth guests on sea days instead of downtown port visits in the provincial capital.

The cancellations removed both cruise calls scheduled for the day. Neither ship substituted another port; both remained at sea Tuesday before continuing toward their next scheduled destinations.

The City of St. John’s said the two ships, both scheduled for morning arrivals, “have been cancelled due to forecasted weather.” Conditions in the city included rain showers and winds around 20 mph, while the Government of Canada had no severe weather alerts in effect for St. John’s and no cyclone or hurricane was identified in the Atlantic.

Both ships continued at sea

Crown Princess was sailing next for Corner Brook, Newfoundland, with an arrival scheduled for July 16. Oceania Vista was due to continue across the Atlantic toward Grundarfjordur, Iceland, where it is scheduled to call on July 18.

The larger of the two ships was Crown Princess, with 3,090 lower berths. Oceania Vista has 1,200.

At St. John’s, cruise passengers normally disembark directly at downtown piers; the port has no dedicated cruise terminal building and is primarily a port-of-call operation.

World cruise and transatlantic passengers affected

Crown Princess is in the middle of a 114-night world cruise that began in Auckland on May 6, with additional embarkations in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Fremantle. The itinerary is scheduled to visit 48 destinations in 31 countries and six continents, including Canada and New England calls before the ship continues to Miami, transits the Panama Canal and returns toward Australia through South America.

Oceania Vista was operating a shorter 14-night one-way voyage from New York to Reykjavik. That sailing departed New York on July 9 and is scheduled to conclude in Iceland on July 23.

St. John’s waits for next cruise call

St. John’s is frequently affected by Atlantic weather systems because of its position on the eastern tip of Newfoundland. The next cruise call currently scheduled for the port is Holland America Line’s Zuiderdam on Aug. 18.

Before the end of August, the port is also scheduled to receive Holland America’s Volendam, Azamara’s Azamara Journey, Lindblad Expeditions’ National Geographic Explorer and Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Silhouette, weather permitting.