Norwegian Cruise Line Cancels More Sailings

We haven’t even hit the halfway point of 2023 yet, and already cruise lines are canceling for 2025.

But such is the nature of the cruise industry. Always planning and always looking ahead.

Norwegian Cruise Line has canceled three European sailings aboard the Epic that were set for 2025.

There’s nothing wrong; the ship is scheduled to go into dry dock for maintenance.

But it accentuates a potentially troubling trend in the industry – if the schedules are so meticulous and a ship is scheduled to go into dried out, why put it on sale in the first place? It’s likely because the cruise lines know that many passengers will simply rebook instead of taking another ship. Well, the ship itself is important, even more important are the dates. NCL has canceled 13 cruises between December of 2023 and April of next year, for instance.

While NCL has guaranteed a full refund and a 10 percent discount on future cruises for the Epic cancelations, the window to rebook is sometimes short.

The Epic will go into dry dock after its transatlantic cruise in April of 2025. The Epic, which weighs in at more than 155,000 tons and was the largest cruise ship in the world at the time of its launch in 2009, can carry more than 4,000 passengers.

There is still time to book the ship, however.

The Epic has been repositioned to sail out of Port Canaveral, Florida, for the rest of the year to the Caribbean on seven-day cruises.