Key Aspects:
- Royal Caribbean has replaced the port of Sydney, Nova Scotia, with an extended visit to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, for at least two cruises.
- The impacted cruises are both 9-night sailings that embark from Cape Liberty, New Jersey, on September 18 and October 2 in 2025.
- The reason for the switch is unconfirmed, but many wonder if it has to do with the breakdown of the free shuttle service in Sydney.
Many future passengers of Liberty of the Seas who were looking forward to exploring Sydney, Canada, won’t get the chance to experience the Nova Scotia destination after all.
The Royal Caribbean cruise ship will soon be operating a handful of 9-night sailings to different destinations around New England and throughout Canada, coinciding with the famously beautiful fall season.
But for the voyages due to embark from Cape Liberty, New Jersey, on September 18, 2025, and October 2, 2025, the 3,634-guest vessel will no longer sail to Sydney as planned.
Instead, the day-long visits to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, that were already on the itinerary will be extended into overnight calls.
“We’re on the October 2nd sailing and were notified today that Sydney has been cancelled. Now overnighting in St John…..so this might happen to you all also,” one booked guest confirmed.
“It also happened on our sailing on Sept 18th. Our group of six are bummed,” another guest added.
Liberty of the Seas will still be visiting Boston, Massachusetts; Portland, Maine; and Halifax, Nova Scotia, on these voyages, as was called for on the original itinerary.
The Freedom-class cruise ship is also supposed to operate two more similar 9-night voyages to Canada that embark on September 4, 2025, and October 16, 2025, for which no changes have been announced publicly at this time.
But given the other changes, passengers booked on these voyages will want to keep an eye out for possible communications from Royal Caribbean.
Cruisers Want Answers
While itinerary changes can be disappointing, part of cruising is that the cruise lines may switch up ports of call for pretty much any reason.
This is usually a term that passengers agree to in their cruise contract when they first book their sailings.
But while Royal Caribbean fans understand that change is sometimes inevitable, many wished that they knew the reason behind this one. The cruise line apologized for the inconvenience, but did not provide its rationale.
“Why don’t they give us a reason for the change to the itinerary? I mean we are more than two months out from the cruise,” one passenger inquired.
“I will enjoy the cruise either way but it would be nice if they had the courtesy to let us know why they had to change the port,” another echoed.
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Though unconfirmed, the leading theory in this case is that the change has to do with the breakdown of the free shuttle service that transports passengers from Sydney’s second berth to the main terminal when more than one ship is present.
The second berth is rather far from the main Joan Harriss Cruise Pavilion terminal, making transportation a necessity.
“My daughter did some research and it seems the transportation bus is non operating and they have used the school bus for July and August but since school will be in session after that….maybe no transportation,” one passenger guessed.
“Some ships apparently had to hire private taxi and shuttle services and it was very slow so I think this led to them preemptively canceling the port as there’s no timetable for resolution,” another cruiser theorized.
According to cruise tracking data, a second cruise ship is scheduled to be in the port at the same time as Liberty of the Seas would have been for the September 18 and October 2 sailings.
Interestingly, she is the only ship scheduled during her planned visits for the voyages that so far remain unchanged.
