Three Southern Caribbean cruises and one Eastern Caribbean sailing onboard Carnival Vista will be ending with a different port of call than expected.
Guests sailing on Carnival Cruise Line’s Vista-class flagship on 8-night cruises that are due to embark from Florida’s Port Canaveral on April 19, 2025, May 3, 2025, May 17, 2025, and June 14, 2025, all received a notice of the change.
All of these sailings were supposed to visit Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos, as their final port call of the trip. But in each case, this visit has been replaced with a day in Amber Cove, Dominican Republic – which is home to a private destination that is owned and operated by Carnival.
“Replaced Grand Turk with a visit to Amber Cover and adjusted time in port. Purchased Carnival shore excursions for Grand Turk will be cancelled and refunded to the original form of payment. Tours for Amber Cove will be available for purchase on Carnival.com and on board,” Carnival wrote to booked guests.
The May 3, 2025, sailing, which is the only Eastern Caribbean itinerary in the mix, will also be getting modified port times for the visit to San Juan, Puerto Rico, that is scheduled for May 8, 2025.
“Port times for San Juan have been modified,” the cruise line’s letter states, without elaborating on the new times.
Currently, cruise tracking data lists the time in port as 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time, but this is subject to change.
Aside from Grand Turk and San Juan, the remaining calls on the Eastern Caribbean sailing, which are on Charlotte Amalie, US Virgin Islands, and Philipsburg, St. Maarten, will go ahead as originally planned.
The other three Southern Caribbean itineraries will call on Oranjestad, Aruba, and Willemstad, Curacao, in addition to Amber Cove.
A Perplexing Change
Since Carnival did not provide a reason for the change to these itineraries, cruise fans will, unfortunately, be left scratching their heads.
This tweak may also be particularly confusing, as the 3,934-guest Carnival Vista will be operating the same and similar itineraries through July of 2025 – and will be calling on Grand Turk as part of voyages before and after the impacted sailings.
After July, the 133,500-gross ton vessel will pivot to operating Caribbean itineraries that include calls on Celebration Key – which is Carnival’s new island destination that is debuting this summer.
At the end of the day, cruise lines modify itineraries for a variety of reasons that could be at play here, such as congestion within ports or altering course for fuel efficiency.
Safety is also very likely not the issue either, considering other calls are not cancelled and the port is only under a Level 2 Travel Advisory from the US Government, which indicates that guests should exercise caution during their visit.
Read Also: Amber Cove, Dominican Republic: Everything You Need to Know
It also makes sense that Carnival might want to direct more tourism to Amber Cove, especially if they already needed to alter these itineraries for other reasons, as the cruise line owns and operates this private destination.
The 30-acre retreat, which opened in 2015, is located at Maimón in the province of Puerto Plata and is used exclusively by Carnival Cruise Line and its sister brands.
The destination is known for bringing the fun of the Fun Ships to the shore with watersports, dining opportunities, shopping, pools and splash zones, and adrenaline-filled shore excursions, such as ziplining.
