After announcing the cancellation of 35 sailings across four ships last week, Norwegian Cruise Line is making another alteration that affects a late 2025 sailing on the newly refurbished Norwegian Joy.
Originally set to depart on Saturday, December 6, 2025, the cruise will now begin a day earlier, on Friday, December 5, 2025.
The reason? Apparently, the 167,725-gross-ton ship’s homeport, Port Canaveral, has limited availability for Saturday departures.
In an email sent to guests and travel partners, Norwegian Cruise Line stated, “Sometimes issues arise, and our itineraries need to be altered. From time to time, ports may become unavailable due to various reasons such as port congestion, maintenance work, or external events.”
Citing Port Canaveral as the reason for the change that is “unfortunately outside of our control and can happen even after we have confirmed dates and times,” the cruise line promised upcoming passengers it is working hard to provide “a smooth and enjoyable journey.”
Instead of departing on December 6 for a 7-night roundtrip voyage to the Dominican Republic and US and British Virgin Islands, along with a call at Norwegian’s private Bahamas destination, Great Stirrup Cay, the itinerary has been moved up by a day.
Although call times remain intact in Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic and St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, time in port has been adjusted for the Tortola, British Virgin Islands, and Great Stirrup Cay visits.
The Tortola stop will arrive 45 minutes later than scheduled, at 6:45 a.m., but will also have a later sail away, at 2 p.m. The ship’s Bahamas visit, however, loses an hour by arriving at 10 a.m. instead of 9 a.m.
Passengers will need to adjust arrival and departure times and may want to check with any pre-planned excursions to ensure the times do not affect plans, but Norwegian Cruise Line will automatically adjust arrangements booked through them.
Port Canaveral’s Super Saturday Spurs Change
Port Canaveral, the second-busiest port in the world, does have a busy Saturday lined up for December 6, 2025. As the homeport of 20 vessels in 2024, the port features six cruise terminals and often handles up to 10 cruises per day.
The port is expected to both welcome and watch departures of six other major cruise ships that day. These include Royal Caribbean International’s Adventure of the Seas, Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Freedom and Mardi Gras, Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Apex, MSC Cruises’ MSC Grandiosa, and the new Disney Treasure by Disney Cruise Line.
These ships can accommodate a total of 26,531 passengers and nearly 9,300 crew members, meaning that up to approximately 44,000 people will descend upon the port that welcomed 7.6 million guests in fiscal 2024.
December 5, however, is a lighter day, with only three other ships visiting, including Carnival Glory, Disney Wish, and Royal Caribbean’s Utopia of the Seas.
Read Also: Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas: What You Need to Know
It is unsure why Norwegian Joy, with its 3,776 passengers, got bumped from its Saturday slot, but it’s worth noting that just last week, Norwegian Cruise Line announced the cancellation of nine voyages on Norwegian Joy set to depart from the port between November 2025 and April 2026.
Passengers on other Norwegian Joy sailings received similar notices for dates in 2026, but those have yet to be confirmed.
One of the cancellations included a November 29, 2025, sailing that was scheduled to arrive in port on December 6, so perhaps the cruise line sealed its own fate.
The cruise line also cancelled 10 cruises on Norwegian Breakaway that were set to take place from Port Canaveral between January 6 and February 6, 2026.
