Due to a propulsion issue with the Norwegian Joy cruise ship, the scheduled call to Cozumel was canceled, and the vessel is currently heading straight back home to Miami, Florida.
Norwegian Joy Issue
Norwegian Cruise Line confirms that the Norwegian Joy is suffering from a propulsion issue that is impacting its cruising speed. As a result, the scheduled call to Cozumel, Mexico, was canceled on March 17, 2022. Norwegian Joy was set to arrive at approximately 8:00 AM and not depart until the evening.
Norwegian Cruise Line provided Cruise Hive with the following statement: “On the evening of March 16, 2022, Norwegian Joy’s propulsion pod experienced minor technical issues, causing the vessel to slightly reduce its speed, impacting its docking and undocking mechanism. As a result, the ship’s call to Cozumel, Mexico scheduled for March 17, 2022, was canceled and instead the ship will proceed to Miami for repair.“
“All guests and crew are safe and onboard operations have not been impacted. We’re optimistic the issue will be resolved and will not impact her upcoming voyage scheduled for Saturday, March 19, 2022. We apologize to our guests for any inconvenience this may have caused and value their patience and understanding.”
The Cruise Ship Tracker showed the vessel making its way up to Cozumel after the call at Costa Maya, located further south. However, the NCL vessel just sailed past and did not dock.
Instead, the ship is sailing directly back to its homeport in Miami, Florida. Repairs are set to take place while at PortMiami. The following cruise is an identical seven-night Western Caribbean itinerary and is still set to go ahead.
Norwegian Joy is ending its seven-night voyage that departed PortMiami on March 12. The Western Caribbean itinerary includes calls to Roatan, Honduras; NCL’s private island of Harvest Caye, Belize; Costa Maya, Mexico; and Cozumel, which never occurred.
Propulsion issues are common for cruise ships, and the majority of the time, they can be fixed during an extended stay in port. Carnival Cruise Line suffered from some significant propulsion issues as recently as January when the Carnival Horizon was removed from service for an urgent dry dock in Europe.
The ship is part of the large Breakway-plus class, has 167,725 gross tons, and has a guest capacity of 3,804 at double occupancy. Norwegian Joy was built in 2017 and was last refurbished in 2019.
This comes during a difficult two weeks for Norwegian Cruise Line. Norwegian Escape ran aground in the Dominican Republic on Monday, March 16. The Norwegian Gem also canceled a scheduled to call St. Thomas to be able to make it back to New York. NCL also canceled Baltic sailings due to lower demand and the developing situation in Eastern Europe.
