Cruise ship makes unplanned, 1-day stop in Norfolk

[Jason]

Cruise ship makes unplanned, 1-day stop in Norfolk

By Gregory Richards, The Virginian-Pilot

NORFOLK –The cruise ship Norwegian Dawn and its roughly 2,400 passengers made an unplanned stop Monday evening at the city’s downtown cruise terminal because of a technical problem with its propulsion system and poor weather off North Carolina that blocked its route from New York to Florida.

The sudden influx of tourists was expected to provide an unexpected boost for downtown restaurants, nightclubs and the MacArthur Center mall, said Anthony DiFilippo, president and chief executive officer of the Norfolk Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The technical problem, however, did not prevent passengers from sleeping in their cabins Monday night.

The Dawn, owned by Norwegian Cruise Line of Miami, arrived at the Nauticus cruise terminal at about 6:45 p.m. Monday and is expected to leave at about 5 p.m. Tuesday. It sailed Sunday from New York on a seven-day cruise to Florida and the Bahamas.

The city was only notified of the ship’s visit Monday morning and officials spent the rest of the day scrambling to prepare for its arrival.

Construction equipment used for building the new cruise ship terminal had to be moved out of the way for the Dawn to access the temporary cruise terminal at the same site.

Also, the visitors bureau arranged to have Norfolk visitors guides handed out to passengers, and Phillips Tours of Norfolk set up two trips – one to Williamsburg and a Norfolk highlights tour, going to such places as Ghent and Norfolk Naval Station.

“It’ll be a great opportunity for us to showcase the city,” DiFilippo said.

The unplanned stop in Norfolk means the Dawn will spend less time in the Bahamas.

To compensate, Norwegian is offering the passengers a $100 per cabin on-board credit and 25 percent discount on a future cruise, said Norwegian spokeswoman AnneMarie Mathews.

[Mebert]

Congratulations to the Chamber of Commerce of Norfolk for quick thinking. It's great that the passengers were offered something to do while staying unexpectedly in Norfolk.

We all know how much fun one can have on a ship.

I only feel badly for those folks who had there hearts set on doing something specific in the Bahamas that was time sensitive.

[JohnG]

The passengers were so rowdy and upset that they put 20 local police aboard when it docked. After the 2nd day in port, and with a decision to return the ship to New York, they offered several local police to bring their family aboard for the trip to New York for free, if they would ride the ship back and provide onboard security.

[hazelson]

Good response from Norfolk - not many places could operate within that time frame.