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Severe weather is causing more port cancellations and itinerary adjustments for Ambassador Cruise Line’s Ambition, currently sailing a 17-night “Land of Northern Lights” voyage that departed Bristol, UK on Friday, October 16, 2026.

Cruise Hive previously reported on changes to five ports on the itinerary due to Storms Austen and Boelo. Now, additional adjustments must be made as the severe weather continues.

“We’re sorry to share additional changes to Ambition’s itinerary which are needed due to the latest weather forecasts. We have continued to monitor conditions closely and have been working with our local agents and port authorities throughout,” the cruise line explained in a Facebook post late Monday, October 26.

The notification explained that southerly winds with gusts up to 28 knots (32 miles per hour) are forecast for Wednesday morning, October 28, when the ship has planned to visit Alesund.

“In these conditions, berthing and departing safely would present significant challenges, so the Captain has taken the difficult decision to cancel this call,” the notification read.

Instead, Ambition will now extend her visit to Molde on Tuesday, October 27 to an overnight stay and will depart on Wednesday, heading directly for Bergen with an expected arrival at 6 p.m. on Thursday, October 29. This arrival is later than the revised schedule had planned, and therefore the ship will also stay in Bergen overnight, not departing until Friday, October 30.

“Regrettably, this also means our scheduled call at Stavanger has been cancelled,” the cruise line noted.

The call to Stavanger had been arranged for Friday as part of the initial itinerary revisions, but now Ambition will depart Bergen and head directly back to Bristol for debarkation on Monday, November 2.

Guest Reactions Are Mixed

Commenters are having mixed reactions to so many changes on a single itinerary.

“Always disappointing for ports of call to be changed or cancelled, but after cruising regularly for 29 years now it is nothing new, you are at the mercy of the weather,” one commenter wrote on the latest itinerary update post.

“Putting the safety of all onboard first again. After seeing some footage today of another cruise line’s ship, I would say Ambassador Cruise Line [is] making some very wise decisions,” another said.

Some guests also questioned why another ship in the Ambassador Cruise Line fleet, Ambience, is currently sailing to northern ports seemingly without difficulty.

“Many missed ports…. weather was ok up north… should have stayed up there away from the storm down south and carried on with the itinerary ….. there’s a lot of unhappy people on board right now,” one guest described. “Ambience is still up there?!”

AIS tracking confirms that Ambience is visiting many of the ports that have been cancelled for Ambition, including Alta and Hammerfest, but the two ships are not the same.

The 48,123-gross ton Ambition has a passenger capacity of 1,200 guests, significantly smaller than the 70,285-gross ton Ambience with its capacity of 1,400 guests.

Both ships have 10 guest decks, which likely means that Ambition has a higher profile compared to the vessel’s overall gross tonnage. This would make Ambition more susceptible to the effects of strong winds, and each ship would have different navigational challenges in the Norwegian fjords.

Ambience is also a notably longer vessel at 811 feet compared to Ambition‘s 709 feet, and Ambience also has a deeper draft at 27 feet, whereas Ambition has a draft of just 23 feet.

These measurements could have a discernible impact on the ship’s overall stability in different weather conditions and may be one factor in why the two ships are handled differently in severe weather.

Storms Force Ambassador’s Ambition to Scrap Two More Norway Ports

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