Weather Conditions Cause More Itinerary Changes for Crown Princess
Only a few days ago on June 24, 2025, guests onboard Crown Princess for her world cruise learned that inclement weather would be changing up the itinerary while sailing around South Africa.
Deciding to wait for more favorable conditions, the 3,090-guest ship added a port call on Durban, and pushed back the planned visits to Cape Town (South Africa) and Walvis Bay (Namibia).
The stop at Cape Town changed from June 25 to an overnight stay on June 28 and June 29. This meant that the planned call on Walvis Bay then had to be moved from June 28 to July 1.
However, continued poor weather and the domino effect of making these tweaks have now impacted more of the itinerary.
The cruise line sent a letter to passengers on June 26, 2025: “As you are aware, our call dates for Cape Town, South Africa and Walvis Bay, Namibia have been amended. After leaving Walvis Bay, we will no longer call to Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands on Sunday, 6 July, and will spend that day at sea.”
Instead of calling on Mindelo, the 113,561-gross ton ship will head toward Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which is replacing a now cancelled visit to Gran Canaria (Los Palmas) in the Canary Islands.
“We will proceed to Santa Cruz de Tenerife for a call on Thursday, 10 July, which has replaced our visit to Gran Canaria (Las Palmas), Canary Islands originally scheduled for 9 July,” the update continued.
Finally, the visit to Casablanca, Morocco, has been pushed back by one day. Unfortunately, this means that the Princess cruise ship will no longer be able to sail to Gibraltar, UK, on July 12.
“Additionally, our visit to Casablanca (for Marrakech), Morocco will take place on Saturday, 12 July rather than 11 July, and as a result, we will no longer call to Gibraltar,” the letter reads.
Guests who pre-booked tours through the cruise line at the now cancelled port calls will automatically receive refunds in their onboard accounts.
Meanwhile, passengers who booked tours in Casablanca will be able to use their existing tickets for their pre-reserved excursion on the new visit date.
Will Weather Continue to Impact the World Cruise?
Crown Princess really only recently embarked on her current 113-night sailing from Auckland, New Zealand, on May 31, 2025.
However, the first month of the voyage has been plagued by strong winds and stormy weather.
Just one week into the voyage on June 6, 2025, the 2006-launched ship encountered rough seas while sailing near the border of Victoria and South Australia.
The wind shifted unexpectedly from 45 knots on one side of the ship to 50 knots on the other, causing the vessel to list 7° and resulting in the Captain’s decision to turn the ship around.
While listing 6° to 7° is not necessarily considered unusual, the surprise tilting still did a fair amount of damage onboard.
Several glass displays shattered, merchandise in the stores was thrown to the floor, and many activities had to be cancelled or closed due to safety concerns.
Read Also: Rough Seas on a Cruise Ship – How They Handle It
Just one day before it was determined that Durban would be added to the massive itinerary (June 23), Crown Princess also found herself in an area that was under a level 4 damaging wave warning and gale-force wind alerts.
This is actually what led to Durban, which is on the east coast of Africa, being added to the itinerary. The Captain decided it was best to avoid the south coast of Africa until the weather passed.
Previously, the ship had also diverted south of Madagascar to bypass another storm.
It’s hard to say at this point if the remaining three months or so of the world cruise will be smoother sailing, as we don’t have a crystal ball to predict the future for us.
But rest assured with the knowledge that a cruise ship is one of the safest places to be during a storm and that the bridge team is constantly monitoring the forecasts to avoid the worst of the weather.
Weather Conditions Cause More Itinerary Changes for Crown Princess