The Saturday, December 14, 2019 voyage aboard the Holland America Line’s cruise ship Nieuw Amsterdam has been cancelled due to unexpected technical issue. The ship experienced problems with the Azipod propulsion which slowed the speed over the last night of the previous cruise resulting in late arrival at the homeport Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Nieuw Amsterdam was scheduled to sail on a 7 night Eastern Caribbean voyage, but the cruise ship did not leave the dock at Fort Lauderdale on Saturday. The cruise line notified all guests who have booked this cruise that it was canceled due to issue’s with one of the ship’s Azipod propellers and the ship will go to dry dock for repairs. Holland America Line released the following announcement:

“Due to an unexpected technical issue with one of two Azipod propulsion systems on Nieuw Amsterdam the roundtrip Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Dec. 14 Caribbean cruise has been canceled. While the ship can safely sail with one Azipod, to do so requires approval from several regulatory authorities which is still in progress. Given the impact of the delay on delivering a satisfactory itinerary for guests, a decision was made to cancel the cruise at 2 p.m. EDT today.

All guests have been notified of the cancellation and will have the choice of remaining on board overnight tonight alongside in Port Everglades or disembarking the ship this afternoon. Holland America Line is working with guests to assist with travel arrangements and provide support. Several guests have been re-booked on other Holland America Line cruises departing Fort. Lauderdale today.

Guests will receive a full refund of cruise fare and taxes paid, hotel package costs, prepaid shore excursions and amenities, and any additional travel fees resulting from rebooking air tickets. They will also receive a 100% Future Cruise Credit equal to the amount of the cruise fare paid.

All of us at Holland America Line are incredibly sorry to disappoint our guests and impact their vacation plans in this way. While these types of incidents are incredibly rare, we never cancel a cruise unless we have no choice.

It is not known at this time what impact there may be on upcoming Nieuw Amsterdam sailings. For the cruise scheduled to depart on Dec. 21, booked guests and their travel advisors will be notified no later than Tuesday, Dec. 17, at noon PDT/3 p.m. EDT if any adjustments are required.”