Cruise Ships Consider More Amsterdam Port Changes Because of Environmental Protests

Large cruise ships are still planning on calling at Amsterdam this weekend, despite persistent issues caused by an environmental group protesting at the port.

There are two large cruise ships scheduled for the Port of Amsterdam over the next three days—Virgin Voyages’ Resilient Lady is scheduled to arrive at the port on Saturday, Aug. 31, and overnight, and Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Dawn is scheduled to dock on the morning of Monday, Sept. 2.

Spokespeople for both cruise lines told TMR that, even with the previous changes, neither has made any changes yet.

“There are no changes to Norwegian Dawn’s call to Amsterdam on Monday, Sept. 2,” the spokesperson for Norwegian told TMR.

Virgin’s statement, while confirming that Resilient Lady’s schedule hasn’t been changed, did leave room for an alternation to an alternate port.

“Our team is monitoring the situation closely and will make a determination soon as to whether we’ll dock in Amsterdam or consider a nearby, alternative port. Either way, we want to give our Sailors the chance to explore this charming European city,” the spokesperson said.

The issues in Amsterdam started earlier in August when the environmental group Extinction Rebellion caused several cruise ships, and an oil tanker, to delay or skip the port entirely after members tied themselves to lock gates.

First, on Aug. 10, the group stopped Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Seas from docking. The following day, Aug. 11, protesters returned and again blocked the lock, this time delaying Seven Seas Mariner by about three hours.

The same protestors again stopped Serenade of the Seas on Aug. 18. The same day, a ship from the British cruise line Ambassador Cruise Line switched its port of call to Ijmuiden in fear of a possible blockade.

Disney Cruise Line then made the decision to skip the port entirely on Disney Dream and sail on to Zeebrugge (Bruges) in Belgium this week.