Key Aspects:
- Norwegian Sun experienced a loss of propulsion during its current 9-night sailing from Denmark to Finland.
- The NCL ship was forced to skip its visit to Stockholm, Sweden, on June 22, but did make its visit to Tallinn, Estonia, on June 23.
- At this time, the technical difficulties are not expected to impact the following voyage, which embarks on June 24.
Norwegian Sun’s current 9-night Baltic sailing is ending on a low note due to technical difficulties impacting the ship’s propulsion.
Reports have surfaced on social media indicating that the planned visit to Nynashamn, Sweden, which provides access to Stockholm, was cancelled on June 22, 2026, due to propulsion issues.
“Currently on NCL Sun and will be missing our port call in Sweden today due to lack of propulsion. Trip had been going great until now. Weather is gorgeous here too which adds to the sting,” one of the up to 1,878 guests onboard posted on Reddit on June 22.
“Looking out the window now and it seems we are dead in the water as we make our way to Estonia,” the current guest continued.
The news was also confirmed by another current passenger on Facebook.
Prior to the cancelled call in Stockholm, the 78,309-gross ton vessel successfully visited Oslo, Norway; Warnemunde-Rostock, Germany; Gdynia-Gdansk, Poland; Klaipeda, Lithuania; and Riga, Latvia.
According to cruise tracking data, the NCL ship was also able to make its final call on the itinerary as planned to Tallinn, Estonia, on June 23.
At the end of her visit, she departed on time at 8 p.m. As of the time of this writing, the cruise ship is sailing toward Helsinki, Finland, at speeds of 7 knots.
But while this seems slow, Helsinki is quite close to Tallinn with only around 40 nautical miles between the destinations. The ship should arrive in Helsinki on time for disembarkation on the morning of June 24.
Will the Next Itinerary Be Impacted?
At this time, there is no known impact to the next cruise, which is the reverse of the sailing the Sun-class flagship will have just completed.
The June 24 cruise will sail from Helsinki back to Copenhagen, Denmark, which is where the current June 15 voyage embarked, over the course of nine days.
At this time, there have been no public announcements indicating that itinerary changes will be necessary or that repairs will need to be completed in port before heading back out to sea. It’s also not known what caused the propulsion issues in the first place.
Sometimes the onboard engineers can fix the problem mid-voyage, while more complicated issues may require the ship to stay in port to finish the work.
Cruise Hive reached out to Norwegian Cruise Line for more information about the situation, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Are Propulsion Problems Common?
Propulsion issues aren’t exactly common, but they do happen from time to time. With ships essentially operating 24/7, 365 days per year, sometimes onboard systems simply get out of whack.
But with several propulsion issues recently making the news, it can feel like this is a situation that is getting more common.
For example, Cruise Hive has covered propulsion issues for Norwegian Bliss, Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas, and Holland America Line’s Zaandam in the past month alone.
“Is it just me or is ‘loss of propulsion’ becoming a more common issue? Or is this just something to be expected on older ships,” the Reddit user inquired.
It’s important to acknowledge that there are hundreds (if not thousands) of sailings that don’t become headlines because everything is operating normally.
And to Norwegian’s credit, the cruise company does its best to maintain its fleet. Even though Norwegian Sun is an older ship with a 2001 launch year, she visits dry dock routinely and was most recently refurbished in 2024.
In her decades at sea, the ship has only ever experienced propulsion or power issues in 2011 and 2023, so technical difficulties are clearly few and far between.
