Key Aspects:
- Princess Cruises is removing Istanbul embarkations from multiple 2027 Mediterranean sailings.
- Guests are sharing notices of schedule changes taking place on Enchanted Princess and Sun Princess.
- New embarkation ports are Trieste, Italy, and Athens, Greece.
A planned overnight stay in Istanbul is disappearing from multiple 2027 Princess Cruises sailings, leaving some booked guests rethinking long-planned Mediterranean vacations.
Passengers booked on the September 14, 2027, Enchanted Princess voyage from Istanbul have learned the ship is moving embarkation to Trieste, Italy, reshaping the Eastern Mediterranean portion of the sailing.
“Please be advised that due to deployment changes, your Enchanted Princess voyage will now embark in Trieste (for Venice), Italy, on September 14, 2027, rather than in Istanbul, Turkey,” read a notice from the cruise line.
Princess also told guests the 3,660-guest ship would no longer call on Kusadasi, Turkey, or Rhodes, Mykonos, or Crete (Chania), Greece. Those ports are being replaced with Zadar, Croatia; Bar and Kotor, Montenegro; and Corfu, Greece.
Guests who shared the notices online said the itinerary change communication did not mention compensation or future cruise credits.
The affected sailing was part of a longer Mediterranean deployment for the 145,000-gross-ton Enchanted Princess, which had been scheduled as a 31-night “Best of the Mediterranean” voyage from September 4 to October 5, 2027, sailing from Athens (Piraeus), Greece, to Trieste.
Istanbul was scheduled as a multi-day call from September 13 to 15, allowing new passengers to embark for the next segment. That larger sailing, which included Kusadasi before and after Istanbul, is also affected by the redeployment.
For many guests, the change is more than a routine port swap, with one passenger describing it as “a whole different cruise.”
More Istanbul Departures Disappear
The change appears to be part of a broader redeployment of Enchanted Princess in 2027, although Princess Cruises has not publicly announced the removal of Istanbul from itineraries.
A Reddit user shared what was described as a notice sent to travel advisors from Princess Cruises, indicating that select 2027 Mediterranean voyages for Enchanted Princess and sister ship Sun Princess are being adjusted.
According to the shared notice, the deployment adjustment “is due to Athens (Piraeus) port availability and commercial considerations related to Istanbul turnaround.”
Additional passengers reported receiving changes affecting May 22 and June 1, 2027, sailings on Enchanted Princess that had originally been scheduled to embark in Istanbul but now begin in Athens. The change also includes a new port stop in Heraklion.
Additionally, a passenger scheduled to sail July 4, 2027, from Istanbul on the 177,882-gross-ton Sun Princess received a notice that the vessel has also been revised to sail from Athens instead.
Port timetables still list several 2027 Enchanted Princess and Sun Princess sailings with Istanbul embarkations, but Princess Cruises’ own booking system no longer shows Istanbul as a departure option for new bookings.
Redeployment and itinerary adjustments more than a year in advance are common in the cruise industry, particularly when cruise lines are balancing port availability, turnaround logistics, and deployment planning across multiple ships and regions.
