Six Cruise Calls Scrapped in Funchal as Storms Hit 10% of November Schedule

Six cruise ships skipped Funchal in four days, wiping out roughly 10% of the Madeira port's scheduled calls for November 2026 and an estimated 17,000 cruise guests from the five larger vessels alone.

Storms Bruna and Charles drove the cancellations in quick succession. Cunard's Queen Anne pulled out first on Sunday, November 8. P&O Cruises' Azura and TUI Cruises' Mein Schiff Relax followed on Monday, November 9, then Nicko Cruises' Vasco da Gama on November 10 and P&O's Iona on November 11. Ponant's 184-passenger Le Dumont-d'Urville, a much smaller expedition vessel, also skipped the port.

Portos da Madeira, the port authority, confirmed the cancellations on Facebook even as it welcomed AIDA Cruises' AIDAblu and Princess Cruises' Sky Princess on Tuesday, November 10 — the same day Iona had already decided against its Wednesday call.

Which losses can Madeira still recover?

The damage to shore-side revenue is uneven. Queen Anne's cancelled call was its only Funchal visit this month, part of a 12-night roundtrip from Southampton. Vasco da Gama also has no further November calls. The ship departed Hamburg on November 3 at the start of a 193-night world cruise and is now bound for the Canary Islands, Cape Verde and the Caribbean. Under a recent itinerary change, its guests will fly from Oman to Egypt in April while the vessel sails around Yemen without passengers, returning to Hamburg on May 15, 2027.

The other lines get second chances. Azura, which had already called on November 2, returns on November 16 and November 23. Mein Schiff Relax is back on November 18, and Iona on November 25. In short: the port loses two calls outright and four temporarily.

How badly was the port damaged?

Storm Charles damaged the port's marina and pontoons near Praça da Autonomia, and the Port of Funchal closed at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, November 10, as a precaution. Cleanup now covers cable repairs, debris removal, and restoration of the marina and fuel station.

"The port infrastructure of the Autonomous Region of Madeira performed relatively well in the face of the scale of this storm," said José Manuel Rodrigues, Regional Secretary for Economy of Madeira. The port says it is ready to resume full cruise operations.

Authorities are weighing a longer-term fix: relocating the marina's entrance to the old city quayside. That project needs funding that hasn't been secured, and implementation could take years.

What happens next?

The schedule rebounds quickly. Calls expected in the coming days include Norwegian Star, Cunard's Queen Victoria, Holland America Line's Volendam, AIDAprima, Ambition and MSC Virtuosa.

With the port reopening and four of the six affected ships rescheduled later in November, Funchal's November call volume should largely hold — provided no further storms test the marina before the retrofit question is answered.