It didn't happen to us, but it just happened to our next-door neighbors, who had been looking forward to a couple of short back-to-back Caribbean cruises on Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.
As KIRO 7 TV in Seattle reports, the cruise line made the announcement Friday, January 7, "in an abundance of caution," a phrase most commonly employed as a euphemism for a "CYA exercise," cancelling cruise on four ships, two of which had been scheduled to sail January 8.
That's not exactly a lot of notice. They are giving customers reasonable refund and credit options, but it doesn't take away from the fact that customers like our neighbors might have already flown across the country to board the cruise.
Out of an abundance of research and good fortune, Bob and Carmen managed on extremely short notice to book a Princess cruise at exactly the same time, so it seems they'll still enjoy some January cruising, despite having RCCL pull the rug out from under them. They managed to book new flights, new hotels, and the new cruise within a couple of hours. They saved several hundred dollars in the process. On top of that, they're getting a full refund from RCCL plus a 100% future cruise credit, so RCCL is clearly trying to do the right thing by its cruise customers.
Our next cruise is another transatlantic on Oceania scheduled for March. We'll just have to wait and see...
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