I didn’t know it was common practice either. And I agree, it takes time to find the “right” cruise for you. I was particularly upset as it was the itinerary that I loved. I’ve been to the Caribbean many times, as I started cruising as a kid in 1968, but this particular cruise had many stops/islands I had not been to. Thus, the following week’s cruise, which we are taking, does not repeat the itinerary that I had wanted. The reason we did not take a future cruise credit was due to the fact we have adult children with us who want to start a family. They postponed starting until after this cruise as there are restrictions for sailing when pregnant.
There was a great itinerary on Regent that we supposed to take to the Middle East in April 2020. Dubai to Rome. 21 days. Of course, it was cancelled. And that same itinerary has never been repeated. It ended with some of our favorite places, Capri and Taormina. Thus, to your point, it can take a lot of time to plan a trip. Everyone takes a particular cruise for certain reasons. And the prices keep going up. Not sure the FCC monies allocated from the cruise lines per person covers the cost of the raising prices for the suites that you had booked?
I will say that in all the years I’ve been cruising, this is the first time I ve been “kicked” off a cruise because they charted out the entire ship. I hate to think this will become a common practice.
As for people who have been on ships that have been partially chartered out to private groups, you have my sympathy. I have never heard good things from passengers who have been on those cruises. It appears that those large groups tend to be loud, boisterous and take over the ship. As much as I enjoy having a good time, I don’t want to be around a bunch of cliques, as part of the enjoyment of cruising for us is meeting new people.
As far as cruise lines cancelling cruises before all the air deviations have been paid, etc., once I have a deposit down, I stop looking for another cruise in that same part of the world. It also comes down to cost. The 7 day cruises allow us to take our adult children. We have 2 more planned with them. My husband and I could obviously take more 14 plus day cruises, as we just got off the 14 day Tokyo to Tokyo cruise, but we love traveling with the “kids” (ages 32-40 now) and have always loved exposing them to the world. Epcot was not for me. And we are trying to get as many of them in with them before the little pitter-pat of feet join the family. I’m not a fan anymore of the mega ships (Regent spoiled me on that), so Disney may be out for us.
Thanks everyone for your thoughts and for joining the discussion.
victoria