Oasis incident at Freeport Shipyard

[ShillyShally]

3 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I’m thinking that if the odds were that high Royal would not be selling cabins on that sailing.  Currently cabins are available for all cruises starting May 5th.  While something could happen and another couple sailings could be cancelled I think the odds are pretty low.  

Agreed, they don't want to have to pay out double what they're taking in for those sailings if they have to cancel them - and while they wouldn't have to make the same refund, in these circumstances I think they almost have to.

[CarnivalCruiser32]

2 minutes ago, ShillyShally said:

Agreed, they don't want to have to pay out double what they're taking in for those sailings if they have to cancel them - and while they wouldn't have to make the same refund, in these circumstances I think they almost have to.

 

Why wouldn't they have to make the same refund as the previous canceled sailings?

[Paul in Phoenix]

7 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I’m thinking that if the odds were that high Royal would not be selling cabins on that sailing.  Currently cabins are available for all cruises starting May 5th.  While something could happen and another couple sailings could be cancelled I think the odds are pretty low.  

That is true, for now. As I said earlier... I hope that I am wrong. Just coming up with some contingency plans if needed. We would definitely prefer being on the ship. My guess is if we do sail, it will be without an aquatheater show. 

[scottish67]

1 minute ago, Paul in Phoenix said:

Just a guesstimate....  based off of:

 

Time to get to Cadiz? The trip is about 4,200 miles... at top speed, the ship would take 7 days to get there. At a slower speed, it would take 8 to 12 days to get there. Then I am guessing it will take a month in the dry dock, so that would move its availability to late May.  I hope I'm wrong!

 

Interesting, I would think if there is an 80% chance of cancellation of the May dates, RC would have at least stop selling rooms for any of those dates. If RC thinks it's unlikley to happen, one would think they'd at least put those dates on hold to prevent a unfortunate situation from becoming worse. 

 

Additionally, even if Oasis could magically make it to Cadiz tomorrow, it wouldn't matter because earlier reports from the newspapers in Cadiz state that they are expecting her arrival on 4/18, suggesting that be the first available time they'll have room for Oasis. 

 

Again, more and more speculation. I know we're all trying to soak up as much info as possible (I'm on 5/19) but at it's core, RC is a business and no business wants to lose more money and have even more bad press. 

[CarnivalCruiser32]

5 minutes ago, Paul in Phoenix said:

Just a guesstimate....  based off of:

 

Time to get to Cadiz? The trip is about 4,200 miles... at top speed, the ship would take 7 days to get there. At a slower speed, it would take 8 to 12 days to get there. Then I am guessing it will take a month in the dry dock, so that would move its availability to late May.  I hope I'm wrong!

I think that makes a lot of sense. The possibly too speedy repairs worries me more than the cruise getting canceled. I'd rather they just make sure everything is 100% fixed before allowing it to sail again and we just cruise another time. rather than rush to fix things just to make the date

[CarnivalCruiser32]

1 minute ago, scottish67 said:

 

Interesting, I would think if there is an 80% chance of cancellation of the May dates, RC would have at least stop selling rooms for any of those dates. If RC thinks it's unlikley to happen, one would think they'd at least put those dates on hold to prevent a unfortunate situation from becoming worse. 

 

Additionally, even if Oasis could magically make it to Cadiz tomorrow, it wouldn't matter because earlier reports from the newspapers in Cadiz state that they are expecting her arrival on 4/18, suggesting that be the first available time they'll have room for Oasis. 

 

Again, more and more speculation. I know we're all trying to soak up as much info as possible (I'm on 5/19) but at it's core, RC is a business and no business wants to lose more money and have even more bad press. 

If they don't yet know the true extent of the damage I don't think they'd stop selling cabins until they knew for sure but that's just my opinion. 

 

I personally don't think cancelling more sailings is bad press. Maybe to RCI it is but it hasn't seemed that way so far. They're doing right by their passengers and ensuring they don't sail on a ship that's damaged through no fault of RCI's own. I also just in general haven't seen Royal get any bad press for this - only heard good things about them concerning the treatment of passengers so far

[ptf2009]

23 minutes ago, Paul in Phoenix said:

We are on the May 12 trip as well. I think there is an 80% chance that we are cancelled. We are looking at options to fly / train around Italy and then grab a flight back to Barcelona in time for our flight home. We're just going to turn our lemons into lemonade. 

 

Just curious why you think there is an 80% chance that we will be cancelled? We are at the point that if it's cancelled, we will be made "whole" and will plan a cruise at another time. It's disappointing, for sure as it was a special anniversary celebration for us....but we have no control of the situation at this point.

[ptf2009]

6 minutes ago, CarnivalCruiser32 said:

I think that makes a lot of sense. The possibly too speedy repairs worries me more than the cruise getting canceled. I'd rather they just make sure everything is 100% fixed before allowing it to sail again and we just cruise another time. rather than rush to fix things just to make the date

 

Agree 100%...safety first!!!

[ShillyShally]

8 minutes ago, CarnivalCruiser32 said:

 

Why wouldn't they have to make the same refund as the previous canceled sailings?

Because they could change what they do at any time - these ones that were just cancelled were sudden and unexpected.  For those currently booked on the May cruises, yes, I'd hope they'd do the exact same thing, but there's no requirement they'd have to.

[CarnivalCruiser32]

1 minute ago, ptf2009 said:

 

Just curious why you think there is an 80% chance that we will be cancelled? We are at the point that if it's cancelled, we will be made "whole" and will plan a cruise at another time. It's disappointing, for sure as it was a special anniversary celebration for us....but we have no control of the situation at this point.

Exactly. I'd like to know sooner than later so we can start making arrangements but for us it's not really a problem. We'll just get our vacation days back from work and cruise at another time. We were supposed to celebrate a birthday but we can do that anywhere. we would just prefer that the ship be 100% fixed and 1000% safe before sailing again

[ShillyShally]

4 minutes ago, CarnivalCruiser32 said:

If they don't yet know the true extent of the damage I don't think they'd stop selling cabins until they knew for sure but that's just my opinion. 

 

I personally don't think cancelling more sailings is bad press. Maybe to RCI it is but it hasn't seemed that way so far. They're doing right by their passengers and ensuring they don't sail on a ship that's damaged through no fault of RCI's own. I also just in general haven't seen Royal get any bad press for this - only heard good things about them concerning the treatment of passengers so far

Agreed, their current approach is being taken well, especially given this was out of their control and how they're handling it.  I expect they will continue to do so if they have to cancel anything else.  

[Ourusualbeach]

12 minutes ago, CarnivalCruiser32 said:

 

Why wouldn't they have to make the same refund as the previous canceled sailings?

The only thing they “have” to do is provide a refund of the cruise fare.  In the last case they went well above that by issueing a FCC which they did not have to do.  

[mousefan73]

2 hours ago, scottish67 said:

 

I contacted RC yesterday and asked them if we could switch our May 19th sailing to a later date in June/July, understanding the uncertainty with Oasis. The response was that because the sailing is still scheduled, it's therefore not cancelled and if I wanted to make any changes, I'd be subject to the cancellation fees since our full payment has already been paid (was due back in February). I specifically asked if they could waive any fees due to situation and again, they replied that because it's still scheduled and they expect the sailing to happen, any cancellations I made would end up being very costly. 

 

I can't say I disagree with them because they last thing they want is a bunch of passengers...jumping ship... and then having the May dates be empty. I also tried to get some sort of time frame commitment as to when we'll know and the response was as soon as they know something, they'll email everyone. We're not tied to the May 19th sailing and could change if given advance noticed, however, if we're already en route to Barcelona (from Los Angeles) and it cancels at that late stage, we'd be very screwed. 

 

At this point, I think no news would be good news. RC most certainly doesn't want a repeat of the last week and if they know Oasis won't be ready, I'm sure they'll give everyone (especially the May sailings like me) as much notice as they can. 

Thanks for giving infos on what RC’d stand is on switching dates. I guess it’s wait and see. Worse case we decided we take our refund and do a land tour. Most likely a last minute cruise will out price us on other lines. We are a family if 4 and prefer balcony. We got 2 nights in Rome booked pre-cruise anyways. I’ll just be adding airbnbs in. We aren’t flexible date wise as the kids have those two weeks off only. Just my tweens will be bummed they really want to do the surf thing. 

[twangster]

FCC is not a requirement of the cruise contract.  It's offered above and beyond contractual obligations as a good will gesture.  

 

When Navigator ran over it's amplification and they cancelled the first cruise they offered 50% FCC.   Even that wasn't a requirement.

 

A refund is given, but anything beyond that is variable.  Also, cruise contracts written in the EU may have different regulations and consumer protection governing them.  

[ptf2009]

6 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

The only thing they “have” to do is provide a refund of the cruise fare.  In the last case they went well above that by issueing a FCC which they did not have to do.  

 

Yes, they don't have to do anything...however, because it is for the same reason that the other cruises were cancelled, people would naturally expect to get the same benefits. 

[mousefan73]

26 minutes ago, marshaatn said:

Hi, we are also concerned June Oasis passengers. I have only minimally checked into alternative plans in hopes that the repairs will be finished. Did you find alternative cruise options? I would be interested to know. Thank you!

We are embarking in Rome. Options on the 12th and 14th. 12th would work with our already booked flights. Kids would prefer the DCL believe on the 14th. But only if GTY rates come out and we would only pay for inside in DCL. There is another RC ship on the 13th Inbelieve. NCL on the 12 looks best to me. Depends on the price. We had a good deal on the Oasis 4400 usd sea side balcony 4 people. 

[chengkp75]

32 minutes ago, Paul in Phoenix said:

Just a guesstimate....  based off of:

 

Time to get to Cadiz? The trip is about 4,200 miles... at top speed, the ship would take 7 days to get there. At a slower speed, it would take 8 to 12 days to get there. Then I am guessing it will take a month in the dry dock, so that would move its availability to late May.  I hope I'm wrong!

For what is mostly cosmetic damage, two weeks should be fine in shipyard.

[marshaatn]

8 minutes ago, mousefan73 said:

We are embarking in Rome. Options on the 12th and 14th. 12th would work with our already booked flights. Kids would prefer the DCL believe on the 14th. But only if GTY rates come out and we would only pay for inside in DCL. There is another RC ship on the 13th Inbelieve. NCL on the 12 looks best to me. Depends on the price. We had a good deal on the Oasis 4400 usd sea side balcony 4 people. 

Thanks mousefan73. I will take a look to see what cruises are available. We don't sail until June 30th -- we just made final payment last week! Good luck to everyone in the next few weeks.

[kruzerci]

36 minutes ago, Paul in Phoenix said:

Just a guesstimate....  based off of:

 

Time to get to Cadiz? The trip is about 4,200 miles... at top speed, the ship would take 7 days to get there. At a slower speed, it would take 8 to 12 days to get there. Then I am guessing it will take a month in the dry dock, so that would move its availability to late May.  I hope I'm wrong!

 

You have absolutely nothing to base a month long drydock on.... 

 

[ticketsunlimited]

My guess will be trips cancelled 30 days out from the incident will get full refunds and something like a 400.00 credit towards a future cruise to be booked within 30 days and must be used before a year.  Pretty much what they do when they book a chartered ship and cancel cruises that have already been booked.  Just my opinion only.  My only philosophy is the "initial shock" factor is gone and they have already absorbed a huge loss with the full refund and 100% towards future cruises for the first initial cruises that where cancelled.

They may even be able to recoup a lot of these losses in insurance policies the company may have in place.  Those would be policies that would only cover so much per incident.

This is only my speculation as they can only do so much for so long with this nightmare at these generous offer levels.

[mousefan73]

What I will do now As a back up plan is go to booking.com and simply book hotel nights with a cancellation policy for Italy. I already have two nights in Rome booked pre-cruise but maybe I’ll check out Sorrento or that area And see what hotels I can book now that are refundable. At least I grab space for worst case it will doing a land trip

[Paul in Phoenix]

10 minutes ago, kruzerci said:

 

You have absolutely nothing to base a month long drydock on.... 

 

Nope, just things you hear on the internet. As I've said... I hope I'm wrong. We booked this cruise 17 months ago and will be bummed if this turns into a land tour. 

[ShillyShally]

20 minutes ago, ptf2009 said:

 

Yes, they don't have to do anything...however, because it is for the same reason that the other cruises were cancelled, people would naturally expect to get the same benefits. 

Agreed.  I'm curious though if they'd state they were giving variable FCC - those booked before the incident would get what's been given but anyone booking today hoping to bank on the possibility of a "free" FCC if it's cancelled would get less...

[xpcdoojk]

1 hour ago, Paul in Phoenix said:

We are on the May 12 trip as well. I think there is an 80% chance that we are cancelled. We are looking at options to fly / train around Italy and then grab a flight back to Barcelona in time for our flight home. We're just going to turn our lemons into lemonade. 

 

Driving in Europe is pretty easy too.  I think land travel in Europe is generally better than a cruise, just because the things you want to see are often a long bus ride from where the ship stops.  Good for you whatever you decide.

 

jc

[ptf2009]

3 minutes ago, ShillyShally said:

Agreed.  I'm curious though if they'd state they were giving variable FCC - those booked before the incident would get what's been given but anyone booking today hoping to bank on the possibility of a "free" FCC if it's cancelled would get less...

 

Now that makes a lot of sense! People like us who are just waiting and hoping should get the same benefit, especially because RC won't free those with reservations with penalties.