Just Letting Off Steam!

[Cruising Latitude]

Feel your pain.

 

As of last week I have had 5 cruises in a row that were changed, shortened or flat out canceled, for various reasons.  As someone who cruises for ports, I find it frustrating that cruise lines do not seem to take their published itineraries as seriously as I would like. 

 

At the moment I have thousands of $$$ of credit due to canceled cruises from 2 cruise lines but I don’t have the confidence to book “good” itineraries and I certainly don’t have the vacation time to waste on “fillers”. 

 

Instead DH and I are planning a 3-week land trip in Scandinavia and another 3-week land trip in China.

 

As much as I like being on a ship I also want to reach my destination.  

[Nashna]

20 minutes ago, Cruising Latitude said:

Feel your pain.

 

As of last week I have had 5 cruises in a row that were changed, shortened or flat out canceled, for various reasons.  As someone who cruises for ports, I find it frustrating that cruise lines do not seem to take their published itineraries as seriously as I would like. 

 

At the moment I have thousands of $$$ of credit due to canceled cruises from 2 cruise lines but I don’t have the confidence to book “good” itineraries and I certainly don’t have the vacation time to waste on “fillers”. 

 

Instead DH and I are planning a 3-week land trip in Scandinavia and another 3-week land trip in China.

 

As much as I like being on a ship I also want to reach my destination.  

I totally agree.  Prior to retirement, I cruised for relaxation.  Now, ports are the main reason why I choose to cruise.  The constant changing of cruise itineraries is a fairly new practice in the industry.  Only when cruise lines lose customers or governments regulate this practice, will cruise lines pay more attention to their clients.    It would be helpful if a consumer watchdog group compiled statistics on the cruise industry to determine which lines frequently alter itineraries and which ones adhere to their published schedules.    

[Judyrem]

19 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

THAT I would totally be upset about. Bonaire is a magical place for us, and I would have bought a cruise on an old boat to get there again...

 

But not upset enough to stop cruising, like OP.

In fact, if they cancel Bonaire, I will cancel the cruise and do a land based trip.  I loved our week in Aruba and have always wanted to see Bonaire and Curacao.🙂

[snaefell]

On 6/1/2019 at 3:31 PM, Nashna said:

I totally agree.  Prior to retirement, I cruised for relaxation.  Now, ports are the main reason why I choose to cruise.  The constant changing of cruise itineraries is a fairly new practice in the industry.  Only when cruise lines lose customers or governments regulate this practice, will cruise lines pay more attention to their clients.    It would be helpful if a consumer watchdog group compiled statistics on the cruise industry to determine which lines frequently alter itineraries and which ones adhere to their published schedules.    

  Interesting point,our last cruise was a Transatlantic repo on P&O's Britannia in March last year,the final itenerary saw all 3 islands that we origionally booked to visit altered due to recent Hurricane activity,the only part of the Caribbean not altered was the start port of Barbados,so we are not strangers to alterations but in that case,to us it was our first Carib. cruise & it didn't really matter where we went as long as we got some warm weather,the Beast from the East was keeping people back in the UK busy so even better!

 Now retired,& yes we are picking vacations that are important to us as we may be getting short of time to do them,I notice my response being described as 'Dramatic' in one post,if you were to know me you would know that does not describe me at all,,just somebody who doesn't take kindly to paying up their hard earned money & not only not getting what they are paying for but being penalised into the bargain,like paying for a Jaguar & getting a Mini,without even the offer of a tank of gas!

[Nashna]

11 hours ago, snaefell said:

  Interesting point,our last cruise was a Transatlantic repo on P&O's Britannia in March last year,the final itenerary saw all 3 islands that we origionally booked to visit altered due to recent Hurricane activity,the only part of the Caribbean not altered was the start port of Barbados,so we are not strangers to alterations but in that case,to us it was our first Carib. cruise & it didn't really matter where we went as long as we got some warm weather,the Beast from the East was keeping people back in the UK busy so even better!

 Now retired,& yes we are picking vacations that are important to us as we may be getting short of time to do them,I notice my response being described as 'Dramatic' in one post,if you were to know me you would know that does not describe me at all,,just somebody who doesn't take kindly to paying up their hard earned money & not only not getting what they are paying for but being penalised into the bargain,like paying for a Jaguar & getting a Mini,without even the offer of a tank of gas!

 

Changing ports in advance due to known hurricane damage is totally understandable to me.  In fact, we sailed Seabourn last January in the Caribbean at a greatly reduced price because the itinerary had been changed due to the hurricane damage of the past year.  On our sailing, half of the passengers canceled because of the drastic schedule changes.  Then again, Seabourn knows better than to treat their passengers poorly by forcing them to adhere to non-refundable deposits.  

[DancerMama25]

10 minutes ago, Nashna said:

 

Changing ports in advance due to known hurricane damage is totally understandable to me.  In fact, we sailed Seabourn last January in the Caribbean at a greatly reduced price because the itinerary had been changed due to the hurricane damage of the past year.  On our sailing, half of the passengers canceled because of the drastic schedule changes.  Then again, Seabourn knows better than to treat their passengers poorly by forcing them to adhere to non-refundable deposits.  

 

Well, to be fair, Seabourn cruises start at 3 times as much money as Royal.   So I suppose it could be said you are paying handsomely for the option to cancel your cruise w/o penalty if they change your ports of call.