Why and When would a cruise get canceled?

[superduper123]

Someone in our roll call group on a different social media site, is speculating that our Oct 1, 2024 Quantum sailing will get canceled. It is still showing as an upcoming reservation in my cruises, as well as being offered for sale on Royal's website. This itinerary is from Vancouver to Hawaii and we are planning to stay in Hawaii for the week following the cruise. In my many years of cruising, D+ with Royal, I've yet to experience one of my reservations being canceled. So, this has me curious. What reasons would a sailing be canceled, and how far in advance would you be notified? And do they offer any perks for the inconvenience?

 

Any insight please?

[cruisegirl1]

We’ve had a couple of cruises canceled by Royal Caribbean.
 

One was canceled because of propulsion problems.  It was the day of the cruise, and we were all on board and then told to get off and go home.  (Grandeur of the Seas, 8/31/2019)

 

Two different cruises were canceled because the ship was chartered.  Once we were able to take one of the alternates offered, once we were not.  

 

One was canceled because the  ship was no longer available for the cruise. We were offered an alternate  cruise, but the timing did not work for many passengers. 
 

We were on a seven night cruise (Oasis 9/3/2017) that became a 10 night cruise, because of a hurricane. So those on the following seven night cruise had their cruise canceled/changed to a four night cruise.
 

There are probably other reasons, but these are the ones that we have experienced.

 

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Edited July 23, 2023 by cruisegirl1

[mo&fran]

Quantum is due for a 10 year drydock in 2024. Never seen a repo cruise canceled other than that.

[Ourusualbeach]

39 minutes ago, superduper123 said:

Someone in our roll call group on a different social media site, is speculating that our Oct 1, 2024 Quantum sailing will get canceled. It is still showing as an upcoming reservation in my cruises, as well as being offered for sale on Royal's website. This itinerary is from Vancouver to Hawaii and we are planning to stay in Hawaii for the week following the cruise. In my many years of cruising, D+ with Royal, I've yet to experience one of my reservations being canceled. So, this has me curious. What reasons would a sailing be canceled, and how far in advance would you be notified? And do they offer any perks for the inconvenience?

 

Any insight please?

They are speculating that Quantum may not be going to Australia as it has been indicated that Anthem will also be heading to Asia in the fall and that she may be deployed elsewhere.

 

They used to offer OBC for redeployments but have stopped that post Covid

[lovesthebeach2]

We had a cruise cancelled many years ago because someone decided to charter the ship. We were really disappointed because it was to the Baltics. I can’t remember what they offered in return, but it wasn’t good enough for us to take it.

[molly361]

I have had LOTS of cruises cancelled due to charters and redeployments.   It's been a few years now.  They used to give pretty good offers when that happened but they no longer do.  Oh for the good old days  SIGH😇

Edited July 23, 2023 by molly361

[mo&fran]

14 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

They are speculating that Quantum may not be going to Australia as it has been indicated that Anthem will also be heading to Asia in the fall and that she may be deployed elsewhere.

 

They used to offer OBC for redeployments but have stopped that post Covid

That would suggest she is going back to Bayonne. Still has the dry dock requirement. Any facilities on the west coast available?

[Tlbecker1]

We have experienced this only once when our cruise was chartered.  They allowed us to move the reservation to a different ship and time with no penalties and we were given $200 to cover our flights that we had booked.

[Ourusualbeach]

8 minutes ago, mo&fran said:

That would suggest she is going back to Bayonne. Still has the dry dock requirement. Any facilities on the west coast available?

Odyssey is in Bayonne. 

[monorail81]

Our Freedom December 2024 cruise was just cancelled because they are sending the ship to dry dock. We’ve had it booked since December. An eagle eyed CC user posted a thread on April 30th that all the Freedom cruises had disappeared for a certain timeframe. Royal didn’t send us an email until June 28th informing us and giving us a few other cruises that we could pick from and have our original fare “price protected” with ZERO OBC incentives, which is good because prices across the board have skyrocketed since we booked. Problem is we lost a day of sailing, so we are still paying more, in essence.  They did offer some money for non-refundable pre-purchased transportation change fees. Sadly, there was only one sailing that fit my limited schedule. There were some really good sailings had I been able to (like Oasis NYE). The other options we had were to book any other cruise with no price protection but also no change fees OR cancel completely for a full refund. 

[wdwkings]

3 hours ago, superduper123 said:

So, this has me curious. What reasons would a sailing be canceled, and how far in advance would you be notified? And do they offer any perks for the inconvenience?

 

Any insight please?

There are lots of reasons that a cancellation might happen.  Unbelievable amounts of cancellations happened a few years ago and we had at least three.  even further back I heard that Costa cancelled itineraries on their Concordia ship.   😶

 

Just kidding about that to some degree.  In reality there are three things that impact possible cancellations - ship issues, business issues, or hotel issues.  

 

Hotel - a sailing is booking a hotel essentially so there can be limitations on accommodations.  At times charters impact some sailings.  These should be the easiest to get notification and some kind of adjustment but likely there may not be much in compensation.

 

Business - in the end the cruise line is in business to make money.  If something doesn't make sense a company can make changes to itineraries.  There are many things that might change where a ship will stop, usually they do not impact a full sailing but it is not unheard of.  Sometimes changes can happen very late but that is usually to a single port, a major change usually happens further out.  Again, it is likely notification and changes happen further out.  It is unlikely to get major compensation in these cases but it is likely to get some and your travel agent might be able to negotiate a better deal if they are knowledgeable.

 

Ship - these are typically the latest notifications and most problematic.  Anyone who owns a boat knows that things happen, even to these big ships.  While usually it is not common, things still happen.  Even a working ship may have other issues, inspections can be failed, that might change a sailing.  Expect minimal or late notice on ship issues.  Compensation is usually going to happen but the cruise line will try to minimize what they do offer.  

 

 

[molly361]

1 hour ago, monorail81 said:

Our Freedom December 2024 cruise was just cancelled because they are sending the ship to dry dock. We’ve had it booked since December. An eagle eyed CC user posted a thread on April 30th that all the Freedom cruises had disappeared for a certain timeframe. Royal didn’t send us an email until June 28th informing us and giving us a few other cruises that we could pick from and have our original fare “price protected” with ZERO OBC incentives, which is good because prices across the board have skyrocketed since we booked. Problem is we lost a day of sailing, so we are still paying more, in essence.  They did offer some money for non-refundable pre-purchased transportation change fees. Sadly, there was only one sailing that fit my limited schedule. There were some really good sailings had I been able to (like Oasis NYE). The other options we had were to book any other cruise with no price protection but also no change fees OR cancel completely for a full refund. 

Back before COVID even if you didn't want any of the price protected cruises you could switch to any cruise you want and still receive a pretty good OBC for the inconvenience 

[Another_Critic]

4 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Odyssey is in Bayonne. 

I'll be delivering her to Bayonne.  🙂

 

I also delivered Quantum and Anthem to Bayonne for their initial visits.  😎

[monorail81]

1 hour ago, molly361 said:

Back before COVID even if you didn't want any of the price protected cruises you could switch to any cruise you want and still receive a pretty good OBC for the inconvenience 

Figures. 

[mugtech]

           Quantum arrives in Hawaii and disembark 10/14/24.  The next scheduled cruise is 11/19/24 from Singapore to Australia.  It would appear Quantum is going into drydock in Singapore, arriving via a nonrevenue cruise.  Meaning the October cruise to  Hawaii is the last cruise before the drydock, never a good cruise to book for a variety of reasons.

[Ourusualbeach]

1 hour ago, molly361 said:

Back before COVID even if you didn't want any of the price protected cruises you could switch to any cruise you want and still receive a pretty good OBC for the inconvenience 

And the guessing oif which ship was going to be chartered by Atlantis and that car guy.

[steveru621]

Usually, if a ship is being repositioned to a new home port, RCI makes the decision at least a year out.  The problem comes when you have to book a new ship that has already started booking. Great cabins are gone!

[taglovestocruise]

6 hours ago, superduper123 said:

Someone in our roll call group on a different social media site, is speculating that our Oct 1, 2024 Quantum sailing will get canceled. It is still showing as an upcoming reservation in my cruises, as well as being offered for sale on Royal's website. This itinerary is from Vancouver to Hawaii and we are planning to stay in Hawaii for the week following the cruise. In my many years of cruising, D+ with Royal, I've yet to experience one of my reservations being canceled. So, this has me curious. What reasons would a sailing be canceled, and how far in advance would you be notified? And do they offer any perks for the inconvenience?

 

Any insight please?

We have had a Allure TA and a Quantum TP cancelled due to covid. Had a Quantum to Vancouver cancelled due to short notice redeployment, had Ovation cancelled due to Covid, both were Hawaii to Vancouver.  Almost had Quantum Vancouver to Honolulu cancelled due to engine problems that were sorted out two weeks before cruise. If they pull Quantum from Australia sailings then it could drop Vancouver to Honolulu as well. 

[superduper123]

14 minutes ago, mugtech said:

           Quantum arrives in Hawaii and disembark 10/14/24.  The next scheduled cruise is 11/19/24 from Singapore to Australia.  It would appear Quantum is going into drydock in Singapore, arriving via a nonrevenue cruise.  Meaning the October cruise to  Hawaii is the last cruise before the drydock, never a good cruise to book for a variety of reasons.

This is great info, thank you. Can you elaborate a bit more about why it's not good to be on a cruise before drydock? We did not realize this. It didn't occur to us to wonder where the ship was going after our sailing, or why. We just like the itinerary. 

[pyrateslife4me84]

29 minutes ago, superduper123 said:

This is great info, thank you. Can you elaborate a bit more about why it's not good to be on a cruise before drydock? We did not realize this. It didn't occur to us to wonder where the ship was going after our sailing, or why. We just like the itinerary. 

If the scope of work changes, a cruise immediately before or after dry dock would be the first to go. I also avoid inaugurals if they require a flight. 

[mugtech]

14 minutes ago, superduper123 said:

This is great info, thank you. Can you elaborate a bit more about why it's not good to be on a cruise before drydock? We did not realize this. It didn't occur to us to wonder where the ship was going after our sailing, or why. We just like the itinerary. 

Sometimes the work starts already on the last cruise before drydock, this could include having certain areas of the ship unavailable plus all kinds of noise and dirt.  If Quantum is not doing a revenue cruise to Singapore, it probably would not cause such problems on the 10/1 Cruise.  I had a TA cancelled on Mariner, was supposed to go from Barcelona to Miami,then dry dock, we were on board from Dubai to Barcelona.  Good thing it cancelled many months ahead of time, about 1,000 of us got off in Barcelona and two days later got on the Carnival Horizon headed to NYC .  Was on a cruise with NCL on which they started doing all kinds of work including replacing carpeting on our deck, lots of people including my wife developed terrible coughs.  The workers wore masks, none available for us folks.  This was prepandemic.

               Always a good idea to see where the ship has been and where it is headed for this reason.

[Biker19]

6 hours ago, mo&fran said:

Any facilities on the west coast available?

None that could handle Q class.

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, superduper123 said:

This is great info, thank you. Can you elaborate a bit more about why it's not good to be on a cruise before drydock? We did not realize this. It didn't occur to us to wonder where the ship was going after our sailing, or why. We just like the itinerary. 

Since the dry dock does not start the day you disembark, it probably is not an issue. 

 

Time in dry dock is very expensive... the facility, the contractors, the lost revenue from taking the ship out of service. Cruise lines often get a head start on preparation for the dry dock during the last couple of cruises prior to a dry dock. 

 

Building materials may be staged in public areas which will be closed. Some pre-demolition on key areas may start during the cruise, closing the area and causing disruption to passengers onboard. Crew areas will be stacked high with material for the dry dock, so you won't be doing any behind the scenes tours. They are often packing up stores and bars so that they will be empty at the start of the dry dock for demolition. Major amplifications and refits involve tearing down public areas down to the deck plates and rebuilding. 

[Stick93]

Had my January 2024 cruise cancelled when it was chartered by a group.