What happen when or if a ship

cruisinmama · August 3, 2005

What happens if a ship can't be used and your set to sail? Lets say the Explorer needs something fixed and its your time to sail..do they just cancel that sailing? and you get to rebook another time???

how do you find out? has it ever happened?

Just curious...

jbond · August 3, 2005

Not sure what happens if you are at the dock waiting to get onboard, but we have had two cruises cancelled by RCI.

We planned to sail Radiance, Ensenada to Hawaii. RCI cancelled the cruise, Radiance was going into wet dock. They gave us the option of rebooking another cruise at the same price and gave us an onboard credit. We re-booked Radiance for later in the year, Vancouver to Hawaii. They then cancelled that cruise, moved the sail date forward two weeks. They gave us the option off rebooking another cruise and gave us an additional onboard credit and a two for one price. We rebooked Radiance, Hawaii to Ensenada. We ended up with $700 onboard credit and half price cruises.

Our travel agent also made out. Each time they cancelled, she got $150 fee from RCI for her inconvenience and final commission based on the full fare.

cruisinmama · August 4, 2005

How far in advance did you know they were being cancelled??

I guess it worked out for you...kind of bummer when your looking forward to your Cruise...

jbond · August 4, 2005

We found out just before final payment. There had been rumours on the cruise boards for several weeks, but RCI kept denying the cancellations.

Dan · August 4, 2005

Changes in advance like jbond has experienced aren't all that rare. Things happen and they need to make an unscheduled maintenance call. Sometimes things happen with next to or no notice, that can't be helped. In that case, if they can accomodate you on a cruise right away, they'll make you an offer. When the boiler explosions happenned on the Norway a couple years ago, the people that were to sail that day probable made out pretty good for a future cruise.

andy · August 12, 2005

What happens if a hurricane is planning to hit Ft Lauderdale and you are scheduled to depart on a cruise that day???

Do you get a refund ( if you did not get trip cxl insur.) or what??

We want to go in OCT and are worried about hurricanes...

:undecided:

gogetter · August 12, 2005

Hello,

Sounds interesting...............thanks for the info

JohnG · August 12, 2005

If you can get to the ship, they usually board and then leave early or late, depending on when/where the hurricane is. I had a customer scheduled to board on a Saturday from Tampa. They took an early flight down and got to the ship. Since the hurricane, coming up the west side of Florida, hadn't passed yet, they just partied on board, stayed at the pier until the next night, and then left, skipping the first port. In other cases, the ships have left early, or returned late from the last cruise until the storm passed, and arrive on Monday, for example. The following cruise is shortened and they offer refunds or future cruise discounts.

October is late in the Hurricane season. Still possible, but less likely than August, Sept.

Dan · August 12, 2005

Andy, what they typically do if a hurricane is bearing down on a port city is they just stay away until after the storm passes. This happenned quite a bit last summer in Florida. The people on the ship at the time get a longer cruise, and the people who would be boarding get a shorter one with some sort of compensation. Air arrangements are usually flexible when this happens, since the airports will also be closed, and the airlines waive any change fees.