Cancelled by RC - chartered ship cancels cruise

[Peaches54]

Ok, evidently cancelled cruises are common.  It just never happened to me before and I didn't realize how often it occurs.  Thanks for all of your comments, stories, suggestions, good and bad ideas, and other thoughts and replies.  I'm getting ready for a cruise in February - only a few weeks away and very excited!   Not even going to think about my cancelled cruise anymore.  When it's gone, it's gone.  Time to move on.

[iWillSailAway]

Happened to me and I never received any email.  By the time I realized the cruise planner was not just “having another glitch” it was too late.  I was able to cancel without penalty but no price protection nor OBC.  
 

Very frustrating. 

[mac_tlc]

I had a B2B2B booked on the Indy for Jan 2021 and all three legs got cancelled. Didn’t get any email on time and deposit was refunded but no OBC, etc. 

 

I booked Celebrity Apex instead.

 

mac_tlc

Edited January 24, 2020 by mac_tlc

[SonicShip]

Maybe booking should open 6 months or less before saildate and can't be changed.

[samiam0403]

On 1/20/2020 at 7:18 PM, Milwaukee Eight said:

Brilliance December 3, 2020. Tampa 7 Night High Seas Rally (Full Ship Charter). 
 

This wasn’t included in the link. 

Also not included in the link was Brilliance, 5-9 November 2020. Flogging Molly's Salty Dog Cruise - also a full ship charter. 6th year for it, 3rd year on Royal. And this will be my 5th time going on it.  

 

I do feel bad for people who get their cruises canceled due to charters, though. I wish there were a better way to accommodate them - perhaps ask if they'd like to still cruise, with the knowledge of what the charter is? We always meet the odd cruising family/group of friends who jumped on last minute for a steal and end up having a great time. This last November on Serenade, there was a group of women in their 60's and 70's who booked last minute having no idea what they booked. They ended up loving our Irish/punk music loving crowd. And I hear they've already booked for this year. 😂 

Edited January 25, 2020 by samiam0403

[SRF]

On 1/23/2020 at 8:19 PM, Peaches54 said:

Ok, evidently cancelled cruises are common.  

 

I would not say it is common.  

 

But it does happen.

 

From -  https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=760:

 

For independent cruisers, one concern related to chartered cruises is whether you could potentially be bumped from your already-booked sailing in the case of a full-ship charter. While the chances for getting bumped are slim, it does happen.

While most companies that charter ships plan their cruises as far in advance as possible (usually at least a year out), it's not entirely uncommon for others to negotiate with the cruise lines to take over a ship after it's already been opened for sale to the public. When a potential charterer approaches a cruise line to inquire about a sailing that's already taken bookings, one of the things a cruise line will evaluate is how much business is on the books and how full the ship is.

"Carnival monitors sailings closely to minimize any impact to currently booked guests before we would allow a sailing to be chartered. Many of our charter programs are sold well in advance in order to avoid this scenario, typically one year in advance," Carnival Senior Vice President Sales & Trade Marketing Adolfo Perez explained. Royal Caribbean, meanwhile, informed us that they will not consider a full-ship charter if the sailing is already more than 25 percent booked.

[MommaBear55]

On 1/18/2020 at 4:20 AM, Peaches54 said:

Let me know your opinion when YOUR Holiday Family vacation is cancelled.

It's happened 3 times to us. We roll with the punches, chose something else and move on. We cancelled one cruise altogether, another we chose an alternate the same week and the third we chose an alternate three weeks later. The difference between us is that I was not trying to coordinate multiple people, it is admittedly easier when it's two people and we are retired. It hasn't changed my opinion of Royal Caribbean one iota, they are a business and they are responsible to their stockholders to make as much money as possible. If you don't like the fact that all companies charter out their ships, chose a land vacation. Oh yeah, we've had those cancelled due to fires, hurricanes, blizzards.