Mariner of the Seas going into drydock - sailings cancelled

[Russ Lomas]

Very disappointed (and confused) to have just received an email from our travel agent to inform us that the Mariner of the Seas is going into dry dock.  Why the dry dock is going to take 2 1/2 months, I am not sure?  It was just amplified in 2018. 

Mariner of the Seas will need some extra time during its scheduled dry dock next year. Regrettably, this means our January 7^th, 2023 through March 27^th, 2023 sailings have been cancelled. We know this news is disappointing and apologize for the impact to your clients' cruise.

 

Our sailing (January 2, 2023) is not one of the cancelled sailings, but we did receive notice that RCCL will be cutting our cruise short by one day and making it a 4-day cruise instead of 5 days, so we will be missing Coco Cay and only port once on the entire cruise.  I thought that RCCL would at least pro-rate the cruise and charge everyone 1/5th less since they are eliminating one day of the cruise, but they are keeping the rates the same and offering just a $50 OBC per cabin for the inconvenience.  Our travel agent (who is great and knowledgable about things like this happening), says this is the norm when things like this happens.  Seems like a very poor business practice on RCCL's part.  If they decided to randomly cut the last day of your cruise and not offer credit other than $50 OBC, how would you feel?  I love RCCL, but feeling quite frustrated with them right now.

[Montanagirlalways]

12 minutes ago, Russ Lomas said:

Very disappointed (and confused) to have just received an email from our travel agent to inform us that the Mariner of the Seas is going into dry dock.  Why the dry dock is going to take 2 1/2 months, I am not sure?  It was just amplified in 2018. 

Mariner of the Seas will need some extra time during its scheduled dry dock next year. Regrettably, this means our January 7^th, 2023 through March 27^th, 2023 sailings have been cancelled. We know this news is disappointing and apologize for the impact to your clients' cruise.

 

Our sailing (January 2, 2023) is not one of the cancelled sailings, but we did receive notice that RCCL will be cutting our cruise short by one day and making it a 4-day cruise instead of 5 days, so we will be missing Coco Cay and only port once on the entire cruise.  I thought that RCCL would at least pro-rate the cruise and charge everyone 1/5th less since they are eliminating one day of the cruise, but they are keeping the rates the same and offering just a $50 OBC per cabin for the inconvenience.  Our travel agent (who is great and knowledgable about things like this happening), says this is the norm when things like this happens.  Seems like a very poor business practice on RCCL's part.  If they decided to randomly cut the last day of your cruise and not offer credit other than $50 OBC, how would you feel?  I love RCCL, but feeling quite frustrated with them right now.

They have certainly given you advance notice!!!! NCL cut our transatlantic cruise short by 2 days and notified us 1 week in advance and that was on good friday. Imagine the people scrambling to change airfares. Plus they cut out 2 ports. Let me tell you people were not happy!!!! They gave us minimal compensation. 

 

[Russ Lomas]

1 minute ago, Montanagirlalways said:

They have certainly given you advance notice!!!! NCL cut our transatlantic cruise short by 2 days and notified us 1 week in advance and that was on good friday. Imagine the people scrambling to change airfares. Plus they cut out 2 ports. Let me tell you people were not happy!!!! They gave us minimal compensation. 

 

I agree and sympathize with the predicament you found yourself in.  They did give us adequate notice, which cruise lines do not always do.  Thankfully, we did not book airfare yet for this one (we were planning on driving 2 days to get to the port and 2 days to get home, but that seems excessive for a 4-day cruise).

 

Out of curiosity, though I know it has no bearing on any other situation, what compensation did they offer you for losing 2 full days of your cruise?

[firefly333]

3 minutes ago, Russ Lomas said:

I agree and sympathize with the predicament you found yourself in.  They did give us adequate notice, which cruise lines do not always do.  Thankfully, we did not book airfare yet for this one (we were planning on driving 2 days to get to the port and 2 days to get home, but that seems excessive for a 4-day cruise).

 

Out of curiosity, though I know it has no bearing on any other situation, what compensation did they offer you for losing 2 full days of your cruise?

Not the same but allure is late into Galveston due to rcl bldg the new terminal late. We were moved from allure to liberty which to me is a ship downgrade with 0 compensation. Take it or get a refund.

 

Are there any other similar cruises you can move to? I wouldnt drive 1 day for a 5 day cruise, let alone 2 days each way.  Look and see what else is offered? 

 

I moved but I only want Galveston as a port.

[Montanagirlalways]

Just now, Russ Lomas said:

I agree and sympathize with the predicament you found yourself in.  They did give us adequate notice, which cruise lines do not always do.  Thankfully, we did not book airfare yet for this one (we were planning on driving 2 days to get to the port and 2 days to get home, but that seems excessive for a 4-day cruise).

 

Out of curiosity, though I know it has no bearing on any other situation, what compensation did they offer you for losing 2 full days of your cruise?

That was about 2 yrs ago and honestly I do not remember. They reimbursed for hotel stays up to a certain amount but not including food. There was a limit. It was very hard to plan with only being given 1 week notice which included Easter.

[orville99]

Fortunately, we are not on her until July 2023, so it will be interesting to see what they are doing to her that takes two months.

[molly361]

Not happy about losing my VP cabin since there are none on the Jewel.  Getting 6 nights for the price of 4 is nice though. 

[Russ Lomas]

5 minutes ago, molly361 said:

Not happy about losing my VP cabin since there are none on the Jewel.  Getting 6 nights for the price of 4 is nice though. 

We booked great cabins as well for our cruise because we booked so far in advance.  It was meant to be a real special trip.  At least you get 6 nights for the price of 4.  RCCL is only giving us 4 nights for the price we paid for 5 nights.

[Russ Lomas]

11 minutes ago, orville99 said:

Fortunately, we are not on her until July 2023, so it will be interesting to see what they are doing to her that takes two months.

Since it was already amplified in 2018 and has only really been in use for 2 years now since then (due to the pandemic), I am curious why it is being taken out of commission for over 2 1/2 months.  There are lots of other ships that you would think would be taken out of commission before the Mariner to be Amplified (like the Explorer and the Allure who missed their amplifications), but I guess since they did their technical maintenance on those two ships, they will not be amplified until 5 years after the technical dry dock was completed.

[molly361]

Deleted

Edited February 16, 2022 by molly361

[Diver2014]

We're on Mariner this coming June.  At least they're waiting till next year because our cruise on NCL Escape last month was cancelled 4 days before the cruise.  Fortunately we live close by but a lot of people who had already flown in were devastated.  Gotta go with the flow and roll with the punches.

Edited February 17, 2022 by Diver2014

[SherriZ366]

Mariner going into drydock for the first few months of 2023 means there will only be 3 ships in Port Canaveral.  I figure that the garage at the terminal will not be as tight.  We are sailing on Wonder on February 23, 2023.  

I wish they would have built the Terminal 1 garage as a 5 story building instead of a 4 story.  

[ONECRUISER]

1 hour ago, Russ Lomas said:

I agree and sympathize with the predicament you found yourself in.  They did give us adequate notice, which cruise lines do not always do.  Thankfully, we did not book airfare yet for this one (we were planning on driving 2 days to get to the port and 2 days to get home, but that seems excessive for a 4-day cruise).

 

Out of curiosity, though I know it has no bearing on any other situation, what compensation did they offer you for losing 2 full days of your cruise?

Last few yrs I've had at least 3 Cruises Similar situation, changed Port/Ports, less then 6 months to Sailing, one less day and no Compensation. Replacement was same Class but I Canceled them as had lost my Aft/Corner Cabins. 

[Morecruisesplz]

2 hours ago, Russ Lomas said:

Very disappointed (and confused) to have just received an email from our travel agent to inform us that the Mariner of the Seas is going into dry dock.  Why the dry dock is going to take 2 1/2 months, I am not sure?  It was just amplified in 2018. 

Mariner of the Seas will need some extra time during its scheduled dry dock next year. Regrettably, this means our January 7^th, 2023 through March 27^th, 2023 sailings have been cancelled. We know this news is disappointing and apologize for the impact to your clients' cruise.

 

Our sailing (January 2, 2023) is not one of the cancelled sailings, but we did receive notice that RCCL will be cutting our cruise short by one day and making it a 4-day cruise instead of 5 days, so we will be missing Coco Cay and only port once on the entire cruise.  I thought that RCCL would at least pro-rate the cruise and charge everyone 1/5th less since they are eliminating one day of the cruise, but they are keeping the rates the same and offering just a $50 OBC per cabin for the inconvenience.  Our travel agent (who is great and knowledgable about things like this happening), says this is the norm when things like this happens.  Seems like a very poor business practice on RCCL's part.  If they decided to randomly cut the last day of your cruise and not offer credit other than $50 OBC, how would you feel?  I love RCCL, but feeling quite frustrated with them right now.

How much were you paying per day?

[mmcrazy]

I find this interesting because we received a notice that our Independence of the Seas cruises were canceled for same reason for January of 2023 and we were to be rescheduled on the Mariner of the Seas. Somebody really messed up somewhere.  

[Ourusualbeach]

Looks like it is the Indy that was scheduled for the drydock and the Mariners sailings were changed to align with the itineraries that the Indy was doing.  Indy passengers moved over to the new Mariner sailings and Mariner passengers given options for Jewel. 

 

Very poorly worded and misleading letter to Mariner passengers

[molly361]

3 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Looks like it is the Indy that was scheduled for the drydock and the Mariners sailings were changed to align with the itineraries that the Indy was doing.  Indy passengers moved over to the new Mariner sailings and Mariner passengers given options for Jewel. 

 

Very poorly worded and misleading letter to Mariner passengers

I'm confused-  I still am seeing the same sail dates on their website.  Maybe I can find another VP cabin if they are changing the Mariner dates.?

[F27TW]

They're gonna cut it in half and make it longer!

[Russ Lomas]

6 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Looks like it is the Indy that was scheduled for the drydock and the Mariners sailings were changed to align with the itineraries that the Indy was doing.  Indy passengers moved over to the new Mariner sailings and Mariner passengers given options for Jewel. 

 

Very poorly worded and misleading letter to Mariner passengers

and now the true comes out.  The way the message was written, it appeared the Mariner was going into dry dock. 

 

RCCL's exact wording, 

"Mariner of the Seas will need some extra time during its scheduled dry dock next year."

 

It is simply taking over the itineraries of the Mariner while the Independence goes to dry dock.  Thanks for clarifying this.  So RCCL is moving passengers between 3 ships.  Move everyone on the Independence to the Mariner, and then offer those on the Mariner to be moved to the Jewel.  Why not just offer those booked on the Independence to be moved to either the Mariner or the Jewel, thus affecting only half the number of booked guests?

[Ourusualbeach]

13 minutes ago, Russ Lomas said:

Why not just offer those booked on the Independence to be moved to either the Mariner or the Jewel, thus affecting only half the number of booked guests?

I'm guessing but based on this it would appear that Royal views the tried and true 3/4 day itineraries more profitable than the 4/4/5 itineraries that the mariner was doing

[SherriZ366]

On 2/17/2022 at 12:38 AM, Ourusualbeach said:

Looks like it is the Indy that was scheduled for the drydock and the Mariners sailings were changed to align with the itineraries that the Indy was doing.  Indy passengers moved over to the new Mariner sailings and Mariner passengers given options for Jewel. 

 

Very poorly worded and misleading letter to Mariner passengers

With Indy going into Drydock in early 2023, does this mean that there will only be 3 ships sailing out of Port Canaveral during this period -- Wonder, Mariner and Jewel.  We are booked on Wonder for February 23, 2023 and I was worried about the garage capacity with 4 ships.  Of course, we'd probably get to the terminal absurdly early (around 8:30 am); drop bags and find a parking space.  We could kill time at Grills or just stay in car and do the e-muster.  

[Ourusualbeach]

1 hour ago, SherriZ366 said:

With Indy going into Drydock in early 2023, does this mean that there will only be 3 ships sailing out of Port Canaveral during this period -- Wonder, Mariner and Jewel.  We are booked on Wonder for February 23, 2023 and I was worried about the garage capacity with 4 ships.  Of course, we'd probably get to the terminal absurdly early (around 8:30 am); drop bags and find a parking space.  We could kill time at Grills or just stay in car and do the e-muster.  

Correct, just the three. 

[Coralc]

3 hours ago, SherriZ366 said:

With Indy going into Drydock in early 2023, does this mean that there will only be 3 ships sailing out of Port Canaveral during this period -- Wonder, Mariner and Jewel.  We are booked on Wonder for February 23, 2023 and I was worried about the garage capacity with 4 ships.  Of course, we'd probably get to the terminal absurdly early (around 8:30 am); drop bags and find a parking space.  We could kill time at Grills or just stay in car and do the e-muster.  

Only?  You are very fortunate with the number of ships. 

[Saab4444]

Yes, only three ships is very funny!

[FlyingMartini]

The REAL problem here is none of us really know the answer as to what is going on, which ship or ships are really in dry dock (Mariner or Independence) and RCCL seems to be lying to somebody.  We we are scheduled to be on Mariner Feb 23-27 2023 during the supposed dry dock and received the email of our options such as Jewel of the Seas - but yet our RCCL sign in page still shows our cruise on Mariner - it does not say anything about it being cancelled.