Imagine treating your family to a Christmas cruise to somewhere warm and sunny to destress and relax this holiday season and maybe even get a tan your coworkers will envy come Jan 2. Instead, Mother Nature and the cruise line conspire to send you, not to the beautiful Caribbean, but to sunny Boston, Massachusetts and Newfoundland, Canada, in the middle of December.
It’s happened to at least one cruise; the MSC Cruises ship MSC Meraviglia was supposed to sail from New York Saturday, down the east coast and dock in Florida before heading to the Bahamas, according to CBS. Instead, the ship docked in Boston Sunday. From there, it will go on to Portland, Maine and St. John’s in Newfoundland, Canada. The move has, understandably, pissed people off, including a Reddit user who took to /r/cruise to express their dismay.
Just got this email tonight about our carribbean cruise leaving in the morning that we have had planned since August. Not sure what to do. We have all of our holiday plans built around this cruise, lots of money, hotel bookings, airfare, etc. Really upset. In my 30 years of cruising, almost 50 sailings, this has NEVER EVER happened, with such a drastic change in itinerary with almost zero notice. Advice?
MSC Cruises does seem to be offering a credit to customers so they might rescheduled their cruises, but that means folks who planned for this cruise could still be out thousands of dollars, not to mention PTO days, with such a late change of itinerary.
As crappy as cruises are, there was little MSC Cruises could do. There’s no changing the weather forecast for southern Florida and the Bahamas, which hardly counts as pleasant and sunny this week. A huge storm, commonly referred to as a Nor’easter, is dragging heavy rain and wind gusts up to 40 knots up the coast just as the MSC Meraviglia would be heading down. The cruise ship isn’t the only vessel affected by this extreme weather. At least 11 other cruise ships have been forced to change their itineraries, according to Cruise Hive, though the Meraviglia’s change seems to be one of the most drastic.
Cruise ships suck, but I wouldn’t wish a planned trip to a tropical paradise turning into a winter wonderland tour of St. John’s, Newfoundland (with an average daytime temperature of 34 degrees) on anyone.