When looking for a cruise to take in the winter months, few think of cold destinations such as Boston, Maine and Canada's New Brunswick for what is traditionally the cruising industry's period for sun seekers and island-hoppers.
But after the tropical storm hit parts of Florida and the Caribbean last weekend, a cruise ship bound for the Bahamas did a sudden itinerary change for a journey around New England and Eastern Canada.
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The 5,624-passenger MSC Meraviglia cruise ship pulled out of New York Harbor on Saturday, Dec. 17 for what was supposed to be a weeklong journey with stops in Florida's Port Canaveral, Nassau and the private Ocean Cay Marine Reserve island owned by the cruising company. But with heavy rain and floods descending on Florida and scheduled to continue over the week, MSC made a sudden itinerary change to circle northward with stops in Boston and Portland, Maine at the start of the week and Fredericton in New Brunswick by Thursday, Dec. 21.
'Provisioning the ship along its new route left a sailing to Canada and New England'
After making the call that "unseasonable and rapidly worsening weather that would have made it impossible to safely reach the southern Atlantic Ocean from New York City," the cruise ship company offered those on board the opportunity to receive a refund in the form of a credit for a future sailing or continue on the updated journey.
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"The only alternative would have been to take the more extreme step of cancelling the cruise – and thousands of people's vacations – outright,” MSC said in a statement to media outlets. "The complexities involved in obtaining last-minute berths for unplanned stops and provisioning the ship along its new route left a sailing to Canada and New England as the only viable option, so we gave our guests a choice between sailing to a different region or cancelling for a future cruise credit, which allows them to put the full value paid for this cruise toward another at their convenience."
'We still have shorts, bathing suits and sunscreen with us...'
Some passengers chose to not get on the ship while others elected to board to enjoy the amenities on the ship as they had planned. They were informed of the change 24 hours before the ship was supposed to set sail from New York and many rushed to repack or buy supplies for traveling in colder weather.
"Once I got the notification, I rushed to Walmart (WMT) -) to try and get my family winter clothes. I grabbed whatever I could, but Walmart was closing early that night, so we had to just bring what we had packed," Lakeya Allen, a resident of Bloomington, Illinois who had booked the Bahamas cruise for her and her three children, told CNN. "We still have shorts, bathing suits and sunscreen with us."
Another traveler looking forward to the Bahamas, Val Montgomery described being on the ship to People Magazine as "a little depressing because you can imagine we're making the most of it, but most people are walking around in coats, gloves and hats."
