‘A crushing blow’: what happens if your cruise changes to have too much sea and not enough sight-seeing?

The Celebrity Edge (pictured here in Florida in 2021) was originally advertised as staying two days and a night in Hobart, but has reduced that to only 32 hours in port. Photograph: Lynne Sladky/AP

When Paul and Mary McGuirk booked their six-night cruise from Sydney to Tasmania, they were expecting to spend more than one day in the island state.

But two months after making their booking, the couple was told that due to a “port conflict” they would be spending just 26 hours on the ground in Hobart in March.