UK passengers sucker punched

Last week Royal Caribbean shocked the cruising industry, and thousands of booked customers when they announced that they had decided to pull the Independence of the seas from Southampton for the 2020 season and the ship would now be sailing around the Caribbean instead. What a blow this would has been for anyone booked to sail on her.

Many have been badly affected and I really feel for the family’s, couples, friends all aspects of people who had booked paid deposits and were already looking forward to there cruise onboard Independence of the seas!

With Royal’s Asian Itinerary changes, the accident on the Oasis of the Seas and now this it seems never-ending hassle and heartache from one of the industries biggest and best-loved cruise companies.

It is reported the change is due to the demand they have for passengers wanting to visit Royal Caribbeans brand new island CocoCay in the Bahamas.

For this disruption and inconvenience Royal Caribbean have offered passengers already booked a 25% future cruise deposit based on the cruise fare that they had booked onto which they could use on another Royal Caribbean sailing, which for families who had booked for the school holidays will already be so tricky to find more availability even at this stage family cabins sell up so quickly! What’s more the move has left just one Royal ship in Southampton and coincidentally the prices have gone sky high, the 25% voucher will probably not cover the difference.

Independence of the seas has been a firm favourite with the UK market for many years and she has an avid following who are sure to miss their annual holiday on her. I sailed onboard her in August last year and she is such a fantastic ship, The UK loss is definitely the Caribbeans gain.