The day we lost our Independence!

As you all know I blogged some time ago that we had already booked a cruise for 2020 on our favourite ship Independence of the Seas. Well, that has just been cancelled by the cruise line as they will no longer be bringing the U.K’s favourite ship back to Southampton in 2020.

The official reason given to thousands of people was the following:

“We are writing to inform you of a 2020 deployment change for Independence of the Seas; the ship will sail from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida rather than Southampton. This decision has been made in response to strong booking interest in our new Caribbean private destination, Perfect Day at CocoCay. For those guests impacted, we will, therefore, be offering full refunds and a ‘Future Cruise Credit’ for use on an alternative Royal Caribbean sailing.”

I now have fully experienced what my clients and thousands of other passengers go through when their cruise holiday is cancelled. Some people may have booked their first ever cruise, a family gathering or even a wedding on this cruise. We chose it for the itinerary and the ship.

You experience shock, then anger and later acceptance to the situation and finally a sense of what now. Royal Caribbean is refunding everyone plus giving a future cruise certificate to the value of 25% of the cancelled cruise. The problem now is finding something to replace the cancelled cruise. Anthem of the Seas will be in Southampton for 2020, so many people will be using their certificates to book a holiday on her.

We have decided to wait and see and possibly only use our certificates for 2021 when there is an itinerary we like. Maybe it is time to try something else.

P&O’s new ship Iona will be an option and NCL have just announced they will have a ship in Southampton.

Things always happen for a reason so let us see where the loss of our Independence takes us.