Heavy fog in the Tampa area that is scheduled to continue for the next few days has forced Royal Caribbean to cancel the February 23 sailing on Brilliance of the Seas. The cruise ship is being escorted by the U.S. Coast Guard back to the port.
The ship was originally scheduled to arrive back in Tampa on the morning of February 23. Due to the heavy fog, the ship stayed at sea delaying the sailing that has now been canceled.
Passengers who were booked on the February 23 sailing will receive a full refund and a 25% future cruise certificate. Refunds will be processed within the next 4-6 weeks and the future cruise certificates will be mailed to the passenger’s home address or travel agent. The certificate will be good for one year on any Royal Caribbean cruise ship.
Royal Caribbean gave the following statement concerning the February 23 sailing:
Due to foggy conditions that have delayed Brilliance of the Seas’ previous cruise – and are forecast to continue for the next few days — we have made a decision to cancel the February 23 sailing.
We understand that this was not what our guests were expecting, and not what we said last night, and we share in their disappointment.
Royal Caribbean International will provide each guest with a full refund of the cruise fare paid. Cruise fare refunds will automatically be processed back to original form of payment. Please allow four to six weeks for all transactions to be processed.
Royal Caribbean would also like to provide these guests with the opportunity to sail with us again. We will be providing each guest with a future cruise certificate for 25% of the cruise fare paid for their February 23, 2015, Brilliance of the Seas sailing. This certificate may be used for a future cruise on any Royal Caribbean ship within the next year. Future cruise certificates will be mailed to your home address or travel agent within six to eight weeks.
Again, we thank our guests for their ongoing patience and understanding throughout this unfortunate situation.
Photo Credit: ABC Action News WFTS/TV
I would just like to tell you how upset and disappointed my husband and I are with Royal Caribbean. We are two of the passengers stranded in Florida after the Brilliance of the Seas cruise was canceled due to fog. I understand that they do not control the weather (obviously). However, this situation has been handled horribly by the cruise line, and customer service has been abominable. We spent $1000 to fly to Tampa for this cruise. We spent another $1000 on cruise fare, shore excursions, and on-board packages. We each used our entire vacation allowance from our jobs to get here. We are supposed to be celebrating our honeymoon. Not only have we wasted our time sitting around waiting for an update for two days, we now cannot get a full refund for all the money (let alone time) we have spent on what is now a completely ruined honeymoon. A full refund and 25% off of our “next cruise” does not compensate for our losses, stress, inconvenience, or wasted vacation. We now have to either pay $1100 more to change our flight home, or almost $900 more to stay in hotels that were booked last-minute. That doesn’t even account for food, more appropriate clothing (since basically all we brought with us are swimming suits, cover-ups, and shorts, and the weather here is chilly and rainy), and the fact that I’ve spent half of my honeymoon waiting around for an update, and then in tears. The costumer service reps were unsympathetic and extremely unhelpful. A lady that claimed to be a “port incident manager” at the corporate office was downright rude to me. We also spent extra to buy travel insurance. Apparently that travel insurance doesn’t cover anything. 4-6 weeks for a refund that doesn’t even begin to compensate for our losses is unacceptable. I will be filing a BBB complaint. We will never book with Royal Caribbean again, and I’ll be sure everyone knows it.