Royal Caribbean has canceled another seven sailings on Empress of the Seas, bringing the total of canceled sailings to 13 by the cruise line.
Last month, Royal Caribbean canceled the first six sailings on Empress of the Seas due to the ship needing additional work before rejoining their fleet. Now, the cruise line is cancelling another seven sailings due to improvements needed in the ship’s galleys to meet the high standards expected from Royal Caribbean.
All sailings through May 23, 2016 have now been canceled. Guests who were booked on one of these cruises can rebook for the same cruise fare on Enchantment of the Seas or Majesty of the Seas on sailings through June 27, or on another sailing on Empress of the Seas from June 1 to July 23. Passengers who rebook will also receive onboard credit.
For those who were booked on the April 25 and April 30 sailings, they will receive an additional future cruise credit of 50% of the cruise fare that they paid. Guests who were on one the of the original six canceled sailings and rebooked on one of the seven newly canceled sailings will received a 100% future cruise credit.
Royal Caribbean issued the following statement:
“As work has progressed, we learned that more significant infrastructure and physical improvements across the ship’s multiple galleys and provisioning areas were needed to meet our high standards.
We decided that instead of simply repairing the five galleys, we would completely rebuild them, starting from scratch with entirely new infrastructure and all new equipment, at a cost of $10 million.”
Empress of the Seas is a 48,000 gross ton cruise ship that debuted in 1990, The 1,840 passenger ship has been with Pullmantur Cruises for the past eight years before Royal Caribbean decided to bring the ship back to their fleet.
Many cruise industry experts expect Royal Caribbean to use Empress of the Seas for sailings to Cuba once the cruise line receives approval.
Photo Credit: “NordicEmp1” by WikiEK. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Commons
