Cruisers who have been on the point of board Rhapsody of the Seas in nearly two day’s time bought some unhealthy information from the cruise line.
The Imaginative and prescient-class cruise ship needed to cancel her 7-night Southern Caribbean cruise that was purported to embark from San Juan, Puerto Rico, on September 15, 2024, because of a broken lifeboat.
It’s unclear what precipitated the injury to the smaller vessel, which doubles as a young boat, but it surely should have turn into obvious that the boat couldn’t be fastened or changed in time to set sail.
“On our earlier crusing, there was injury to considered one of our tender boats, which additionally serves as a lifeboat. This leaves the ship over capability for the variety of accessible lifeboat seats within the occasion of an emergency for our subsequent crusing,” reads a letter from Royal Caribbean to impacted company.
“We should have a seat on a lifeboat for each visitor onboard. Sadly, this implies we’ll be unable to welcome you onboard our September 15, 2024, Rhapsody of the Seas crusing, and we should reschedule your cruise,” continued the letter.
Certainly, maritime legislation is kind of strict about lifeboat pointers to make sure the protection of each company and crew ought to an emergency happen.
In response to the present rules, that are enforced by Security of Life at Sea (SOLAS), there have to be lifeboats accessible on either side of the ship with sufficient vessels to be evacuating 37.5% of the folks onboard concurrently. This accounts for 75% of the ship’s capability – and the remaining quarter may be rescued utilizing life rafts.
Despite the fact that an emergency is unlikely to happen, cruise ships are usually not allowed to proceed crusing if they don’t have the capability to evacuate all company ought to an emergency come up.
Security Comes First – However Visitors are Compensated Properly
If the two,416-passenger ship was capable of sail as deliberate, the spherical journey voyage would have referred to as on St. Croix, US Virgin Islands; St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands; Basseterre, St. Kitts; Castries, St. Lucia; and Bridgetown, Barbados.
It’s unclear if Rhapsody of the Seas’ subsequent crusing – one other 7-night Southern Caribbean voyage scheduled to embark on September 22 – shall be impacted. That stated, this cancellation provides the household pleasant cruise line per week to make repairs or change the broken lifeboat.
Whereas the last-minute cancellation is understandably disappointing, Royal Caribbean has to at all times put security first. That stated, the cruise line is compensating the company with a full refund and future cruise credit score to assist soften the blow.
“We shall be offering you with a full refund and a credit score for a brand new cruise. We all know this information is disappointing and we’re terribly sorry for the influence to your trip plans,” wrote Royal Caribbean.
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The cruise line will begin by refunding company the full price of the crusing inside 14 enterprise days. If the cruise was paid for utilizing a future cruise credit score, passengers shall be supplied with a brand new certificates that shall be legitimate for one yr from the date of issuance.
Additionally within the subsequent two weeks, passengers will obtain a 100% future cruise credit score through e mail that can be utilized on any Royal Caribbean Worldwide crusing that embarks on or earlier than September 13, 2025.
Whereas there are lots of thrilling ships in Royal Caribbean’s fleet, company would possibly need to reap the benefits of this credit score to be among the many first to sail on the second Icon-class cruise ship, Star of the Seas, which is able to debut in August of 2025.
Lastly, company are invited to submit their journey receipts to Royal Caribbean for reimbursement of non-refundable, pre-purchased transportation change charges. The cruise line will cowl as much as $200 per visitor for home adjustments, or as much as $400 per visitor for worldwide changes.
