Those with more RC experience, what are your thoughts?

[FLCruisin25]

Freedom trip in April was schedule for just one port in Labadee.  Then we all received emails about it being changed to Nassau back in September.  OK.  But about a week ago, Royal started advertising the same Freedom cruise dates with just one stop in Turks & Caicos.  We did not receive an email about the change from Nassau to Turks - so we called Royal.  Spoke to a couple different agents at different times and they both reported the only port was Nassau - and had no idea why that particular cruise was advertised on the RC website and app as a one port stop at Turks.  

Thoughts?

[Atlantix2000]

My thoughts are that you've got 6 months to see what happens and things might change multiple times between now and then.  If the land destination is the most important consideration for your cruise vacation, you might look into your options for cancelling/moving the cruise.

[PhillyLady]

I would say I have more CRUISE experience generally overall than one specific line, and what I say for shorter cruises with ports under watch--don't book the cruise for the itinerary!  You are booking mainly just for the cruise experience itself--a fun, getaway escape.  Sometimes booking too far in advance for that short type of cruise could be disappointing if you make a lot of plans. Go mainly to relax, party and enjoy.

If you book the Caribbean in hurricane season--you can end up in Canada instead of the Bahamas.  If you book Iceland in the early Spring, you could end up missing every port due to rough waters. 

The week-long cruise I booked for next November in the deep Caribbean has already undergone an itinerary change!  (The countries now want less cruise ships visiting, and are limiting ships.)I have plenty of time to cancel, or I can just go with the flow and see the new ports--still debating.  

When I want a guaranteed itinerary, I book with Celebrity before RC. I try to choose a stable (political) area and aim to travel when the weather is best, often high season.  Of course, if wars break out or a pandemic develops, everything goes up in the air!

Maybe RC does not even know for sure yet where the Freedom will finally go--but at least you will be on the cruise ship somewhere!

[KJRanch]

I also noticed the same thing as we are on a 4 day on freedom in January.  Originally booked it knowing that we would not be going to Labadee.  Got the email saying we are going to Nassau.  Noticed last week on the website that maybe it was changing to Turks, a lot of talk about it on our FB group as well.  This morning it is showing being able to be book as one stop in Nassau.  We already had no expectation on ports for this cruise so we dont really care what it goes. We are just happy that we will be on a ship in the middle of winter.  It is also a new ship for us as well.  I think just do not worry about about the port right now until it gets closer, enjoy the ship and if you go to a port that you like even better. 

[FLCruisin25]

8 hours ago, KJRanch said:

I also noticed the same thing as we are on a 4 day on freedom in January.  Originally booked it knowing that we would not be going to Labadee.  Got the email saying we are going to Nassau.  Noticed last week on the website that maybe it was changing to Turks, a lot of talk about it on our FB group as well.  This morning it is showing being able to be book as one stop in Nassau.  We already had no expectation on ports for this cruise so we dont really care what it goes. We are just happy that we will be on a ship in the middle of winter.  It is also a new ship for us as well.  I think just do not worry about about the port right now until it gets closer, enjoy the ship and if you go to a port that you like even better. 

Thank you - and we just checked - advertised as back to Nassau.  Must have been a computer glitch or something since RC sold it for a couple of weeks to Turks.   Seems PhillyLady is correct "When I want a guaranteed itinerary, I book with Celebrity before RC."   Good to know.  

[Xaa]

Of course Celebrity doesn't go to Labadee, but if they did, this same thing would have happened on a Celebrity cruise.  Cruise Celebrity if you prefer the ships and experience, but port changes happen and are not generally line dependent as much as happenings in and around the port dependent.

 

If you've never cruised Celebrity though, take one!