The company didn’t offer any information about what the technical issue entailed
Passengers were still invited to board the ship on September 1 and use it as a hotel while they waited for the vessel to leave Vancouver. About 1,700 passengers boarded, expecting the delayed cruise to eventually begin. The company also offered a 100% future cruise credit for the fare and reimbursement for flight change fees, according to USA Today.
Because members of the family were flying in from different parts of the country, after the cruise was initially shortened, Anderson said cancelling the trip and getting refunds for their tickets would have been difficult.
Passengers were told that the departure had been delayed, but an announcement later informed them that Royal Caribbean had cancelled the entire sailing. “To accommodate ongoing maintenance, we’ve had to cancel our sailing,” a Royal Caribbean spokesperson told USA Today and Fox News. “We just got an Airbnb down here, and have just been hanging out around here, hiking and whatnot,” Anderson said. “Definitely not what we planned, but [we’re] trying to make the best of it.”
However, the departure time passed without the ship leaving the port. Guests were given until midnight the following day to leave the ship, turning what had been planned as the beginning of an Alaska holiday into an unexpected scramble to make new travel arrangements. “We apologize to our guests for the inconvenience and have worked with them to adjust their travel plans. The family had wanted to visit Alaska and had already travelled for the planned holiday. Royal Caribbean offered passengers affected by the cancellation a full refund. For Anderson’s family, the cancelled cruise meant changing the holiday rather than ending it completely. Her mother found a rental car, and the family travelled to a vacation rental near Bellingham, Washington, while keeping their original flight home from Vancouver.