Royal Caribbean changes its itinerary moments before a family boards. Then staff informs them their daughter is no longer allowed to go

Planning trips is not easy, and even the most carefully organized vacations can run into problems before they even begin. That was the case for one woman who was about to board a Royal Caribbean cruise, only to be hit with a sudden major itinerary change during check-in, which resulted in her daughter no longer being allowed to join the trip and the family’s vacation being cancelled.

The incident was shared by Maria (@mariaaudhd) in a video that has since racked up hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok. “2 minutes before boarding Royal Caribbean changed everything,” Maria said on-screen.

According to Maria, she and her family had spent months planning the cruise as their first family vacation and a birthday celebration for her husband. But when they arrived at the Cape Liberty Cruise Port in New Jersey, she immediately noticed Royal Caribbean staff “running around giving everyone these piece of paper” as they walked in.

Royal Caribbean can make itinerary changes

A staff member also handed Maria a paper, which turned out to be the itinerary, revealing that their trip to the Bahamas had suddenly been diverted to Canada. The port change was especially jarring for Maria, who said she and her family had packed clothes meant for a tropical getaway, not the chilly weather of the north. One commenter summed up the issue: “Changing ports is one thing, changing climates is another.”

In the past week, several Royal Caribbean cruise lines’ itineraries were changed at the last minute. Oasis of the Seas, which departed on Oct. 18 for a seven-day trip, rerouted its port stops in Florida and the Bahamas to Halifax, Nova Scotia, due to inclement weather warnings developing off the East Coast. While itinerary changes aren’t uncommon, passengers were still left inconvenienced by the news.

While many questioned whether they were permitted to make route changes for booked trips, Royal Caribbean does have a policy that states cruises can “cancel, advance, postpone or deviate” from any scheduled sailing without prior notice. This may happen due to strikes, riots, lockouts, mechanical issues, weather conditions, “or for any other reason whatsoever.” However, their policy also notes that the cruise line is not obligated to issue a refund due to these changes.

Despite the confusion, the family was made to complete their security checks while Maria was “crying and trying to process what is going on.” Maria added that staff informed guests that an email had been sent at 10 p.m. the night before departure. However, Maria claimed she never received any notification about the change.

The cruise has a policy for babies

The planned cruise trip took a turn for the worse for the family when they were finally checking in and were told that their eight-month-old daughter could no longer board the cruise. “I wasn’t the only one. There were hundreds of families standing here with babies under the age of one,” Maria said. “Because the original cruise itinerary allowed babies on this cruise that were older than six months old.”

According to Royal Caribbean’s age policy, children must be at least six months old at the time of departure to board the ship. However, the cruise requires children to be at least a year old for trips that have three or more consecutive days at sea.

With the change to Canada having three international sea days, the policy effectively forced the family to cancel the vacation altogether. While they got a refund, Maria criticized Royal Caribbean for allegedly failing to inform passengers properly about the changes.

Maria’s feelings are understandable, given the unexpected changes in a short amount of time and the impact on her family’s long-awaited vacation. Route changes, however, aren’t made lightly, according to The Independent. A source told the outlet that weather is “actively monitored” before and during each sailing, and any changes or alternatives are considered until the last possible minute to minimize disruption to planned itineraries. There’s little that can be done to prevent such changes from occurring, as it affects the ship, crew members, and passengers’ safety at the end of the day.

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