Royal Caribbean has had to cancel five cruises after announcing it has sold Legend of the Seas to UK-based Thomson Cruises.
But after the furore over cancellations on the Ovation of the Seas, the line is being careful to offer passengers the best alternatives and refunds where necessary.
The line will be bringing forward Legend’s repositioning cruise from Brisbane to Asia to February 20, 2017 which will mark the vessel’s final sailing in Australia after 10 years.
A spokesperson from the line told Cruise Passenger, “Royal Caribbean will assist those guests affected by the cancellation of Legend of the Seas’ Australian sailings by securing an alternative Royal Caribbean cruise or for those who would rather choose not to cruise, Royal Caribbean will provide a full refund of any deposits paid.
“For those who choose to re-book on to an alternate Royal Caribbean cruise, we will also provide onboard credit to use during the new sailing (amount varies by stateroom category).
“As well, we will be discussing hotel and flight arrangements with affected guests. For example, if guests incur any airline or hotel change fees or cancellation fees as a result of amending their cruise booking to one of the alternate sailings we have provided, they will be reimbursed for these costs.”
Legend of the Seas is the only ship in the Australasian Royal Caribbean fleet that can operate out of the current Portside terminal in Brisbane. Other larger ships use the temporary berths at Fisherman Islands on the eastern side of the Gateway Bridges.
With the sale of Legend of the Seas, Royal Caribbean say they do not have a ship that can berth at Portside on a regular basis required for home porting.
All onward itineraries in Asia and Europe on Legend of the Seas will also be affected. Two additional new sailings will be offered from Singapore to Dubai (3 March 2017, 10 nights) and Dubai to Barcelona (13 March 2017, 13 nights).
Rhapsody of the Seas will then replace all of Legend of the Seas’ scheduled cruises in the Mediterranean from June to October 2017, with identical itineraries and departure dates, sailing from Venice, Italy.
Legend of the Seas debuted in 1995, and home ported at Portside Wharf, Hamilton in Queensland for the 2015/16 summer season, with a second season to follow from November 2016. Her final Australian sailing will depart Brisbane on 20 February 2017.
As a first time cruiser booked and paid up for a march cruise next year now cancelled I am gob smacked. Very very poor form imho
Andy
What a shame. Looks like Royal Caribbean are effectively pulling out of Brisbane (unless the Qld Govt get a wriggle on with getting the new cruise terminal built at Fishermans Island to cater for their larger ships). Great news for Carnival though who will now have Brisbane all to themselves again in the mean time.