Royal Caribbean has decided to entrust a major decision about its world cruise to passengers, letting them decide where the ship will be sailing.
The cruise is the current 274-night world cruise taking place on Serenade of the Seas, which is being forced to alter its itinerary due to the growing tensions in the Red Sea.
Many cruise lines are making changes to remove ships from the region, and the decision has been made that Serenade of the Seas will now also be forced to sail around the southern coast of Africa, rather than fulfil the three sections of the world cruise due to travel through the Red Sea region.
But rather than dictating a new schedule, Royal Caribbean is asking the passengers onboard the ship to choose between two new options.
The first is an Immersive Africa itinerary, which would feature 20 ports of call along the African coast in 11 different countries, including the rare chance to visit Madagascar, Namibia, Angola, and others. There would be 21 sea days in total split across six weeks.
The second option is an Africa and Greece itinerary that skips much of the smaller African ports, instead calling only at the Seychelles, Cape Town and a call in the Canary Islands.
The ship would then sail to Alexandria in Egypt before offering cruises of the Greek Islands. This option has 26 sea days, all of which take place within the space of a month – that’s a long time with very few port visits!
Guests were told of their options in a special meeting called in the ship’s theatre, and have been able to submit questions to the cruise line. After a webinar with the cruise line’s head office on 21st February, guests are being given 6 days to cast their vote.
Regardless of which itinerary is chosen, all guests are being given a partial refund for the cancelled section of the cruise, or they can chose to end their cruise and depart, with a full refund of the segment and support with arranging travel home.
Any guests who were only booked onto one of the cancelled Red Sea segments, rather than the full world cruise, are being contacted by the cruise line to arrange a refund and compensation too.
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Jenni Fielding is the founder of Cruise Mummy. She has worked in the cruise industry since 2015 and has taken over 30 cruises. Now, she helps over 1 million people per month to plan their perfect cruise holidays.
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