finstotheleft

I appreciate all the observations, supportive and critical, as different perspectives can be educational and enlightening, even if they are sometimes irritating and condescending. My beef is less about the itinerary change per se than the way it was presented and the fact that the conditions cited are not new as Celebrity's carefully worded disclosure infers. I can forgive someone dropping the ball. I am less charitable when the whales and their welfare serve as a convenient excuse. I'm not buying it.

In the last 48 hours, we were informed by Celebrity Cruises of an itinerary change on the 6 May 2023 sailing of Celebrity Millennium from Los Angeles to Vancouver. Specifically, an overnight stay in San Francisco was cancelled, citing the company's need to be sensitive to the migration pattern of whales, a phenomenon of which mariners have been aware for centuries. It is implausible that a company with the resources, technology, and sailing prowess of Celebrity failed to consider this annual rite of passage in their planning. Worse, Celebrity waited until inside 90 days to make the disclosure. Many of us on this sailing had made arrangements with substantial financial commitments for the evening we were scheduled to be in San Francisco and Celebrity, as expected, has disavowed any responsibility. In an age of rampant cost-cutting, my cynical mind is pointing in the direction of docking fees and a quick way to avoid them. Either that or the whales are doing a poor job of giving advance notice of their travel plans.