Are you cancelling Caribbean this year?

Just off the phone to change my Caribbean trip scheduled for this year to 2019. Curious if others are doing the same. Final payments for January and February are starting to come due now.

My rationale: I had an Eastern itinerary booked with stops in San Juan, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. Port changes, if any, are not yet known. I was leaning towards continuing the trip despite the hurricane damage, but this was going to be the first Celebrity cruise that some friends were taking with us. I know they would want to get off and explore the ports + I want their first X experience to be great. They had been waffling, so with final payment due in November, I pressured them to make a decision so we didn’t have to worry about the change in deposit structure. We’ll be headed elsewhere this winter, and a couple rooms are now available for someone else.

Always the possibility that I will add another cruise for this winter, but it will be a last-minute decision if I can make it happen. I suspect there will be deals to be had...

Just off the phone to change my Caribbean trip scheduled for this year to 2019. Curious if others are doing the same. Final payments for January and February are starting to come due now.

 

My rationale: I had an Eastern itinerary booked with stops in San Juan, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. Port changes, if any, are not yet known. I was leaning towards continuing the trip despite the hurricane damage, but this was going to be the first Celebrity cruise that some friends were taking with us. I know they would want to get off and explore the ports + I want their first X experience to be great. They had been waffling, so with final payment due in November, I pressured them to make a decision so we didn’t have to worry about the change in deposit structure. We’ll be headed elsewhere this winter, and a couple rooms are now available for someone else.

 

Always the possibility that I will add another cruise for this winter, but it will be a last-minute decision if I can make it happen. I suspect there will be deals to be had...

Bon voyage

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No. Actually I had not planned a Caribbean cruise this fall/winter - we had a very nice Eclipse 14-day Southern cruise in the spring, a nice interlude in Italy and Greek Isles this summer. Galapagos coming up next spring... But the Celebrity last minute deals and the desire to go down to San Juan and revisit favorite sites there, I couldn't pass it up. The itinerary has a huge overlap with what we have done before on Adventure of the Seas out of San Juan and Eclipse out of Florida, but it will be relaxing. Looking forward to time in the islands!

Stan

No, still going in January and most likely booking another for the fall and one in January 2019.

Nope. Still booked for the eastern route in February. Made final payment today. All signs point to remaining on the original itinerary. While I don’t necessarily want to participate in disaster tourism, we will not be canceling.

Nope still going in January. Final payment was due by yesterday at the latest. Personally would have liked to know if we'll have port changes as St. Maarten and San Juan (3pm-11pm) still seem questionable before final payment but oh well. Wonder if the first few ships back to the damaged islands have few passengers get off or complain about things if they do - might the future stops be changed for a while longer. Not making much $$$ sitting at the dock and it's not helping the island economy very much.

No. Really looking forward to returning to the Dutch Antilles and they have not been affected at all for starters.

Travelling into San Juan might not be pleasant but it's just a short trip from the airport.

If I'm brutally open and honest I'm a little bemused with how some are cancelling months in advance.

That said, some might be enjoying the greatest value cruises this century if they timed payment right and if there are no real issues on their sailing etc.

I await feedback over the next month with interest.

Not cancelling, we don’t cruise until March, some of our stops were unaffected others were.

We visited Thailand as part of a land trip and cruise about a year after the Tsunami....the locals were just so grateful for tourists coming. I guess we feel that much as we can all help the islands by supporting the charities by the Spring the best help we can all offer is to turn up and boost their economies....

No. Really looking forward to returning to the Dutch Antilles and they have not been affected at all for starters.

 

Travelling into San Juan might not be pleasant but it's just a short trip from the airport.

 

If I'm brutally open and honest I'm a little bemused with how some are cancelling months in advance.

 

That said, some might be enjoying the greatest value cruises this century if they timed payment right and if there are no real issues on their sailing etc.

 

I await feedback over the next month with interest.

m - You are not the only one. I usually bring out either the scones or popcorn when reading these types of threads.

Personally, I have no real interest as to why one would cancel and re-book a sailing, go ahead do it without ceremony. If one is leaving X, go ahead and do it without ceremony. If one is leaving CC and the X board, go ahead and do it without ceremony.

Maybe a 'virtual' party can be setup to celebrate the defections?

The true test of who is cancelling or not, is when the ship leaves the port, that is the measurement to go by, IMO.

Were my friends and family to cancel, I say great, I will send you a post card...there will be enough other new friends to make aboard... thank goodness.

I do understand the variety of reasons one may want to cancel and I say go for it, your vacation, your money, your decision.

bon voyage

We cancelled our Jan. 2018 Silhouette cruise...It had 4 sea days already, and with St Maarten being a possible port with not much to do there at that time,,( making it possibly a 5th sea day for us), we decided to cancel. Other ports were fine but we think some would be getting more ships than usual due to other ports not being open.. We do not regret our decision, Been to all the ports a number of times...so not missing out that much,

Another factor was our recent cruise on Infinity..we enjoyed our Ca ports very much...just days before the tragic fires, but the ship was just so so. Even with BLU, the overall Celebrity experience was fairly mediocre . ( Nothing very special offered for Elite and E plus.,.we were lumped together with other Cap Club levels ; AQ and Concierge were also combined for various purposes....but not the 1st day lunch)

We know Silhouette is much newer but the general format of X cruises not very special anymore.,,we are momentarily " cruised out".

Looking forward to AQ on Edge in 2019..hoping they upgrade the experience to meet the Modern Luxury promise!

Not cancelling, just booked yesterday for Jan 2018. We did opt for an itinerary that included 3 sea days, not because of the hurricane, but because we wanted the extra sea day. I was glad though, that the itinerary included affected islands.

We live in hurricane country and one of the many things the people need is a job as well as a return to normalcy and electricity! Not the time to cancel.

Having said that, I appreciate the original poster's point, this might not be the time to bring along newbie friends that you are trying to impress with how much fun it can be, especially if they want to do more than go to the beach! I know it is going to be sad, many of the older buildings in San Juan will have damage, and all those beautiful trees. I'm going to do some research and see if there is anything in particular to do to help other than spend money in the economy.

I'm leaving on the Summit from San Juan in a few days. By the time Irma and Maria rolled around, I was well into the cancellation period, where if I pulled the plug, I was going to lose most - if not all - of what I put in. Unless Celebrity canceled for me, which they did not. They did replace several of the ports, and I'm going to have a grand old time.

I was also booked on the Carnival Fascination in January. This one had its cancellation period fast approaching, but I was rooting for a cancellation by CCL because it would have covered most of the same ports as the Summit cruise. I got lucky and this one ended up canceled and I rescheduled another cruise.

Not cancelling! Would've booked more if vacation/work allowed. After so many cruises to affected islands and others we've seen everything, so from now on it is mostly beach time and beaches will be there.

We don't have a winter cruise booked but are looking for one last minute, maybe. If we did we would not be cancelling.

Don't have any Caribbean cruises booked. Could possibly be persuaded to book if fantastic bargains turn up. Don't have a need to escape "winter" in Florida!

We have a 2018 cruise booked on the Edge for its inaugural sailing...long time before the cruise. I don’t do the Caribbean anymore, but it falls over our anniversary and I am interested in this new breed of ship. I don’t cancel cruises, but the future is always the unknown due to family issues...

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Still looking forward to our January cruise. :D

We go for the ship / vacation since we have had numerous visits to the ports before.

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Not cancelling, but urge others to cancel so I can find some real bargains.Honestly, I don't really care where I go in the Caribbean. Have been to all of the ports multiple times and just get off the ship to stretch my legs. Actually I might do some shopping this time because the people might need some support.

If only around 5% of the people are cancelling, I doubt if there will be bargains on cruise fare, but maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones who snags a great room!

 

The true test of who is cancelling or not, is when the ship leaves the port, that is the measurement to go by, IMO.

 

Were my friends and family to cancel, I say great, I will send you a post card...there will be enough other new friends to make aboard... thank goodness.

 

I do understand the variety of reasons one may want to cancel and I say go for it, your vacation, your money, your decision.

 

bon voyage

I concur. There are some very real issues for Celebrity with bookings right now though. Looking at that third party site which must not be named, the overall occupancy of some sailings is certainly down on what you would expect from sail dates.

I concur. There are some very real issues for Celebrity with bookings right now though. Looking at that third party site which must not be named, the overall occupancy of some sailings is certainly down on what you would expect from sail dates.

I'm still going even though my stops have been changed from Ponce PR, St Thomas and St Kitts to Coco Cay and Aruba. Not ideal, but for what it is, I'm still excited to go. As for sailings being down, I have tried to book some RCCL ships for January for semi-last minute. There are a few rooms available but fewer than expected. And the prices are not down much.

Just off the phone to change my Caribbean trip scheduled for this year to 2019. Curious if others are doing the same. ...

Nope, in addition to existing bookings just scheduled two more for this season. Leaving next weekend on a Southern Caribbean cruise we booked a couple of weeks ago at a huge discount. It’s just before an Eastern Caribbean Thanksgiving cruise we’ve had for some time. Always try to do add-on’s if the value is appealing and the logistics are favorable.

MARK

I'm still going even though my stops have been changed from Ponce PR, St Thomas and St Kitts to Coco Cay and Aruba. Not ideal, but for what it is, I'm still excited to go. As for sailings being down, I have tried to book some RCCL ships for January for semi-last minute. There are a few rooms available but fewer than expected. And the prices are not down much.

I did say some sailings. :) A couple of weeks ago prices crashed to levels I've not seen before on all non suite cabin classes here in the UK. 10 and 11 day sailings were at £255 each for an inside. An 11 day AQ1 cabin was £509 with classic drinks package included with the concierge class room (C2) just £50 less also with the same beverage package.

Even our resident bargain hunter TeeCee60 would be impressed with that pricing! :D

Unsurprisingly they bounced back up quite quickly though.

I'm unsure how that compared to RCL but I strongly suspect X had the better value!

Thought about canceling our Reflection January cruise but decided to go. Our cruise is to overnight in St Martin and the overnight was a main reason we picked this cruise. So maybe there will be some changes to our itinerary, maybe not. We enjoy the entire cruise experience, not just the ports.