Grand Cayman alternate??

[coaster]

Royal keeps selling  cruises to Grand Cayman. Grand Cayman has said the past few weeks no ships allowed until end of January 2022. Booked on a 5 nighter on Brilliance from Tampa end of October of this year for a stop there. Final payment is due soon.Extra sea day? Any inside information?

Edited July 29, 2021 by coaster

[gmerick]

Me on same boat:  Take a FCC under CWC, book a 9 day on Radiance.

[smplybcause]

Depends on your other ports what the likely substitution is. Sea day is always possible. 

[LilBlackDress]

We had a similar issue with Symphony going to Labadee. They changed our entire itinerary...Some bitched and stayed others canceled. About 6 weeks after the change of itinerary, Royal sent an email saying regardless if you had a refundable or non-refundable deposit, they would refund 100% if you cancel by x date.
I can't say they will do the same with your cruise. They may replace the one port or add a sea day, they can change the entire itinerary, I no idea. 

 

That said, I am booked for that itinerary in Feb so I am curious what will be happening, even tho the OP said end of Jan the port will be open

[fox02554]

fingers crossed ,  wouldn't mind a change of port , private island maybe.  I've held off arranging any new excursion for now 

[kjc852]

Suspect you may soon have a bigger disappointment than not visiting Grand Cayman on your October sailing on Brilliance.  The website for the Port of Tampa Bay continues to show the first sailing of Brilliance to be on 11/18, with no cruise lines sailing out of Tampa prior to November 1.  Certainly all schedules are subject to change, including the Port of Tampa’s, however as of today it doesn’t appear the port will be open for cruise business in October.  Hopefully you will sail as scheduled, yet you may wish to consider possible alternatives.  
 

https://www.porttb.com/cruise-schedules

[Joseph2017China]

Ports can change anytime for any reason.  If you really want that bad to go to a port, I would cancel now.  You never have a guarantee.

 

[Biker19]

2 hours ago, Joseph2017China said:

If you really want that bad to go to a port, I would cancel now.

Waiting till RCI cancels provides more options, including a refund.

[smplybcause]

8 hours ago, LilBlackDress said:

We had a similar issue with Symphony going to Labadee. They changed our entire itinerary...Some bitched and stayed others canceled. About 6 weeks after the change of itinerary, Royal sent an email saying regardless if you had a refundable or non-refundable deposit, they would refund 100% if you cancel by x date.
I can't say they will do the same with your cruise. They may replace the one port or add a sea day, they can change the entire itinerary, I no idea. 

 

That said, I am booked for that itinerary in Feb so I am curious what will be happening, even tho the OP said end of Jan the port will be open

 

So I read an article from press in Cayman - the government rolled out a 5 phase rollout of letting visitors back into the islands. Cruises won't happen until all 5 phases have been met. If they go through the phases on time to the original timeframe then cruises can start in Jan if the government oks it. However, if any of the phases get delayed (likely due to spikes in cases) then the that will push out the timeline. 

 

I saw this like a month or so ago and haven't looked it up since then so no idea if they're still on time or not. 

[Cigar King]

We have missed Grand Cayman quite often due to weather, so even if it's back on that's no guarantee you'll go.  (although at least it's a chance)

[DCPIV]

I'm on a Celebrity sailing in November that only goes to Grand Cayman.  Frankly, I don't care what they end up doing.  I like Grand Cayman, but I'm also happy to have a "private yacht" day if we were to visit a port I didn't care for.  It wouldn't be the first time I never got off between the initial embarkation and the final debarkation!

[ZoeyVictoria]

4 hours ago, kjc852 said:

Suspect you may soon have a bigger disappointment than not visiting Grand Cayman on your October sailing on Brilliance.  The website for the Port of Tampa Bay continues to show the first sailing of Brilliance to be on 11/18, with no cruise lines sailing out of Tampa prior to November 1.  Certainly all schedules are subject to change, including the Port of Tampa’s, however as of today it doesn’t appear the port will be open for cruise business in October.  Hopefully you will sail as scheduled, yet you may wish to consider possible alternatives.  
 

https://www.porttb.com/cruise-schedules

The port schedule shows November, but it is possible to reserve parking there beginning in September for the Brilliance.  Other cruise lines (Carnival, Celebrity, Norwegian) have no parking availability until November, so maybe there is hope for the Brilliance after all.

[rajacks]

We are on the Liberty Oct 3, which was originally scheduled to go to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica.  Due to Grand Cayman not opening, the scheduled was changed to Cozumel, Costa Maya, and Roatan.  

 

This will be the second leg of our B2B.  The first leg goes to.....Roatan, Costa Maya, and Cozumel.  😂  We don't really care though.  Been to all these ports multiple times.  We are just ready to sail!

[coaster]

I love Grand Cayman. We have gone there in the past and rented a car and go to a bar where we can snorkel in the past. Just wish Royal would stop selling future cruises that are listed to stop there. It is not happening. 

[smokeybandit]

Caynan is one of the few Caribbean countries that doesn't need cruises for its economy. Plus the fighting over the tender vs dock issues doesnt help

[kearney]

I suspect that given no sailing for 15 months... and likely still running with limited staff in the home office, that they don't have the manpower to do all the work required to look for alternatives... I do agree that they should put a notice on '21 sailings that Grand Cayman will not be happening and an alternative is being investigated.

[poocher]

On 7/29/2021 at 5:08 AM, fox02554 said:

fingers crossed ,  wouldn't mind a change of port , private island maybe.  I've held off arranging any new excursion for now 

From an old fart with old eyes, your posts are lovely but between the script and the pale color, very hard to read. 🤗

[SoCA6ft5]

Originally when they changed our ship from the Independence to the Odyssey, they also changed Grand Cayman to Nassau [Falmouth, Labadee, & Nassau].  These ports were changed this week to Coco Cay, Costa Maya, and Cozumel.  

To borrow a phrase someone used on a different blog, this may be the "new abnormal" for awhile. Our cruise isn't until mid-October so we wouldn't be surprised if more changes might be coming. As rajacks said, we're just ready to sail!

[bouhunter]

On 7/29/2021 at 11:16 AM, Cigar King said:

We have missed Grand Cayman quite often due to weather, so even if it's back on that's no guarantee you'll go.  (although at least it's a chance)

Good point.  Any cruise any time, Grand Cayman is a bigger question mark than most Caribbean ports.