Panama Canal Cruise "Adjusted"

[RFerrington]

I haven't done anything yet, either.  I am going to call AA today to see if I can get my reward miles back.  If they say "yes" then I will just cancel everything.  If they say "no" then I have some thinkin' to do.  As much fun as Curacao and Aruba are, it doesn't make any sense to me to fly to Panama to go there.  If I could turn this into a combo land/sea vacay (since we are booked for B2B on Rhapsody) then I would consider that...but I cannot rent a car in Panama and take it to Costa Rica and I have no interest in spending a week in Panama....at least I don't think I do.  Maybe there's more in Panama than I am giving credit for...

[Seville2Cabo]

10 minutes ago, RFerrington said:

I haven't done anything yet, either.  I am going to call AA today to see if I can get my reward miles back.  If they say "yes" then I will just cancel everything.  If they say "no" then I have some thinkin' to do.  As much fun as Curacao and Aruba are, it doesn't make any sense to me to fly to Panama to go there.  If I could turn this into a combo land/sea vacay (since we are booked for B2B on Rhapsody) then I would consider that...but I cannot rent a car in Panama and take it to Costa Rica and I have no interest in spending a week in Panama....at least I don't think I do.  Maybe there's more in Panama than I am giving credit for...

I cancel AA award tickets all the time and always get the miles and taxes back.  I am Platinum Pro, do don't know if that matters.

[cruisetorelax44]

I messaged Michael Bayley to express my frustration about the change and this was the response I got:
"We're very sorry for the disappointment this change has caused and completely understand where you're coming from. I hope we'll be able to make things right once you board. Unfortunately, a credit isn't being provided for this redeployment.".

 

So basically, everyone is just SOL....

 

[ONECRUISER]

1 minute ago, cruisetorelax44 said:

I messaged Michael Bayley to express my frustration about the change and this was the response I got:
"We're very sorry for the disappointment this change has caused and completely understand where you're coming from. I hope we'll be able to make things right once you board. Unfortunately, a credit isn't being provided for this redeployment.".

 

So basically, everyone is just SOL....

 

Nothing new here, last 4yrs had about 8 Cruises Changed on me, even loosing B2B same Cabins when they moved to another Ship with no FCC/OBC offered. Even had a Couple where Cruise was one day less but price did not drop

[cruisetorelax44]

10 minutes ago, ONECRUISER said:

Nothing new here, last 4yrs had about 8 Cruises Changed on me, even loosing B2B same Cabins when they moved to another Ship with no FCC/OBC offered. Even had a Couple where Cruise was one day less but price did not drop

it's getting bad... and extremely frustrating. I wouldn't trust them to keep the new panama itinerary either. I can't imagine there will be enough interest to those ships from people in central america, and if you're in the us, it's easier to just fly to miami to see the same places on symphony. 

[RFerrington]

52 minutes ago, Seville2Cabo said:

I cancel AA award tickets all the time and always get the miles and taxes back.  I am Platinum Pro, do don't know if that matters.

Thank you !  It sure would make a crappy situation a lot better if they just refund everything.

[foodsvcmgr]

Rarely happens in the corporate world but it would be much less annoying if they would just be honest and give the REAL reason.

NCL cancelled all their sailings out of Panama due to extortion by the Panamanian government over refueling and stated as such.

Will be interesting to see if Windstar alters their 7 day Panama Canal itineraries as well.

I imagine the repositioning cruises and other coast to coast longer sailings will suck it up as sailing around Cape Horn will be far costlier in the long run.

[crewsweeper]

Appears to me there may be issues with the Costa Rican ports. If so not RCCL's fault. Plus, thought Limon was the only Eastern Coast CR port for cruise ships. What was the second CR port?

 

Most Panama Canal cruises from Eastern US don't transit the Canal unless redeploying to West Coast.rather they do lake Gatun and offer excursions for rail or bus tours along the canal route.

[SilkySal]

So sorry for all of you experiencing cancellations. DH and I are booked for the Radiance of the Seas in September, 2024, from Vancouver to LA, and doing a B2B, leaving LA the first week of October, cruising through the Panama Canal and all of the way to Tampa, since we have a winter home there. We will definitely use Air2Sea for our flights from Tampa. Hoping things are better by then and our ship will be able to go through the PC, as this is on our bucket list as well!🤞

[bigmoose7563]

What are the odds that if most cancel their reservations because of this change that they may cancel these cruises completely at a later date?

[orville99]

4 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

I guess I'll just have to go bucket listing a repo cruise to get through the canal

We are doing B2B Westbound and Eastbound transits (Miami-LA-Miami) on Serenade this November, and neither one is sold out yet. Maybe one of those would work for you bucket list.

[orville99]

17 hours ago, Jimbo said:

full transits too?

No, just the partial ones.

[orville99]

2 hours ago, RFerrington said:

As much fun as Curacao and Aruba are, it doesn't make any sense to me to fly to Panama to go there.  If I could turn this into a combo land/sea vacay (since we are booked for B2B on Rhapsody) then I would consider that...but I cannot rent a car in Panama and take it to Costa Rica and I have no interest in spending a week in Panama....at least I don't think I do.  Maybe there's more in Panama than I am giving credit for...

It appears that the way these routes are structured now, you can also begin and end the cruise in Cartagena by moving your embarkation date one day.

[RFerrington]

48 minutes ago, orville99 said:

It appears that the way these routes are structured now, you can also begin and end the cruise in Cartagena by moving your embarkation date one day.

Really ?  I never realized that.  No interest in doing that but it's an interesting option.

[RFerrington]

So, we were able to get complete refunds of our air miles, upgrade charges and taxes from American Airlines (thank you !!) so we decided to completely cancel both of the Rhapsody cruises.  I cancelled our pre-cruise reservation at the Waldorf Astoria and directed our TA to fully cancel both cruises.  It's really a shame but this really is the best option.  I can drive to any cruise port in FL if I want to cruise to Aruba and Curacao so flying to Panama for that makes -0- sense.  IMO very few people will take the "enhanced" itinerary option.  I think the chances are very good that we will be seeing some casino comp. options out of Panama City VERY soon.  LOL

[BillB48]

19 hours ago, twangster said:

 

Glad I did the canal in May.  

 

I've been wondering if the canal would raise rates because of the drought.  They are projected to lose $200M at the moment.  It was just a matter of time before they had to prioritize and motivate cruise lines to find another place to sail.    

 

In one sense they already have!  Three or four years ago during one of the sub par rainy seasons the Canal instituted what they term a "Freshwater Surcharge".  What that shakes out to be is any vessel over 125' pays an additional $10,000 and depending how high Gatun Lake is and up to another 10% which is added to the toll calculated for the transit.  When the Lake is high the percentage is low and when the Lake is as it is now (fairly low) the percentage is around 8%.

 

While the $200M shortfall sounds serious, I don't think it is a huge blow when you consider that is out of almost $5 billion in income.  The Freshwater Surcharge should have been making up the difference during the wetter periods.  So much for the rainy day fund😉.

[sdrocks]

We're on theOctober 2024 sailing from LA .  Hope it will not be cancelled. I am sorry for those already getting cancelled. How severely disappointing.  Cruises to the Caribbean are a dime a dozen.  Been on many and want to do something different.

[Biker19]

37 minutes ago, RFerrington said:

Really ?  I never realized that. 

The only other place other than the Med where RCI is doing interporting.

Edited August 9, 2023 by Biker19

[celoplyr]

2 hours ago, crewsweeper said:

Appears to me there may be issues with the Costa Rican ports. If so not RCCL's fault. Plus, thought Limon was the only Eastern Coast CR port for cruise ships. What was the second CR port?

 

Most Panama Canal cruises from Eastern US don't transit the Canal unless redeploying to West Coast.rather they do lake Gatun and offer excursions for rail or bus tours along the canal route.

I figured it was Fuerte Amador that was the problem. I saw on the NCL board that it was a nightmare trying to board there, and I haven't seen evidence it's any better now.

[orville99]

45 minutes ago, celoplyr said:

I figured it was Fuerte Amador that was the problem. I saw on the NCL board that it was a nightmare trying to board there, and I haven't seen evidence it's any better now.

When we were there in February, that port did not look like it was in any shape to handle a cruise ship. Quite honestly, it looked like it was about to collapse into the sea.

[HappyTexan44]

 

 

You know, flying is so miserable lately, that if that cruise were free and all I had to pay for was the flight, I wouldn't go.  Long, miserable expensive flight to go to the Caribbean.   
If the benefit was worthwhile, I'd fly.   

 

[S.A.M.J.R.]

I don't have a dog in this fight, and this itinerary change would really suck, but something else that jumped at me...

They will put you in a "like for like" cabin if you stay with the new itinerary.  But the original booking was on Rhapsody and the new itinerary is on Rhapsody.  So why wouldn't they just keep folks in the cabins already assigned?  

[cruisetorelax44]

4 hours ago, bigmoose7563 said:

What are the odds that if most cancel their reservations because of this change that they may cancel these cruises completely at a later date?

this is another reason we're going to cancel... we've all seen it happen before when routes don't sell...

 

[RFerrington]

We have booked the 3-16-24 Odyssey as a replacement for the Rhapsody cruises.  It’s an 8 night where we had 14 nights booked on RH but we have never sailed on OY so we’re looking forward to a new ship (for us).  We’re going to the same southern Caribbean ports (Aruba and Curaçao) that the “enhanced” Rhapsody replacement cruise is going but I don’t have to fly to get there !

[coaster]

Bizarre itinerary. Don't see these sailings ever being booked close to capacity. Colon is a pretty dismal port. Looks like the buildings have been bombed when we were there in April on Celebrity. Only reason to stop is to take an excursion to the canal. Heard the government is trying to move people out of Colon to Panama City for some reason. Can't imagine flying there to sail to ports that are so common from FL departure ports. Locals going to fill these ships? 

Edited August 9, 2023 by coaster