The cruise lines always have the wellbeing of their guests and crew members as their top priority – and sometimes they have to make unpopular decisions in order to keep everyone safe.
With this in mind, Royal Caribbean has had to disappoint guests of Ovation of the Seas by canceling the popular Endicott Arm Fjord and Glacier Explorer expedition that is hosted in Tracy Arm / Endicott Arm, Alaska, likely due to hazardous conditions.
“Due to operational challenges, we’re unable to offer the Endicott Arm Fjord and Glacier Explorer excursion. As a result, we have to cancel your My Royal Cruise reservation for this tour. We’re sorry for the inconvenience and apologize for any disruption to your plans,” read a letter from the cruise line to impacted guests.
In addition to the refund, which affected passengers can expect to receive in full within 14 business days, guests are also receiving a 15% discount onboard towards booking another excursion as a show of good faith.
Read Also: Royal Caribbean Continues to Cancel Popular Shore Excursions
It’s also unclear which specific sailings the cancellation applies to – but based on the response on social media, it appears multiple Alaska cruises have been impacted.
But on the bright side, no other Alaskan excursions seem to be negatively affected by the unspecified “operational challenges” as of the time of publication.
The Quantum-class cruise ship is operating weekly cruises to Alaska based out of Seattle, Washington, through the end of September 2024.
The 7-day sailings onboard the 4,905-passenger vessel include calls on Sitka, Skagway, Juneau, Tracy Arm / Endicott Arm, and Victoria, British Columbia.
Icy Water Creates Hazards For Cruise Ships
While Royal Caribbean did not give a deeper reason for canceling the excursion beyond unspecified challenges, it’s possible that the cause is unusually large amounts of ice floating in the water.
As a symptom of global warming, it has been unusually warm in the typically chilly region. Per the United States Department of Agriculture, the state of Alaska is heating up at two to three times the rate of the global average.
Per social media posts from recent Royal Caribbean guests, this has resulted in icebergs that make it dangerous for the ships.
“Ours was cancelled the day before the excursion on the ship. We heard it had been too warm thus too dangerous,” a former guest commented on a Facebook post that highlighted the cancellation letter.
“Ours was cancelled because of too many glacier icebergs floating around,” confirmed another previous passenger.
Endicott Arm Fjord (Photo Credit: Martina Birnbaum)
Read Also: The Best Time to Cruise Alaska: Months to Choose
Indeed, icebergs in the water can pose a significant danger for all vessels – not just cruise ships.
Ice weighs approximately one ton per cubic meter and may be bigger than it appears on the water’s surface. This means that a patch of floating ice that seems small may actually weigh thousands of tons and could potentially tear a hole in the ship.
And of course, no one will ever forget the infamous Titanic disaster in which a collision with an iceberg sank the ship in under three hours, killing 1,517 passengers and crew members.
More recently, Norwegian Cruise Line made headlines in June of 2022 after Norwegian Sun made contact with a small iceberg (known as a growler) that was obscured by dense fog.
When the collision occurred, the Sun-class vessel was en route to the Hubbard Glacier – which is about 200 miles northwest of Juneau, Alaska – as part of a 9-night Alaska sailing.
After the damage was assessed in Juneau, the decision was made to cancel the remainder of the 78,309-gross ton vessel’s voyage.
However, she was cleared to sail her up to 1,936 passengers back to her homeport of Seattle, Washington, at reduced speeds, where disembarkation could take place as planned to avoid disruptions to travel arrangements. All guests were given a refund for the inconvenience.
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Publish date : 2024-08-10 03:05:00
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