A right Royal Mess!!!

So.… 9th May 19  will now be known in the travel industry as the all new  “Independence (of the sea) Day” but for all the wrong reasons.

In a shock announcement without any warning we were advised yesterday morning that Royal Caribbean have decided to pull the UK’s favourite ship Independence of the sea from Southampton in summer 2020. The decision has been taken due to increased interest for the Perfect day experience in Coco Bay to keep her in Fort Lauderdale, despite having been on sale since late last year and therefore effecting all that had booked early and were looking forward to their summer holiday.

Ben Bouldin, Associate Vice President & Managing Director for ROI, stated: “This decision has been made in we deploy our ships to give guests the most desired destinations and experiences.  This led us to keep Independence of the Seas in the Caribbean in 2020, due to her large success there and the evolution of our private destination, Perfect Day at CocoCay. The Uk continues to be an important market for Royal Caribbean and it is why we are excited to welcome our Quantum class ship Anthem of the seas back to Southampton in 2020 to offer extraordinary holiday itineraries for our guests”

Guests effected by this change have been contacted and advised of the situation. They have also been offered a 25% future cruise credit based on their original cruise fair to use on any sailing over the next 2 years, but as you can understand they are very upset and angry with this decision. We are doing as much as we possibly can to make sure they are top priority to get new summer 2020 plans in place.

Last night news of the change went into overdrive on social media sites with passengers understandably Angry, saddened and for Royal Caribbean fans confused at the decision!