Carnival Cruise Line is changing the itineraries to six cruises aboard the Carnival Vista due to issues that need maintenance while cruising.
Carnival Cruise Line sent an email to booked cruisers explaining the necessity of changing six upcoming itineraries for the Carnival Vista. These changes will affect cruises to the Western Caribbean from mid-October through mid-November and then again from mid-January through mid-February.
In order to do onboard maintenance, cruising speed will need to be reduced causing the changes to the itinerary. The specific departures that are affected are October 15, October 29, November 12, January 21, February 4, and February 18.
The email states, “We have had to implement a work schedule to address an unexpected issue on Carnival Vista and will be conducting maintenance on the ship during your cruise, which means the ship will be unable to sustain the maximum cruising speed required to operate your itinerary.”
Each of the October and November sailings impacted are 7-night roundtrip Western Caribbean cruises from Galveston, Texas. The original itineraries included two days at sea, visits to Montego Bay, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, the Cayman Island, and Cozumel, Mexico, another day at sea and then return to Galveston, Texas. The sailings in January and February only vary in that they were headed to Falmouth, Jamaica instead of Montego Bay.
With the changes, all six cruises will now call on Belize and Roatan instead of Grand Cayman or Jamaica. The stay in Cozumel will be slightly longer as well.
With this being a rather large change to the itinerary, Carnival Cruise Line will compensate their guests for the changes. Each guest will receive $50 onboard credit (up to $100/stateroom), posted to their Sail & Sign account. All pre-booked excursions will be fully refunded, and port fees will be adjusted.
There is also the option to reschedule or cancel and request a refund. Those options must be completed by September 26, 2022 and refunds can take up to three weeks to process.
While Carnival Cruise Line has not given the exact reason for the itinerary change, the maintenance is likely related to the ship’s engines, engineering or navigational systems. By covering less distance in the same amount of time, the ship can sail at slower speeds allowing engineering maintenance to be performed safely.
How about you? Have you had your itinerary changed? Were you just happy to be on a cruise anyway?