A frequent cruise-goer is 'furious' after Royal Caribbean canceled her Alaska vacation once she'd already boarded the ship

14.09.2023 - 12:07 / insider.com / Royal Caribbean

On September 1, Carol and Tom Cutkomp stepped aboard Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas ship in Seward, Alaska, and began unpacking their belongings, eager to kick off their vacation after three long days of travel.

Within the next hour, the ship's captain told passengers the cruise had been canceled due to a technical issue with the ship's propulsion system, Carol Cutkomp told Insider.

The Cutkomps, avid cruise goers who are both retired teachers, had departed Southern California on Tuesday, August 29, and arrived in Seward, a small Alaskan city three hours south of Anchorage, on Friday, September 1. They booked the seven-night cruise with their friends, Greg and Sharon Wookey, to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversaries together.

But instead of exploring the Alaskan coast, the group spent the weekend scrambling to secure a way home, Carol Cutkomp said.

"We had talked about going on a cruise together for years," she told Insider. "I went over to their room and we looked at each other like, what the hell is going on?"

The hundreds of passengers affected by the last-minute cancelation could remain on the ship-turned-hotel for the next two nights, according to a notice from Royal Caribbean. They had two options to reschedule their flights: (1) book the airfare on their own and be compensated up to $600, or (2) let Royal Caribbean book the flights.

Concerned they wouldn't be able to find flights for under $600, the group headed to the ship's conference center to book their flights through Royal Caribbean, Cutkomp said. There, they waited in a three-hour line to give their flight preferences and contact information to an employee who worked in the ship's food service department, she told Insider.

The next morning, after still not receiving a confirmation email about their flights, they spent another three hours on the phone with customer service, Cutkomp said, only to find out that the two couples had been booked on separate flights home.

After more back and forth over the phone to change their flight, the Cutkomps received the final confirmation number while they were on the last bus out of Seward to the Anchorage airport.

In order to get to and from Seward, Cutkomp said she and her husband spent a total of 11 hours waiting in airports, six hours rescheduling airfare, six hours on the bus, and three nights in hotels. To top it all off, all four travelers tested positive for COVID-19 when they arrived back in California, she told Insider.

Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas cruise ship, which can fit up to 2,501 passengers, was scheduled to depart from Seward, Alaska on September 1 and Vancouver, Canada on September 8 for seven-night cruises along the Alaskan coast. Both voyages were canceled due