Can’t Keep Everybody Happy

In my last column I mentioned that Bonnie and I had signed up for three back-to-back cruises, with the first one being Boston to Bermuda and back, the second Boston to Quebec City, and the third Quebec City to Boston.

We were scheduled to arrive in Bermuda on Monday September 10 and stay there for three days. Unfortunately, Hurricane Florence was scheduled to arrive in Bermuda on Tuesday September 11. We knew the hurricane was on the way and we were going to be subject to whatever decision Norwegian Cruise Line made.

On Thursday night, September 6, the powers that be at NCL opted to divert the cruise away from Bermuda and instead make three stops in Canada and one at Bar Harbor, ME before returning to Boston.

The ports we stopped at were mostly redundant to Bonnie and me. We stopped at two ports what we were already going to stop at twice more in September. Still, avoiding any contact with the hurricane was a top priority. I’ve been on the outskirts of a hurricane before while on a cruise ship and it was no fun.

Most of our fellow passengers lived in or near Boston and a large number of them were loudly disappointed that we weren’t going to Bermuda. They had looked forward to a warm weather vacation and had not brought clothes to go into Canada. Most of them felt that being near a hurricane was just a minor inconvenience. We know now that Florence wreaked considerable havoc, including deaths, in the Carolinas after landfall. We knew none of this then.

Apparently another NCL ship scheduled to go to Bermuda at the same time out of New York was diverted south to Florida rather than north to Canada. A much better option, in the minds of many of our fellow passengers. Didn’t matter much to them that we’d have to travel directly through the hurricane to get back — or, more likely, divert to several hundred miles east to avoid the hurricane meaning the shore time in Florida would be cut short by a day. (New York or Boston to Florida and back within 7 days already has very few land days in Florida because of the time it takes to get to Florida from these embarkation ports.)

Florence was scheduled to hit US mainland on Thursday or Friday, and we’d have had to leave Florida on Wednesday and head straight through the storm or Tuesday to travel far enough out to sea to get around Florence. That definitely would not have been fun.

On Monday, while we were in Halifax, Nova Scotia, we received updated information that the hurricane had actually missed Bermuda to the south. “Aha!” said the disgruntled passengers. “We could have gone to Bermuda after all!”

Possibly. Still, a hurricane missing an island by one or two hundred miles or so is still a very windy situation. And the divert-or-not decision had to be made several days earlier based on the best information available.

Second-guessing based on not-previously-available data is something video poker players are quite used to. “I should have quit a half hour ago,” or “If I only would have known that that progressive was going to hit Tuesday I would have for sure been playing.” This kind of after-the-fact decision-making makes as little sense with the weather as it does in gambling.

I was sympathetic to those passengers who had packed warm weather clothes only and weren’t prepared for Nova Scotia. They had to buy new clothes even though they had a closet-full of appropriate clothes at home. This didn’t affect Bonnie and me because we had packed for three weeks, but it’s not hard to understand people being irritated at unexpected expenses.

Overall, Bonnie and I were happy as clams in chowder. We were dancing every night to the music of José and Patty — that was a major consideration in booking these cruises. And the seas were calm — which is important when senior citizens go dancing. Life is good!

Note:  After we arrived back home I was asked by others whether the ship would have given us our money back if we really didn’t like the changed itinerary. I just don’t know. Before you boarded the ship, you were asked to sign a waiver saying the change in itinerary was acceptable. We signed, as did all the other passengers who we met on board the ship. I never got to talk to any of those who refused to sign the waiver.

I’m sure there was suitable language in the contract we signed when we booked the cruise allowing the cruise line to change things in cases like these. After all, there are hurricanes and other weather situations every year and cruise ships are used to dealing with them. How seriously the cruise line enforces these contracts is another thing. Cruise ships make their money from repeat customers and ticking off your customers is not smart business.