A number of upset travellers have traded in their swimsuits for snow gear after their sunny Bahamas-bound cruise was rerouted to more frigid temperatures in New England and Canada.
The change of plan came at the last minute too, with passengers alerted less than 24 hours before the MSC Meraviglia cruise ship was set to depart from New York on Saturday. Many travellers had already arrived in Brooklyn with their sunscreen and beach bags by the time the announcement was made.
The MSC cruise line said the decision was made “due to unseasonable and rapidly worsening weather that would have made it impossible to safely reach the southern Atlantic Ocean from New York City.”
This week, a powerful storm rocked parts of the northeastern United States and the Bahamas, causing widespread power outages and flooding. At least five people in the U.S. have been killed as a result of the storm.
MSC said “the only alternative” to rerouting the destinations would have been to “take the more extreme step” and cancel the cruise outright.
“The complexities involved in obtaining last-minute berths for unplanned stops and provisioning the ship along its new route left sailing to Canada and New England as the only viable option,” MSC wrote in its statement.
The MSC Meraviglia left New York on Saturday as originally planned and headed first to Boston, Mass., where the ship docked for three days.
On Wednesday, the cruise ship was scheduled to reach Portland, Maine. Thursday, the travellers will cross the border into Canada and dock in the Port of Saint John, N.B. There, guests will be greeted by a province attempting to restore power to its citizens following the storm, and temperatures around -2 degrees Celsius.
MSC offered passengers who did not want to travel to the new, colder destinations the opportunity to cancel entirely in exchange for a full-value cruise credit toward a future voyage.
For many eager travellers, the opportunity came too late. Friends Lakeya Allen and Val Montgomery told Good Morning America they were already in Brooklyn with their family when news of the reroute came.
Allen said she was “devastated” by the change to their vacation plans. She added that the cruise had been a Christmas gift to some of her children.
“We’re from Chicago, so we wanted to change the weather,” she said. “I never fathomed that we will be back in cold weather.”
Montgomery separately told NBC News she thought she was being “punked” when they were told the ship would not reach the Bahamas.
Allen said she had to make a last-minute trip to Walmart to purchase warmer clothing for her three children, who had only packed beachwear.
Since their departure, Allen has shared numerous videos from onboard the MSC Meraviglia of travellers, like herself, trying to make the most of their vacations. In one video posted to TikTok, some passengers can be seen on the ship’s deck as they’re bundled in coats and hats, while others swim in outdoor pools, despite the cold weather.
It is unclear how many passengers boarded the rerouted cruise ship in Brooklyn. According to the MRC website, the Meraviglia can accommodate 5,624 passengers and 1,608 crew members.