Passengers crusing aboard Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas arrived later than deliberate in Amsterdam, Netherlands, at this time, June 25, 2025.
The delay was a results of onboard upkeep, in response to the ship’s Captain, Iv Vidos.
The 154,407-passenger vessel departed Southampton, England, on June 21, 2025, and spent three stunning days in ports alongside Northern Europe’s shoreline earlier this week.
However whereas company spent 8 hours in Oslo on June 23, 10 hours in Copenhagen on June 24, and 9 hours in Hamburg, Germany, they realized their go to to Amsterdam, by way of a name in neighboring Rotterdam, can be a bit lower than they hoped for.
Aurora Yera-Rodriquez, assistant vp of visitor expertise at Royal Caribbean, shared the information after the captain’s PA announcement.
“We’ve needed to make some changes to the instances we’ll go to Rotterdam, Netherlands, as a result of pace restrictions from ongoing upkeep onboard,” she shared in a letter to company.
Though scheduled to reach at 11 a.m. native time, the slower speeds pressured the ship to drag into Rotterdam late, even later than Yera-Rodriquez had anticipated.
As an alternative of arriving round 1 p.m., the vessel made it to Rotterdam nearer to 2 p.m.
Yera-Rodriquez was fast to say that the upkeep wasn’t something to worry over, including, “Relaxation assured, all upkeep work is being carried out with the utmost security.”
Sadly, Independence of the Seas couldn’t make up the distinction to as much as 3,634 disillusioned company, and saved its 7 p.m. departure time and shortened the decision to lower than 5 hours. The issue? Amsterdam is about an hour away by bus.
Independence of the Seas calls in Rotterdam as an alternative of Amsterdam as a result of metropolis’s improve on vacationer tax and environmental issues and protests that has the port shifting to capping the variety of company allowed to disembark.
As anticipated, the delay additionally pressured Royal Caribbean to reschedule its excursions.
Company booked by way of Royal Caribbean had been mechanically rescheduled with notification letters and new tickets delivered to passenger staterooms.
Subsequent Cruise Affected
Whereas Royal Caribbean makes it sound like routine upkeep is underway, one other letter was despatched to passengers on Independence of the Seas’ subsequent journey from Southampton.
With Rotterdam because the final name for Independence of the Seas’ 8-night “Northern Metropolis Escapes” cruise, the ship is at the moment returning to Southampton for its June 29, 2025, completion.
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Anticipated to reach by 5:30 a.m., the ship is scheduled to take its subsequent group of passengers on a 7-night “Norwegian Fjords” cruise, departing at 5 p.m. on the identical day.
However these passengers acquired a letter from Royal Caribbean saying the continuing upkeep happening on Independence of the Seas will pressure the vessel to overlook its first name to Alesund on July 1, 2025.
As an alternative, the ship will spend two days at sea and sail into Molde, Norway, an hour earlier on July 2.
“Resulting from pace restrictions from ongoing upkeep onboard, we’ve needed to make some changes,” the letter to passengers started once more.
For skipping a port altogether, the cruise line is giving passengers an onboard credit score to take pleasure in as “a token of our appreciation to your understanding.”
The onboard credit score gives $150 for inside and oceanview cabins, $200 for balcony cabins, and $400 for suites. An extra $25 is being added for every third and fourth visitor in every stateroom class.
All excursions bought by way of Royal Caribbean had been additionally cancelled and refunded. With two sailings affected, it’s seemingly the 16-year-old Independence of the Seas is engaged on repairing some propulsion points.
Cruise Hive will report any extra itinerary modifications that will come because of this.
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