When a cruise line cancels a sailing, it can be a traumatic experience for would-have-been passengers.
Some cancelations happen at the last minute due to a ship needing emergency repairs, while others happen well in advance. Neither situation is fun, but compensation for your missed cruise varies greatly based on when it gets canceled.
Related: Carnival Cruise Line makes a surprising casino move
When there's a close-in cancelation, cruise lines tend to offer more generous compensation. That's because passengers have already secured vacation time, flights, and hotels — and in some cases, they lose money — when a cruise gets canceled within weeks or days of sailing.
In cases where a cruise is canceled well in advance, those same problems don't exist, and compensation tends to be lower. If your cruise gets canceled more than six months out for sailing, you can likely book a similar trip, switch to a new ship in a similar time period, or make another vacation plan.
For those passengers, the cruise line will offer full refunds or a future cruise credit with a slight bonus. That's what Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH) has done for passengers on the 38 2025 and 2026 sailings it has unexpectedly had to cancel.
Doug Parker of Cruise News Today had the full story.
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Norwegian cancels sailings on 3 ships
Transcript:
This is Cruise News Today with Doug Parker. Norwegian Cruise Line has canceled 38 sailings across three different ships, Norwegian Jewel, Norwegian Star, and Norwegian Dawn. These are scheduled between November of 2025 and April of 2026.
Now, the impacted itineraries include sailings in the Caribbean, South America, Antarctica, Africa, and Arabia. The cruise line did not provide a reason for the cancellations or details about where the ships will be during that period. Guests will receive automatic refunds and a generous 10% future cruise credit.
The ships will resume operation in April 2026 with new itineraries, including cruises in Europe, Bermuda and the Canada-New England area.
Norwegian will redeploy a ship
Norwegian also informed passengers booked on the Norwegian Jade that a number of sailings onboard the vessel will no longer go ahead. The move affects sailings between Oct. 18, 2025, and Feb. 16, 2026.
The company is redeploying the ship to San Diego, where it will offer 7-day cruises to the Mexican Riviera.
A full monetary refund of the fare paid for the canceled cruise will be automatically returned to the original form of payment provided at the time of reservation, the cruise line said.
Happy birthday Voyager of the Seas, Carnival plans 4th of July sailings
And, this week marks 25 years of service for Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas, which launched in November this week in 1999 as the world's largest cruise ship. Now to celebrate, the cruise line threw a massive party in the promenade with a balloon drop and a giant cake.
Thank you Mark for sharing these festivities with us.
Built in Finland, the 142,000 ton vessel debuted with groundbreaking features for its time, including the first permanent ice skating rink at sea. Much simpler time.
I am curious: What was the oldest ship you've been on? Let me know in the comments. I believe mine was Carnival Fantasy at 29 years old.
And Carnival (CCL) is planning a star-spangled celebration for America's 250th birthday in 2026.
Related: Why Carnival Cruise Line won't make a popular dining change
Now the cruise line will offer 10 different voyages from three to eight days, departing from Miami, Canaveral, Jacksonville, New York, Long Beach and San Francisco. The highlight will occur on July 4th when seven East Coast ships gather near Celebration Quay in the Bahamas and three West Coast ships meet near Ensenada, Mexico. Festivities include patriotic deck parties, themed entertainment and special food and drinks.
Bookings for all these sailings are now open.
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