Royal Caribbean’s Odyssey to Return to Cape Liberty One Day Later

Royal Caribbean’s Odyssey to Return to Cape Liberty One Day Later

Royal Caribbean International warned guests set to embark on the upcoming cruise of the Odyssey of the Seas that their sailing will be delayed by one day.

According to a statement, the ship is scheduled to dock at its homeport in Cape Liberty on January 27, 2026, instead of January 26, 2026.

“Due to the major winter storm affecting much of the East and Northeast U.S., and the impacts on land-based travel and port operations, we are delaying our arrival into Bayonne,” Royal Caribbean said.

The company added that the decision will “allow for weather to improve and shore-based operations to recover.”

“For many guests experiencing difficulties getting to Bayonne, we hope this relieves some worry as you’ll have an extra day to make it there safely,” Royal Caribbean continued.

Originally set to offer an 11-night cruise to the Southern Caribbean, the Odyssey of the Seas is now set to offer a shortened voyage with a revised itinerary.

“Due to this change, our calls to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, will be cancelled and instead, we’ll enjoy some extra time onboard,” the company added.

Previously scheduled visits to St. John’s in Antigua, Bridgetown in Barbados, Castries in St. Lucia, and Philipsburg in St. Maarten will go ahead as planned.

As compensation for the last-minute change, Royal Caribbean is offering guests a pro-rated one-day refund of the paid cruise fare in the form of onboard cruise credit. Any refundable unused credit at the end of the cruise will be refunded to guests.

In related news, Royal Caribbean also shortened a cruise on board the Harmony of the Seas due to a winter storm in Texas.

As previously reported by Cruise Industry News, the Oasis-class vessel returned to its homeport in Galveston one day earlier to avoid the weather system.

Oasis of the Seas will summer in N.Y. in 2020

Royal Caribbean International said the Oasis of the Seas will make its 2020 summer home in the New York metropolitan area, sailing seven-night itineraries to the Bahamas from Cape Liberty in Bayonne, N.J. It marks the debut of the 5,400-passenger ship in the Big Apple.

The Oasis will be the first ship in its class, and the largest, to sail from the Northeast.

The Bahamas sailings will include a stop at Perfect Day at CocoCay; the private island will receive calls from 10 different Royal ships in 2020.

The Oasis will have a Canada/New England season, as well.

In addition, the Adventure of the Seas will return to Cape Liberty in 2020, sailing a variety of five- and nine-night summer and fall itineraries to Bermuda; New England and Canada; the Bahamas; and the Caribbean.

Travellers can extend their leaf-peeping experience with longer sailings aboard the Vision of the Seas, which will offer three 10- to-11-night, open-jaw itineraries between Cape Liberty and Quebec City with an overnight in Quebec's capital.

Anthem of the Seas Cruise Cut Short to Avoid Storm

Anthem of the Seas

Royal Caribbean isn’t taking any chances when it comes to weather following its nightmare cruise into a hurricane force storm earlier this month, cutting Anthem of the Seas’ latest voyage short to avoid a storm off the mid-Atlantic seaboard.

The cruise ship giant said Saturday that it was closely watching a “large storm” off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, making the decision to head back to its homeport in Cape Liberty, New Jersey immediately to avoid the storm and provide guests “with a comfortable journey back home”. An update on Monday said Captain was following the company’s new storm avoidance policy and that the decision was made after the Captain consulted with shoreside experts.

RCLcorp ‎@RCLcorp

#AnthemoftheSeas will head back to Cape Liberty immediately to avoid a severe storm & provide guests with a comfortable journey back home.

10:18 PM - 27 Feb 2016

 
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As you’ll recall, Royal Caribbean found itself in some hot water earlier this month after the Anthem of the Seas with more than 6,000 people on board sailed into the a hurricane-force storm off the Cape Hatteras that damaged part of the ship’s propulsion and left passengers shaken as they took to social media to post about the nightmare conditions.

Royal Caribbean has insisted that the storm in that case was worse than forecasted, but nonetheless the company said it identified gaps in its planning system that would be addressed to prevent a similar occurrence in the future. Within days of the event, Royal Caribbean made moves to strengthen its storm avoidance policy, supposedly adding shoreside resources at its Miami headquarters to provide additional guidance to our ships’ captains.

But looking at marine charts from this past Saturday, it seems Royal Caribbean’s decision to cut the latest cruise short may have been out of an abundance of caution or perhaps to avoid the inevitable bad publicity that would come with any Royal Caribbean ship sailing in any storm at the moment.

NWS OPC 24 hour forecast issued Saturday night. 

A 24 hour forecast chart issued Saturday night by the National Weather Services Ocean Prediction Center predicted a relatively modest 993 mb low over the Great Lakes moving ENE with gale force conditions forecast off the Mid-Atlantic and New England coast by Sunday evening.

“What Storm? The low moving across the Great Lakes was forecast to produce near gale to gale conditions from Hatteras northward (mostly 30-40 knots). Might be a bit rough but hardly storm conditions,” marine meteorologist and ship routing expert with Ocean Weather Services, Fred Pickhardt, commented to gCaptain.

In other Anthem of the Seas news, Royal Caribbean said Monday that about 10 guests per day were reporting symptoms of norovirus during the cruise, but the company insists that the outbreak didn’t impact the decision to return to port early.

Storm that rocked Anthem of the Seas called a 'weather bomb'

Weather Bomb 

ABOARD THE AZAMARA JOURNEY — The Feb. 7 storm that rocked Royal Caribbean International’s Anthem of the Seas and forced it back to Cape Liberty in New Jersey 10 days ago was likened to a “weather bomb” by a captain on Royal’s sister line, Azamara Club Cruises.

Magnus Davidson, captain of the Azamara Journey, said that based on what he’d heard from headquarters in the days after the storm, winds of 75 knots were forecasted but Anthem actually encountered gales of twice that velocity.

“The storm intensified very rapidly,” Davidson told a group of journalists on one of the Journey’s first cruises after an extensive drydock. But, he added, at no time was the ship in danger or unsafe.

The storm, off the coast of North Carolina, battered cabins and public areas and frightened guests. After assessing the damage and the likelihood that further bad weather was waiting as the ship continued on its planned itinerary, Royal Caribbean decided to abort the cruise and return to Anthem’s homeport.

Davidson said captains consult a variety of standard weather sources used by mariners, such as Passageweather.com, to decide how to proceed when storm conditions threaten.

Decisions are made in consultation with weather experts at the Miami headquarters of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., the parent of both Royal Caribbean International and Azamara Club Cruises.

In the case of the Carolina storm, Davidson said it was several hundred miles wide so it was not possible to simply go around it, as he said some Internet commenters had suggested.

However, he said that Anthem’s captain did make a course adjustment intended to take it more toward the edge of the storm.

Anthem of the Seas christened in England

Anthem of the Seas godmother Emma Wilby performed with the Only Boys Aloud choir.

British travel agent Emma Wilby on Monday named Royal Caribbean International’s newest ship, the 4,200-passenger Anthem of the Seas, in Southampton, England.  

The naming took place in the ship’s Royal Theater, where Wilby, a 27-year-old travel agent from Sunderland, U.K., performed onstage with the Welsh choir Only Boys Aloud for more than 1,300 invited guests, dignitaries and media.

The Anthem, the second ship in Royal’s Quantum class, will sail from the U.K. on various European itineraries this summer and fall. In November, it will arrive in New York Harbor to dock at its permanent home port of Cape Liberty, N.J.

Wilby, an agent at Thomson Holidays, is a military wife and budding singer who performs in the Military Wives Choir in Kinloss, Scotland, where she is based with her husband, a Royal Engineer for the British Army. She was picked from a large group of agents who applied for the honor.

Royal Caribbean takes delivery of Anthem of the Seas

A signing ceremony in Bremerhaven, Germany, made the Anthem delivery official.

Meyer Werft shipyard formally turned over Anthem of the Seas to Royal Caribbean International on Friday, 10 days ahead of the ship's naming ceremony in Southampton, England.

The 4,200-passenger Anthem, the second ship in Royal’s Quantum class, will sail from the U.K. on various European itineraries this summer and fall. In November, it will arrive in New York Harbor to dock at its permanent home port of Cape Liberty, N.J.

Unique features of the Quantum-class ships include the North Star aerial observatory, the SeaPlex bumper car arena and the RipCord by iFLY skydiving simulator.

Illness outbreak affecting 300 passengers on Explorer of the Seas

By Phil Davies

Ten per cent of passengers on a Royal Caribbean International ship in the Caribbean are reported to have fallen ill with symptoms including vomiting and diarrhoea.

US health officials boarded 3,505-passenger Explorer of the Seas in the US Virgin Islands yesterday to investigate the outbreak of gastrointestinal illness affecting at least 300 people. Twenty-two crew members also reported feeling ill.

The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said 281 of the 3,050 passengers on board the ship had reported getting sick during a Caribbean cruise that left Cape Liberty, New Jersey, last Tuesday.

The ship underwent "extensive and thorough sanitising" to help prevent more people getting sick during a previous call in Puerto Rico, a company spokeswoman said.

The vessel bypassed a scheduled stop at the company's beach destination in northern Haiti to sail directly to San Juan, Puerto Rico's capital.

"This was a difficult decision to make; however, we feel it is best to make this itinerary modification to help prevent any more guests from becoming ill," the spokeswoman told The Guardian.

She added that special cleaning products and disinfectants that are proven to kill norovirus were being used to clean the ship.

The passengers and crew who fell ill have "responded well to over-the-counter medication being administered on board the ship," she said.

At least two CDC officials, an epidemiologist and an environmental health officer, were expected to investigate and evaluate the response to the outbreak on the cruise liner.