In all honesty, we were not expecting our cruise on the Carnival Radiance to be cancelled. And yet, here we are!!! We totally understand the reason for the cancellation and we our looking forward to our next cruise leaving in exactly one year.
But let’s look back on how everything has changed since our original cruise…
On November 15, 2019, I booked an 8-day cruise on Carnival Freedom leaving out of Galveston on August 29, 2020. This was booked as a surprise for my husband even though I was sharing information with him one evening. At the time I booked, there was a $50 deposit sale going on so it was a perfect time to book. A couple of days after I booked the cruise, we had family birthday lunch at his sisters house. I asked her to give him his present from me to him so he wouldn’t suspect anything. But somehow, when he was given his “gift” he knew it was something from me. He was happy that we would be going to different ports for us and on a ship we had not been on. The ports of call would be Key West, Freeport, Half Moon Cay, and Nassau. Now all we had to do was wait for August 29, 2020 to get here. Or so we thought.
Then COVID-19 happened and everything we knew started to change everywhere. Cruise lines started cancelling cruises. People had to wear masks in public. People were asked to stay home. We sat and watched thinking we would be in the clear since our cruise was several months away. But just in case, I started looking at options for next year and even posted the options on our refrigerator so we could look at the list whenever wanted to. Occasionally we would talk about the options, but we still had hopes that we would be going on our Carnival Freedom cruise. We were wrong.
On June 22, 2020, we received an email from Carnival letting us know that our cruise had been cancelled. We were given options and decided we would rebook for August 20, 2021 on the Carnival Radiance, selecting a 9-day cruise going to Key West, Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay, and Nassau. The only think left to do was to wait for FTTF to become available to think about excursions. There was nothing else to worry about. Or so we thought.
On July 23, 2020, we received an email stating our Carnival Radiance cruise had been cancelled. This is something we were not expecting at all. I sent Jim a text letting him know that the cruise on the Carnival Radiance had been cancelled and we would need to think about our options for re-booking. By the time he got home, I had a list of our options listed by length of cruise.
Option 1 – 6-day cruise on the Carnival Dream going to Costa Maya, Belize, and Cozumel leaving Galveston on August 22, 2021.
Option 2 – 6-day cruise on the Carnival Dream going to Costa Maya, Mahogany Bay, And Cozumel leaving Galveston on August 8, 2021.
Option 3 – 7-day cruise on the Carnival Vista going to Mahogany Bay, Belize, and Cozumel leaving Galveston on August 28, 2021.
Option 4 – 7-day cruise on the Carnival Vista going to Montego Bay, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel leaving Galveston on August 21, 2021.
Option 5 – 8-day cruise on the Carnival Dream going to Key West, Freeport, Half Moon Cay, and Nassau leaving Galveston on August 28, 2021.
While I was waiting for Jim to get home, I sent an email to our PVP, Josh Waitzman, to let him know that we would know what cruise we would want to change to by 6pm. I had a feeling in knew which one Jim would want to pick to I started looking at the available staterooms. I narrowed it down to either an interior with walkview or a balcony stateroom with an extra large balcony.
Once Jim got home and we talked about the options for maybe 5 minutes, I was ready to speak to our PVP and sent him an email letting him know we knew what we want!!! We had decided on the 8-day Carnival Dream selecting an balcony stateroom with the extra large balcony. True to form, Josh sent me an email letting me know he would be calling me shortly. Within 30 minutes, he called and everything was transferred to the new cruise! Our PVP makes everything thing happen to effortlessly. Plus he is so fun to talk to!!!
On July 24th, I sent an email to the Port of Galveston requesting to transfer our parking reservation hoping that this will be the last time I have to do this. To my surprise, I received a response within an hour with the new information for our parking reservation. I was also able to purchase Faster to the Fun. Today was definitely a good day!!! Then on August 4th, I booked a cabana for our time in Half Moon Cay. I decided that I really didn’t want to take a chance of waiting and then not being available.
Now we wait one year for our cruise. During this time, we will consider our excursion options for Key West, Freeport, and Nassau. I will also be watching for hotel options for our pre-cruise stay and will make endless to-do lists and packing lists. Luckily I know how time flies and before we know it, we will once again be boarding the Carnival Dream for another fabulous cruise.
our life reality 