An emergency medical evacuation onboard Royal Caribbean’s Visions of the Seas delayed its schedule, forcing the ship to arrive at the port and depart for its next sailing one day later.
Vision of the Seas had just come from St. Kitts and was on its way back to Baltimore, aiming for a January 16 return. The 12-night Caribbean sailing was interrupted by announcements of an emergency medical evacuation in Puerto Rico.
“Around 2:45 pm the Captain announced we had turned around and were headed towards Puerto Rico for emergency airlift of a passenger,” shared a Reddit user.
A subsequent announcement that evening revealed that a medical airlift would not be possible and the 2,514-passenger cruise vessel would be docking at San Juan instead. “They just announced that Coast Guard cannot do an airlift so we have to go all the way to San Juan to get this person off,” a passenger wrote on Facebook.
Guests’ timely updates revealed that the emergency transfer was completed early on January 16, “Vision docked at San Juan sometime around 5:15 am this morning, successfully transferred the passenger, and is headed back to Baltimore once again as of about 6:15 am.”
Changes in Vision of the Seas’ Schedule
The sudden itinerary change delayed the ship by a day. Instead of arriving in Baltimore on the 16th, the Vision-class vessel will make it back to port on January 17 at 7 am.
Its next sailing will also be affected. Vision of the Seas’ January 16 departure has been pushed to January 17. The eight-night cruise to The Bahamas has been shortened to seven nights. Moreover, it will not call on Charleston, South Carolina as initially planned. Its remaining ports of call are Florida, Grand Bahama Island, and Nassau.
Compensation
The cruise line is offering the next batch of passengers compensation by refunding their cruise fare, daily packages, and gratuities for January 16. The equivalent sum will be available as onboard credits. Passengers can also receive the actual amount if any credits remain unused by the end of their voyage.
Prepaid shore excursions in Charleston will also be credited to guests while pre-booked flights and transfers made with the cruise line will be rescheduled.
Earlier in January, another passenger was successfully airlifted from a Carnival Cruise Line vessel.
