A family aboard the ill-fated MSC cruise that was diverted from the Bahamas to Boston due to bad weather this week shares their ordeal with DailyMail.com as they sip hot chocolate and shiver from what should have been a winter break in the sun .
Mother of three Lakeya Allen told Dailymail.com from the ship on Wednesday that she had packed “booty shorts” for what she thought would be a tropical cruise to the Bahamas, where she planned to meet the rest of her family. Meet. for their Christmas trip.
Allen dropped $4,000 on the travel and return flights from Chicago to New York, where the cruise was scheduled to depart. She had been looking forward to treating her children to a family vacation and hoped to make it an annual tradition.
The night before she was to depart, the cruise line broke the news that their planned route to the Bahamas was too dangerous given the approaching storms.
Instead, the ship would travel to Boston and eventually Canada.
Mother of three Lakeya Allen told Dailymail.com from the ship on Wednesday that she had packed “booty shorts” for what she thought would be a tropical cruise to the Bahamas, where she planned to meet the rest of her family. Meet. for their Christmas trip
Allen dropped $4,000 on the travel and return flights from Chicago to New York, where the cruise was scheduled to depart. She had been looking forward to treating her children to a family vacation and hoped to make it an annual tradition
The night before she was to depart, the cruise line broke the news that their planned route to the Bahamas was too dangerous given the approaching storms. Instead, the ship would travel to Boston and eventually Canada
Allen and her family did not receive any upgrade to a better room, nor any compensation – not even a 'steak dinner'
Allen had to repack her young children's luggage to reflect the change in weather – trading in the shorts and bathing suits for long winter coats.
Passengers had the option to cancel their trips, but some were already in town to board the ship and decided to continue despite the drastic change in destination.
The mother revealed that according to cruise staff, 2,100 passengers had canceled the cruise ship.
But despite the drop in passengers — the family did not receive any upgrade to a better room, or any compensation — not even a “steak dinner,” Allen said.
“It's COLD cold, the wind is blowing cold, officially cold,” passenger Lakeya Allen – known as Mzzkeya on TikTok – shared via the app in a furious video.
She uploaded another video with the caption: “If you're meant to go to the Bahamas and end up in Boston for your Christmas cruise. The indoor pool was full!'
Allen shared her disappointment with how the cruise turned out on TikTok, claiming it was too cold to even get in the pool.
She pointed the camera at “crazy” kids who decided to brave the elements and go swimming, saying it was “bloody freezing” and “cold cold.”
When we stopped briefly in Boston on Monday, a storm on the East Coast brought less than ideal cruising weather conditions, including heavy rain and high winds.
Allen told Good Morning America that she “never imagined we would be back in cold weather.”
She also joked about drinking hot chocolate at a cruise ship window instead of enjoying sunny weather by the pool.
A statement from MSC Cruise said “unusual weather” would have made it impossible to reach the Bahamas safely.
Allen told Good Morning America that she “never imagined we would be back in cold weather.”
An email shared online shows that MSC Cruises did not notify customers until the evening before their trip, which reported severe weather including heavy rain at ports and wind gusts in excess of 40 knots that made docking unsafe could make.
The company said: 'The only alternative would have been to take the more extreme step of canceling the cruise – and the holidays of thousands of people – outright.'
Passengers did not receive a full refund despite the change in plans, but they were allowed to cancel the trip to receive credit to use on a future cruise at their convenience.
Cruise lines, according to Chris Gray Faust, editor-in-chief of Cruise Critic, have a so-called “contract of carriage,” which does not guarantee any port.
“The cruise line has the legal right to change those ports,” she said.
While other cruise ships canceled their voyages completely due to the unfavorable weather conditions, the MSC Cruise Ship is now en route to Canada, where temperatures are around twenty degrees.
“This guy who was helping us with our luggage said, 'You're going to Canada,'” Girish Keswani told the Boston Globe. “We all laughed about it.”
MSC Cruises justified the move by saying the original course would have run straight into severe storms off the coast of Florida, while New England and Canada would “experience better weather conditions.”
Passengers were presented with a new route that started in New York City and spent three days in Boston, a day in Portland, a day in St. John, Canada, and another day at sea before returning to the Big Apple.