Royal Caribbean Overbooked Cruise – Would You Take the Offer?

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It’s not something you usually expect when you’ve spent months dreaming about your cruise — but once again, Royal Caribbean has found itself in the middle of an overbooking situation.

This time it’s with guests who were set to sail aboard Radiance of the Seas’ 16 night Panama Canal cruise from San Diego to Fort Lauderdale on October 4, 2025.

The sailing is an amazing itinerary with stops in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Grand Cayman.

But instead of just counting down the days, some guests were surprised by a message from Royal Caribbean asking if they’d be willing to change their plans.

The Options Royal Caribbean Gave Guests

Royal Caribbean went all?in to tempt passengers with four different offers:

1. Swap the sailing for a shorter one.
   Guests could transfer to a 13 night voyage on Serenade of the Seas that also included the Panama Canal. At first it sounds tempting, but this sailing had far fewer ports and ended in Miami instead of Fort Lauderdale. Guests would receive a 100% fare refund plus $300 onboard credit, with non-refundable air and hotel covered. Personally, I wouldn’t take this. You’re giving up nights and destinations you may have carefully chosen.
2. Stay on Radiance, but lose the balcony.
   Balcony guests could move to an oceanview cabin instead, while still receiving a full refund of their fare. Effectively, you’d be sailing for free — but without the balcony you booked.
3. Move from balcony to inside stateroom.
   Guests who agreed to sail in an inside stateroom got the same 100% refund plus $300 onboard credit.
4. Cancel completely, get 200% back.
   For those who walked away entirely, Royal Caribbean offered a full refund, 200% future cruise credit, plus reimbursement for non?refundable flights and hotels.

Royal Caribbean gave guests until September 12, 2025 to make their decision. If no choice was made by September 16, travelers simply kept their original balcony cabins on the October 4 sailing.

So yes — anyone who ignored the email still got to cruise exactly as planned.

Why Do Cruise Ships Get Oversold?

A lot of cruisers wonder why ships ever end up oversold in the first place. The answer comes down to how cruise lines manage their bookings.

Just like airlines and hotels, cruise lines know that a certain number of people cancel every single sailing. To keep as many cabins filled as possible, they predict how many cancellations will happen and keep selling rooms right up until sail date.

This often includes selling “guarantee” cabins, where you pick the room type (inside, oceanview, balcony, or suite) but don’t get your exact cabin assignment until closer to embarkation. Once cruise lines have a better idea of the cabins they have sold, they will then start to allocated these “guarantee” cabins.

Most of the time, the predictions work just fine.

But sometimes fewer people cancel than expected, and suddenly the ship has more passengers booked than staterooms available. That’s when the cruise line has to send out those “special offers” to encourage volunteers to move.

And here’s a behind-the-scenes detail many people don’t realize: cruise lines don’t usually contact everyone at random. Instead, they focus on folks who seem more likely to be flexible. For example, they may reach out to:

• Guests who live close to the embarkation port
• Travelers who didn’t purchase flights through the cruise line
• Certain age groups of passengers who historically are more willing to adjust

From the cruise line’s point of view, it’s practical — though, of course, it can be a surprise if you’re one of the guests who gets the email.

My Take: Why This Matters

Now, I’ve been on many cruises and let me say — I’ve never known Disney Cruise Line to do this. Disney seems to handle capacity in a different way, and I’ve never once seen them ask guests to downgrade or switch sailings.

That said, it did once happen to me on Princess Cruises.

I was asked to shift my sailing, but the offer was a lot simpler: a full refund and the chance to cruise one week later in the exact same stateroom category.

So a free cruise. No balcony loss, no “bonus credit,” just a straightforward move. That felt fair.

Not the First Time

And remember, this isn’t the first overbooking hiccup for Royal Caribbean in recent months. Guests on Navigator of the Seas in Los Angeles (June 2025) and Allure of the Seas out of Rome (May 2025) saw similar problems.

Even earlier, in December 2023, cruisers on Quantum of the Seas sailing from Australia had an even trickier situation — the ship ran out of cabins altogether, and a handful of guests were left without a stateroom.

But the important thing is that when these rare situations happen, Royal Caribbean deals with them by offering very attractive incentives to people. Some cruisers may even be disappointed that they were not one of the ones to get the offer email.

If you were offered these kinds of choices, would you take them?