Last year we schedules a cruise and paid for our newlywed friends from the UK as a gift. When the lines started cancelling cruises, we kept calling and asking if they would automatically refund if cancelled. They said no, the cruise was still on. We called their bluff (since the port is only 20 minutes away), showed up and got on the ship. The ship was only half full. Right after lifeboat drill, the captain decided to cancel the cruise and told everybody to leave the ship. Most of the passengers got stuck in Orlando for days, waiting for flights that had been cancelled, and some had to get hotels outside of town. We got our full refund...those that didn’t show? Got maybe half back if any. Not pre-booking a cruise until they actually start again.
I wasn't booked on a cruise that week, but Royal refused to cancel the cruise that was set to depart the day that Harvey was supposed to make landfall. Carnival already repositioned their ship to New Orleans, but the Liberty was still out at sea determined to make it to port and turnaround.
I kept saying that there was no way they could do it, simply because the dockworkers and port agents wouldn't be there; they would all be home boarding up their windows and preparing for the storm. Royal refused to cancel the cruise, insisting they had a "window" in which to get back, offload and onload, and get out again.
That meant that people were being told to fly into a hurricane zone or lose their cruise fare, while the locals were being told to evacuate to inland locations. Some peopled did it, but most refused to. Eventually, Royal was forced to admit that they couldn't do it and canceled the cruise.
-PJ