MSC Meraviglia forced to reroute from Bahamas to New England due to weather

ORLANDO, Fla. - A tropical getaway took a dreary turn when cruise ship MSC Meraviglia was forced to reroute. Passengers packed for a Bahamian trip weren’t prepared for New England weather.

"We didn’t believe it," said one passenger. "When we got on the cruise, we thought they would reroute to the Bahamas. But no, we went to Boston instead and Portland. It keeps getting colder!"

The cancelation came on the heels of Meraviglia’s return from a similar route.

"It was really scary in that treacherous water," said Andrea Jones.

Jones said rerouting the cruise was a better option than what she endured. She looked forward to spending time in Central Florida, the Bahamas, and Ocean Kay, but her cruise was sidelined when the bad weather rolled in.

"[The ship] was constantly rocking, to the point where it felt like my head was a bobblehead," Jones said. "Things were falling off my desk, I got knocked into the bed, and at one point in time, it felt like we were hitting a brick wall."

Seasick, Jones said she spent most of the cruise in her cabin – terrified.

"I called my kids; I’m about ready to cry; I called my kids and talked to them," Jones said, holding back tears. "I didn’t tell them what was happening, but I called them, and a sense of calm came over me. I was like, ‘It’s in your hands.’" 

Jones said she called her children, thinking it may be the last time she spoke to them.

"I have never been through anything like that before; it was scary," Jones said.

In a statement sent to FOX 35, the cruise line cited "unseasonable and rapidly worsening weather" for the last-minute change. The statement read: 

"The only alternative would have been to take the more extreme step of cancelling the cruise—and thousands of people’s vacations—outright. The complexities involved in obtaining last-minute berths for unplanned stops and provisioning the ship along its new route left a sailing to Canada and New England as the only viable option, so we gave our guests a choice between sailing to a different region or cancelling for a future cruise credit, which allows them to put the full value paid for this cruise toward another at their convenience."

Jones said she was not given that option, but even if she was, she said she wouldn’t be boarding another cruise ship anytime soon.