We boarded the Caribbean Princess at around 1pm, and later during muster, the captain came on the loudspeakers using the ominous words "Unfortunately, we have some bad news". He then explained our departure was being delayed due to an oil spill in the Houston ship channel resulting from a collision between an oil barge and a large freighter. Thus began our "non-cruise cruise" or our "cruise to nowhere".

In spite of the captain feeling we might get underway after only a few hours, I had the feeling that it might be a delay of several days, and it turned out I was correct. We immediately vowed to make the best of it, and tried to keep our sense of humor throughout the "interesting" week -- we constantly joked about "when does our vacation really start?", because you had the vague feeling of everything being in "limbo".

By Sunday night, when we had not left, the captain announced during dinner that since there was no estimate by the coast guard of when the channel might be reopened, that Princess was going to refund 100% of the price of the cruise, and in addition provide a 25% credit for a future cruise to help compensate for additional expenses for anyone that chose to leave the ship the next day. This offer applied whether you chose to leave or stayed on board, and further, starting on Monday, passengers could leave the ship and come back, using the ship as their hotel while waiting for the channel to reopen. There was applause in the dining room for what most people seemed to feel was a fair offer. Since we had driven to the port from Austin, and had our car available for trips and/or returning home whenever we wanted, we definitely felt it was a nice offer, since it was now essentially a mostly-free cruise (other than gratuities and on-board extra expenses), regardless of where or when we would be able to cruise. Read more