(NewsNation) — A last-minute change had cruise passengers, who were planning on a tropical beach vacation for the holidays, bundling up in the winter weather in Canada instead.
The passengers were notified 24 hours before the ship sailed off that it was re-routed from the Bahamas to Canada due to severe weather.
Reaching the Bahamas was impossible because of “unseasonable and rapidly worsening weather,” MSC Cruises USA communications director Field Sutton told CNN.
Lakeya Allen and her best friend, Val Montgomery, started planning a cruise to the Bahamas months ago to be together with family, hoping to escape a cold Christmas in Chicago.
That was the plan until the email came in from MSC Cruises less than 24 hours before their voyage, informing those passengers that unseasonable weather made it impossible to reach their island destination.
The ladies decided to continue with the trip and remained in good spirits — despite the drastic change.
Instead of sipping ice-cold margaritas on the beach, the women said they were drinking hot chocolate and a lot of hot coffee, trying to make the best of an unexpected situation.
“We got the email really, really late at night. We were already packed and ready to go,” Allen said.
Montgomery said Allen called her at 8 p.m. the night before their flight to inform her about the change.
“I was already in bed because our flight was at five in the morning,” Montgomery said.
Allen explained that when they received the email, the entire family was in disbelief. Her daughter even started crying. The ladies had to repack all their families’ luggage to prepare for the cold before heading to the airport at 1:30 in the morning.
She said they were hoping they would be rerouted again, but that wasn’t the case.
Allen didn’t buy her children Christmas gifts this year because she saved her money to take them on a cruise vacation to the Bahamas. She ordered a handful of gifts from Amazon to try and have them delivered for the holiday when they returned home.
“We’ve been doing the best that we can do. Lots of board games, Uno, Jenga and walking around the cruise ship,” Allen said.
Regardless of the change, the two said this trip would be a forever memory.