Passengers say their 7-day Caribbean cruise became a trip to Boston and Canada because of a storm

• Due to weather, passengers say MSC Cruises changed the itinerary of a Caribbean-bound ship.
• Instead of the Bahamas, cruisers said they learned they'd be heading to Boston and Canada.

On Friday night, hours before their cruise was scheduled to set sail to the Bahamas, MSC Cruises passengers said they received a disappointing email: Due to harsh weather conditions, their ship would no longer be heading to the Caribbean.

Instead, they'd be heading north from New York City to Boston and then to Canada.

Brad, a passenger who spoke to Business Insider and asked to go by his first name, said he and his family received the email at 8 p.m. on Friday — and had a flight to New York at 4 a.m. on Saturday. BI viewed the email Brad said MSC sent to guests, which was also posted widely to social media, including Reddit.

Instead of a tropical December vacation, passengers aboard the MSC Meraviglia will be traveling from New York City to Boston, Portland, and St. John, Canada, before returning to the US, according to the email.

On CruiseMapper, a cruise-tracking website, BI was able to find an MSC Meraviglia ship that appeared to be docked in Boston as of Sunday.

MSC Cruises did not respond to a request for comment sent outside regular working hours.

Brad, who lives in Canada, said the family got the email two hours after MSC Cruises' Canadian offices closed, which meant they couldn't speak to a customer service representative.

"We definitely don't want to go to Boston," Brad told BI. "Our suitcases are packed for a beach, not for Canada and Boston."

"We weren't able to speak to anybody, so we were left in the dust hoping that they would do the right thing," he continued.

The email said the company "significantly altered the itinerary" due to "adverse weather conditions expected across Florida and the Bahamas." The Weather Channel predicted heavy rain and wind from Florida to New England on Sunday.

"Heavy rain is expected across most of the destinations that we planned to visit, as well as wind gusts surpassing 40 knots which would render our maneuvers to enter destination ports unsafe," the email reads.

If passengers "are not satisfied with this change," they can cancel their sailing and receive credit for a future cruise, the email said.

Brad told BI his family decided not to go — they live close enough to Boston to drive there, hoping to receive a refund.

"In this particular situation, I feel like MSC should have done something a little more than just, 'Sorry, here's a future cruise credit,'" Brad said. "I understand they can't control the weather, but I'm sure they could have sent out something quicker than 8 p.m."

Now, he said he's unsure if he wants to use the credit, telling BI: "I don't know how I would take this future cruise credit with this bad taste for this company in my mouth."

Industry publication Cruise Hive reported on Sunday that the storm affected the itineraries of several other cruise ships, including ships from Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Norwegian.

Those changes meant staying on board for some passengers instead of docking at a port and disembarking. Others rerouted from the Bahamas to Mexico, per the outlet.

Some cruisers described being "stuck at sea" because they couldn't dock at some ports along their intended route, according to Orlando news outlet WOFL.