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Mooring News 10/5/2026

24 hours ago
6 min read

OCTOBER 5, 2026

♪ Bing-bong, bing-bong ♪

Good morning, fellow Cruise Sea-kers.

Today, Mother Nature has been rearranging cruise itineraries, one Virgin Voyages ship had a frightening night in Greece, Carnival Radiance is back from dry dock, and several cruise lines have announcements from their official press rooms.

Then, I have an important real-life lesson about cruising to Canada.

Let’s get underway.

We begin with Scarlet Lady, which broke free from its berth in Rhodes, Greece, after several mooring lines reportedly snapped during strong waves.

As the ship moved away from the pier, its gangway fell into the water. Scarlet Lady then made contact with a catamaran and two other smaller boats inside the harbor.

Fortunately, no injuries or marine pollution were reported.

The ship’s captain was able to maneuver Scarlet Lady under her own power and return her safely to the berth. Tugboats were standing by, but reports indicate they were not needed.

Scarlet Lady was staying overnight in Rhodes because high winds had already forced Virgin Voyages to remove Mykonos from the itinerary.

When the cruise line changed the schedule, I doubt anybody expected Rhodes to become the more dramatic option.

This is also a good reminder that mooring lines are not decorative ropes casually tying a ship to the pier. They hold an enormous vessel in place while wind, waves and currents continue pushing against it.

Thankfully, this story ended with damaged nerves and what I imagine will be some very interesting insurance conversations, but no reported injuries.

Weather has also disrupted two other cruises.

Brilliant Lady’s October 5 visit to Cabo San Lucas was removed because of lingering swells from Hurricane Rachel.

The hurricane had already moved away from the ship’s route, but rough seas remained around Cabo.

Because Cabo San Lucas is a tender port, guests must travel between the ship and shore aboard smaller boats. Even when the sky looks perfectly pleasant, ocean swells can make tendering unsafe.

Virgin Voyages replaced Cabo with Ensenada and added a sea day. Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta remain on the itinerary.

Guests whose Virgin Voyages excursions in Cabo were canceled should receive refunds to their original forms of payment. Anyone who booked independently will need to contact the excursion provider.

Over in Barcelona, Royal Caribbean delayed embarkation for Legend of the Seas by approximately two hours while the ship returned through severe weather.

Heavy rain, high winds and flooding affected Barcelona and surrounding areas. Royal Caribbean adjusted arrival and check-in times but did not announce any other changes to the seven-night Western Mediterranean cruise.

The lesson from all three stories is simple: A hurricane does not need to hit your ship or make landfall at your port to alter a cruise.

Wind, waves, flooding and residual swells can continue affecting ships and ports long after the center of a storm has moved elsewhere.

Now, let’s move into calmer waters.

Carnival Radiance has returned to Long Beach after a 15-day dry dock at the Seaspan shipyard in Victoria, Canada.

The work included refreshed interior and outdoor guest areas and an updated Effy jewelry boutique.

Radiance also received Carnival’s new “From Sea to Shining Sea” bow crest.

The ship has resumed its year-round schedule from Long Beach, offering four- and five-day cruises to Baja Mexico and the Mexican Riviera, along with select 14-day Carnival Journeys sailings to Hawaii.

This was not a massive transformation. Carnival Radiance already received a 200-million-dollar renovation when Carnival Victory became Carnival Radiance in 2021.

Think of this visit as freshening the ship up rather than sending it home with an entirely different face and instructions to pretend nobody recognizes it.

Princess Cruises also announced what it describes as the first native cruise-planning app inside ChatGPT from a global cruise line.

Travelers can use the Princess app to explore destinations, compare ships and itineraries and begin narrowing down cruise options through a conversational search.

It does not replace a travel advisor.

An artificial intelligence tool can show you a seven-night cruise. It does not necessarily know that you hate connecting flights, need a cabin near the elevator but not directly across from it, and will start a small rebellion if somebody places you underneath the pool deck.

That is why Cruise Sea-kers still has jobs.

In river-cruise news, Viking has taken delivery of its newest ship for Egypt, Viking Sekhmet.

The ship will sail Viking’s 12-day Pharaohs and Pyramids itinerary. The journey begins with a hotel stay in Cairo before guests fly to Luxor and board the ship for an eight-day roundtrip Nile cruise.

The itinerary includes the temples of Luxor and Karnak, the Valley of the Kings, Aswan and a Nubian village.

Oceania Cruises also released a new collection of European voyages for 2027 and 2028. The program includes additional opportunities to explore Northern Europe, the Mediterranean and other European destinations aboard Oceania’s smaller ships.

Those announcements came directly from the cruise lines’ official press rooms.

I checked the other cruise-line press sites on our watchlist as well. Most had no new announcement worth stretching into a story Today.

And now, we need to talk about what I have come to call the Great Canadian Fiasco.

We recently learned through a real Cruise Sea-kers situation that decades-old impaired-driving convictions may still affect whether someone is permitted to enter Canada.

I am leaving the traveler’s identity and personal details out of this story, but the lesson is too important not to share.

Canada evaluates foreign convictions according to Canadian law. It does not necessarily matter that the offense happened in the United States, that the traveler completed every requirement or that several decades have passed.

Multiple convictions can make the situation considerably more complicated.

The biggest surprise was learning that simply remaining aboard the ship during the Canadian port call was not necessarily a solution.

When Canada is included in the itinerary, the traveler’s admissibility may be reviewed before the cruise begins. If the required authorization is not in place, the cruise line may deny boarding at the original embarkation port.

In other words, “I promise not to get off the ship in Canada” may not solve the problem.

Depending upon the traveler’s history and circumstances, Canada may require an application for criminal rehabilitation or another form of authorization.

That began a scavenger hunt involving certified court dispositions for every charge, records showing that all sentences, fines and probation were completed, an FBI background check, police clearances from every state where the traveler had lived for six months or longer since turning 18, and a written explanation of why the person should now be considered rehabilitated.

If an old court or police agency no longer has the records, that does not necessarily end the process.

The applicant may need a written statement from the agency confirming that the requested documents are no longer available.

And those are only a few pieces of the required paperwork.

Canada’s criminal-rehabilitation application is a substantial legal-document package, not a quick travel form.

Approval is not automatic, and processing can take many months. Travelers should not wait until check-in day, final payment or even a few weeks before sailing to investigate a possible concern.

The lesson is not that anyone with an old conviction should give up on visiting Canada.

The lesson is that booking and paying for a cruise does not guarantee permission to board.

Every country has the right to establish its own entry requirements, and some countries may treat an offense very differently from the country in which it occurred.

If you have an arrest, conviction or other concern in your background, investigate the entry requirements for every country on the itinerary before final payment, preferably while your deposit remains refundable.

Do not rely solely on what happened during a previous trip, what a friend was allowed to do or what somebody confidently announced in a Facebook group.

Cruise Sea-kers can help identify the questions that need to be asked and direct travelers toward official information.

However, a travel advisor cannot determine admissibility or guarantee that a foreign government will approve entry. Those decisions belong to the appropriate authorities.

The important thing is to ask early, while there is still time to gather records, seek professional advice and consider other options if necessary.

That is Today’s Mooring News.

This information was current when recorded, but cruise lines, ports, weather conditions, entry requirements and government policies can change course without notice.

Always verify information against your specific reservation and circumstances before making travel decisions.

Until next time, haze gray and underway.

Bye-bye!

SOURCES AND MORE INFORMATION — NOT READ ALOUD

 
 
 

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