Passengers sailing aboard Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas arrived later than planned in Amsterdam, Netherlands, today, June 25, 2025.
The delay was a result of onboard maintenance, according to the ship’s Captain, Iv Vidos.
The 154,407-passenger vessel departed Southampton, England, on June 21, 2025, and spent three beautiful days in ports along Northern Europe’s coastline earlier this week.
But while guests spent 8 hours in Oslo on June 23, 10 hours in Copenhagen on June 24, and 9 hours in Hamburg, Germany, they learned their visit to Amsterdam, via a call in neighboring Rotterdam, would be a bit less than they hoped for.
Aurora Yera-Rodriquez, assistant vice president of guest experience at Royal Caribbean, shared the news after the captain’s PA announcement.
“We’ve had to make some adjustments to the times we’ll visit Rotterdam, Netherlands, due to speed restrictions from ongoing maintenance onboard,” she shared in a letter to guests.
Although scheduled to arrive at 11 a.m. local time, the slower speeds forced the ship to pull into Rotterdam late, even later than Yera-Rodriquez had expected.
Instead of arriving around 1 p.m., the vessel made it to Rotterdam closer to 2 p.m.
Yera-Rodriquez was quick to mention that the maintenance wasn’t anything to fret over, adding, “Rest assured, all maintenance work is being conducted with the utmost safety.”
Unfortunately, Independence of the Seas couldn’t make up the difference to up to 3,634 disappointed guests, and kept its 7 p.m. departure time and shortened the call to less than 5 hours. The problem? Amsterdam is about an hour away by bus.
Independence of the Seas calls in Rotterdam instead of Amsterdam due to the city’s increase on tourist tax and environmental concerns and protests that has the port moving to capping the number of guests allowed to disembark.
As expected, the delay also forced Royal Caribbean to reschedule its excursions.
Guests booked through Royal Caribbean were automatically rescheduled with notification letters and new tickets delivered to passenger staterooms.
Subsequent Cruise Affected
While Royal Caribbean makes it sound like routine maintenance is underway, another letter was sent to passengers on Independence of the Seas’ subsequent journey from Southampton.
With Rotterdam as the last call for Independence of the Seas’ 8-night “Northern City Escapes” cruise, the ship is currently returning to Southampton for its June 29, 2025, completion.
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Expected to arrive by 5:30 a.m., the ship is scheduled to take its next group of passengers on a 7-night “Norwegian Fjords” cruise, departing at 5 p.m. on the same day.
But those passengers received a letter from Royal Caribbean saying the ongoing maintenance taking place on Independence of the Seas will force the vessel to miss its first call to Alesund on July 1, 2025.
Instead, the ship will spend two days at sea and sail into Molde, Norway, an hour earlier on July 2.
“Due to speed restrictions from ongoing maintenance onboard, we’ve had to make some adjustments,” the letter to passengers began again.
For skipping a port altogether, the cruise line is giving passengers an onboard credit to enjoy as “a token of our appreciation for your understanding.”
The onboard credit provides $150 for interior and oceanview cabins, $200 for balcony cabins, and $400 for suites. An additional $25 is being added for each third and fourth guest in each stateroom category.
All excursions purchased through Royal Caribbean were also cancelled and refunded. With two sailings affected, it’s likely the 16-year-old Independence of the Seas is working on repairing some propulsion issues.
Cruise Hive will report any additional itinerary changes that may come as a result.
