Rachel and Simon Reroute Pacific Cruises: Brilliant Lady, Radiance, Queen Elizabeth and More
If you are booked on Brilliant Lady's October 10 Los Angeles sailing, watch for Virgin Voyages' notice; Cabo, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta are replaced by Santa Barbara, San Diego and Ensenada. Carnival Radiance guests on the October 3 sailing should expect a sea day instead of Cabo on October 9. Carnival Panorama and Carnival Miracle guests should confirm their revised ports, and Panorama guests should check that the $300 per stateroom credit appears on their Sail & Sign account.
My read is that this is a storm-routing scramble in which the cruise lines are trading Mexico for California ports. Brilliant Lady is the clearest case: Virgin Voyages swapped three Mexican calls for Santa Barbara, San Diego and a single stop in Ensenada, which keeps the ship near home while two storms sit off the Pacific coast. Carnival Panorama is the cautionary tale. It was already changed once for Hurricane Polo, then changed again for Rachel, and it now calls only at Ensenada twice. Carnival's $300 per stateroom onboard credit softens that, though I would still call it a thin trade for losing La Paz and Cabo San Lucas. The ironic twist is that Cabo San Lucas is the port nearly every ship here drops, from Radiance to Queen Elizabeth to Miracle. In your shoes, I would not wait for the notice. I would check my sailing page every day and keep the booking flexible until the storms clear.