Hurricane Simon has scrambled Royal Caribbean's plans for the Voyager of the Seas, which is midway through an eight-night sailing to the Mexican Riviera and California. The ship left Los Angeles on October 8, 2026, but storms along the Pacific coast have knocked out most of its port stops.
Guests first learned of changes last week, when visits to Catalina Island and Mazatlán were dropped and the Cabo San Lucas call was moved to a different day. Then came a second update: the forecast for Puerto Vallarta deteriorated to the point where a safe call was no longer possible, so the line is now sending the ship back to Cabo San Lucas for an extra visit on Tuesday instead.
In a message to passengers, Royal Caribbean said its meteorologist team had tracked the hurricane closely but that all options had been exhausted. After the second Cabo stop, the Voyager will spend two days at sea and still arrive back in Los Angeles on schedule on October 16, 2026.
There's compensation for the disruption. Guests will receive non-refundable onboard credit of up to $250 per person, depending on stateroom category. Shore excursions in Cabo San Lucas are discounted by 20 percent, and anyone who booked excursions through the cruise line for the cancelled ports will get a full refund in onboard credit.
The 1999-built Voyager of the Seas has just wrapped up an Alaska summer season and is now sailing Mexican Riviera and West Coast itineraries out of Los Angeles alongside the Ovation of the Seas.
For anyone booked on similar sailings this season, this is a useful reminder of how autumn weather works in the eastern Pacific. Hurricane season runs into October, and storms like Simon can wipe out an entire port lineup with little notice — the Mexican Riviera's famous stops, from Cabo to Puerto Vallarta, sit squarely in the potential impact zone. Cruise lines will nearly always reroute rather than sail into danger, which means a storm can turn a port-heavy itinerary into sea days at short notice.
If you're cruising during hurricane season, it's worth packing patience along with the sunscreen. Lines typically soften the blow with onboard credit, discounted excursions and refunds on cancelled port bookings — as Royal Caribbean is doing here — but the itinerary you book is never a guarantee of the itinerary you sail. Travellers with prepaid independent tours in port should check cancellation terms before departure, since refunds may depend on how the booking was made.
