Canceled cruise sinks Kingsport students’ spring break plans
ORLANDO, Fla. (WJHL) — Ten Kingsport students are coping with disappointment after an on-board fire prompted the cancellation of the Caribbean cruise the group had looked forward to for nearly a year.
Carnival Cruise Lines announced the cancellation of the cruise, which was scheduled to depart from Port Canaveral on Monday, after one of the ship’s exhaust ports caught fire. The cancellation has left the group of 14, ten students and four adults, in a financial bind as refunds promised by the cruise line likely won’t be processed for weeks.
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The group, sponsored by Kingport-based HOPE, drove all day Saturday to an Airbnb near Cocoa Beach, where they planned to stay ahead of the cruises’ scheduled departure on Monday.
The group had decided to spend their Sunday at the beach when they heard the bad news.
“We got back from the beach and went swimming at the pool,” Senior Zeddy Dukes recounted. “It was just a devastating surprise.”
Kingsport-based HOPE, which stands for Help Our Potential Evolve, hosts college prep and etiquette programs and provides scholarships for graduating high school seniors.
Dukes told News Channel 11 that this is the second cruise trip gone awry for HOPE.
“We were supposed to go on a cruise in 2020,” Dukes said. “It’s the second time this has happened. So it’s been kind of hard for us.”
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HOPE Vice President Selina Hall told News Channel 11 that the cruise trip was intended to expose students to the wider world.
“A lot of the families are low income,” Hall said. “We want to be able to give them that experience so they can learn because sometimes they are not able to go out of the State of Tennessee.”
Ninth-grader Akia Summey told News Channel 11 she was excited to interact with the international staff on the boat and to leave the United States for the first time.
“It was sad in the moment,” Summey said of finding out about the cancellation. “But then I got to the house and realized at least I’m in Florida. I’ve never been to Florida either.”
“I’m not going to let that get me down, there’s better stuff I can do in life,” Summey said.
Thankfully, leaders were able to extend the Airbnb rental through Wednesday; however, Hall said they’re still working to plan activities that fit within the non-profit’s tight budget, since they had already paid for the now-canceled cruise.
“We had planned [for the cruise] to be able to provide breakfast, lunch and dinner for 14 people for four days, extra gas money, there’s so many different activities, so there’s so many different things now [to budget for],” Hall said.
Students fundraised to pay their own way, $800 each, on the trip. Summey said to raise her $800, she helped to sell tickets to a sale at Belk and participated in a fashion show.
“Some of the youth, they worked really, really really hard for it,” Summey said.
Vice President Hall said the group plans to stay at their Airbnb in Orlando and drive back to Kingsport on Wednesday.
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