The claim: guests boarding Utopia of the Seas in Port Canaveral on Monday, October 26 would skip the Bahamas and sail to Cozumel, Mexico instead. A message posted to Reddit, presented as a Royal Caribbean notice sent on Sunday, said a weather system would bring unfavorable conditions to the Bahamas, so the ship would spend Tuesday and Thursday at sea and call at Cozumel on Wednesday, October 28 from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM.
The verdict is False. Royal Caribbean confirmed directly to Cruise Hive that the notification email was fake and that there is no itinerary change for this sailing. In the line's words, Utopia is not scheduled to go to Mexico this week, and no guest communication regarding such a change was sent out by its team. The original Cruise Hive article now carries that correction at the top. The claim sounded plausible because rough weather was indeed forecast in the Bahamas, with near-gale to gale-force winds and king tides, but a plausible weather forecast does not make a forwarded email real. Cruise Hive notes this is not the first time spoofed Royal Caribbean emails have circulated: a fake gratuity change letter spread on social media less than a week earlier.
What it means for your sailing: if you are booked on the October 26 sailing from Port Canaveral, nothing changes. The ship sails as originally scheduled, with Nassau on Tuesday from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM, a sea day on Wednesday, Perfect Day at CocoCay on Thursday from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and a return to Port Canaveral on Friday, October 30. Prepaid Royal Caribbean shore excursions for Nassau and Perfect Day at CocoCay stand as booked, since no cancellation was ever sent. If a message about this sailing reaches you from anywhere other than Royal Caribbean itself, treat it with suspicion and check with the line before changing any plans.