Rosie O'Donnell cruise causes cancellations for those already booked

A cruise ship getting chartered is not newsworthy. Neither is the cruise line cancelling the reservations of people who booked the sailing before the cruise charter. But it is newsworthy when Rosie O'Donnell is the person doing the chartering for her gay- and lesbian-friendly family vacation company, when the cruise sails in less than five months, and when the cruise line's compensation to the bumped passengers seems weak.

That's what just played out with Norwegian Dawn sailing July 7 for a Bermuda cruise.

Rosie's R Family Vacations completed a full-ship charter with Norwegian Cruise Line. And since Norwegian agreed to it, naturally Norwegian also knew it would need to cancel the existing reservations of people who were already booked, and offer them some kind of compensation.

Of course, these folks could rebook their trip on Rosie's cruise, but their preferred accommodations might not be available, prices are somewhat higher, and some will be uncomfortable on a gay- and lesbian- targeted cruise.

It's very unusual for a ship to be chartered so close to the sailing date. That means more people booked already, and thus more people inconvenienced by having their vacations now cancelled. Most full-ship charters happen about a year out, as opposed to less than than five months in advance like this one. We're also sure it helped that R Family Vacations and Norwegian Cruise Line have a longstanding business relationship.

As far as we've been able to ascertain, Norwegian is offering the cancelled people $100 per stateroom on board credit to rebook on a different date. Some people may find that fair, but certainly plenty others won't, who for example may face airfare change fees and other inconveniences.

Anyway, the many pundits bashing Rosie about this have their ire somewhat misplaced. Rosie's company asked Norwegian whether they could charter the ship, and Norwegian agreed. Any ire about the inconvenience to Norwegian's previous customers belongs with Norwegian. Even so, Rosie's publicists should have been able to foresee some blow back on this. Hopefully they'll charter farther in advance next time.