Cruise Cancelled 48 hours before the departure...REALLY?

I am an international student from South Korea, and I have been waiting for this moment to take my grandparents on a Bahama cruise and was ready to provide them with the best room, food, and entertainment. Unfortunately, I was too busy and had to take care of my dad after his discharge from the 2-month hospitalization. Therefore, my brother decided to take them all the way down to West Palm Beach, Florida to get on the cruise (Approximately 650 miles away from Athens). It took them about 11 hours to get there with 3 stops( for gas, restroom, meals). When they fianally got there, the port was empty and only few cars were there looking extremely confused. My brother called the customer service center and found out that the trip got cancelled about 48 hours ago via email.

Wait, WHAT?!?! 

All they send out was a letter from the CEO, saying that they had to do this last minute decision because they got a request from FEMA(Federal Emergency Management Agency) to support their relief and recovery efforts in the U.S Virgin Islands. They have agreed to deploy their ship to St. Croix to serve as a base to feed and house the National Guard and first responders for the next 90 days. This is ridiculous. No one would be against helping and supporting the recovery efforts, but why do customers have to suffer? Our official sail date was September 24th, 2017 and I called in several times to ask if they will be operating regularly after Hurricane Irma.

They are offering a full refund option and if you do want to cruise at some point within 1 year period, you will get a $100 on-board credit. My grandparents came from South Korea to get on this cruise, who is going to pay for the air and the time/cost they had to sacrifice. This trip was planned about 4 months ago, and they just cancelled and neglected all the efforts we have made by a single click with a mouse to send out the mass email, titled "A letter from our CEO". 

I was very disappointed at the level of their handling the uncontrollable factors and customer service. I won't share the name of this cruise, but they could have done a better job of letting customers know in advance. I highly recommend them to use social media platforms to reach out to customers because the letter from their CEO was in a "Junk Mail" folder for many customers.