First of all, Orbitz, as your travel agent, should have informed you of the schedule change. And travelers should always check their fligth status a few days before departure (which you said you did), just to double check.
Once you missed that flight, JetBlue is not obligated to refung your money. I am glad to see that they did so.
When you purcahsed tickets on American to get to Miami, the carrier is only obligated to get you to Miami. They are not required to provide you a hotel stay in Miami once you missed your cruise. They are also not required to provide you with any transportation to another destination. You did not indicate if you purchased the tickets to Cozumel or if American waived that fare or not, but based on the style of your complaint, I am assuming that American coverd both. This is shocking for me to see because carriers normally wash their hands once they get the passenger's to the destination purchased.
I undertand that you did not want to sell out any more cash, but staying in Miami on the 19th was a dumb move. You already missed one cruise departure, you should have flown out to Cozumel on the 19th and spent a vacation day there and you would have been in position to catch the ship on the 20th.
I am sorry to hear that vacation was ruined and I hope that Orbitz, who caused the whole mess, try to make things right with you.
As Corbel said, when you take a cruise, ALWAYS fly out the day before. Sure you have to spend extra money on hotel and food during that stay, but you increase your chances of making the cruise departure.
You state that no one ever reads the "Coverage of Care Policy" (or Contract of Carriage). I agree that these documents are longwinded and sometimes confusing. However, I would suggest that you hunker down and at least read the contract of your most used aircarrier (all of them are similar so if you read one, you have a grasp of them all).
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