Holyhead tour missed- tour operator not happy

I'm not quite understanding if it's 50% of the total cost of the tour being held back, or 50% of the deposit.

 

To amplify was the total cost of the cancelled tour prepaid or only a deposit provided ?

Well, the part out of the Terms & Conditions that I got off the Busy Bus website says "% Payable Of Total Booking Value". I take "total booking value" as meaning the whole cost, not just the deposit.

I posted earlier that I think this company has ruined its reputation by this public tantrum -- and now they have made it worse by going to the newspaper -- but to be fair it is possible to interpret the newspaper statement as implying they will refund ALL the money. "We are not obligated to refund people but we will" -- since we have seen the BusyBus T&C that does require them to give back 50%, this statement implies that they plan to give back 100%. I'm sure those affected will let us know as soon as they receive anything -- if they get 100%, I will accept the original statement that "[we] a reputable, honest, hard-working company with customer service at its priority." Refunding 100% in a situation like this is what "a reputable, honest, hard-working company with customer service at its priority" would do.

I posted earlier that I think this company has ruined its reputation by this public tantrum -- and now they have made it worse by going to the newspaper -- but to be fair it is possible to interpret the newspaper statement as implying they will refund ALL the money. "We are not obligated to refund people but we will" -- since we have seen the BusyBus T&C that does require them to give back 50%, this statement implies that they plan to give back 100%. I'm sure those affected will let us know as soon as they receive anything -- if they get 100%, I will accept the original statement that "[we] a reputable, honest, hard-working company with customer service at its priority." Refunding 100% in a situation like this is what "a reputable, honest, hard-working company with customer service at its priority" would do.

Totally agree.

The track shows the ship turning south, away from the port at 7 am. The weather report at the time indicated 30+ mph winds until 10am at the port, so I would not fault the decision.

Yes. He made the right call. And the tour operator has been defamatory in their abuse of the Captain's decision.

But just read your second post. Now I am confused.

Yes. He made the right call. And the tour operator has been defamatory in their abuse of the Captain's decision.

 

But just read your second post. Now I am confused.

At 4 am he was heading towards the port. From the course it appears that the ship was at a point where if they continued, they would have to backtrack back out. So it appears that to save time he turned south. That saved the ship about 6 hours, compared to if he had gone all the way in and then turned around.

The weather report was for 30+ winds with gusts of 40+ until 10am and at 4 am the port was getting 30 mph winds. So I would not fault the decision.

Lessons learned!!

 

We have booked many independent tours with CC members on our roll call. Reputable companies do not ask for prepayment. We will not book a company that wants money up front.

 

I hope Busy Bus gets busted!! Everyone involved should write them up on TripAdvisor.

 

They put a negative taste for visiting the port.

I have been trying for two months to get a refund from Busy Bus. They keep,telling me they can't find our booking. Finally had to dispute the charge with Master Card.

I find their email to be in very poor taste.

 

They choose to be in a business with a short season and where there are risks. One of the risks is that their customers may have to cancel due to many reasons, with weather and mechanical issues being two of the most common. I think their choices are to suck it up and deal with it or to change their business plan. To drag their customers into a beef they have with Princess is petty and unprofessional.

I totally agree.

"Catastrophic?" Really? Obviously the BusyBus owner is overly dramatic. We docked in Holyhead and I'm glad I didn't join the BusyBus group from our roll call. I remember hearing some disappointed comments from those that were on the tour. The letter wreaks of unprofessionalism.

Then you can pay the cruise line price for the tour... If the fine print says it, then you know what your getting into. If you didn't read the fine print, then that's on you.

You misunderstand my statement. I don't have a problem with the company charging a 50% fee if they disclose that. People can choose to book with them or not depending on how they feel about that. But keeping 50% and then sending that letter to the people that didn't make the port? Even if they didn't charge a fee, the tone of that letter is completely, totally unprofessional, and *never* should be sent to a customer. If they want to complain to the cruise line, well, they're welcome to that, but I think I know what file that complaint will go in. But the customer should never be dragged into that.

We were booked on this cruise but had to cancel at the last minute. We had originally signed up for this tour but when we were informed of their refund policy, I balked and we cancelled. I don't mind pre-paying when dealing with a reputable company that promises (and pays) full refunds if a port is missed. In my opinion, this "shared risk, shared loss" policy is just dandy.......for the company.

Harry

As i have never operated a vessel over 20 foot in length,

That's ok, on the internet you are an unlimited tonnage master.

You misunderstand my statement. I don't have a problem with the company charging a 50% fee if they disclose that. People can choose to book with them or not depending on how they feel about that. But keeping 50% and then sending that letter to the people that didn't make the port? Even if they didn't charge a fee, the tone of that letter is completely, totally unprofessional, and *never* should be sent to a customer. If they want to complain to the cruise line, well, they're welcome to that, but I think I know what file that complaint will go in. But the customer should never be dragged into that.

I agree! I thought the letter was very unprofessional, and even more so in light of the fact they collected a considerable amount of money for not providing a service.

We have booked many independent tours with CC members on our roll call. Reputable companies do not ask for prepayment. We will not book a company that wants money up front.

Totally agree. While they require prepayment as guarantee, we are left with an empty bag.

According to the Bridge Cam for the Caribbean Princess, at 7:25GMT on May 5, 2016, she is still in Hamburg. Can this be correct? Does anyone know where she is, at this point?

"Catastrophic" was just a wee bit over-dramatic. If the ship had tried to make the port in bad weather and it or a tender capsized and sank, that would have been catastrophic. Missing the port, not so much.

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According to the Bridge Cam for the Caribbean Princess, at 7:25GMT on May 5, 2016, she is still in Hamburg. Can this be correct? Does anyone know where she is, at this point?

We left Hamburg a few hours late due to low tides. Got 81 cent port fee credit for missing Holyhead. IMO Hamburg was far away the best port visit on this cruise. Still haven't seen 50% refund from Busybus, but since it is a reputable company(their words) I am not too concerned. In fact I think it was worth it to spend the extra night in Hamburg, even if the ship's shuttle drop off was in the red light district.

As others have said, just because it appears to be a nice day and OK for tendering does not mean anything in terms of weather 2,3,4 hours later.

15 or so years ago we were on a ship that had the Falkland Islands as a port stop. We got into the port and tendered in ever so easily - wonderful sunny day! We went ashore and about 2 hours into our onshore time a vehicle drove around the streets of the port with a loud speaker telling all passengers to return to the tender dock IMMEDIATELY. We were in a position to get back quite quickly, folks on shore-exs or those who did not head the "call" missed the ship.

Tendering back was a very difficult process - particularly for transfers onto the tenders and then onto the ship. Most of us made it (scary process)), but the ship had to leave rather than get trapped in the harbor - too much risk from high winds and small deep water area.

We left 3 tenders, 23 passengers and x number of crew onshore while we ventured to the protected side of the Island. Two days later we went back to claim the passengers, crew and tenders. (We could not continue to the next port until the Tenders were back as they were needed to meet requirements for lifeboat capacity.

When we left the ship in the morning, there was NO WAY we were anything but happy with the smooth tendering and beautiful day. When the ship left the port (with MUCH difficulty and the help of two ocean going tubs to turn us around to sail out the the very small channel into the Port.)

So - since that experienced I have realized that while it may look perfect at 10- am, but noon things can be very different.

"Catastrophic" was just a wee bit over-dramatic. If the ship had tried to make the port in bad weather and it or a tender capsized and sank, that would have been catastrophic. Missing the port, not so much.

 

 

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We did the British Isles on Royal Princess last year. There were three tender ports and it was made very clear on the boards that they are often missed, especially Guernsey.

I looked into Busy Bus and almost booked until I read their refund policy.

All of the other independent tour operators we looked at in all three ports had the policy that if the ship didn't dock there was no charge.

I agree that the letter and subsequent newspaper story reflects very badly on the bus company.

The captain has ultimate say in the safety of the ship. He predicts the

weather and tide for the day. I think there would have been a lot of unhappy passengers if they had made a loud announcement at 4am.

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We left Hamburg a few hours late due to low tides. Got 81 cent port fee credit for missing Holyhead. IMO Hamburg was far away the best port visit on this cruise. Still haven't seen 50% refund from Busybus, but since it is a reputable company(their words) I am not too concerned. In fact I think it was worth it to spend the extra night in Hamburg, even if the ship's shuttle drop off was in the red light district.

Despite multiple attempts Busy Bus keeps stalling in on a refund for two cancelled tours. Finally had to get Master Card involved to dilute the charges.

Please explain. The "hand that feeds it" are the cruise ship passengers that booked independently and have been assured that they will receive a refund. The cruise line excursions are booked with other providers.

 

Regardless of anyone's view as to whether or not this was an appropriate email for them to send (I kind of liked it :D), I think based on their long experience they must have felt very strongly that the decision to bypass the port was unwarranted. Just to be clear, I'm not second guessing the Captain, just providing a potential rationale.

 

This is a very popular company. We took one of their tours a number of years ago and very much enjoyed it.

We were NOT assured a refund from the company!

The weather was very bad and the seas were, indeed rough! For this company to claim that the weather was ok, is just not the case!!

We wanted nothing more than to visit Wales but it was obvious that it would not have been safe to do so since we were tendering into this port!!

I consider it very unprofessional of this tour operator to send its customers such an antagonistic email about the cruise line. It's wonderful that they are kindly processing the refunds, but they should not have tried to stir stuff up with pax.

 

 

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We, as customers have not been told that we are getting a refund. I agree it was a very antagonistic email and totally inappropriate.

We run a hot air balloon business, and if the conditions on the morning of the proposed flight is not safe to fly in, we do not charge our passengers just because we went out to a launching spot and were not able to fly.

This Busy Bus business did not provide a service, therefore they should give us a full refund!

Totally agree.

Agree! But let's see if the refund really does happen...

Busy Bus kept half of our money so not that big a loss for them.

On Princess tours, all was refunded. Princess lost much more than Busy bus.

It was very stormy, foggy, freezing cold on board (even our cabin was freezing cold). We got on line for a tender ticket at 6:30am (Elites , we are, got no priority. We were disappointed but glad Princess made the decision. Even though the tour operator said it wasn't that rough, he wasn't on our ship.

Tendering could have been awful.

Didn't hear much complaining on board.

thank you Princess for keeping us safe.

Thanks for telling us the rest of the story!

As others have said, just because it appears to be a nice day and OK for tendering does not mean anything in terms of weather 2,3,4 hours later.

 

15 or so years ago we were on a ship that had the Falkland Islands as a port stop. We got into the port and tendered in ever so easily - wonderful sunny day! We went ashore and about 2 hours into our onshore time a vehicle drove around the streets of the port with a loud speaker telling all passengers to return to the tender dock IMMEDIATELY. We were in a position to get back quite quickly, folks on shore-exs or those who did not head the "call" missed the ship.

 

Tendering back was a very difficult process - particularly for transfers onto the tenders and then onto the ship. Most of us made it (scary process)), but the ship had to leave rather than get trapped in the harbor - too much risk from high winds and small deep water area.

 

 

We left 3 tenders, 23 passengers and x number of crew onshore while we ventured to the protected side of the Island. Two days later we went back to claim the passengers, crew and tenders. (We could not continue to the next port until the Tenders were back as they were needed to meet requirements for lifeboat capacity.

 

When we left the ship in the morning, there was NO WAY we were anything but happy with the smooth tendering and beautiful day. When the ship left the port (with MUCH difficulty and the help of two ocean going tubs to turn us around to sail out the the very small channel into the Port.)

 

So - since that experienced I have realized that while it may look perfect at 10- am, but noon things can be very different.

I remember that! I was there on a Celebrity ship in January 2002 and we were still talking about your experience.

Especially in a tender port, the ship doesn't just have to worry about getting in, they have to worry about getting everyone back on board and getting out. If the forecasts had worsening weather through the day, that can be a big factor in the decision whether or not to cancel.

Per the OP, the weather was forecast to get better throughout the day, not worse.

As I just commented, the weather was forecast to get much better throughout the day. so your comment, though valid in you Hawaii cruise, did not fit this situation.

The decision to abort a port is based on a number of factors, including weather, tides, and conditions for the entire day, not just at disembarkation. Passengers have to be able to get back to the ship in relative comfort.

 

Several years ago, I was on a Hawaiian cruise and when we anchored off Lahaina, it was a gorgeous, sunny, calm day. Mid-afternoon was a different story. A violent storm blew up at about 3pm as hundreds were getting back to the pier to tender to the ship. I got on a tender at about 3:15pm when it hit. We shoved off as people ran for cover and spent the next hour and a half in an enclosed tender that was motoring up a wave, teetering and then slamming down the other side. Most passengers and some of the crew were seasick. We had to persevere as the ship up-anchored, turned around and re-anchored, and the three tenders before us disembarked. For many, it was a very frightening if not terrifying experience. At the very least, extremely uncomfortable. Should the Captain have canceled to port? Those in the tenders would have said, "Yes!" but imagine the outcry if he had. After all, it was perfect weather when we arrived at the port.