Check your late 2018 Bookings

We booked whilst on board the Spirit in Jan this year for a cruise that started in Fort Lauderdale and ended in Los Angeles, via a Panama Canal Transit, on the Spirit in Dec 2018. Checking on our bookings today I have found that they have changed the Itinerary and that Spirit is now doing a Caribbean Cruise (Fort Lauderdale round trip) and the Whisper is doing a similar itinerary to the one we had originally booked. Silversea have not been in contact with us or our agent to see if we wanted to change to the Whisper, just booked us onto the Caribbean itinerary, which we don't want to do.

So if you are booked on the Whisper or Spirit for late 2018 suggest you check that your are going where you think you are going.

Thanx for the heads up!

Same thing happened to us on the holiday cruise 2016. We were to be on the Whisper doing a r/t FLL and they changed it to reposition for the WC. We canceled even though they added days and lowered the price. It was not the itinerary we wanted. I would advise you to contact your agent and get yourself moved.

All the cruises on the Wind in February 2018 are changing too - SS say they should have some definite information by the end of next week. I noticed that the two seven days I had booked as a B2B look like they are changing to two nine days with a different embarkation date and port and completely different itinerary so I asked my TA to find out what is going on. I only thought to check because someone else here had a thread about disappearing cruises - glad I did!

Sent from my iPad using Forums

It seems utterly perplexing that Silversea doesn't have an automatic process of informing customers and their TAs say fourteen days before they make changes to their web site and publicly announcing changes so these customers who have been inconvenienced and dissapointed and may have to make new arrangements or have lost money on flights and land arrangement, don't find out by chance and have the maximum number of options offered to them before others start booking on the new voyages. It seems such an obviopus process if you have the slightest interest in looking after your customers.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2467136

I think it's quite disgraceful that SS are messing people about like this.

Last night l looked at the UK SS website.....the upcoming Monaco Grand Prix voyage on the Spirit is now offering two segments...a three day and a six day at very reasonable fares l might add. If one books the two segments back to back they come out far cheaper than booking the whole advertised voyage.....so a six night trip is around £2k for a vista.....yet just a month later their prices for a seven night med trip is in excess of £8k...according to the website!!

Very perplexing indeed and about time they got their act together me thinks.......just my thoughts of course....☺️

It seems utterly perplexing that Silversea doesn't have an automatic process of informing customers and their TAs say fourteen days before they make changes to their web site and publicly announcing changes...

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think the major difference is that the vast majority of airline cancellations are for reasons they couldn't have foreseen because they do not like disrupting the extremely tight and highly optimised schedule each plane has .... and also they don't like sorting out all those changed passenger travel plans and in the EU paying out vast sums of compensation that is often more than the fare.

Pretty much every schedule change by SS has a long lead planning time and most often because they can make more by messing customers about for some charter or other reason.

More often than not airlines can't give pre-warning of schedule changes whereas more often than not Silversea can if they wanted.

Utterly mystifying.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Is it my imagination or is SS making more and more itinerary and date changes than ever before? M<any time without alerting the client or even the clients' TA. Seems to me that if the passenger is forced to pay penalties after a certain point if their plans change so should SS be.

I think the major difference is that the vast majority of airline cancellations are for reasons they couldn't have foreseen because they do not like disrupting the extremely tight and highly optimised schedule each plane has .... and also they don't like sorting out all those changed passenger travel plans and in the EU paying out vast sums of compensation that is often more than the fare.

 

More often than not airlines can't give pre-warning of schedule changes whereas more often than not Silversea can if they wanted.

So, schedule changes are just a fact of life. I imagine SS, just like the airlines, offer compensation commensurate with the change.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is why it is a last resort for EU flights ...

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32004R0261:en:HTML

Sent from my iPad using Forums

It seems utterly perplexing that Silversea doesn't have an automatic process of informing customers and their TAs say fourteen days before they make changes to their web site and publicly announcing changes so these customers who have been inconvenienced and dissapointed and may have to make new arrangements or have lost money on flights and land arrangement, don't find out by chance and have the maximum number of options offered to them before others start booking on the new voyages. It seems such an obviopus process if you have the slightest interest in looking after your customers.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2467136

In that link above I was the one who posted about this a few weeks ago. We booked a cruise on the new Muse for March, 2018. it was supposed to go from Lima to Fort Lauderdale, through the Panama Canal. We had just made the final payment after also booking a private tour in Lima/Machu Picchu. We planned to go on the cruise afterwards. There was absolutely NO notification to us or our travel agent. We were astonished! We disputed the charge on the Am Ex bill. The refund has now been credited. Still, there was no word from Silversea with an apology or offer to switch to a different cruise. No compensation was offered. This really turned us off on Silversea. We will not be booking another cruise with Silversea.

Carol, thanks yes, that's why I linked it.

After much thought about this topic there are basically two seperate personalities to SS.

The people passengers encounter on the cruise, the majority of which are competent and delightful and befriend customers and make them feel valued and unique and important and there is the land based organisation which seem sometimes not to be customer focussed.

Your aacount is extremely sad and I feel sorry for the size of your dissapointment. Just getting your fare back doesn't seem fair.

Jeff

Silversea is not alone in the schedule nonsense. Oceania did same to us for a 2017 cruise. Change itinerary, changed ship. Then had to nerve to auto book us on the same itinerary on different dates without informing us. When we cancelled they offered no compensation.

We tried to book a B2B in February 2018 while we were on board the Wind. We were told it was Chartered for the whole month!

We ended up booking for 2 weeks in March, but now I am worried that will be changed. We put down a pretty sizable hunk of change for that trip! Silversea had better make right if they change things.

We booked a cruise on the new Muse for March, 2018. it was supposed to go from Lima to Fort Lauderdale, through the Panama Canal. We had just made the final payment after also booking a private tour in Lima/Machu Picchu. We planned to go on the cruise afterwards. There was absolutely NO notification to us or our travel agent. We were astonished! We disputed the charge on the Am Ex bill. The refund has now been credited. Still, there was no word from Silversea with an apology or offer to switch to a different cruise. No compensation was offered. This really turned us off on Silversea. We will not be booking another cruise with Silversea.

Did your travel agent ever contact SS on your behalf? I just wondered what SS's position was and whether they would be willing to offer compensation, if any, for your situation? From reading these forums, it seems in the past SS has offered other guests substantial concessions when this has occurred and I just hope the line has offered something similar to your travel agent and you.

If this had happened to us, we would be just as disappointed as you are Carol. I can only imagine how disappointed you are.

 

Did your travel agent ever contact SS on your behalf? I just wondered what SS's position was and whether they would be willing to offer compensation, if any, for your situation? From reading these forums, it seems in the past SS has offered other guests substantial concessions when this has occurred and I just hope the line has offered something similar to your travel agent and you.

Yes, the owner of my travel agency spoke to them and they have not gotten back to him yet. I will probably not book with them again regardless.

Yes, the owner of my travel agency spoke to them and they have not gotten back to him yet. I will probably not book with them again regardless.

As a customer of SS myself, I am just curious, and hopeful, that they will respond with a generous alternative. If you don't mind, please keep us abreast of their response, and any offer, should they follow-up with your Travel Agent.

Best Wishes.

I had seen a couple of B2B cruises on the Shadow in November/December 2018 that I was very interested in. Singapore to Mahe, Mahe to Capetown to Port Louis. A month ago I went back to the website to have another look and they were waitlisted. Last week I had another look and the ship had been re-routed to stay in Asia.

Hmmm, glad I didn't book them afterall...would have been very annoyed at this change in itinerary.

Cheers

Jennifer

Well done Silversea on good customer recovery

My TA has just phoned to say that Silversea have moved us onto the cruise we wanted (Panama Canal Dec 2018) and as we had already paid in full ( having taken advantage of their pay by 28/2/2017 offer and get 10% discount) they are honouring the fare we paid.

Thanks Carol. I realize you won't be booking with them. Don't blame you in the least bit.

 

As a customer of SS myself, I am just curious, and hopeful, that they will respond with a generous alternative. If you don't mind, please keep us abreast of their response, and any offer, should they follow-up with your Travel Agent.

 

Best Wishes.

I will post here again when I hear something, if I hear something.

Ohh, Thank you.

maxbet