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Anyone booked on Boudicca for the Istanbul/Black Sea Cruise-Liverpool on 8th Oct 2016


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We're becoming increasingly worried/annoyed by lack of information from Fred Olsen regarding this cruise.

Anyone else booked on this cruise and have you had any information about ports of call in Turkey?

FO says to avoid public places in Istanbul - so it would appear that there will be no point in even berthing here......☹️☹️

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I have been critical of Fred's planning of late, but in this case you are really expecting too much to have an immediate change (or confirmation). You mention the current foreign office advice, but who knows what that will be, even a week from now. Cruises are always at risk of change and especially to that part of the world. If there is clear advice from the FCO that they advise against travel to Turkey for October then there will be a change of itinerary or Fred may decide to pull it early as a precaution. As I understand it even land holiday makers are not being brought back from Turkey at present though.

 

A change of one port for two days would not be considered a major change in a cruise of that length, so there is nothing you can do about it, (I am assuming your balance will have been paid by now). Even if the FCO do advise against travel, it would take Fred a while to re arrange the cruise with replacement ports (and excursions) to be arranged.

 

One thing to be aware of though, is that when a cruise is changed like this there is often a complete re scheduling of dates they call into different ports to fit the new itinerary. I see they are using Istanbul as a change over location for two shorter cruises for instance, so they may decide to be in Piraeus on the change over day to be able to fly people in/out if they cannot do it from Istanbul or perhaps they will be able to fly them in/out of somewhere else. Hence, if I was on that cruise I would not be making arrangements for private trips at any Med ports in case there are a number of port date changes. Any cruise can change at any time though, even at the last minute.

 

If things settle you will love Istanbul and who knows you may not get another chance to go there.

Edited by tring
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Just realised you have two other ports in Turkey as well as Istanbul, (4 days in all). That would make it a fairly big change if all 4 port days are pulled, but I doubt Fred will want to say it is a major change and allow people to cancel easily.

 

You will have see what may, or may not, happen in the future. If the itinerary does change, you may even prefer the revised version so no point worrying at present.

 

I feel sorry for the people in Turkey who may lose their jobs if tourism diminishes further.

Edited by tring
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Totally aware of all you've stated tring......

Fred Olsen have already changed the name of the cruise from Istanbul/Black Sea(this was what we booked) to The Med Sochi and Black Sea - reckon this is in preparation for changing the itinerary.

Most folks watching world events at the moment would surmise there is very little chance that there will be trips happening in Istanbul in the foreseeable future.

As you say with three ports of call in Turkey over four days this is a major change to our cruise, we'd rather know sooner rather than later (to allow us to rebook) what they actually propose to do.

We have noticed (as has our travel agent) that there has suddenly been cabin availability which wasn't there before which makes us wonder what other folks know that we don't.

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Our friends are in a similar situation. They booked a cruise with VoD because they wanted to visit Istanbul. They have now received their shore excursion booklet (cruise departs in September). It is still showing Istanbul and 3 other Turkish ports on the itinerary! It is a 2 week cruise, and if these ports are changed, I think they would have grounds for demanding a full refund of the cost of the cruise.

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As you say with three ports of call in Turkey over four days this is a major change to our cruise,

 

I strongly object to being mis quoted.

 

What I had written was, "That would make it a fairly big change if all 4 port days are pulled, but I doubt Fred will want to say it is a major change and allow people to cancel easily". It is not for me to say if that would technically be a major change as the four ports are part of a long cruise. If that fact is disputed then it would eventually be the job of a court to determine that matter. Fred will not want to give people a full refund, so may well contest the matter.

 

However, trying to pre empt any decision could also leave people at a disadvantage, compared to what they may be entitled to if such a change is made. For instance, if Fred think they will change the cruise and that it would be a major change, someone may possibly be able to secure a change to another cruise before the announcement is made, but if they wait, Fred may have to offer a full refund. Hence you may be better waiting to see what happens.

 

The point is though, that unless the FCO advise against travel to Turkey it is possible that the cruise could go ahead. I am sure a lot of people will be trying to get info out of Fred about the intentions, but whether they get it or not is another matter. Also, whether Fred has made a decision at this very early stage is another matter. I have just checked the Thomson website and it appears they are still selling holidays to Kusadasi in Turkey for next month. It is possible that two of the port calls still go ahead, even if Istanbul is pulled. As you seemed to agree it is far from a clear picture at present, but any itinerary change will take quite a while to sort, even if a decision to pull the port(s) is made.

 

I do understand your concern though as we were in a very similar position a couple of years back with another cruise company. We were booked onto a two week Black Sea fly cruise with 2 ports in Russia, 3 in Crimea and also Odessa in The Ukraine - then Putin walked in on Crimea so FCO advised against travel to Crimea and Odessa was looking iffy as well, which meant we would lose at least 3 and poss 4 ports on a two week cruise. We were allowed to get a refund for that cruise without having to contest it, but not without a wait to find out the companies intentions. We are very sad that we appear to have been one year too late to be able to do that sort of cruise.

 

Good luck with whatever happens.

Edited by tring
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Tring - the offending paragraph should read -

As you say with three ports of call in Turkey over four days we feelthis is a major change to our cruise, we'd rather know sooner rather than later (to allow us to rebook) what they actually propose to do.

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OK

 

I really think though that it could be a matter of weeks before you get a firm decision, (which of course may not be needed). If there is a change of all 4 days, this is on a long cruise so I am not sure what the situation would be regarding status of the change and Fred's T&C's do say they can more or less do what they want. After all, unless the FCO advise against all travel to Turkey, (and there is no sign of that at present), Fred do not have to make a firm decision on the two single day calls as they could be changed after they sail if need be. I doubt any cruise company would allow a change of booking just because of one port change.

 

Even contesting a change which looks like a clear cut major change can be difficult as we had looked into it for our cruise mentioned above. I have access to reliable, professional, advice so all wording and ins and outs were looked into, including codes of practice. So I would not be thinking the chance to change of booking is anything like a foregone conclusion.

 

I have had some info regarding Fred's planned changes to a cruise over the phone. We recently had a cruise which was clearly not going to happen as advertised as we had determined from a port authority that an advertised port was not available. I was told by Fred's staff that it was being looked at and letters would go out the next week. We did not get those letters for a few weeks, which was only a week or so before we sailed. Prior to receiving the letter we had no idea what the change would be and in fact the cruise was routed in a different direction so we could call at the advertised port another day. Fred said it took that long to re organise all ports and trips for different days.

 

Could well be worth ringing Fred to ask if any changes are in the pipeline, but I do not think they will actually tell you what the changes would be until details are formally sent out to passengers.

 

Talking to your agent is worthwhile, but the cruise lines which carry US nationals tend to be more flexible than the UK companies and are also far more likely to pull ports. We went to Egypt and Israel on a P&O ship a few years ago when the US ships, (including Princess and Cunard), had pulled all ports in those countries. We had a really good time as well.

 

I would not read a lot into more availability of late as that always happens shortly after the final balance needs to be paid. There are always people who decide not to pay the final balance, perhaps because of medical or personal reasons or because they do not want to proceed with the booking. Also some Terms can allow change to another cruise with transfer of balance if done three months ahead of a cruise - we had that last year for a Fred Booking and if we had had it for the cruise you mention I think we would have considered our position before paying the final balance.

 

Anyway as I said - Good luck and I hope you enjoy wherever you cruise - all holidays have there own advantages.

Edited by tring
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We're becoming increasingly worried/annoyed by lack of information from Fred Olsen regarding this cruise.

Anyone else booked on this cruise and have you had any information about ports of call in Turkey?

FO says to avoid public places in Istanbul - so it would appear that there will be no point in even berthing here......☹️☹️

 

We're seriously interested to know if there's anyone else (on here) who's booked on this cruise and what (if any) information they've received from Fred Olsen or their travel agent.

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Have you seen this article dated 22/7/16 giving statements from different cruise lines regards Turkey:-

 

http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/news.cfm?ID=6769

 

As I suspected the British lines mentioned (Fred and Thomson) are still looked at FCO advice, but there are changes for cruise lines that carry North American passengers. Not sure what advice is being given out over there - I think I saw something which said Canada had changed it's travel advice.

Edited by tring
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Thanks for the link tring - we have indeed seen this article and are aware of the fact that Celebrity are no longer visiting Turkish ports.

 

A family member was helped to move to another Celebrity cruise (when they asked about security) with amazing speed and assistance.

 

What is annoying is that we asked about changing cruises (well before the 90 day thing) and we were told that as the cruise was for 30 nights there was actually a six month ruling in place and we were unable to change.

 

We can't find anything about this rule in the T&C's, although it does state that Fred Olsen has to agree the change - so that covers them for whatever!

 

We're sitting tight at the moment, waiting to see what happens and what changes we're eventually offered (if any).

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I am aware that it could appear that I have been stalking you on this thread. The reason I have made the comments I have is that we have a reputation of going to 'strange' places on holiday (i.e. what some would consider iffy places) and sometimes they become a bit more so after we have booked.

 

Hence I tend to keep an eye on things that are happening in the world and how it is reacted to by different cruise lines. We have only missed a cruise once - the Black Sea one I mentioned - mainly because we tend to travel with British based companies, who, we have realised, are less likely to cancel port calls. We have been happy with outcomes and going somewhere that other tourists, (or holiday companies), have decided not to, makes for some very pleasant holidays from our point of view.

 

I can see different people have different feelings though.

 

As I have said earlier, I hope all works out for you,

 

Cheers,

 

Barbara

Edited by tring
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  • 2 months later...

Hi smiley haggis. With regard to my earlier post, our friends arrived safely in Istanbul today on their VoD cruise, which is keeping to its original itinerary. I hope that the itinerary of your forthcoming cruise on Boudicca is also unchanged.

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Hello There LandC,

The itinerary is unchanged for our cruise which departs Liverpool on Saturday.

Foreign Office advice has tempered a little, so we'll see how it goes in Istanbul.

Getting organised for our travels.....

Edited by smileyhaggis
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