Buyer beware regarding Pearl Mist Cruise Co

Buyer, please beware before paying your deposit. November 2013, I saw an alluring ad for a "Small Ship, State of the art Luxury cruise" line being built scheduled to sail in 2014 covering New England/Canada as well as a Great Lakes itinerary in 2015. My husband and I are celebrating our 40th anniversary in 2015 and this sounded like the perfect way to celebrate a landmark anniversary, so I contacted Pearl Seas for information and asked lots of questions and was assured it was a truly luxury yacht-like cruise, sure not to disappoint our expectations. I paid my deposit $1000.00 and decided to make a small change and that incurred another $250 "administration fee", so my cost for the deposit was a total of $1250.00, with a balance due in early 2015. When I checked "Cruise critic reviews" after the inaugural cruise this past spring, I became very nervous about what the negative reviews had to say about their experience and called PearlSeas immediately to cancel and get my deposit back on October the 2nd, this year. Pearl Seas cruise company never returned my calls, emails, nor the 3 certified letters I mailed to the President/CEO of the company, as well as the sales manager. After no response of any kind from Pearl Seas cruise company, I contacted American Express and the Consumer Protection agency for assistance beginning in early October. After all the documentation was sent to American Express and the Consumer Protection agency regarding my concerns and requests for cancellation, the dispute was partially resolved just this past week, well over 2 +1/2 months later, and all I got back was $750 of my $1250. deposit due to their policy of $250 per person "administration fee" for cancellation policy, no matter what the reason. So now I have lost $500.00. If I had known up front this was not the type of luxury dream cruise I was looking for to celebrate such a special occasion, I never would have booked it and placed a security deposit in the first place. Just want to save another unsuspecting buyer to read the fine print and check the "Cruise critic review" very carefully before you book with this company so the same thing doesn't happen to you.

I was thinking about booking with them for next summer, but decided to wait when I saw on their website that there was a $250pp administrative charge for cancellations or changes. These sorts of fees are not unusual for specialty travel providers, and they do not hide that information.

What IS troublesome, though, is their lack of responsiveness to your communications.

Looking at most of the reviews it looked like a good cruise

I agree a lot of cruise lines charge admin fees for changes

Did you book through a TA?? They should have been able to cancel your cruise & get the refund for you

We may go in 2016 we have cruise book for 2015

Will see how they do this yr

Inaugural cruise are not usually the best to take ;)

they are still working the bugs out

We booked directly with Pearlseas, they refused to even return my calls when I told my salesperson I wanted to cancel.

I had to spend months in certified letters etc to get a partial *refund (thanks to American Express and the Consumer Protection Agency).

I still have a horrible taste in my mouth about the way they treated me and would never book with them now even if it were the dream cruise we were hoping it would be.

Best to you and happy holidays.

We booked directly with Pearlseas, they refused to even return my calls when I told my salesperson I wanted to cancel.

That is terrible :eek:

You should not have to chase them down to cancel & get a refund

Happy Holidays

Very sorry too hear these reports. I was very interested a voyage. Guess not!