Marand62

"I am anxious to cruise again but will not do so until things are back to the "old normal" . No Covid vax  proof required, no testing, no masks, no stuff closed or severely altered, no problems with shore excursions or going ashore by ourselves, etc. I have a long list of place to go. "

Exactly this! Unless & until we get back to pre-Covid cruising protocols & ports allow independent visits we won't be cruising again.

For anyone like us who booked a cruise package via a travel agent (as opposed to a Silversea package), Silversea have just confirmed to me that they will ONLY be reimbursing only the cruise costs and any extra costs of getting home over an above our original costs. Specifically they will NOT be reimbursing the original flight costs & pre-cruise hotels. So effectively they ruined our holiday as a result of bad decision-making on their part and we have to pay for that. And this is a six star cruise line?  Words fail me.

I take it, WFN, that you were either on the aborted cruise or another SS cruise? For those of us who were on the 1st February cruise from Laem Chabang we can't get a flight credit because ultimately we took the flights - but I doubt any of us would have gone on the cruise/holiday that we got. It annoys me that had the cruise been cancelled from the outset, as we were already in Thailand, we would have found a beach resort for a fortnight and rescued the holiday. It wouldn't have been what we had intended but at least we would have done something nice with our annual leave! Definitely btter than drifting around the South China see and mooring in ugly cargo ports!

Unfortunately you can only change the flight so many times at no cost. In the end we had four different booking as the port of diseambarkation changed. The first change to the itinerary was disembarkation in Manila so our travel agent booked us a flight from Manila to Hong Kong to pick up our original flight (at this point SS did not involve themselves with the flights). The next day we were informed that we were unwelcome at first one, and then all, ports in the Philippines and were heading for Ho Chi Minh (by this time the Hong Kong flight had been cancelled). Travel agent booked new flights from HCM to Singapore and home from there (the latter was a permitted change from the HK - London flight). Then HCM said we couldn't dock so that failed. Finally, we went back to Thailand and this time the flight back to London could not be changed. None of this was our fault an it would be galling to find that we end up paying for all this nonsense.

Some people have commented that it was all OK because they got to sit by the pool & eat & drink for free (as the cruise cost is being refunded). I wish we could be so sanguine - we are working age and have lost our main holiday of the year. We couldn't relax properly either - what with trying to re-arrange flights, seeing Diamond Princess quarantined, watching Westerdam wandering around trying to find a port, worrying about getting back to work if we were quarantined. Every time an announcement was made we were expecting more problems. We are not nervous or inexperienced travellers but the uncertainty was not good.

Well, Observer, first of all more than 250 passengers on the ship were British & returning to the UK.  There were also plenty of Europeans at least some of whom were routing via London.  It doesn't matter what is showing for next week - at the time we were trying to get flights (using our travel agent) flights were in very short supply. SS re-booked their own passengers first, then claimed they would deal with the rest. We chased them endlessly over a couple of days and in the end they agreed our travel agent could sort out the flights because they finally admitted they didn't know when we would get our flight details. On the morning when everyone was going to have to disembark there were at least twenty people without flights trying to get reception to do something. You already know of one passenger for whom SS failed to find a flight. That is clearly unacceptable.  They were clearly under-resourced and not up to the job, at least in part because it was a weekend.

We did travel in premium class - but when SS said they were going to re-arrange the flights we were told this would be in the same class as the flights already booked (we had upgraded both out to Thailand and back from the intended disembarkation port, Hong Kong). SS took details of everyone's booking references and had a specific column on their spreadsheet for the class of travel. That would clearly have precluded a $1,000 limit for the majority of passengers on the ship (everyone we spoke to had flown out in a premium cabin, and had planned to fly back the same way). The people I mentioned as having been upgraded were those who had booked air with SS. I rather suspect that if there had been economy flights available, SS would have booked those rather than upgrading people to Business Class.

We have good travel insurance but it does not appear to cover the situation where the supplier doesn't supply the expected holiday unless the supplier has gone into administration. This is standard for UK insurance. Likewise, virtually all travel policies in the UK (and elsewhere as I understand it) do not cover events related to pandemics.  It is also not uncommon for UK travel agents to put packages together with flights which is easier if you ahve a preferred airline.

Frankly, I would have expected a so-called Six Star line to pull out all the stops. TBH they should have aborted the cruise from the outset and certainly stopped anyone who had been in China from boarding. It is fortuitous that, as far as I am aware, there have been no confirmed cases of Coronavirus among passengers or crew.

Sue - Forgot to mention but our travel agent has told us refunds of the cruise costs are being handled by the Miami office and will take approximately three weeks. We cannot get a straight answer on the flight costs which may simply mean that the travel agent has no idea what is happening. I'm not sure if this part is down to SS or the travel agent or no-one. I have reached out to Barbara Muckerman via Faceboolk message - let's see if I get any response.

You have been treated so badly but I hope you get the all clear healthwise.  We could see the flight booking was a shambles and aftr waiting two days (and long past the time the captain said everything would have been sorted outgot our travel agent to arrange flights. Despite several conversations with reception about getting our travel agent to do what SS seemed under-resourced to do, no-one mentioned a maximum flight cost. What is worse, that restriction seems only to have applied to those who didn't book air travel with SS. We heard of people who had flown out in economy and went home business class which will certainly have cost more than $1,000! Sadly I don't have the relevant passengers' name.

Frankly they should either have aborted the cruise before it started or at teh very least not allowed the 12 passengers who had come from/via China to board (who put everyone else at risk). Those passengers are the reason the Philippines and Taiwan refused us entry.

Observer - I think you are underestimating the difficulties in getting flights when 600 passengers are being booked at the last minute. All flights booked close to departure will be expensive. Those left high & dry by SS and having to book their own flights because SS failed to do will have suffered the highest prices as all the cheaper fare buckets will have gone! I woould be astonished if anyone at that point could ahve got even an economy flight back to the UK for $1000.

Does anyone know if Silversea are reimbursing the flight costs for the original itinerary? We booked with a travel agent and they packaged the flights, pre-cruise hotel & cruise. We've been told that SS will refund the cruise cost but cannot get an answer on the flights (and pre-cruise accommodation). We would never have gone all that was to visit one port (which is all we got) and have lost forever the annual leave we used. Our whole holiday was ruined and if SS won't reimburse the entire cost then I think that is us and cruising finished.

One thing to note is that the captain on Silver Spirit specifically said that the reason we were refused entry to ports was that 12 passengers had joined the voyage after having visited China. Given that they told us we weren't going to Hong Kong even before we got on the ship, it rather begs the question as to why they accepted passengers from the affected area.

SS overall did not acquit themselves well - arrangements for getting people home were shambolic.

"So just pushing the blame on Peru ���� is not a valid medical opinion."

A bit late to the party but I was on an Oceania ship in March 2017 where Peru was blamed for an outbreak but in conversation with passengers who had been on the previous leg, the illness was on the ship long before it got to Lima. We were delayed in boarding in Lima because they were doing a deep clean. All passengers, including those on B2B were off the ship. The supreme irony was that pens were being shared to complete the medical questionnaire! Infection control on the ship only seemed to apply to things that would inconvenience passengers - anything that made money for Oceania stayed open. So casino chips were passed around, the shops held a handbag & jewellery event during the outbreak where passengers were freely pawing the goods - no salt cellars or milk jugs on the table because you might get infected but OK to pass the handbags and jewellery around!