Marella Discovery 1 Caribbean Winter 2017/18 Changed Itinerary-Whats the truth?

Hello, I'm a Newbie on here (although I have browsed for a few weeks first):)

I have discovered in the last couple of days a discrepency between the reason we were given for not being able to visit Puerto Rico and St Thomas USVI.

We were emailed on the 22nd of November stating that our 2 week cruise starting on the 10th of December would no longer visit these islands and (also Dominca), the reason given was the Hurricanes!

We were naturally gutted and I had been looking forward to PR particularly and had settled on this cruise mainly because of this itinerary, we did however totally understand that if Marella/TUI/Thomsons felt it nessacery then we would just have to accept it, plus who were we to moan when so many islanders were suffering.

We were told we would get £15 credited each to our onboard account to cover the ESTAs and that was all we knew.

We weren't offered anything else, but then why would they given the Hurricanes were at fault for the all changes :confused:

However we are now aware that some people have been told it was to do with US/CDC inspections :o and for some notification was via the captains announcing it and others Via email and many of these people seem to have been offered £65/50 on board credit per person.

Also I note many other cruise companies resumed calling at the 1st two destinations in October/ November and yet Marella now seem to have removed PR and USVI from the website itinerary entirely!

So my question is - Is this allowed ? Acceptable even? To sell an itinerary that they were probably never going to reasonably fulfil ? (Because it wasn't the Hurricanes that stopped them)

We also lost Tobago because of a delayed flight (weather/crew problem, not entirely sure which) we Visited Antigua twice! Once was the original schedule (and not really a great substitute to just go twice to the same place) which just adds to our frustration.

Last but not least we did visit some pretty devasted places, indeed I believe our actual sailing was (I believe) the first cruise ship to return to Tortola and we didn't mind, it even gave us a greater understanding of the devastation.

We feel we have been treated like mushrooms and its just not a good feeling :mad:

Rant over:o

But I would value the opinions of people more experienced than me (even if you don't agree )

I believe that in November the reason given was correct When it became possible to visit the US Islands Thomson have said in another email they expected US safety checks to be done whilst in port only to find they would have to fully empty the ship which they thought unreasonable so cancelled the visits

Personally there is a lot to do in Antigua and I would have loved to have visited twice on Celebration this January but we visited Tortola twice instead and it's was very sad to see the devastation but I hope we gave them some moral support as no other ships seem to be visiting

I do think you should however have been compensated the same as other cruisers who missed out

Thanks for your reply Vitalsign.:D

On the changed Itinerary, if It hadn't been my first and possibly only trip to the Caribbean I might not have minded so much :(

We chose this cruise for these ports and to end up with an extra sea day too made things worse and sadly we may never have the chance to rectify and visit these missed islands, this is why I feel quite passionately about knowing why we didn't go.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

Thanks for your reply Vitalsign.:D

On the changed Itinerary, if It hadn't been my first and possibly only trip to the Caribbean I might not have minded so much :(

We chose this cruise for these ports and to end up with an extra sea day too made things worse and sadly we may never have the chance to rectify and visit these missed islands, this is why I feel quite passionately about knowing why we didn't go.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

Hi water baby

yes i fill the same it was 2010 we done these Island,s with Virgin that,s why i chose this cruise to give them another try as they were a little different from the other,s never mind lets get away for that well deserved bit of sunshine and enjoy those beautiful island,s we are going to, we are are doing a week in barbados first then a week cruising picking up discovery on the 4th march enjoy your cruise

"I believe that in November the reason given was correct When it became possible to visit the US Islands Thomson have said in another email they expected US safety checks to be done whilst in port only to find they would have to fully empty the ship which they thought unreasonable so cancelled the visits

Personally there is a lot to do in Antigua and I would have loved to have visited twice on Celebration this January but we visited Tortola twice instead and it's was very sad to see the devastation but I hope we gave them some moral support as no other ships seem to be visiting"

I agree, Vitalsign. It must have been a logistical nightmare for all the companies, trying to re-organise the schedules this year. But, we had a bonus didn't we, visiting Bequia... such a delightful little place.

Waterbaby, I'm sorry you were disappointed with all the changes and agree it is rather strange that you were offered different on board credit. Try to visit again, if you get the chance. This year was a bit chaotic for everybody concerned.