Our Cruise has been Chartered

[6rugrats]

We were booked on the Wind Spirit for a cruise 11 December 2010. I just got a phone call from Ambassador that our cruise has been chartered. Of course, I just purchased the airfare for this cruise this weekend!

 

They are offering a $500 reduction in price per person and will let us change to another seven day Caribbean or Costa Rica cruise at the same price. Interesting, as our cruise was an eight, not seven day, cruise.

 

I know there is absolutely nothing I can do about this, but having spent weeks juggling child care, researching airfare, ports, etc., to say I feel unhappy is an understatment.

 

I did purchase trip insurance, but will have to read the policy to see if a cancellation is covered. Anyone else run into this situation? What were you offered, and what did you decide?

 

Thanks.

[diane.in.ny]

The one time I was bumped from a cruise, I ended up with a free cruise....AND the cost of replacement airfare AND the cost of cancellation fees on other arrangements we had made.

 

The $500 offer is lousy IMHO. Did you book through a TA? Your TA should go to bat for you as mine did.

 

I would ask for everything.....next cruise free, 100% refund on your original cruise, cost of changing your air, cost for new insurance, etc.

 

Whether you get everything remains to be seen but I would firmly ask for it. You have nothing to lose by asking.

[6rugrats]

Thanks Diane for your response. Very interesting information. I booked directly with the cruiseline, so I will have to either transfer the booking to a TA, or fight the fight myself. I felt it was a lousy offer also. We will have to pay $250 each for penalties to change airfare tickets, which doesn't even take into consideration any possible increase in fare for new flights. I did a search and found an old thread on this forum from 2007 about this same issue. OP was offered the same "deal". One would think they would offer a bit more, as it's now three years later.

 

Also don't feel it's right we were booked on an eight day cruise, and they are now offering a seven day one instead. Will have to do some research, as I am not thrilled with the other cruise options.

 

You are quite right; it never hurts to ask. We will have to talk this one over tonight, and discuss it with the other couple, with whom we are traveling. Thanks again for your input.

[diane.in.ny]

Good luck. And if it looks like you are fighting an uphill battle, don't hesitate to use the internet to your advantage.....as in this forum you belong to, etc.

 

I subscribe to International Travel News (which I highly recommend, BTW). A few years back there was a LOT of negative publicity about how people were getting bumped from Grand Circle and OAT tours. And the fact is that their T & C clearly stated they could do this, moving people to other departure dates.

 

In the end, a representative of Grand Circle Travel, which owns both, wrote to ITN and stated that they were changing their T & C and were going to change this policy.

 

Here's a post I did on my travel blog about my experience. I monitor the traffic to my blog and have hits when people have searched for Hurtigruten. If I have kept one person from booking with them, I'm happy.

 

http://www.travelsnippetsandmore.com/2008/04/pre-trip-experience-from-hell.html

[cielolama]

I agree that that's a really lousy deal. You could also try writing to the Ombudsman at Conde Nast Travel. They might like to take this on.

 

Good luck!