Disembarkation Port Change

[ShellzbellzShellzbellz]

Hi.  I'm wondering if anyone can help me.  We have a cruise booked with MSC over the easter 2023 school holidays.  I was thinking about purchasing the drinks package and went into my booking to check the price.  When I was in the booking I saw that the date of the cruise had been changed to 2 weeks later and it was a different ship and a different itinerary. 

 

The disembarkation port for our original cruise has changed but we were not notified of the change and for some reason (which MSC has not been able to explain) we were moved onto a completely different cruise - even though the original cruise is still going and the only change is the disembarkation port.  In the meantime, I have booked non refundable flights from the original disembarkation port.

 

MSC have confirmed in an email that there was glitch in their system which was why we were not notified of the change and given the opportunity to decide what to do.  They have also refused to assist in any way with our return flights even though the first agent I spoke to told me that they had covered the flights for people in the past when a disembarkation port was changed.  I had even suggested that if they could provide the drinks package free of charge we would cover the additional flight costs but they refused.

 

I know that the cruise line terms and conditions allow them to change ports without any liability but does anyone know if I have any right to compensation arising from the fact that they didn't tell me about the change?  

 

I will also say that this the first time I have booked a cruise with MSC and it will probably be my last.  Their customer service is absolutely appalling.  Very slow to recognise there was a fault on their end and didn't provide me with any solutions - it was my problem now to sort out.  I said that we wanted put back on the original cruise which they did (in the same cabin grade) and told me that they were able to price match to my original price!!!!!

 

I'm nearly tempted to tell them to stuff their cruise and just go on a weeks holiday in Italy.

 

If anyone had any advice it would be gratefully received.  

 

 

[nuvolablue]

Very sorry to hear that. I'm a first time cruiser myself so unlikely to be able to offer much advice. Is your travel insurance in place yet, and could this offer any recourse ?

[ShellzbellzShellzbellz]

I have an annual policy which I'm going to check but I'm not confident it will cover this.  

[quattrohead]

What ship and date are we talking about ?

Typical MSC but at least the ships are beautiful.

[EllieinNJ]

I had the same problem last year.  I was doing a b2b with an NCL transatlantic in Barcelona and when I went into my reservation to see if any excursions were opened yet I saw that they changed the ship to a much older ship and the date was a week later.   No notice was ever given.   I immediately cancelled and swore I would never book with MSC again but here we are, a year later, and since they are coming to my area (NYC) I decided to try again and booked another cruise with them.  Fortunately no air was purchased yet then and happily no air is needed now.

[mawvkysc]

This is why you will see again and again on this board to book with a TA who is experienced with MSC. I had a much less dire problem than you and it all turned out ok, but I learned my lesson. 

[clemsonlori98]

My families spring break cruise out of Guadeloupe was "cancelled" via an official email from MSC.  (This was the re-positioning cruise from Southern Caribbean to Port Canaveral.)    Long story short, my TA had a tough time with MSC customer service.  They were initially not going to honor the email that was sent by mistake.  After a week of going back and forth they caved and honored it and allowed me to get my YC deposit back.     They didn't even give me a chance to decide if I wanted to continue with the reservation since all they did (weeks later) was shorten the cruise by 1 day and change embarkation port from Port Canaveral to Martinique.   😒

[mscdivina2016]

9 hours ago, ShellzbellzShellzbellz said:

Hi.  I'm wondering if anyone can help me.  We have a cruise booked with MSC over the easter 2023 school holidays.  I was thinking about purchasing the drinks package and went into my booking to check the price.  When I was in the booking I saw that the date of the cruise had been changed to 2 weeks later and it was a different ship and a different itinerary. 

 

The disembarkation port for our original cruise has changed but we were not notified of the change and for some reason (which MSC has not been able to explain) we were moved onto a completely different cruise - even though the original cruise is still going and the only change is the disembarkation port.  In the meantime, I have booked non refundable flights from the original disembarkation port.

 

MSC have confirmed in an email that there was glitch in their system which was why we were not notified of the change and given the opportunity to decide what to do.  They have also refused to assist in any way with our return flights even though the first agent I spoke to told me that they had covered the flights for people in the past when a disembarkation port was changed.  I had even suggested that if they could provide the drinks package free of charge we would cover the additional flight costs but they refused.

 

I know that the cruise line terms and conditions allow them to change ports without any liability but does anyone know if I have any right to compensation arising from the fact that they didn't tell me about the change?  

 

I will also say that this the first time I have booked a cruise with MSC and it will probably be my last.  Their customer service is absolutely appalling.  Very slow to recognise there was a fault on their end and didn't provide me with any solutions - it was my problem now to sort out.  I said that we wanted put back on the original cruise which they did (in the same cabin grade) and told me that they were able to price match to my original price!!!!!

 

I'm nearly tempted to tell them to stuff their cruise and just go on a weeks holiday in Italy.

 

If anyone had any advice it would be gratefully received.  

 

 

I had that happen not once but twice.

I only use  a TA for MSC.

You are screwed,they don't care. They will offer you a refund and that's all.

You are free to sue them. I took a shot thru a lawyer and found out several terrible things.

 They took my Yacht club grand suite and put me in a regular balcony on deck 8 with no reduction in fare.

 

They are horrendous. Great product though.

[GOLDENBONNY]

Welcome to post covid cruising. Happens on all cruise lines. So if you want travel buy insurance ,and monitor situation. I just figure out with Princess that I don't have insurance I paid for LOL. why? no one knows and my money been credited to me.....never happend actually .Before that ,Princess changed my and my friends cabins twice!!!! never mind we checked  NO upgrades .

[ShellzbellzShellzbellz]

12 hours ago, quattrohead said:

What ship and date are we talking about ?

Typical MSC but at least the ships are beautiful.

The date is 8 April 2023 and the ship is the Armonia.

 

I checked with my travel insurance company and apparently cruise cover and cruise cover plus (which covers missed ports) does not cover this situation.   

 

I definitely won't be booking with MSC again - it's just not worth this hassle.

[styles27]

Have you checked with the airline to see if you can change your return flight?  Is the cruise paid in full? 

[styles27]

Shoot I posted too soon. 
I had a similar situation with our cruise this past January. Went in to check on my reservation and the dates had changed. I had not been notified by MSC and if I hadn’t checked my reservation I wouldn’t have known until I printed our docs. 
This was only a few weeks before our cruise. MSC offered us a full refund because they changed our dates. It worked out perfectly because Omicron was bad at that time and we wanted to cancel anyway. 
Our flights were also non refundable but that didn’t mean we couldn’t change them to another date/location which is what we did. 
 

If your original cruise is still available just check with your airline to see if you can change the return flight. Non refundable doesn’t mean you can’t make changes. 
Good luck!