All Gone Pear Shaped

#1

Some may recall that we had booked a Silversea cruise for this year as we have some significant life events.

All was going to plan until last Friday when I had an email telling me that the cruise was cancelled due to the unrest in the Middle East. I fully accept their reasoning as the cruise would have ended in Mumbai pretty close to the Red Sea. Incidentally we were due to fly out to Singapore in just over two weeks.

The options from Silversea were to either move to another cruise and get 20% off the fare or to have a full refund of the cruise fare and a small contribution to cancelling flights.

Part of the problem here is that I had made most of the arrangements myself so had to deal with the changes which on the face of it I did not think would be a problem - wrong!

Having spent some time thinking about what we wanted to do and looking at the options I started changing things. As there were no suitable cruises going in the next couple of weeks with Silversea and nothing that really floated out boat for the rest of the year Silversea was cancelled - that was the relatively easy part - at least somebody answers the phone when you ring! However I am now in discussion with Silversea about their meagre compensation offer!

The first thing that we decided on was to still go to Singapore for our wedding anniversary although this would mean going a week later. Now one might think that it would be a simple process to change flights - well it should have been if the guy at the other end of the phone knew what he was talking about. Thank goodness for the Internet otherwise I could have been charged over £1,000 more than I should have been. Anyway 30 minutes later flights were changed to my satisfaction.

Next change the hotel booking in Singapore - this is still in abeyance but I will give them a day or say as it is Lunar New Year.

We then had to decide what else we would do and looked at other cruises. Eventually we found one in September that appealed with Cunard the only problem being that much of it was the same as the one we had booked for next year, and that we had a Princess cruise booked for October (that was basically to use a FCC that we had so we were not bothered about cancelling it). So yesterday afternoon I spent over half an hour listening to piped music on Cunard's phone line so that I could transfer 2025 cruise to later this year. Eventually all done - no problem.

Next was to arrange travel to Barcelona for the Cunard cruise as it is a fly cruise - not particularly difficult apart from the fact that some of the flights did not have much availability - but that is all done and dusted.

The final piece of the jigsaw, for now, was to cancel the Princess cruise and again when I phoned I was able to speak with someone straight away. I am now in another dispute this time with Princess as they want the best part of £1k as a cancellation fee even though they will benefit from not having to pay £2k FCC.

Somehow I don't think that I want a job as a travel agent!!

#2

Hi David, I think you should give yourself a pat on the back for being able to get your head round all those changes…I would have fallen at the first hurdle.

Hope it all works out to your satisfaction.

#3

He shouldn't have so much bl**dy money in the first place to book all these fancy cruises while the rest of us have to make do with 'Our Gate' again ...........Foxy said

#4

Don't blame me. I told him what a great place Rawtenstall is, good rail link into Bury, guided tour of Bury Market, black pudding in a cardboard tray and a plastic fork. It doesn't get any better on a cold winter's day. Contact Foxy Travel for prices.

#5

oldbluefox wrote: ↑11 Feb 2024, 19:24
Don't blame me. I told him what a great place Rawtenstall is, good rail link into Bury, guided tour of Bury Market, black pudding in a cardboard tray and a plastic fork. It doesn't get any better on a cold winter's day. Contact Foxy Travel for prices.

I’ll do the compo forms when it all goes t*ts up.

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