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Here’s our story: nothing to do with flying! ( skip!)
and any advice for recompense gratefully received, or indeed any comment whatsoever!Booked on French River cruise many months ago. Informed 3 days before departure of change of itinerary and a ship change after 3 days. This cut down sailing time and indeed missed out completely the nicest part of the Rhone due to lock strikes between Avignon and Vienne. We were bussed( fancy 4+ extra hrs in a coach?) Minimal sailing we had we had during evening dinner.
Alternative place to visit was rescheduled to another destination further north. First ship was scrambled in to action at very short notice so staff, service , ambiance etc was not great. Time taken with ‘ information briefings etc)
Itinerary mucked around and eventually ship change to the one we should have started on. Superior in every way: staff, service. food and quality and actual ship!
Sudden rainfall heightened river level so we never made it to Chalon sur Saone and docked in Macon. Meanwhile in the evening the ship ‘hit a rock’ or grounded… yet to be told! Glass everywhere, folk injured…. General pandemonium! 4 ambulances and a team of paramedics on dockside at Macon. 2 carted off to hospital but returned next day ( one had a hairline jaw fracture)
Assured ship was safe and next day went on wine tour as scheduled and set sail back to Lyon in afternoon missing the rescheduled destination visit from the changes earlier.Offered £80pp refund.
Personally I think the cruise should have been cancelled altogether and the general chaos and upheaval of everything is worth a bit more than £80! There are passengers stressed out about the whole thing .
The trip has not delivered what was advertised and The company knew all about the strikes weeks ago
Should We shut up and accept or Marshall a case for additional compensation?It’s a cruise, not flying related so feel free to ignore!
@Jill Kinkell – that all sounds terrible, poor you having such a great sounding trip ruined. The offer of £80 even if pp is just risible; you ought to get a full refund or at least a full credit for a ruined holiday and a reality that was totally different and much worse than contracted or reasonably expected. The question is how to get that, which may depend on how you booked (particularly if direct (and if a UK firm or one with an office here) or through an agent). Chargeback / s75 is a potential route but possibly complicated if an agent is involved. An agent may well attempt to rely upon the fact they weren’t the provider of the cruise, but that won’t necessarily wash and they should be fighting on your behalf for compensation. I would start by writing a detailed chronology of all the things that went wrong, keeping it clinical/factual without comment. There appear to be several instances of potential negligence including the failure to plan for strike disruption and the ‘grounding’.
@Jill Kinkell – that all sounds terrible, poor you having such a great sounding trip ruined. The offer of £80 even if pp is just risible; you ought to get a full refund or at least a full credit for a ruined holiday and a reality that was totally different and much worse than contracted or reasonably expected. The question is how to get that, which may depend on how you booked (particularly if direct (and if a UK firm or one with an office here) or through an agent). Chargeback / s75 is a potential route but possibly complicated if an agent is involved. An agent may well attempt to rely upon the fact they weren’t the provider of the cruise, but that won’t necessarily wash and they should be fighting on your behalf for compensation. I would start by writing a detailed chronology of all the things that went wrong, keeping it clinical/factual without comment. There appear to be several instances of potential negligence including the failure to plan for strike disruption and the ‘grounding’.
Thanks @JDB. I mentally guaranteed you would respond, so thank you for doing so. Have made a list of points and gathering thoughts together.
The company have parachuted in the COO earlier today to talk to each and all passengers and hear concerns etc . General agreement that the company have fallen short. Latest is we will all be hearing individually from him once he’s collated everything and I’m sure some offer will be made… just not sure what form or how much. But I’m a good negotiator! Thanks againIt sounds positive that the company is taking complaints seriously, so hopefully you will get meaningful compensation quickly. Having read your posts regaling us with your refreshingly original and enterprising travels, that spirit leaves me in no doubt that you are an excellent negotiator.
Good luck, Jill, sounds extremely unfortunate and hopefully the provider will do the right thing.
We are annual sea cruisers and will no doubt undertake a river cruise in the future so am keen to hear your outcome and to hear of your own research.
I’m drawn to the Moselle from Trier to Koblenz and am happy to consider providers catering to non-British clientele being comfortably conversant in German, French, Dutch & Flemish.
It sounds positive that the company is taking complaints seriously, so hopefully you will get meaningful compensation quickly. Having read your posts regaling us with your refreshingly original and enterprising travels, that spirit leaves me in no doubt that you are an excellent negotiator.
Thanks @JDB. The company is in UK with a southern France coastal sounding name! We booked via Trailfinders , not direct, but I have faith in them. We had a chat with the COO last night and he seemed genuinely interested in hearing all the deficiencies of this trip, and our praise for the cruise director who had to deal with an extraordinary amount of issues.
It would appear that our gripes were consistent with a great many others, but he still gave a few minutes over to the corporate bollocks side of things!. He’s going to have to come up with a pretty generous offer to soothe the collective angst , disappointment and lack of faith . Would we use this company again? Only if they recognise the significant failings ( a lot not mentioned already)of this one.Good luck, Jill, sounds extremely unfortunate and hopefully the provider will do the right thing.
We are annual sea cruisers and will no doubt undertake a river cruise in the future so am keen to hear your outcome and to hear of your own research.
I’m drawn to the Moselle from Trier to Koblenz and am happy to consider providers catering to non-British clientele being comfortably conversant in German, French, Dutch & Flemish.
Our cruise was Brits and one American. We’ve used a different company twice with Aus and USA passengers to cruise whole length of Rhine/ Danube. If you’re fluent in the languages then you have a real choice. My danish is not much use!!
Wow! That sounds like the cruise from hell (or maybe to hell?) I hope the COO offers you and otger passengers decent compensation.
Were you made aware in advance of the need for coach transfer midway through the cruise? I can see that the cruise operator was a bit short of options if there was a strike (plainly outside their control) affecting the route but I’m not sure I’d have wanted to endure a 4 hour transfer. I think I’d rather have postponed the whole trip.
The running aground is just careless.
It sounds like you’re still on board. If so I hope the rest of the trip is stress and trouble free.
Wow! That sounds like the cruise from hell (or maybe to hell?) I hope the COO offers you and otger passengers decent compensation.
Were you made aware in advance of the need for coach transfer midway through the cruise? I can see that the cruise operator was a bit short of options if there was a strike (plainly outside their control) affecting the route but I’m not sure I’d have wanted to endure a 4 hour transfer. I think I’d rather have postponed the whole trip.
The running aground is just careless.
It sounds like you’re still on board. If so I hope the rest of the trip is stress and trouble free.
We were told of changes 3 days before departure of altered itinerary and ship change. The ship was scrambled together with little notice and a crew who hadn’t worked together and literally were on the boat a few hours before first pax! Service was poor and dining verrry slow and guests still hungry!Transfer times were wrong and some rescheduled trips were at early hours instead of afternoons. Precious little actual sailing and what we did do was whilst dining. The ship we should have been on was far superior in almost every way… when we changed 4 days later. Hitting whatever meant the rescheduled stuff didn’t happen at all and more sailing didn’t happen. My gripe is they knew about the lock strikes happening the alternatives were poor and we missed sailing a great chunk of the Rhone/Saone. I was on a river cruise, not a coach trip!
My danish is not much use!!
What a shame your trip was so spoilt, Jill. Hope you can get a somewhat satisfactory resolution at least.
You might just be surprised at how useful your Danish is. When I worked in Germany, I was surprised to find that most German words were closely connected to either English or Danish, a sort of triangle, making it much easier to understand than I’d expected. The same applies to Dutch and Flemish to a certain degree. Now speaking is of course a different matter, to start with anyway.
Any recommendations for cheap and cheerful luggage? Looked at Tripp, but the reviews aren’t brilliant. Focus on lightweight & soft rather than hard case.
Just a footnote so far:
We had delays on both our return flights from GVA-LGW and LGW-INV. ( inconvenient but not disastrous!) such a pest collecting and checking in again with EasyJet
and one of our bags failed to arrive from Gatwick!
Such has been the level of disruption of our holiday I’m fully expecting EasyJet to have lost the bag completely . It should be on the flight to INV this afternoon, but no notification yet that they have even located it.
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