MAC_1867

Take the positive's from it being cancelled. Highly likely any cruise over in the Caribbean will be severely disrupted. 
 

Ours was cancelled just after changing to a land holiday and it was quite a relief. 

This is a cruise Tui tried to put us on as a substitute.

Its too early to be messing about in the Caribbean, lack of flights and a high risk. 
 

They should have cancelled the lot out there. 

Sorry, thought you were in Colombia Cartagena (pride of Panama) just realised you’re in Spain.

6 hours ago, ferretktf said:

Just back on the ship after a walk around Cartagena and an ambulance was by the gangplank. We had to wait while two more unfortunatel passengers were offloaded - guess they failed temperature checks and subsequent tests 

What cruise are you on?

Unfortunately, this is why the virus will thrive on a cruise ship.

As a 34 yr old and my partner being 26, COVID poses little threat to our health, but other people should be respected.

We are trying to get off a 3 week cruise 25th Jan - 15th Feb around Central America and the Caribbean instead changing to a cheap Barcelona city break, spent an hour trying to get through and still on hold.

It's just not worth the risk at the moment, not health wise (for us) but the chances of having a cruise disrupted, ports cancelled, rejected from ports, positive tests, quarantining in unfamiliar countries. 

Not for me 

Just about to opt out of this and amend to a land based holiday. 
 

4 weeks out and they are dropping ports and replacing them with extra nights on Jamaica, I can see a few more being dropped with poor alternatives being offered. 

Still struggling here as Marella have split the 3 week cruise into 2 separate booking references now looking like they want us to book 2 separate holidays.

dear me 

They also described dropping cayman island and Guatemala as minor. 

Thanks for the replies.

the issue we are going to have is the 3 week cruise has been put under 2 separate booking references. A 1 week and then a 2 week.

We are looking at a lane based holiday but not sure if they expect us to book 2.

We weren’t aware it was under 2 references until after booking. 

Flat out refused my request for a refund.

Told me to take it up with my insurance.

PS i'm in Rotherham too 😃

23 minutes ago, howmuch! said:

A few things spring to mind, but check first - 

 

It may not go ahead due to Covid/Omicron, if they cancel receive full refund.

 

If the start date is after the 5th January, you can change 'fee free' - see website. This could allow you change to another cruise, cruise and stay or land based hotel holiday, and get the difference back as a refund (just done this with our January Canaries cruise)

 

Looking at your new itinerary looks like a 'significant change' in my view, so may be reason for refund. Did the email give a reason for the changes

 

I think we've just had enough of the stress now and would prefer to get a refund. We've already changed 3 times and my partner cannot get time off to move after ding this 3 times already.

It would have to be a hell of a land holiday to justify £9k

Email - 

After speaking with Marella they are trying to split the 2 booking references as far apart as possible, treating them as 2 entirely separate bookings when any normal person would treat them as one.

We were not made aware when booking the 3 weeks it would fall like this.

Speaking to them a few weeks ago they asked me if i would call Marella from Jamaica at the end of the first week and let them know i wouldn't be on the return flight to Manchester, nor be on the flight out from Manchester to Jamaica as we would already be there.

Nobody seems to know whats happening from one call to the next 

I'll try and keep this short.

We originally booked a 2 week cruise for Exotic Explorer and Pride of Panama. This was cancelled and we were offered an amendment.

Unfortunately, we couldn't get on the same 2 weeks as this was now split by the Flavours of the Caribbean cruise, we ended up booking 3 weeks and intended doing all 3 back to back. It has been booked as  - Pride of Panama and then the  Exotic Explorer & Flavours of the Caribbean, this had come under 2 separate booking references.

It was cancelled again and moved to January/February 2022

We have booked a few excursions and the grand total paid is £9,000.00 for 2 of us.

We've had an email today now saying that Guatemala and Cayman Islands have been removed and replaced with an extra night in Jamaica (We are already there for 6 days) and a day in Cozumel, Mexico, we are already going there, so thats 2 trips there.

Our itinerary is shrinking and we now spend 21 days doing the following - 

6 days at sea

6 days in Jamaica 

2 days in Cuba

2 days in Cozumel

Thats 16 days out of 21 either spent at sea or somewhere on a repeat visit.

This is now not something i want to do, nor feel £9,000.00's worth of holiday. We are worried about further changes being made and we don't want to book again as its a nightmare getting 3 weeks off work. 

Any advice on how strict TUI are on their refund policy?

Well just to add to this, i've received a call today saying we need to make a decision today as the incentive to re-book expires tonight, we've had no indication or information of a time limit and we wont know if my partner can get time off until she has a meeting with her managers on Friday, Marella don't seem to care.

If we re-book without the incentive, the holiday goes up by around £500 funnily enough.

I've had 3 phone calls today all from different people at Marella. 

1 told me they cant extend the 20% incentive, another said they will til Friday the last one i just couldnt be bothered with as it had taken most of the afternoon up already.

What an absolute mess this has become.

We are looking at the same 3 weeks now just shifted back -

Pride of Panama

Flavours of the Caribbean 

Exotic Explorer 

25th Jan - 18th Feb

Waiting to see if the Marella Explorer 2 gets sent over to Jamaica in November as im fairly sure it will hang on that whether this goes ahead.

The cruises around and from Jamaica are going ahead but only after the 17th January 2022.

Not sure how long this will be the case though.

How confident are people the Barbados cruise will be going ahead, Marella trying to put us on that as an alternative. 

Options are 

Tropical Delights 

Paradise Islands 

Taste of Tropics 

Or 

Pride of Panama

Flavours of the Caribbean

Exotic Explorer 

All for mid-late Jan / early Feb

Or a weekend in Skeggy

Marella called me again and are trying to get us on the Barbados cruise which is around the same time, visiting a load of Caribbean islands.

Still have the Original cruise's for same but just at a later date by a few weeks.

Was really wanting to go to Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica ect

Not sure whether to try and get on a later cruise to same destinations, swap to Barbados or take money out.

They say the cut off date was the 17th January, anything before then is cancelled, anything after is still on. 

1 hour ago, squink said:

Do you mean, you have now cancelled and lost the deposite?

No, they have cancelled the first 2 weeks of a 2 week + 1 week cruise.

On the phone now, they don't really know whats happening. They have cancelled our cruise 11th Jan - 25th Jan but kept the 3rd 1 week cruise on which is 25th Jan - 3rd Feb. Not really fancying a 7 day cruise with a 8-9 hour flight either side.

Waiting for alternative offers on the 5th October, not even sure if they will be using Jamaica as a home port early next year. 

The Mrs wants me to get the money out of Marella and book 10 days in Dubai.

Well, thats our been cancelled.

Marella have advise me to pay the remaining monies at the last minute which allows us to move the holiday 14 days before departure, the problem is i don't really like the idea of nearly £9000.00 tied up in holidays that we don't know when and if we can go on.

Myself and my partner were originally on the Exotic Explorer and the Pride of Panama for early March 2021.

This was cancelled and we moved to January 2022, however, we wanted the same cruise but this was not possible due to the Flavours of the Caribbean being sandwiched in-between the above cruises. To go on our original cruise we have now got a 2 week + 1 week cruise.

We've paid £5500.00 and have another £3000.00 to pay before the start of November 2021.

Ive just spoken to Marella and they will cancel the cruise if the home port (Jamaica) is placed on the red list, they wont visit any red list countries or ports in said red list countries.

As of today (mid Sept) here are the countries on all 3 cruises 

Jamaica - Amber

Honduras - Amber

Guatamala - Amber

Belize - Amber 

Mexico - Red

Cuba - Red

Colombia - Red

Panama - Red

Costa Rica - Red

Cayman Islands - Green (possibly moving to Amber)

We are a young couple 25 & 34 and the reason we enjoy cruising is for the different countries, we don't really drink that much and are usually in bed for 10:30 and up at 6am to enjoy the destination we have arrived at. My worry is being stuck on a ship for long periods of time, ports being cancelled or worse still staying in Jamaica longer than needed (Ive spent an extended amount of time there already)

We are really unsure what to do, i would probably take a refund now but this is not possible unless Marella cancel.