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New luxury small ship line, Haimark


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I also spoke to the Operations Dept. They offered us the same substitute cruise on the Panorama. 1 night in Miami on 2/19 then a 7-night cruise (instead of a 9-night cruise) to Cuba. Looking at the map, it is no longer a circumnavigation of Cuba. It only goes to the southern side of the island. There are some places cut from the new itinerary that my husband wanted to go to. The person I spoke to said that this cruise actually costs more, but they would eat the increase. (I'm not convinced that the cruise would cost more.) We did our own air arrangements, so we would have to change our return air. The Vantage rep said he would help us with that and reimburse the extra cost. We have made the decision to cancel this trip with a full refund since it is not comparable to the trip originally booked. Just waiting for a call back from Vantage.

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FYI... The "Panorama" is a 3 masted motorsailer... not exactly the same type of ship. I can find NO mention of Cuba on the Variety Cruises website either..

 

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Hi Pat. Seems to me that Vantage may have chartered this ship for these 2 sailings. I read ship reviews, and they were pretty good. But the trip itself is not the same. No longer a circumnavigation of Cuba. Places cut from the original itinerary. What looks to be VERY small cabins. It's just not what we wanted. We'll get a full refund. Our travel insurance can be transferred to another trip, so we don't lose that money. I think it is the best decision for us. Good luck with your departure. Hope all is straightened out by then!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Haimark website still shows a February 29 to March 9, 2016 cruise, but news accounts say that's been cancelled as well.

 

http://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Haimark-Line-cancels-Cuba-cruise

 

Haimark Line has canceled the first in a series of cruises between Miami and Cuba as negotiations over its Saint Laurent ship remain unresolved.

The roundtrip cruise was to depart Feb. 29 from Miami on a 10-day voyage visiting Havana and a six other ports of call.

 

I'm booked for a March 29 departure but have no confidence at this point that it will actually happen.

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Has anyone else noticed this offering before?

 

It looks like Pearl Sea Cruises is now offering a Cuba cruise with dates/itinerary that look identical to what Haimark has advertised.

http://www.pearlseascruises.com/cruises/cuba-cultural-voyage/

 

Ship is the Pearl Mist

http://www.pearlseascruises.com/ships/pearl-mist/

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Has anyone else noticed this offering before?

 

It looks like Pearl Sea Cruises is now offering a Cuba cruise with dates/itinerary that look identical to what Haimark has advertised.

http://www.pearlseascruises.com/cruises/cuba-cultural-voyage/

 

Ship is the Pearl Mist

http://www.pearlseascruises.com/ships/pearl-mist/

 

Do they definitely have all the permissions they need? They've been advertising this cruise for several months, and they had not completed all the permissions when they started advertising.

 

We sailed one river cruise with American Cruise Lines, their sister company, and were not happy with them. Very little was "as promised," and I'd be reluctant to sail with them again.

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The interesting thing about the articles about Haimark cruise being cancelled is that they talk about the Feb 29th tour as the "first" or inaugural and yet they were actually scheduled for 2 tours before that date that had also been cancelled.

 

Not sure if all this is due to Haimark's bankruptcy issues (as their rep told me on the phone) or if there is some Cuban government permission that still has not been put into place. Our tour is thru Vantage and we are scheduled to go to Miami March 25th... at this point am hoping the company cancels and reschedules for the fall or next year when they all can get their act together.

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Has anyone else noticed this offering before?

 

It looks like Pearl Sea Cruises is now offering a Cuba cruise with dates/itinerary that look identical to what Haimark has advertised.

http://www.pearlseascruises.com/cruises/cuba-cultural-voyage/

 

Ship is the Pearl Mist

http://www.pearlseascruises.com/ships/pearl-mist/

We were supposed to cruise to Cuba through Vantage on the St. Laurent departing 2/20/16. The departure was cancelled last week. I tried getting a cabin on the Pearl Mist, but even though their website didn't indicate any sailings as Sold Out, I was told that they were already booking into the fall. Anything earlier was already sold.

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Our tour is thru Vantage and we are scheduled to go to Miami March 25th... at this point am hoping the company cancels and reschedules for the fall or next year when they all can get their act together.

 

We're scheduled for the March 27 - April 5 Haimark cruise and, likewise, at this point I'm also hoping for a cancel/reschedule as I'd rather go once they've worked all the kinks out.

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Here's what Road Scholar posted on their message board about the cruise cancellation:

 

http://www.roadscholar.org//n/program/discuss.aspx?dID=1-9GP871

Road Scholar

Feb 10, 2016 at 12:31 PM

 

We have just been notified that because of a legal dispute between the company that owns the St. Laurent and the cruise line operator that was contracted to run the ship, the St. Laurent has been seized in port in Jacksonville, Florida. We cannot know when, if, or how this dispute will be resolved. The interests of our participants are our top priority and the ship’s seizure gives us no recourse but to cancel the spring 2016 voyages, as we do not believe it will be available in time for our scheduled sailing.

 

As a tangible expression of our loyalty and commitment to our participants enrolled in the spring dates — despite the situation having been completely out of our control — we will do our best to transfer your enrollment to another Road Scholar program in Cuba and will fly you from your original gateway to Miami and back for free.

 

If you choose an alternative Road Scholar Cuba experience, we will, of course, reimburse you the difference in price between the programs. If you would rather cancel your enrollment altogether, we will reimburse you the full amount of any payments you have made to Road Scholar.

 

We sincerely apologize for this most disappointing turn of events.

 

—Your Friends at Road Scholar

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Here's what Road Scholar posted on their message board about the cruise cancellation:

 

http://www.roadscholar.org//n/program/discuss.aspx?dID=1-9GP871

 

Seized?!?!? That's never good! But good for Road Scholar, refunding money and trying to make alternate arrangements.

 

I think we'll let the Cuba cruise operators use this year to shake out the kinks and look at Cuba next year.

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Our cruise with Haimark thru Vantage has been cancelled (March). I have been calling and bugging the phone reps at Vantage until finally a supervisor called me back. They are offering a substitute cruise with Varietycruises. Not the same and for less days. We will look toward 2017 to see what is offered.

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I was talking to my TA yesterday about a totally different cruise, and our conversation drifted to Cuba. She knows I want to go. So does she. But we agreed that nobody seems really ready. Fathom doesn't offer any specifics, even when you ask specific questions. My TA also thinks the whole Haimark/St Laurent deal isn't going to come together again.

 

That's always been my concern about cruises on the small ships like St Laurent. They're owned by one company, but sailed by another company. And on top of that, third parties, like Vantage, sell the cruises as if they're running them. Too many layers to deal with.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just got an official notification from Haimark saying the March 27 sailing is cancelled.

 

I really liked their proposed itinerary and the size of ship. I hope they can pull that off in the future as none of the other Cuba cruise options seem quite as appealing.

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I'm having a hard time figuring out what the process is for getting a refund for a cancelled cruise. The information I've received so far from Haimark is not clear.

 

Has anyone had experience with getting a refund for a cruise you booked directly with them?

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I'm having a hard time figuring out what the process is for getting a refund for a cancelled cruise. The information I've received so far from Haimark is not clear.

 

Has anyone had experience with getting a refund for a cruise you booked directly with them?

 

 

Sorry... we booked our Haimark cruise through Vantage and our refund was promptly credited. Best of luck.

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We booked a June 2016 Chicago to Montreal cruise on St Laurent through Great Lakes Cruises. When we learned of the Haimark Line bankruptcy, we contacted Great Lakes Cruises and informed them that we wanted to cancel and that we expected to receive a full refund of our deposit. Great Lakes forwarded our cancellation email to Haimark who in turn said that the monies were in escrow and a refund was not possible at that time. They did suggest, to our surprise, for us to contact our credit card company and ask that they "charge back" the deposit amount so that we could receive a credit. Within a week, a full credit showed up on our credit card account. We assume that the credit is final.

 

Hope this helps on "the process" that we used.

 

It's more than unfortunate that Haimark found themselves in this situation. St. Laurent appears to be a very nice ship which would have offered an excellent way to explore the Great Lakes or Cuba.

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Thank you @lilpfef and @pbnjrockette for your replies.

 

I did receive further clarification from Haimark. My understanding is that the booking fees are in escrow with the Maritime Commission. (I don't know if this is a standard thing, or a special case because of the Bankruptcy proceedings.)

 

I have requested a full refund and have been told I will receive it in 4-6 weeks (from the Maritime Commission).

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  • 1 month later...

Road Scholar has dropped their June sailings (Great Lakes) on the the St Laurent from their web site. They're still offering the cruise for July onward. I see the ship is still in Green Cove Springs, FL. Am not holding out much hope that our November cruise to Cuba will happen.

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  • 1 month later...

Haimark has now closed doors and run off with money. We were booked on an Amazon River Cruise next month ie. July. Just found out through research on web that Delfin (the ship builder) has taken company over. I contacted them - they nothing about our booking and need to pay again. Haimark have not passed money/bookings on - good luck to all....Website and Facebook pages have gone over night.

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  • 2 weeks later...
The St Laurent is now under the management of Victory Cruises. Here's the new website:

 

http://www.victorycruiselines.com

 

Their first Cuba cruise is scheduled to depart from Pt. Canaveral this fall.

 

We were booked originally on a Great Lakes cruise through Vantage for July 26th. Vantage cancelled that cruise and offered us passage on one of the August dates. That didn't work for us this year due to family plans. So we are booked on one in July 2017.

 

I see that the ship is cruising on our original date - July 26, 2016. I am thinking with all the change in management and reorganization, Vantage probably couldn't have their team available for the Great Lake cruises until August.

 

Here's hoping that all goes well with the new company. We are still looking forward to cruising the Great Lakes.

 

-Rose

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  • 2 weeks later...

With relief, I see that the St Laurent/Victory I has at long last moved from Green Cove Springs. MarineTraffic.com appears to show the ship in Mayport. The new Victory Cruise Line website says first cruise is to occur on Great Lakes July 8. Can't find any prices on the website, however.

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