diamond leaving RSSC fleet

[WesW]

Diamond to leave Radisson fleet in June

26/1/2005

Radisson Seven Seas Cruises will be notifying travel agents and customers today of the sale of Radisson Diamond, Seatrade Insider has confirmed. The ship will be leaving the fleet on June 4, destined for Hong Kong where it will be renamed and operate as a casino vessel.

 

RSSC had been chartering the twin-hulled Diamond from its Finnish owners.

 

RSSC will fully refund deposits for canceled sailings. In addition, the line will offer a $700 per person future cruise credit as a gesture of goodwill. ‘The Diamond was our first vessel – a ship that established a new direction for luxury cruising in 1992 – and it’s impossible to say goodbye to her without feeling a sense of loss,’ said RSSC president and ceo Mark Conroy. ‘At the same time, the world of luxury cruising has changed and we greet the future from the helm of our new generation of luxury ships.’ For canceled bookings, RSSC will provide the agency of record with a $100 per booking handling fee and pay full commission on any new booking made for clients in 2005 plus a $100 per guest bonus commission.

 

[ticketsunlimited]

Well thats that. Its really to bad.

[awatt]

Question for the TA's out there: When might the summer 06 schedules become available, and does a credit toward future cruise have an expiration period?

[JoAnne B]

That is sad news indeed. My heart goes out to the dedicated staff and crew. I'm sure they are in shock. Hopefully RSSC will accommodate as many as possible on the other ships. Contrary to the initial impression, the cruise line is making full effort to take care of the cancelled passengers. I imagine it is real chaos at RSSC today!

 

The cancellation of the entire sold out summer season is bound to have a dramatically negative impact on the cruise line's bottom line. The lost revenue combined with future credits will be quite expensive for RSSC. They had originally offered a $250 future credit. Are you saying they are increasing that to $700?

 

Thanks to Ngaire, we are rebooked on the fall Voyager crossing. They are honoring the Diamond pricing and giving a guaranteed booking for an equivalent or better cabin. Although the timing isn't what we wanted, we have reconsidered and will enjoy the Voyager crossing. I hope that many others are able to find equivalent cruises.

 

JoAnne B.

[WesW]

JoAnne, the $700 future cruise credit is what the press release

says from Seatrader Inside News dated today..so yes this is the proper

amount..glad to hear you got an alternate cruise plan together..here is

wishing good luck to the other ex Diamond Summer cruisers..r/wes

[luvtojump]

I am very sorry to hear that. We were all set for the Aug. 27 Athens/Venice sailing. This would have been our first RSSC cruise. Have not found a comparable itinerary for that week. Silver shadow does a Rome/Athens but we were just in Rome last summer and on the Shadow in Sept.

 

One good thing, I did hold off buying our air. whew.

 

Still will give RSSC a try in the near future.

 

Regards to all whose travel plans have been changed.

 

Lisa

[Joanandjoe]

How about the Windstar Wind Spirit, Athens to Istanbul, on the same date? Different type of luxury, but Windstar is great. The Sea Dream I sails from Istanbul to Istanbul on that date. Seabourne sails from Rome (which you don't want) to Athens on 8/28; but at least you weren't just on that line. Crystal has a 12 day Black Sea cruise on 8/27. Last, your TA could book you on one of the suites of a non-luxury cruise line. You should have some great choices even if you don't like the August itineraries of the Voyager.

 

Do you really want the Eastern Med. in late August? Hot, hot, hot! Consider a cooler route.

[jsea]

So much for Diamond leaving in late October.

 

Time to find something else. Quick.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I guess this will give an instant boost to all the other ships in the Med this summer. Thought seriously about doing another Diamond. Glad I chose the PG instead! Wonder if there will ever so as many European 2-for-1 sales on Radisson again! Probably not. Sigh. Lovely ship.

[Linda CruiseDiva]

Here's the press release... http://*****.com/525wp

 

I'm really sorry to see her go.

[awatt]

I just wanted to thank all of the very kind people on the Radisson board who have been so helpful answering my questions for the past few weeks. Everyone is so nice here.

 

We will probably not be able to reschedule our Med cruise for this summer. I look forward to the 2006 schedule, and hopefully a Radisson cruise in 2006.When that happens,I'm also looking forward to visiting the Radisson board again!

[cruisinsince75]

Yes we got word from our TA that our 7/2 Med cruise on the Diamond is toast. Therefore we have decided to switch to the Silver Whisper on 5/12 and will look at using that $700 per person cruise credit on either the Voyager or the Navigator for this Fall. Maybe even the PG if we can find even a halfway decent airfare.

 

Don

[JoAnne B]

Col Wes

 

No, the $700 is only good for this second batch of cancellations. The original $250 still stands for those of us on the fall sailings, and only if we do not accept a transfer to the Voyager crossing. Received the formal letter today.

 

JoAnne B.

[Ngaire]

Sorry but the $700 is not applicable to the PG. That is normal with any cruise certificate as it is only a managed ship and not a Radisson owned ship. Most certificates do not apply to the PG. Strangely the $250 certificates from October 22 to December did and I was surprised at that.

[cruisinsince75]

Thanks Ngaire, we can now concentrate on either the Navigator or Voyager.

 

Don

[cruisinsince75]

Actually, this worked out quite well for us. We had to cancel our April cruise on the Infinity because of timing at work. We had already booked the Diamond for July and wondered how we were going to make it to July without a cruise fix. Then Silversea came out with some really good fares for late Spring about the time that rumours about the Diamond not completing the Med season started floating around.

 

We found a great deal on the Silver Whisper in Mid May and were torn on whether to cancel the Diamond and go with the Whisper or what to do. Now the decision has been made for us.

 

We now have the best of both. We have our Whisper cruise at a great deal and we still get to finally try RSSC compliments of that $700 bonus for something this fall. Now to decide what to do? The Navigator New England cruise, the Navigator Bermuda cruise, the Voyager Western Caribbean cruise, or the Voyager Eastern Caribbean cruise. What would you do? They each have their pros and cons.

 

The Bermuda cruise is maybe too close to our other cruise in May, which means final payment will be due about the time we board the Whisper, however, it looks as if the Navigator won't be back doing Bermuda in 2006, because it will move over to take the Diamonds place. It also is usually a higher price, but there are still some 2 for deals.

 

The New England cruise has all of the above pros and cons but is a completely different cruise. One we have never done. Changing of the colors, but colder weather.

 

The Caribbean cruises have better timing, are on the Voyager with all balcony suites, but we do the Caribbean quite often and also it goes from FLL and will be cooler going and coming in Nov and Dec.

 

All of the pricing is about the same. Decisions, Decisions.

 

Don

[Joanandjoe]

Do join us on the 9/16 Navigator cruise from Montreal to New York. It will probably be too early for much fall color, but the weather should still be nice and warm, and the Louisbourg fortress will still be fully staffed (the costumed people aren't there past early October). Green Gables (from Charlottetown) and Quebec City will be great, and we won't freeze tendering at Bar Harbor and Charlottetown. We'll even be able, at least for a day, to forgive the Red Sox for beating our beloved Yankees last October.

 

We weren't cruising in 1975, but we had something better: the birth of our older son, whose birthday was yesterday.

[cruisinsince75]

Joan and Joe, we will look into that and you have a good point about it being warmer. The one we were looking at originally was Oct 1, but hey it will be nice to have other cruisecritic mates onboard.

 

Don

[Joanandjoe]

Cruising, we'd love to have you join us; but any Radisson choice is a great one. For us it was an easy choice: only 9/16 and 9/24 were in our vacation window, and we'd rather end our trip 10 miles from home (NYC piers) than have to take a flight home. Colors vs. weather is an interesting tradeoff.