MSC Sinfonia Stuck In Cape Town Again!

[cruiser101101]

The MSC Sinfonia was due to depart on Monday 10 Dec 2012 from Cape Town, South Africa.

 

When I arrived at the port the ship was not there. The passengers were informed that the wind was too strong to enter the port and that the cruise would be postponed to the following day.

 

We were meant to vist Luderitz in Namibia on a 5 day cruise, but we were told due to the late departure we would be re- routed to Mossel Bay (this would take 4 days)!

 

If you are South African you would know that Mossel Bay is a small fry town with nothing much to do.

 

The passengers did not blame MSC for the weather but they did feel that they could have given us better options. At the time we did not know that we could cancel and get a full refund or transfer. We were also not informed of this at the port.

 

We had to wait hours in the sun for lifts home and accommodation to be sorted, due to Cape Town having the worst terminal in history! There was no water and there was few chairs, a lot of passengers had to sit on the ground.

 

We did however receive a 30% discount on a future cruise, we felt that this was unfair as the about 2 weeks ago the Sinfonia was docked in Cape Town for 3 days due to the weather.

 

These passengers were at least onboard and received a 50% discount.

 

Everyone felt that MSC did not have control over the weather but they should not have responded to complaints by saying that their terms and conditions allow them to change the itinerary and shorten our cruise!

 

The ground staff at the port from MSC were very helpful though.

 

Despite the delay everyone onboard had an awesome time!

 

I will be posting a review of the cruise.