A Public Thank you to Cunard

[SS Warringtonia]

I would like to use the forum to publicly thank Cunard for their settlement payment over the recent Hurricane Sandy.

I will set the scene......my wife and I took a long awaited cruise to New England/ Canada on the QM2 last October- we preceded the cruise with a four day stay in NYC. NYC was magnificent as ever and the colours in Central Park.....that was the point at which my £600 1 yr old camera refused to work and for the remainder of the holiday I had to rely on a little compact Casio (which provided some excellent pix). Forgive me, I digress, we took a cab from our midtown hotel to Red Hook and the cabbie hadn't a clue where to go- I did my best to direct him, but coming from the UK and only having visited NYC once before after a crossing, I had to try and recap the journey in reverse!

We eventually made it- why oh why isn't the terminal better signposted?_ I spotted just the one miniscular sign attached to a lamp post as we were very close.

On checking in we had a superb upgrade from a balcony on deck 8 to a Britannia Club on deck 12- things were looking good. The sail away in the sunset was magnificent, only marred by the fact that my 'expensive' camera wasn't available to capture the moments for posterity.

And so it was, we scraped under the bridge (a big thank you goes out to my friend Steve back in the UK who was up at midnight and unbeknown to me had captured a series of screen shots from the NY harbour webcam of our departure). Monday in Newport, then Boston (loved the aircraft skimming the ship as we approached), Wednesday was Bar Harbor followed by Saint John and our last port was Halifax. A day at sea followed by a final day in NYC, then an evening flight home.... the weather for the trip was incredible (although how incredible it turned out to be in the end is a different matter) glorious blue skies, zero wind and a pleasant temperature- certainly helped make the holiday snaps something special.

 

As we enjoyed the day at sea returning there were mutterings about about

Sandy and the Captain made an additional announcement at 4pm as an update- it appeared that we would miss it as our departing flight would be away from Newark before the storm hit.

 

Cunard had organised a sightseeing tour of Manhatten for those departing on the 7:30pm flight- personally I wasn't too bothered as we had seen the sights pre cruise. We were among some of the earlier disembarkees and as we waited to pass through immigration we received a text from the UK saying that all flights later in the day had been cancelled!!

If we hadn't been too excited about the sight seeing tour before, we certainly weren't now- Anyway 22 of us boarded the bus and word had spread about the cancellations. I must say that the tour and guide were magnificent- how could I have been so naive to think that we had 'seen' Manhatten! I would certainly recommend it.

 

And so it was that once we arrived at Newark Liberty, we queued for almost 3 hrs with little information as to our plight -yes plight, not flight! It became clear that once we made check in we were on our own (our new flight was scheduled at the same time three days later)- we were told by United to sort out our own accommodation, they weren't obliged- as an aside, I understand, it turns out that it was the airline's responsibility to accommodate us, but of course you only discover this in the security of your own home.

 

Bemused and weary a group of six of us managed to secure a hotel for the night- you can imagine the scramble for accommodation. The hotel shuttle bus did its job and deposited us at the 'Newark Airport Travel lodge' Union.

Now there are hotels and there are hotels- over in the UK Travel lodge offer a cheap, clean and cheerful service of a basic kind so you kind of expect the same.......all I can say is check out the reviews on Trip Advisor.

 

Within 10 mins of our arrival Cunard called one of our group who was more that distressed about where we had ended up-(don't forget, check Trip Advisor)- Cunard continued to call us individually and it would be me who was next- by this time I too could see how bad things were- we were the last couple to check in.

When I received the call I explained the dire mess that the six of us were in and something had to be done about it to the rep (based in CA) and within 20 mins she had us booked in to the Marriot adjacent to the airport and had transport organised- a big thanks to her as she had stayed well into the evening, way past her home time to help us.

 

The Marriot of course was magnificent- back to the kind of accommodation we had been used to over the past week or so- it was just a case of waiting.....the storm hit us the following evening and we survived intact.

 

We hung out, as it were, with not a lot to and waited for the airport to open which it did by the Wednesday- we managed to check in early morning and so were guaranteed the second (I think) flight to the UK at 7:30pm.

 

We arrived in a cold Manchester ever so thankful to be home safely.

 

And so to the 'Thank you' bit....

a couple of hours after arriving home, Cunard called us to see how we were- I said we were safe etc- I then raised the point regarding out of pocket expenses- Cunard had footed the accommodation expenses but we still had to cover our food and drink. Some of you may well point out that you would have to eat and drink at home, yes, but our eating and drinking is considerably less than the costs of a Marriot hotel.

The good lady suggested that I claimed off my travel insurance, I pointed out that 15 months earlier I had to make a claim for two of us for the full amount of our cruise on the QE to Norway as it had to be cancelled with five days noticed due to the sudden passing of my father in law. I really didn't want to have to claim again as the insurers had been more than fair with us.

She then suggested that I put a claim in explaining the details.

Cunard paid my claim in full- at no point did I 'over claim' or exaggerate the costs and I think that Cunard recognised this and saw the honesty in my claim........

so there we have it, again, a big THANK YOU CUNARD- unlike others in our group we never lost faith in you and will be back hopefully in September with you.

Don't forget to check Trip Advisor!

[balf]

, we took a cab from our midtown hotel to Red Hook and the cabbie hadn't a clue where to go- !

 

Good to hear your story and that Cunard came out well and did their best for you. I always think how stupid some firms are to treat customers badly. Now news travels so quickly the bad publicity must do them great harm, whereas this puts Cunard in such a good light.

 

On another point, why don't NY get some decent cabbies?

 

David.

[Mysticalmother]

Glad Cunard were so good & helpful for you. That is the way it should be. (Unlike a certain ferry company (not P & O!) who refused to accept that their strike last year ruined my Spanish holiday....but that's another story!)

 

In this day & age, people are so quick to criticise but so very reluctant to give praise so it's lovely to see. Thanks for posting.

 

Aren't those eastern seaboard ports lovely? We visited them in 2011 - hope you sampled the Lobster!:)

[Whitemarsh]

Glad Cunard were so good & helpful for you. That is the way it should be. (Unlike a certain ferry company (not P & O!) who refused to accept that their strike last year ruined my Spanish holiday....but that's another story!)

 

In this day & age, people are so quick to criticise but so very reluctant to give praise so it's lovely to see. Thanks for posting.

 

Aren't those eastern seaboard ports lovely? We visited them in 2011 - hope you sampled the Lobster!:)

 

I agree. Sadly, I don't think it will be welcomed or appreciated by all of us as it's become increasingly evident to me that some people do not like hearing the good news stories. People who post on here about their good experiences generally get a handful of responses, whilst those that come on to post about "The worst cruise ever" are inundated with support from those with an axe to grind.

 

Thank you SS Warringtonia for taking the time to share your good experience with Cunard.

[Mr&MrsHendricks]

I agree. Sadly, I don't think it will be welcomed or appreciated by all of us as it's become increasingly evident to me that some people do not like hearing the good news stories. People who post on here about their good experiences generally get a handful of responses, whilst those that come on to post about "The worst cruise ever" are inundated with support from those with an axe to grind.

 

Whitemarsh

 

just checked your recent post (which was a good news story and had me in stitches at various times) - 222 responses to your thread - some of us must like good news. I hope we're the silent majority,

 

MrsH

[Whitemarsh]

Whitemarsh

 

just checked your recent post (which was a good news story and had me in stitches at various times) - 222 responses to your thread - some of us must like good news. I hope we're the silent majority,

 

MrsH

 

Thank you.

 

I wasn't counting that as a post, more as a blog - which could have gone either way, depending on what happened on board. But as it turned out it was a good news story.

 

In any case, I hope you're right, that those of us that like to hear 'good news' Cunard stories are in the majority - silent or otherwise.

[Salacia]

Hi ss Warringtonia. I'm very glad to read that your holiday went fairly well, all things considered. Good to know that Cunard took care of its passengers, both on land at at sea. Being a New Yorker, it makes me especially happy to read a Hurricane Sandy story that had a happy ending - unfortunately for many in the tri-state area, that was not the case. Please come back and visit NY again soon - hopefully the weather will be more agreeable next time. And again, three cheers for Cunard. Regards, -S.

 

P.S. If I may add another kudos and thank you - to CCL for donating 2million dollars to aid the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Details here http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/carnival-corporation--plc-donates-2-million-to-aid-hurricane-sandy-victims-184258151.html

[Scrapnana]

SS Warringtonia,

 

Thank you for sharing your experience. At such a chaotic time as Hurricane Sandy, it's nice to know that Cunard was still concerned about their customers.

[T5LHR]

I am pleased to hear that you were well looked after... It is always nice to hear.

 

I had cause to request some form of compensatory measure from Cunard last year, when the arrival time into Hamburg, on a short 2 night trip from Southampton was delayed from 08:30 arrival, to 13:00, without us being told.

Thus, my return flight from Hamburg was booked for 14:00, owing to the original arrival time.

 

It cost me €70 to change my flight time, and I contacted Cunard to ask if it were possible to refund me the cost of the flight change as we were never informed of the change of arrival time. It was only when my friend who lives in Hamburg told me that we were arriving later than normal that it was flagged to my attention.

 

A lovely lady at Cunard said she would be more than happy to refund me the amount as a cheque, or I could have $150 credit on a future sailing. I took the second option and it worked very well.

 

No request for receipts (although I did send a screen-shot of the flight change), and dealt with from start to finish within a couple of business days. Very impressed.