How do private tour companies deal with a ship missing a port

[txflood33]

Just trying to see what has happened to others and how they dealt with it...how the tour company dealt with it...if the cruise line had anything to say

 

We will be on Millie March 2020 going to China/Japan/S Korea. I'm still doing lots of planning and research. We will have 3 days in Beijing and we have booked a private tour which includes hotel accommodations...total of about $1500 for the 3 day private tour.

 

From reading reviews of some similar cruises, it appears fog can come up and make it where ports are unreachable so the ship cancels a port and gives an extra sea day or, if possible, arranges another port. I know this is a possibility going in and while I may be disappointed, especially for Beijing, I wouldn't expect anything back from the cruise line sans port fees.

 

I did just email the tour company to see how they handle that sort of thing, but I was just curious of other experiences/opinions.

 

If you lost a stop at a port due to weather/port worker strike/damaged port/military or gov't reasons/or anything outside of the ship's control, how did you reach out to the tour company...if you had no internet package(I will have one, but I'm trying to learn about the private companies contingency plans)? Was it treated like a last minute cancel and you lose your money? Did you buy a $50 insurance plan through the private company to cover this type of situation? Did you add private tours to your total trip insurance plan?(is that something you can even add...lol...still researching on this)

 

I can't imagine tour companies have never dealt with something like this. I appreciate the info.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

We always check on the tour company's policy regarding missing a tour because the ship cannot dock.  If it is "take it or leave it" we just leave it.  The one time we missed a port with a prepaid excursion we were refunded.

[Gonzo70]

The private tours I have booked that required prepay all had policies of full refunds if the ship missed the port aside from one that had a small administrative fee, but refunded the vast majority. I would certainly find this information out before paying and not book a company that did not have a fair policy. 

[Jim_Iain]

Last years TA followed by Japan Immersion was hit with major storms and about 3/4 of our stops were either rescheduled or completely  cancelled.   I had private tours scheduled and paid for in all ports so very familiar.

 

As others have noted each tour company handles it differently.   You want to make sure tour company has a Force Major clause in your contract.   If the ship does not dock due to forces outside your control the excursions is refundable.   Luckily I was able to either reschedule or got a full refund for all my tours.

 

It is important that you check on this as I met a number of passengers who had tours that refused to give a refund. 

Edited February 24, 2019 by Jim_Iain

[garlinn]

We were on the Millennium cruise last spring that has several fog related delays including missing one day in Beijing. We had a tour booked with China Highlights and they refunded a portion of the tour price. I had to get a note from the ship and send it to them so they could cancel one night's hotel room after the cancellation date. They were able to do this and get us a refund on the hotel along with refunding a portion of the tour cost.

[txflood33]

10 minutes ago, garlinn said:

We were on the Millennium cruise last spring that has several fog related delays including missing one day in Beijing. We had a tour booked with China Highlights and they refunded a portion of the tour price. I had to get a note from the ship and send it to them so they could cancel one night's hotel room after the cancellation date. They were able to do this and get us a refund on the hotel along with refunding a portion of the tour cost.

 

Well this is pretty reassuring. This is the tour company we are using in Beijing and came highly recommended. They do have cancellation policies, but I can't seem to find anything about not being able to arrive for the tour due to the ship not being able to dock for a variety of reasons. I do see they have a $50 insurance policy that would protect the price, but knowing they appear to be understandable is good to hear.

 

Did you have wifi on the ship so you could email as soon as you knew of the delay? Or did you have to wait until you could get free wifi at the port?

[NantahalaCruiser]

As others have said, it depends on the tour company.

 

Tours by Locals has a policy of full return if one of their "shore excursions" tours is impacted by your ship not arriving in port. But not all of their tours are labeled as shore excursions. For those that are not so labeled on their website, you should contact their home office, let them know that you will be arriving by ship and request in writing that they will treat your tour as a shore excursion.

 

Sometimes you may still wish to book a terrific tour that will not return your money if the ship misses the port (especially when the vendor is a small business that cannot afford to make a commitment to serve you and subsequently lose revenue, due to the missed port, that they would not have lost if they had booked their services with someone else.) Be sure to check your travel insurance to see what non-refundable expenses are covered in the case of a missed port.

[garlinn]

2 minutes ago, txflood33 said:

 

Well this is pretty reassuring. This is the tour company we are using in Beijing and came highly recommended. They do have cancellation policies, but I can't seem to find anything about not being able to arrive for the tour due to the ship not being able to dock for a variety of reasons. I do see they have a $50 insurance policy that would protect the price, but knowing they appear to be understandable is good to hear.

 

Did you have wifi on the ship so you could email as soon as you knew of the delay? Or did you have to wait until you could get free wifi at the port?

We used the ship's WiFi to notify them. 

[smtcan]

We had booked and paid for a private tour in Israel.  When Celebrity changed the itinerary, the first notification we received was from the tour company telling us that a refund had been processed because the ship was not docking.  Celebrity notified us the following day.

Sheila

[Jim_Iain]

1 hour ago, garlinn said:

We used the ship's WiFi to notify them. 

When we had all of our ports messed up Celebrity set up phones and free internet in one of the conference rooms for guests to use to re-arrange their tours.   You could also go to Guest Relations and they would call the number for your (free) and let you call your tour operator.

[txflood33]

It's encouraging to know both X and the private tour operators seem to be proactive and available to help when port stops are cancelled for reasons out of their control. I genuinely appreciate the info.

[TFree]

In October, we were on the Constellation, which ended up missing two ports (Portofino and Livorno) and ended up spending an overnight in an unscheduled port (La Spezia) instead.  We missed one ship excursion (no problem, fees refunded) and one private excursion (no problem, fees refunded).  We then were given, by Celebrity, the option to take a bus from La Spezia to FCO airport in the middle of the night, because it was not clear when the ship would be able to get to Civitavecchia.  We took the bus (which was good because we would have missed our flight if we stayed on the ship).  But in the process we also had to cancel the transfer we had set up with Bob's Limos from Civitavechhia to the airport.  No problem, they did not charge us and told us that they had been monitoring the situation and were well aware of the problem.

 

I contacted both the private tour operator and Bob's Limos by email and by phone.  We had an internet package, and I had a European Sim Card in my phone, so I could handle both of these myself.  But as Jim_Iain mentioned with regard to a different cruise, Celebrity did make both computers and I believe phones available for those who needed them.

 

Tom & Judy