Enchanted Princess 10/25/20 cancelled cash refunds/vouchers from private tour?

[jpj39]

The Enchanted Princess cancelled 10/25/20 cruise Rome to Barcelona

was wondering if folks on this cruise. booked  private tours in Santorini & Katakolon,  Greece

have you cancelled these tours and requested a cash refund but offered a voucher in lieu of cash?

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by jpj39

[cruise2relax]

Oh I did, not happy.  I have started a credit card challenge and started an online campaign starting with Trip advisor.  I have many tour operators that I cancelled that asked if I would accept a voucher, but no one but Niki gave no option but to send a voucher.  Shame on her.

[jpj39]

Apparently she is protected by a recent greek law

 We would like to inform you that the Greek government -faced with the unprecedented turn of events and following the example of other countries in the European Union such as France, Italy, Spain and Germany- passed a law that allows businesses in the travel industry to issue a credit note instead of extending an immediate refund in the case of cancellations of tourism services. This initiative was taken in order to protect both businesses and their customers, to ensure the viability of the tourism enterprises and secure the deposits of their clients. This aforementioned law is effective from February 25^th2020 and applies to all services related to tourism, for business to customer (B2C) and for business to business (B2B) transactions. To issue a credit note in the form of a voucher, instead of a cash refund, is now common practice across the tourism industry, meaning that also we, as a business, will be receiving credit notes for any deposits we have made to our associates for future bookings.

pesonally I don’t think the credit card will reverse the charge

next alternative TripAdvisor

[cruise2relax]

The law allows the vendor to offer the voucher, not require it.  So far in my experience cancelling tours on this cruise, she is the only tour operator mandating the voucher.  That will destroy her as a cruise tour operator.  

[land lover]

On 5/8/2020 at 3:59 PM, cruise2relax said:

The law allows the vendor to offer the voucher, not require it.  So far in my experience cancelling tours on this cruise, she is the only tour operator mandating the voucher.  That will destroy her as a cruise tour operator.  

why?

[caribill]

3 hours ago, land lover said:

why?

 

Because people will be reluctant to use her services in the future because if they need to cancel all they can get is a voucher that might never be able to be used.

[Sillyjilly]

The perfect example of why one should book through the ship?

[caribill]

11 minutes ago, Sillyjilly said:

The perfect example of why one should book through the ship?

 

No.

 

This was unusual because the country changed the refund laws.

 

In general, if you vet independent tour providers on Cruise Critic, you can book independent excursions that cost less, cover more, have less people, and are not forced to spend time at cruise ship arranged shopping opportunities when compared to cruise ship sponsored excursions.

[cruise2relax]

I have been one more independent tours than I have Princess tours.  I have never had an issue with a no show, a refund if cancelled or missed port, or any real issue at all.  Yes I do my research first and always communicate directly with the provider prior to booking.  That said, this tour operator is non-responsive and not customer focused.  She will no doubt lose customers with this attitude.  

[Omega1]

The Greek regulation that came into effect in mid April stated that if the vouchers are not used within 18 months by customers, businesses will be required to refund the initial amount of the bookings in cash. That is obviously subject to the business still being a going concern.

[donaldsc]

10 hours ago, Sillyjilly said:

The perfect example of why one should book through the ship?

 

Booking through the ship almost guarantees that you will get an inferior excursion at a higher price.  I will continue to book private tours and take my chances that this problem will not occur again in a while.  Most of the private tour companies are doing their best to cope with a bad situation but they also may not have the cash on hand to cope with the number of tours that have been cancelled.  Give them a break.

 

DON

[Sillyjilly]

1 hour ago, donaldsc said:

 

Booking through the ship almost guarantees that you will get an inferior excursion at a higher price.  I will continue to book private tours and take my chances that this problem will not occur again in a while.  Most of the private tour companies are doing their best to cope with a bad situation but they also may not have the cash on hand to cope with the number of tours that have been cancelled.  Give them a break.

 

DON

I don't find the private excursions always to be a great savings when you add in the cost to get to it. While I do book privately on occasion, I'll stick with the ship most often. 🙂

[donaldsc]

5 hours ago, Sillyjilly said:

I don't find the private excursions always to be a great savings when you add in the cost to get to it. While I do book privately on occasion, I'll stick with the ship most often. 🙂

 

Cost to get to the tours???  On just about every private tour that I have ever taken with the possible exception of 1 or 2 in Venice, they met me and my group at the ship.  My cost to get to the tour was zero.  Even if the private tour was a bit more which it won't be, the tours that I set up or go on have a maximum of 8 people and more often just 4 people instead of a lot of people packed into a van or a large bus.   I often book a larger vehicle so that everyone has a window seat.  They do what I want them to do instead of stopping at places that the cruise line figures that I want to stop at.  When we have a meal, we stop at a locals place where quite often the guide knows the proprietor instead of a tourist trap restaurant.  They do not stop at gift shops that pay the cruise company to stop there.  

 

The only time that I might book a ship tour is if we are at a small port and the ship has booked all the guides or if we are going very far from the ship and the implications of missing the ship are serious.

 

One example of everything that is wrong w a ship tour.  We recently did a cruise where we stopped at the Falklands.  There were 2 ships in port and the tourist facilities are limited.  I wanted to take the Volunteer Point penguin tour.  If there were no ships in port, the cost would have been ~$250.  Because the 2 ships had booked up all the spots, the cost was $450.  I call this price gouging.  Buy up everything in site and sell it at an inflated price.

 

DON