River cruise cancellations in light of current events

[Chris_Texas]

As I've mentioned before, we're scheduled to cruise on Emerald from Passau on Apr 10. We're traveling with another couple, and they called Emerald this morning. He was told our cruise has been canceled.  The reservation agent didn't seem fully informed to him, but he was told: this has nothing to do with Ukraine nor with the website outage. In fact, he was told this decision was made due to "consolidation" (no other details about exactly what that means) and that that decision was made before their website outage.  

When asked why we weren't notified, the customer service person said something about the subsequent outage and communication priorities since then.  I'm stumped as to which communication priorities could be higher than letting people know who are leaving within the next month that their cruise has been canceled.  He asked when we'll get written notification and was not provided with a firm answer.  Our scheduled cruise is no longer on their brochure on the website.

 

I've been trying to contact Emerald and alternate between getting a tone that indicates the call can't go through and getting a ringtone for a couple of rings that then disconnects.  I can't even leave a message for a callback.  I even tried calling Scenic and left a callback number - to no avail.

 

I'm considering contacting my credit card company and asking what options I have - whether I can dispute the charge since I can't even get in contact with the company.  I doubt it, but I'll call to find out.

I do have CFAR trip insurance -  but that only pays 75% and I'd like to get it all back, if possible.  Our contract says that we get a full refund if they cancel the cruise prior to embarkation, but I'm feeling like the entire organization is dodgy at this point. I'd like to get my money and have the opportunity to book something else in its place, whether it's another cruise or just a vacation to somewhere else.

 

Chris

 

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

2 hours ago, Chris_Texas said:

As I've mentioned before, we're scheduled to cruise on Emerald from Passau on Apr 10. We're traveling with another couple, and they called Emerald this morning. He was told our cruise has been canceled.  The reservation agent didn't seem fully informed to him, but he was told: this has nothing to do with Ukraine nor with the website outage. In fact, he was told this decision was made due to "consolidation" (no other details about exactly what that means) and that that decision was made before their website outage.  

When asked why we weren't notified, the customer service person said something about the subsequent outage and communication priorities since then.  I'm stumped as to which communication priorities could be higher than letting people know who are leaving within the next month that their cruise has been canceled.  He asked when we'll get written notification and was not provided with a firm answer.  Our scheduled cruise is no longer on their brochure on the website.

 

I've been trying to contact Emerald and alternate between getting a tone that indicates the call can't go through and getting a ringtone for a couple of rings that then disconnects.  I can't even leave a message for a callback.  I even tried calling Scenic and left a callback number - to no avail.

 

I'm considering contacting my credit card company and asking what options I have - whether I can dispute the charge since I can't even get in contact with the company.  I doubt it, but I'll call to find out.

I do have CFAR trip insurance -  but that only pays 75% and I'd like to get it all back, if possible.  Our contract says that we get a full refund if they cancel the cruise prior to embarkation, but I'm feeling like the entire organization is dodgy at this point. I'd like to get my money and have the opportunity to book something else in its place, whether it's another cruise or just a vacation to somewhere else.

 

Chris

Making a claim under that insurance should be your last resort.  If the cruise is cancelled, you should get a full refund from Emerald or via credit card chargeback – and get a refund of the insurance premium as well.

[Chris_Texas]

53 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Making a claim under that insurance should be your last resort.  If the cruise is cancelled, you should get a full refund from Emerald or via credit card chargeback – and get a refund of the insurance premium as well.

Help me understand that.  I do understand that I want to use the insurance as a last resort.  Why would I get the premium back as well?

 

This is getting complicated a bit by verbiage.  I don't know that Emerald is calling this a cancellation; they are saying our trip was rescheduled. They initially said that we were eligible only for credit towards a future cruise.  When I pressed, he put me on hold for several minutes then came back and said WE could cancel for a full refund.  He also said that would take up to 180 days, which is utterly absurd. 

 

Not only am I now a dissatisfied customer, I'm also nervous about their financial position. There are various options available to us, but the one I'm not comfortable with is delaying the trip - I feel like that just keeps us on the hook with a potentially unstable company.  So I'm thinking best-choice is if I can rebook a different trip during the same time frame, or disputing the charges with my credit card - which would presumably return the funds to me in a more timely manner.

 

I'd be grateful for any thoughts people have about the best approach here.  I'm not terribly comfortable with any of my options at the moment.

[Host Jazzbeau]

13 minutes ago, Chris_Texas said:

Help me understand that.  I do understand that I want to use the insurance as a last resort.  Why would I get the premium back as well?

If your trip insurance is 'third party' our experience has been that as long as you haven't made a claim you can roll the premium over to a new trip (there are some time limitations).  If it was through Emerald the rules may be different – but a 'full refund' should (IMO) include all monies paid.

[Chris_Texas]

4 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

If your trip insurance is 'third party' our experience has been that as long as you haven't made a claim you can roll the premium over to a new trip (there are some time limitations).  If it was through Emerald the rules may be different – but a 'full refund' should (IMO) include all monies paid.

That's good to know.  Thank you.  I'll contact them tomorrow.

[gnome12]

The point of consolidations (and there were lots of them last summer too) is because fewer people are travelling, and they can't fill all the cruises, so they move people to a nearby date (usually close, although some last year were really weird changes).

[Host Jazzbeau]

25 minutes ago, gnome12 said:

The point of consolidations (and there were lots of them last summer too) is because fewer people are travelling, and they can't fill all the cruises, so they move people to a nearby date (usually close, although some last year were really weird changes).

But that will only work if they tell those being moved about the new cruise dates!

[gnome12]

6 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

But that will only work if they tell those being moved about the new cruise dates!

Absolutely. I think that the outage might have made things even more difficult, but that was ridiculous. (I was just explaining to the OP what "consolidation" meant; not that the way they went about it was correct.

[Chris_Texas]

I thought people might be interested in the resolution to my issue.

 

A good night's sleep and a phone call that actually got through - to a helpful customer service person - have helped the situation immensely.  

 

Our cruise was not consolidated into another cruise - it's just been canceled.  The reason, so they say, is that there were too few people on the excursions - which sounds odd to me, since we were booked on this cruise and we had never gotten to the point where we were asked about which excursions we wanted to do.  

 

Regardless of confusion over the reason, I spoke to the CS rep and asked about options for a different cruise at the same time or the same cruise at a different date.  I was given both options.  We opted for the Jewel of the Rhine cruise from Basel to Amsterdam on the same dates.  The other couple we're traveling with were able to make the same change.  We're very excited about the trip, my wife is happy to be a little further away from the center of conflict in Europe at the moment, and things are good. 

 

Yesterday I was thinking we would have to postpone the trip and thinking of ways to get our money back.  Today we were able to salvage everything - it was a good day 😉

 

 

[tempehman]

Chris_Texas -- we are having very similar isssues/problems with Emerald -- I can't reach anyone, no way!! Can you tell me what tel. number you called successfully?

[Chris_Texas]

On 4/11/2022 at 11:01 AM, tempehman said:

Chris_Texas -- we are having very similar isssues/problems with Emerald -- I can't reach anyone, no way!! Can you tell me what tel. number you called successfully?

Main number and leave a message.  Unfortunately, they only seem to call back about 50% of the time, so you have to be willing to be persistent and and wait on hold for quite a while.

 

Early morning seems to be the best time to get them.

 

Good luck.  For what it's worth, we just got back yesterday and the cruise was AWESOME.

[hihandycap]

We booked a cabin on Emerald's yacht Azzurra for June, 2023 with an itinerary that circumnavigates the Black Sea including port calls in Sochi, Russia;  Odessa, Ukraine; Sulina, Romania and two ports in Bulgaria and one in Georgia.

 

In early March, we asked our TA to obtain a full refund of our $1,500 deposit--not a peep from either the TA or Emerald. Just followed up with TA, but  seriously thinking about asking Chase Sapphire for a charge back.  We would consider as an alternative a back-to-back on some combination of Emerald/Scenic boats on the Douro and through France or the round-trip from Amsterdam down to Belgium.

 

Has anybody tried a charge-back by credit card company?   Results? 

[CPT Trips]

On 4/18/2022 at 8:23 PM, Chris_Texas said:

Good luck.  For what it's worth, we just got back yesterday and the cruise was AWESOME.

Terrific! I’d say that’s worth quite a lot.

[CT-Edin]

Hi, we're booked on Avalon river cruise on the Danube in July 2022 - Bucharest to Budapest. Starts in the Danube delta, and visits Constantia on the Black Sea.  Worried about current situation but UK Govt. advice is currently that Romania is safe to visit. Keeping an eye on it all and feeling heartbroken for the people of Ukraine 😞

 

[PhD-iva]

On 4/25/2022 at 5:32 PM, hihandycap said:

We booked a cabin on Emerald's yacht Azzurra for June, 2023 with an itinerary that circumnavigates the Black Sea including port calls in Sochi, Russia;  Odessa, Ukraine; Sulina, Romania and two ports in Bulgaria and one in Georgia.

 

In early March, we asked our TA to obtain a full refund of our $1,500 deposit--not a peep from either the TA or Emerald. Just followed up with TA, but  seriously thinking about asking Chase Sapphire for a charge back.  We would consider as an alternative a back-to-back on some combination of Emerald/Scenic boats on the Douro and through France or the round-trip from Amsterdam down to Belgium.

 

Has anybody tried a charge-back by credit card company?   Results? 

Ask for your chargeback soon, as there is a time limit…..not sure what it is.

[Cisterna]

On 3/14/2022 at 4:39 PM, Chris_Texas said:

Help me understand that.  I do understand that I want to use the insurance as a last resort.  Why would I get the premium back as well?

 

This is getting complicated a bit by verbiage.  I don't know that Emerald is calling this a cancellation; they are saying our trip was rescheduled. They initially said that we were eligible only for credit towards a future cruise.  When I pressed, he put me on hold for several minutes then came back and said WE could cancel for a full refund.  He also said that would take up to 180 days, which is utterly absurd. 

 

Not only am I now a dissatisfied customer, I'm also nervous about their financial position. There are various options available to us, but the one I'm not comfortable with is delaying the trip - I feel like that just keeps us on the hook with a potentially unstable company.  So I'm thinking best-choice is if I can rebook a different trip during the same time frame, or disputing the charges with my credit card - which would presumably return the funds to me in a more timely manner.

 

I'd be grateful for any thoughts people have about the best approach here.  I'm not terribly comfortable with any of my options at the moment.

Bottom line - Credit card company is not going to give you your money back when the travel company (emerald) will give you a full cash refund or a future cruise credit. The only time the credit card company will give you  your money back is if the travel company goes out of business (as was the case of Crystal cruises). AND that is if the credit card company has that type of provision. Many c.c. companies have stopped this benefit -  forcing people to purchased very expensive trip insurance. This trend began prior to covid. In the instance where insurance only pays 75% refund that is the plan you purchased and I can also tell you that your insurance purchase cost will NOT be reimbursed.   I don't know what c.c. you used, but to protect yourself and  cover all bases I  would also file paperwork with the c.c. company to get it on the record in case there is a specific amount of time to file. 

 

 

Edited May 1, 2022 by Cisterna

[hihandycap]

On 4/29/2022 at 7:51 AM, PhD-iva said:

... there is a time limit…..not sure what it is.

Thanks.  We checked with our CC company (it likely varies among CC companies).

 

Reply (from call to number on back of card): "usually 60 days from transaction date, but check with Disputes Desk."

 

Disputes desk:  drop dead date is usually 118 days from transaction date but it depends on  record of efforts to resolve; could be as long as 538 days particularly for such services as future travel where the breach by merchant is not certain yet. Best to submit dispute as early as possible once efforts to resolve satisfactorily with merchant appear futile.

 

We are actively trying to transfer the deposit to a Douro cruise in late October in hopes we can avoid placing it in contest.

 

 

[CT-Edin]

Our Danube Delta cruise has been changed:

As the safety and peace-of-mind of our guests is always our top priority, we have therefore updated your itinerary to keep a safe distance from the Ukraine given the ongoing situation there.

We have removed the stop in St. Gheorghe and the excursion to the Danube Delta on day 2 of the cruise due to their proximity to the Ukraine. These changes enable enhancements to your itinerary with added time and experiences in exciting ports of call:

 

• Cernavoda: In addition to Constanta excursion, we’ve added an excursion to a local winery

• Belgrade: We’ve added an overnight stay as well as an additional excursion of a culinary tour on the second morning in port

• Novi Sad: We will now arrive in the evening with an added overnight stay