Our Gulf States – Inaugural Sailing – Star Legend – November 23, 2023 Cruise Just Got Cancelled – Remedies?

[skitrips]

Hello all -

So my wife and I just received notice from W/S that our upcoming inaugural Dubai, UAE - Muscat, Omen cruise (5 weeks away) culminating in the Abu Dhabi 2023 Formula 1 Gran Prix race, has been cancelled. And the reason? "The current environment and...evolving circumstances in the region." In order to attempt to avoid liability, W/S has labeled its cancellation a "postponement." But wait. There's good news! Our cruise has been rescheduled to more than a year from now departing December 4, 2024! And rather than departing from Dubai as originally publicized, our cruise will depart from the more expensive (for travelers from the U.S. to reach) Muscat, Omen Airport. And more good news. Rather than W/S' more expensive "inaugural" Gulf States sailing, our "postponed" cruise will depart 2 weeks after W/S' inaugural 2024 Gulf States cruise. And regardless of our other expenses and inconvenience, in addition to keeping our paid in full money for the next 13+ months, W/S is offering us a generous $200/person OBC.

In the unlikely event we're not thrilled with news of the postponement, W/S states we "are welcome to call (its) Guest Services team to process our cancellation." Wait a minute. We haven't cancelled anything. It's W/S which has cancelled our cruise. So why try to turn this around so that we're the bad guys? Moreover, there's no mention of cruise refunds. Nor excursion refunds. Nor the $1,599/person Formula 1 race refund (which were originally represented as being non-cancellable). Nor refunds for non-cancellable airline fares/taxes, Nor refunds for non-cancellable hotel lodging. Nor the usual and customary 125% in future cruise credits ("FCCs").

Have any of you ever been involved in a similar situation with W/S? If so we'd like to hear your experience(s). Thank you for reading and hopefully responding.

[r&rd]

The last two Windstar cruises we had cancelled (after the 10 Covid cruises that were cancelled) were both cancelled within days of sailing with offers of “refunding all monies paid to Windstar.” No FCC, no OBC, no offer to reimburse non refundable expenses. Very different from the way cancellations were managed in the past.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Please come back after you have called Windstar to verify that you can't have your money back.  It may be that you are assuming that option is not available, when a firm request would get it.  "Process your cancellation" doesn't  necessarily mean losing your payments.

[skitrips]

Thank you for your responses r&rd and jazzbeau.

Three more pieces of information, FWIW. First, our cruise was priced at a starting fare of $3,299/person. The cruise is supposed to end on Dec 3, 2023 in Muscat, Omen. Well it turns out our same ship departs Muscat on Dec 3, 2023, returning to Dubai on Dec 13, 2023. And the itinerary for the Dec 3, 2023 departure is the same itinerary as our itinerary with two exceptions. First, it is in reverse of our itinerary. And second, the starting fare is $1,799/person. In other words, $1,500/person less than the fare we have been charged.

The proposed "postponed" cruise will be the same itinerary as our itinerary, however, in reverse. In other words the Dec 3, 2023 cruise. However unlike the Dec 3, 2023 cruise, there is no mention in Mr. Prelog's e-mail of crediting us back what should be the $1,500/person reduction in price.

Next, take a look at W/S' passage contract. Do a word search for the words "postpone" or "postponement." Nowhere does it provide for remedies where W/S is the cause of a postponement. So does that mean such remedies exist?

Finally. W/S' passage contract includes the following language: "If you are entitled to a refund, Windstar Cruises reserves the right to offer you Future Cruise Credits ('FCCs') as an alternative to a refund." Mr. Prelog's e-mail says nothing of what used to be traditional 125% FCCs.

Mr. Prelog's e-mail ends by stating he "want(s) to assure (us) that...our trust and satisfaction are of utmost importance to" W/S. Well I guess we'll see how important our trust and satisfaction really are. Because at this stage all we've been offered is $200/person in OBCs, however, pre-conditioned upon our agreement to the proposed postponement.

Edited October 17, 2023 by skitrips

[Rosroz]

I’ve just spoken to my T/A she has only just received an initial email from Windstar  of the cancellation of my Middle East cruise departing and returning Dubai on 11 Feb 24, she does  not have the full details as of yet but she seemed to think we could be move to 2025 or transfer to another sailing up to Autumn 2024.
The same for us in the U.K. flying to and from Oman is about half as more the cost again than flights to Dubai.

Will just wait to see what she comes back with , here in the U.K. we have different consumer laws so it’s watch this space 

Edited October 17, 2023 by Rosroz

[Host Jazzbeau]

When my Ponant cruise in New Zealand was cancelled by Covid they didn't play the 'postponed' game but did refuse cash refunds [despite clear language in their T&Cs that I was entitled to them].  They did give 125% FCC so we were able to rebook for the next year in a nicer cabin.  But when that was also cancelled [because NZ took so long to reopen] and they again refused to give a refund, my TA threatened them with the NYS Attorney General and voila! I got my money back.

 

This won't help @Rosroz because of different UK laws.  @skitrips you don't say where you live so I can't tell if it's relevant to you.  If you live in the US I think that demanding your money back is possible.

[mydogsname]

I am confused about the F1 Race.  Are we still going to Yaz Marina for the race.  Here is the F1 calendar for 2024

2024 F1 calendar – snapshot

Date	Race	Circuit	2023 Winner
2 March	Bahrain GP	Sakhir	Max Verstappen
9 March	Saudi Arabian GP	Jeddah	Sergio Perez
24 March	Australian GP	Albert Park	Max Verstappen
7 April	Japanese GP	Suzuka	Max Verstappen
21 April	Chinese GP	Shanghai	N/A
5 May	Miami GP	Miami	Max Verstappen
19 May	Emilia Romagna GP	Imola	N/A
26 May	Monaco GP	Monte Carlo	Max Verstappen
9 June	Canadian GP	Montreal	Max Verstappen
23 June	Spanish GP	Barcelona-Catalunya	Max Verstappen
30 June	Austrian GP	Spielberg	Max Verstappen
7 July	British GP	Silverstone	Max Verstappen
21 July	Hungarian GP	Hungaroring	Max Verstappen
28 July	Belgian GP	Spa-Francorchamps	Max Verstappen
25 August	Dutch GP	Zandvoort	Max Verstappen
1 September	Italian GP	Monza	Max Verstappen
15 September	Azerbaijan GP	Baku	Sergio Perez
22 September	Singapore GP	Marina Bay	Carlos Sainz
20 October	United States GP	Circuit of the Americas	TBC
27 October	Mexican GP	Mexico City	TBC
3 November	Brazilian GP	Interlagos	TBC
23 November	Las Vegas GP	Las Vegas	TBC
1 December	Qatar GP	Losail	Max Verstappen
8 December	Abu Dhabi GP	Yas Marina	TBC

[mydogsname]

It doesn't make any sense to embark in Dubai and depart from Oman, since international flights all go out of Dubai. It's 16 hours for us to Dubai and 26 hours from Oman.

 

[6rugrats]

I have had several cruises chartered, or ship and/or itinerary changes.  I received a refund.  Any excursions booked through the ship will be refunded.  You usually are given a choice of other itineraries to choose from if you’d rather switch.

There are going to be many cancellations or changed itineraries because of the current situation.

I never book nonrefundable hotels, but doubt WS would be liable for that.  And, airlines will give you a flight credit to use if you cancel your flights.

Edited October 18, 2023 by 6rugrats

[skitrips]

Thanks to all. Yes Jazzbeau. I live in the U.S. Lake Tahoe specifically.

So without my consent, W/S has re-booked us on their0 cruise for December of 2024. However, departing from Muscat, Oman vs. Dubai, UAE. Where the air fares, connections, layovers, flight times will be worse compared to flying into/out of Dubai. Don't know yet if the award travel costs from the U.S. will be any different. We haven't yet responded because we're evaluating our options. We have examined the W/S passage contract and it does not address "postponement." Since this is the remedy W/S has exercised, IMO there is no contract authority for anything it has done. Or might in the future agree or refuse to agree to.

We booked our air with award miles on United and American. And I am soooooo happy we did. We were able to cancel all air travel and our reward miles have been re-deposited into our frequent flyer accounts. The add'l fees we were charged by the airlines for taxes/other fees, have been refunded to our credit card. And we have not been assessed any re-deposit fees. Had we purchased our tix, at best, we would have nothing more than thousands of dollars in future travel credits with an expiration of one year. And if we had purchased the lowest priced basic economy tickets, we would have nothing as they are non-refundable/non-cancellable/non-creditable towards future travel.

I respectfully disagree with 6rugrats when it comes to booking refundable hotels. My experience is that the difference in cost for non-cancellable versus cancellable lodging reservations up until "x" days prior to occupancy, is typically 20% or more. I guess if you don't mind paying more for your lodging, that's the route to go.

We found a third party source for booking our lodging before/after our cruise. It's called stayforlong.com. First, our cost was lower than any other source. Even lower than the hotels direct even though they advertise that their rates are guaranteed to be the lowest which is not true. Second, our reservations were cancellable up until "x" days prior to occupancy even though their rates were the lowest. Our "x" date was October 23, 2023 so we had time to cancel. Third, part of our lodging cost represented a fee to stayforlong (a whopping $73) should we cancel our reservation. But it was a relatively small fee. So I view the bookings as a hybrid of cancellable versus non-cancellable. Yes I was able to cancel our lodging reservations. And yes I waived the relatively small portion which was taken from me when we first made our lodging reservations because I cancelled.

Other than that, we're good pricewise assuming W/S gives us a full refund. But of course at this stage we don't know what is going to happen. But if they tell us they're not liable for our $73 in lodging cancellation fees because that's what the passage contract says, IMO they're mistaken.

So now you know what we know. We're mulling over whether we want to take the postponed cruise. Will keep you informed.

Edited October 20, 2023 by skitrips
word choice

[Barrycat]

SKITRIPS

Without getting too involved in the details and seeming that you were able to avoid cancellation charges for both airlines and hotels, I’m curious why you don’t just cancel and rebook on the $1500 cheaper cruise. That assumes that those two stops less are not key to your decision.

We are in a similar situation but originally scheduled for February 2024. Assuming their offer would be for the most similar replacement, some ports have been eliminated in what I assume will be their option. We will need to wait to see their offer and then decide but this went from a four month away cruise to a sixteen month away cruise. 

[skitrips]

Thanks Barrycat -

Have now received a W/S invoice for the "postponed" cruise. They have of course assumed we're going to keep our booking. However, the net price to us has gone down $1K. And $200 in OBCs have been added as represented by Mr. Prelog. And apparently, we're going to receive a refund subject only to about $740 in deposits. With the balance due nearly a year from now in September of 2024. With the ability to cancel at that time with no liability other than a $50/person cancellation fee. So now we have a decision to make because we're looking at something far different than a feared. Yes December of 2024 is a long ways off. But if we're only putting up a $740 refundable deposit, why not keep the booking? I checked the proposed itinerary and don't see the loss of two ports. The itinerary appears to be the same as our initial cruise, however, in reverse. And we'll still be able to attend the 2024 Abu Dhabi Formula 1 Gran Prix if that be our choice. We can't look at air fares/reward travel because it's too far in advance. But this far out, I'm thinking our odds of booking award travel might be good. And now we can build in a longer stay in Dubai inasmuch as it looks like something more incredible than what we envisioned when we first made our booking. Hopefully you will be offered something similar for the "postponement" of your cruise. But let us know if W/S offers you more.

[6rugrats]

No one has any idea what “the air fares, connections, layovers or flight time” will really be for any flights in Dec 2024.  I would not recommend that anyone book basic economy tickets.

Windstar is not liable for your $73 hotel cancelation fee.

I am wondering if this cruise line is a good fit for you.

Edited October 22, 2023 by 6rugrats

[Rosroz]

Have just read on the internet that new itineraries have been announced, the Legend will be in the Med for  the winter same old ports except in the not so warm temps, not for me and my husband we were after warmer climates .

[Barrycat]

I agree with Rosroz. Realizing the complexity of completely changing the five months of weekly itineraries on such short notice, it’s a shame that WS couldn’t have come up with something more appealing than these much  visited ports in 50 and 60 degree, if lucky,  weather. My guess is that the prices will be low to entice other than hardy cruisers to sign on.

Our original sail date was not until February 2024 and maybe WS is working on rescheduling in chronological order, but Chris said the new invoices would come out in a week or so, nothing yet. Have others started to receive the rescheduled information yet?

[3kidslater]

Wondering how many of you have been rescheduled by WS from your canceled cruise to another next year. My husband was looking at "My WS" and saw that our canceled March 2024 cruise had been rescheduled by WS for March 2025.  We have yet to be notified. The problems are that we already have a cruise scheduled in early May 2025 as well as the fact that this new cruise is not the same as the one that was canceled. Our original cruise was 20 days, Jeddah to Haifa and was a star collector. The one WS scheduled for us is back to back of Jeddah to Jordan then Jordan to Jeddah. In other words we get to see all ports twice. Obviously we will not accept that change. The exact cruise we were originally scheduled for is available as 2 cruises back to back in 2026. We will reschedule the 2026 cruise if WS agrees to match our original price which is more than  $5,000. less! Anyway, we will let our travel agent deal with all this. Anyone else have similar experiences?

[Barrycat]

Windstar is playing games. We just got our “postponed” itinerary and like 3kidslater, it is an unacceptable replacement for our original itinerary. Obviously WS wants us to cancel so that they can start with a clean slate one year later. 
Our original plan had a week sailing around the UAE, a priority for us, their new proposal starts in Muscat and skips the UAE completely. They also propose a round trip between Aqaba and Jeddah with repeat visits to a number of ports. Four days in Sharm, no thanks.

Our original itinerary is pretty much available with b2b combinations. If WS really wanted us to reschedule for 2025 they would have proposed these b2bs, guess not.

Playing games for sure, disappointed

I also noted that the new western Med itineraries for the Legend which were posted last week have now disappeared 

Edited November 1, 2023 by Barrycat
New thought

[3kidslater]

I spoke to the WS rep and asked about the price match. He says he doesn't know if they will do it and needs to look into that. Because we booked through a travel agent he says she needs to call and make all arrangements (which I pretty much knew would be the case). I will let you know if I learn anything new. Seems weird to offer me a different itinerary when the same one is available in 2026. That said, trying to rebook so many people's cruises is a huge task not to mention that WS does not know what other plans people have. I think they should have asked people to find a similar cruise themselves within a certain time frame, matched the price and rescheduled them. 

[Rosroz]

Heard from my T/A yesterday that Windstar have moved me to Feb 25 , the cruise they’ve moved me to is 2 nights less and it’s Oman to Dubai, not very happy , there are definitely no Dubai to Dubai sailings and no 10 nights either, so I’m probably going to my money back, am very disappointed , I think Windstar jumped the gun far to quickly on these cancellations , there is no British Government advise not to travel to the majority of the Middle East .

[new_cruiser]

On 11/1/2023 at 4:59 PM, Barrycat said:

I also noted that the new western Med itineraries for the Legend which were posted last week have now disappeared 

I still see the Winter Med cruises. They are all the same itinerary or it's reverse:

Citivecchia (Rome), Livorno, Nice, Marseilles, Barcelona with overnights in Rome, Nice and Barcelona. 

 

Some prices are pretty low: starting at $1400 pp, but with 17 sailings of the same itinerary, it is hard to see how they will get enough customers who want to do that cruise in winter. 

[Pudgesmom]

We had a group of six doing the Black Sea loop from Istanbul when the Ukraine war started. The cruise included stops in both Russia and the Ukraine. We actually called Windstar and rebooked to a completely separate cruise and date before the war started.
 

They transferred all of our monies to the new ship/itinerary. Only one couple had purchased air, and it was transferable. Windstar was excellent about the whole thing. 

[mickeygott]

My travel agent alerted me as to what was happening, We re-booked for the London to Edinburg cruise in June. I was able to cancel my flights and hotels. The only issue on the re-booking is I am still waiting for confirmation that the additional $200 pp extra shipboard credit promised will be applied, 

 

[3kidslater]

We ended up canceling the cruise WS booked for us and decided not to book a future cruise to the Middle East. Our initial thoughts on the cruises offered on the Legend for the next 6 months were similar to most that have been expressed. However...after looking at them closer and giving it more thought, we did book a back to back at the end of March. (start in Barcelona and end in Athens) We have been to some of the ports but there is always so much to see and do that we haven't done. The price was great and we were able to book a balcony suite on deck 6 at the same price as the porthole suites. Any money we had given to WS for the canceled trip was transferred to this trip. Had we not rebooked our TA said we would have been fully refunded. 

[6rugrats]

On 11/1/2023 at 11:59 AM, Barrycat said:

Windstar is playing games. We just got our “postponed” itinerary and like 3kidslater, it is an unacceptable replacement for our original itinerary. Obviously WS wants us to cancel so that they can start with a clean slate one year later. 

In the past, I have had two sailings chartered, one changed to a different ship and itinerary, and another change that caused me to cancel.  I did not cruise WS after that for many years.  I honestly don't think they are "playing games."  They have always been pretty slow in the office and they are dealing with an unexpected situation.  They ALWAYS want to keep your money; doubt they really want you to cancel.

Edited November 8, 2023 by 6rugrats

[wrk2cruise]

On 11/7/2023 at 11:35 AM, 3kidslater said:

start in Barcelona and end in Athens

 

We just booked these 2 with the one following today.  There is an agency that puts together great trips on many lines who put this together at a great price including air and 2 days post cruise in Athens.  I called about 90 minutes after it was announced and I got one of the last cabins they had.