Here she is, laid up at Tilbury, last year:

Kind regards. Peter

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/23485-cruise-ship-fleet-headed-to-auction-block.html

Any advice/queries can be put on this one thread along with confirmation when refunds are received.

To get the ball rolling.....................on Monday evening I had an email from ABTA advising the process of registering claims with them and on Tuesday an email from my TA saying they are liaising with ABTA and will advise their customers in due course about the required action.

I have no faith in my very well known TA to do anything today if next month will do, so went on to the ABTA site and filled in my refund application direct. It was a very easy, user-friendly process, and I received an instant claim reference and an email saying they will start looking at the claim in the next two weeks. The only documents you need to download are the booking confirmation and credit/debit card statement showing the payment to the TA.

Unfortunately my TA has to submit a copy of their payment to CMV and that will obviously take a long while. My TA alone must have thousands of CMV bookings based on their extensive national newspaper advertising so, despite my comments above about them, in this instance it would clearly be unreasonable to expect it to be dealt with quickly.

There are various different processes to follow depending on how the booking was made and what I have described above is only for bookings made through a TA and paid  by card.

Hope this helps and seems like a good idea!

Kind regards. Peter

However her new owners have now put her up for charter.

This means that she might be saved, if somebody does actually charters her! 

Do you think that is likely?

https://youtu.be/BiIcQ20_FDE

So who purchased her?

Does anyone know?

The ship was due to go to the British cruise brand ‘Cruise & Maritime Voyages’, in May 2021 to be renamed Ida Pfeiffer, in honour of the famous Austrian explorer. However following CMV’s collapse, Carnival Corporation has found a new buyer, the Greek ferry operator, Seajets, for the 1994 built, 55,819 gross tonne ship. Seajets also purchased P&O’s Oceana, earlier in the year. 

We were really looking forward to sailing on her next year having cruised on her near identical sister, Crown Princess, when AJ was the Regal Princess.

Having seen so many computer generated brochure pictures of her as Amy Johnson it is hard to believe she may never officially exist under that name!

Mystic did not elaborate on what brand the ship would operate under. It's possible the ship will sail under the Nicko Cruises banner, which would help expand Nicko’s footprint and the ship already has a presence in the German-speaking market, having sailed under the Transocean banner for CMV.

Built for Holland America Line in 1993 as Statendam, she was transferred in November 2015 to P&O Cruises Australia and renamed Pacific Eden.  In April 2019, she was transferred to Cruise & Maritime Voyages and renamed Vasco da Gama. The 55,877 grt , (Cruise Industry News)

Ship images: 

It has been well documented today that the Administrators have sold the database and other "assets" to him and there are quotes about his plans to set up a new company on the lines of CMV - along with his previous senior management.

My view is that this is totally immoral when so many people have lost money following the demise of CMV (obviously I don't include those of us waiting for refunds from ABTA or credit cards as that will all happen in due course). It may be legal but, at the risk of repetition, it is totally immoral when so many small companions are owed money they have no realistic chance of getting. All he will do is start afresh with no debts! Sorry but that is totally unacceptable in my book.

I have therefore emailed Paul Williams of Duff and Phillips, the Administrators, to say I do not want my details passed on and asked  how this can happen within the constraints of Data Protection.

Doubtless there will be some get out clause like there is for private parking companies obtaining car owner's details from the DVLA.

Anyway, sending the email made me feel better! I will advise the details of any response I receive.

Kind regards. Peter

The new company CVI Holdings was registered at Companies House on 18 August 2020 and Mr Verhounig has bought cars, furniture and the database referred to in other threads.

I have documented my views elsewhere on the SAME people setting up the SAME company (with a new name) leaving millions owed to CMV's creditors, so will make no further observations.

https://shipmonk.co.uk/2020/08/28/as-former-cmv-boss-buys-some-of-its-assets-could-the-essex-based-cruise-line-be-on-the-brink-of-a-comeback/amp/

https://apple.news/AQHqZ1xSpQMq4lwSdIFEG6w
 

“Sky News has learnt that a number of assets belonging to Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV), which appointed administrators last month, have been sold to a new vehicle established by Christian Verhounig, its former chief executive.”
 

"Having developed a much-loved brand over the past decade and hugely popular value-based niche no-fly cruise product, we have been simply overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and pleased to re-launch the business."

"This endorsement across the industry and customer base alike has been a rich source of encouragement and together with my previous management team, we are working hard to plug the huge market gap vacated by CMV's untimely insolvency."

"The acquisition of the UK commercial assets provides a positive first step and we believe demonstrates our firm commitment and optimism to return much stronger and to work alongside our loyal suppliers and creditors to also help mitigate the pandemic impact," he said.

🤔 

It also mentions that the ships weren’t part of the administration, which makes me wonder if Christian is planning to replace the fleet with newer ships by taking advantage of the fact ships are generally so cheap right now? 
 

Any thoughts? 
 

Personally I’d like a CMV like offering to stay for the UK, as it’s always good to have an option of affordable cruising available.

See here: https://wp.me/pfRKD-8zP

Let's hope at least a few of the CMV ship are returned to service. However I do fear for Marco Polo.

I have found a Facebook group, named 'Friends who like Cruise & Maritime Voyages - Memories'. that will forward to CMV e-mails of support to save the company. If you like, you can send your own e-mail to help this campaign. Details as follows: 

'Can you please write a short testimonial what you most enjoy about cruising with CMV and why it should be saved.

Limit the words to about 25/30 and email to either
janhickman4@gmail.com     or
geoffreyalan5@hotmail.com
We will forward your emails to CMV
CLOSING DATE SATURDAY 22nd AUGUST
Thank you'

Again, I apologize for any inconvience I may have caused.
 

I signed up to the website concerned recently (no charge) and receive an interesting daily newsletter.

Today's article on the CMV fleet does not contain any "new" news as such but I thought may be of interest to some. Kind regards Peter

https://mailchi.mp/cruiseindustrynewswire/cruise-news-daily-2706072?e=4e87d6db3f

I am yet to see anyone post in CC or other social pages that they have received a refund from CMV. I hope I am wrong. 

Let me explain:

I have done  a number of CMV cruises over the past decade. My wife and I, usually succumb to having our photo taken by the CMV pro-photographer. Sometimes it is at dinner, occasionally we pose for a formal photograph.

All of the photos have been excellent (apart from the rushed one taken at embarkation). They all have one thing in common: we always look at least ten years younger in the photos!

I wonder how they do it? A filter maybe that removes wrinkles?  Photoshop -- unlikely?

So how will I stay looking young in the future, without CMV taking my photo?

This was mentioned in a thread below but I feel it merits one on its own.

There was a huge amount of advertising today and over the weekend from a well known TA with 3 letters in their name who only advertise in newspapers - I can only believe some/lots of bookings were made.

Scandalous in my view to take deposits knowing that "all future bookings cancelled" was about to be posted on their website.

Here is my list of affordable adults-only cruise ships. Have I got them all? Are there any others?

P&O: Arcadia, Oriana, Aurora - Normal prices, but all seem to leave only from Southhampton

Marella (formerly Thomson): Explorer 2; Discovery was also listed as adults only in an article, but the Tui site doesn't show that. (You can search these Marella cruises on the ridiculously unhelpful search engine of TUI.)

Cruise & Maritime Voyages: Marco Polo and Astoria all the time; Columbus and Magellan but not during British school holidays. See post below.)

Fred Olsen (quite a few cruises) [Some are affordable but generally they are rather on the expensive side.]

Can combine with the Freedom Fare Plus offer (no tips and some OBS) and I think we got our Oceans (loyalty) discount as well, but we have not had our detailed invoice yet.

Prices not particularly low, but we went for it as we found a cruise from Liverpool next summer which appealed to us, so no need for us to travel to another port, stay on a hotel pre cruise and pay high parking costs.  Also just gives us the right number of points to go up to the next stage of their loyalty club 🙂

May not be of interest to others, but thought I would mention it here in case it is.  I suspect other cruise companies may give offers as well, to encourage ex CMV passengers to head their way, so worth searching a bit if anyone is thinking they may book something.

Cheers,

Barbara

However, on reading it more closely I see that the new guarantee does NOT cover cruises without a flight. I would therefore certainly be most reluctant to accept a credit note from CMV in the  current climate.

As an alternative of getting the money back......I am not sure if the credit/debit card claim process has a time limit (100 days possibly?) and whether that would start from the date of the cancelled cruise, or the date a company goes under?

Perhaps someone knows more about that and can advise, to assist anyone currently with credit notes and/or in anticipation of the inevitable cruise cancellations from CMV in August.

This latest story is very worrying, especially for those of you waiting for refunds :(

https://apple.news/A4H5R1OQpTvuW6Hl3Un13yA