No explanation and I spoke again with them today. One could surmise from all of the posts that they are running low on operational cash flow and could not pay for hotels on front and back end of trip much else the ship. I should have known better since the airline tickets (saw receipt on delta) alone were $16,000 and the entire trip only cost me $19,000. Too good to be true usually is. Wish I had paid by cc rather than check.
Richard.