Europa passengers not being informed shame on Costa

[thekidscometoo]

I have been getting text messages all day yesterday all night and again this morning. Costa is not informing guests that were put up in various resorts after accident in Egypt. The guest get told to pack up from their room they will be flying somewhere. Costa employees donot knoe anything they cannot handle the situations. They cannot answer questions and the guests are freeking out.

They have no idea where they are being send or if they are being sent. My sister was packed up and sat and waited 4 hours to see a list she is not on the list. They had checked out of their room.... now the guests did not even have a room. Costa employees can only say we do not know....

half an hour later they are told to go back to their rooms and wait in not on list.

 

2 hrs later they are told to come back and wait again...this time they may be flying to Rome but there is no connection to toronto at this time.... so why are they being moved from the resort?

 

SHAME ON COSTA...

 

as the owner of a travel agency.... business with Costa will be far less they need to clean up their act.

Attention all agents...you are going to get blasted by your guests when they return...

 

Just wait till the passengers get back to post....:(

[Goldryder]

Oh come off it!

 

The accident happened yesterday right...do you actually know how hard it is to find hotel rooms for over 1400 people at a moments notice, then arrange flights for those people...sheesh...give Costa a break will you?

 

They are doing the best they can in a situation that has had tragic consequences and that has left them in an almost impossible position trying to relocate everyone and get them home to various countries around the world in the space of a couple of days!!

 

Put yourself in their shoes for five minutes before you start being so impatient.

 

Costa did not know this was going to happen, nor did they ask for 3 of their crew to be killed. Sharm is in full holiday mode right now since it is a hot spot for winter sun holidays for mainly Europeans, so hotels and flights are like rocking horse wotsit at this short notice (or at any time).

 

Give them a break for goodness sakes.

[jocap]

I agree with Goldryder- there will be a shortage of rooms at this time of year, so well done Costa for even finding enough emergency spaces!

I shouldn't think that there's even a tour rep present for Costa, so they're probably having to use the Thomson's and Thomas Cook's ones, who are out in force, as well as the German and other European reps.

Added to the difficulty, the Red Sea has been having freak weather like so much of the planet, this winter. The 2nd terminal was destroyed by storms, and the hotel we were in lost its reception area and several upstairs bedrooms.

Apart from the many, many EU planes flying in each day, Thomson's alone have 15 flights on Thursday evenings, to connect people both with the hotels and their weekly cruise which goes out of Sharm. The reps. 3 weeks ago told us of the chaos they've had to deal with because of the storms, and Friday would have been a difficult day enough, settling everyone into their hotels after late flights. I cannot think how they can produce enough planes in a hurry in this desert area.

So, well done Costa for coping so far!

jocap.

[G.M.T.]

Sharm el Sheikh airport is not what one could call an international hub airport very with most flights being of a charter nature. So this means that Costa has to find / arrange charter flights that first have to fly to Sharm el Sheikh.

 

Also Costa would not have any of it's own infrastructure there, they would be using a local shipping agency (in most cases with very limited staff) for customs and port clearence. So Costa's crew would be handling homeward bound arrangements for the passengers, until such time Costa could fly in additional staff to help.

 

Before passengers get uptight and start complaining they should give some thought to the three crew members who paid the ultimate sacrifice so that the passengers could go on a cruise. The passengers will eventually get home, but the 3 crew members will not. R.I.P.

 

Ron

[thekidscometoo]

there is a way to handle this better organized. there was no issue with resorts there was lots of room..even with them in the rooms now i can book many rooms so they are not full.

 

as for flights... you do not try to do it all at once.... simply one at a time.....gathereing everyone each time was a major time waster....

originally they said it would take till tuesday....then take that time and do it right and keep the guests calm

 

and by the way for all you people who say they should be .....about the three who died...

 

COSTA DID NOT TELL THEIR PASSENGERS OF EITHER FATALITIES OR INJURIES!!!

 

When I texted that info to the passengers they were all shocked they had no idea.

 

I still say they could have donethings better.... homebase is in Italy....there are plenty of reps there.

 

sorry you do not like my opinion but that's what makes the world go round....

[marie0157]

I have been getting text messages all day yesterday all night and again this morning. Costa is not informing guests that were put up in various resorts after accident in Egypt. The guest get told to pack up from their room they will be flying somewhere. Costa employees donot knoe anything they cannot handle the situations. They cannot answer questions and the guests are freeking out.

They have no idea where they are being send or if they are being sent. My sister was packed up and sat and waited 4 hours to see a list she is not on the list. They had checked out of their room.... now the guests did not even have a room. Costa employees can only say we do not know....

half an hour later they are told to go back to their rooms and wait in not on list.

 

2 hrs later they are told to come back and wait again...this time they may be flying to Rome but there is no connection to toronto at this time.... so why are they being moved from the resort?

 

SHAME ON COSTA...

 

as the owner of a travel agency.... business with Costa will be far less they need to clean up their act.

Attention all agents...you are going to get blasted by your guests when they return...

 

Just wait till the passengers get back to post....:(

 

 

Tell your sister to sit back and relax. Do you really think finding flights for over a 1000 people is easy, and you want it done ASAP.

 

SHAME ON YOU.

 

As a owner of a travel agency YOU should know better.

[thekidscometoo]

i would never send my clients to an airport without a connecting flight. they are going to fly them to rome and see if they can find a flight for 40 of them back to toronto.

the passengers have every right to question where they are giong and what the plan is.

put yourself in their shoes.

 

their cruise was to end on march 4th some people extended their stay in italy and they will be out all the money, and so far costa has refused to compensate....

 

so maybe you need to hear both sides of what is happening before you leap to side with costa.

as a travel agent i am not pleased with costa's method of handling this situation....there is always a better way.

[marie0157]

there is a way to handle this better organized. there was no issue with resorts there was lots of room..even with them in the rooms now i can book many rooms so they are not full.

 

as for flights... you do not try to do it all at once.... simply one at a time.....gathereing everyone each time was a major time waster....

originally they said it would take till tuesday....then take that time and do it right and keep the guests calm

 

and by the way for all you people who say they should be .....about the three who died...

 

COSTA DID NOT TELL THEIR PASSENGERS OF EITHER FATALITIES OR INJURIES!!!

 

When I texted that info to the passengers they were all shocked they had no idea.

 

I still say they could have donethings better.... homebase is in Italy....there are plenty of reps there.

 

sorry you do not like my opinion but that's what makes the world go round....

 

If they didn't tell the passengers than who were those people being interviewed on the Italian news. They said they were passengers.

 

 

 

Go back to sleep.

[marie0157]

i would never send my clients to an airport without a connecting flight. they are going to fly them to rome and see if they can find a flight for 40 of them back to toronto.

the passengers have every right to question where they are giong and what the plan is.

put yourself in their shoes.

 

their cruise was to end on march 4th some people extended their stay in italy and they will be out all the money, and so far costa has refused to compensate....

 

so maybe you need to hear both sides of what is happening before you leap to side with costa.

as a travel agent i am not pleased with costa's method of handling this situation....there is always a better way.

 

You are not there, you don't know what's really going on.

 

As a travel agent I would never use you.

 

 

Maybe Costa should send you there so you can do it better, since you think there is a better way and you not even being there.

[thekidscometoo]

that interview was many hours after the accident and there was other local news coverage before they were interviewed.... the fatality word was already out to the passengers by then

[thekidscometoo]

do not need your business have a very large client base and have never had an unhappy client...so i cant be that bad. i'm not taking any new one either.

[plane_sailing]

Hello all, well firstly may I say I think we have all lost touch with the reality that three people have died and although it must be a frustrating time for thekidscometoo along with all of the other passengers and crew let us remember that all of the passengers are alive and well. This thread seems to have turned into a slanging match - this seems inappropriate under the circumstances.

 

thekidscometoo - I have read your posts and agree that communication could have been better, as in so many situations it is frustrating to be kept in the dark! As a cruise ship employee I would agree with other forum users that there is no major infrastructure in Egypt so they rely on local port agents. With regards to the crew - although they are trained for emergencies this is something that would have shaken them up too. Their `home' has been slammed and their colleagues have lost their life. Be patient, I am sure they will help your sister as soon as they can.

 

All other users - thekidscometoo is entitled to an opinion and is clearly frustrated about the situation and rightfully entitled to be. Hopefully things will become clearer and all passengers can be repatriated asap.

 

Thanks

[davecttr]

I wondered how long it would be before the ME ME ME attitude surfaced, scream and scream until you are purple in the face, it won't make a jot of difference to how fast things are organised in Egypt. Do you know some foreign travel reps are not allowed in Sharm airport? Things are done the Egyptian way, or not at all. They have already blamed the captain of the ship despite the enquiry only starting, and seem more concerned with getting their dock repaired than the deaths of three human beings.

[marie0157]

that interview was many hours after the accident and there was other local news coverage before they were interviewed.... the fatality word was already out to the passengers by then

 

Don't come here complaining when you are not there and don't know facts first hand.

 

Three people died and others hurt and all you care about is how your sister was not the first one on a flight home. There are over a 1000 people on that ship, it takes more than a few hours to get them all flights, first Costa had to put them up in a hotel than work on flights.

You should be ashamed of yourself to come here and complain not even 24 hours after this happened.

[UKBayern]

SSH is a tiny holiday airport with almost no facilities and 99% holiday charters. Sharm is a beach town in the middle of the desert, with a strip of hotels. Not that much else there. If they would keep the passengers there until Tuesday, they would also have a riot on their hands ("why are they keeping us here in this hole"). Nobody is going to fly anywhere from there and certainly not to Toronto.

 

It makes sense that an Italian company will make the decision to get people to Italy, where there is a large international airport on hand and where they have their own staff and the contacts with hotels, airlines, TAs to deal with the matter further. Since the ships' final destination was Italy, they probably figured a lot of people would have made post-cruise arrangements in Italy and were going to be flying home from Italy anyway.

 

One thing nobody in the travel business who is "in the frontline" facing more than a 1000 angry passengers does is make promises on the spot to passengers about compensation, but rather they will say something like "We'll talk about that later". This is of course an accident, "an act of God", "force majure" or how you want to call it. Costa probably has to discuss internally how to handle it. It is so typical of this day and age to immediately start asking for money. First see about getting home or wherever it is you want to go, sort out the rest later.

[Goldryder]

Maybe the OP...a TA by their own admission...would like to arrange her family members flights herself...since they think they are better at it than everyone else.

 

Three wage earners' families will be mourning their losses, at least your family members are safe & well and able to get home albeit after some minor inconvenience.

 

So who's shame is it now?

[strathnaver]

as a travel agent i am not pleased with costa's method of handling this situation....there is always a better way.

I think the OP should volunteer their services and obvious expertise since the Costa staff in Egypt would have to be stretched in the circumstances...

 

do not need your business have a very large client base and have never had an unhappy client...so i cant be that bad. i'm not taking any new one either.

Never actually heard of a TA who's so busy that their books are closed to new clients. Must be really, really good (so do you have a waiting list? ;))

[tenpin]

do not need your business have a very large client base and have never had an unhappy client...so i cant be that bad. i'm not taking any new one either.

 

I am afraid that it is impossible to take any of your posts seriously anymore after that statement. Your use of the English language leaves me with very little doubt that NONE of your clients have ever complained.

[UKBayern]

I am afraid that it is impossible to take any of your posts seriously anymore after that statement. Your use of the English language leaves me with very little doubt that NONE of your clients have ever complained.

 

Right, :D , we would not dare to complain to someone with such an attitude, for fear of having a whole bucket of s*** dropped on us, not to mention misspelled english.....:D

Doubt the OP is a travel professional, with 37 posts since 2004 and almost no profile entered.

OP, it is entirely possible that you are (over)reacting this way because your sister is involved. Please be aware this forum is just as public a place as Hyde Park Corner, and that 'your public' (=us) would appreciate it very much if wou try to keep your comments balanced.

[Goldryder]

I have to wonder what the reaction would be from the OP had Europa sunk - as with the case of Sea Diamond a few years ago.

 

I honestly cannot understand anyone getting so...for want of a better word...selfish over what has been a traumatic experience and something that could not possibly have been prepared for in advance.

 

On the Thomson section one poster even feels that the captain's 'excuse about an unexpected wave' was 'lame' .

 

I mean, come on....the ship hit a pier in a sudden squall in the dark...it could happen to ANYONE...those who want to vent their spleens over disruption to this and future cruises (Costa & Thomson alike) need to rein it in and think about the families of those three crew who died an absolutely horrible death.

 

A little inconvenience of having to wait for flights is tiny compared to the loss of a loved one (and their wage which the families depend on so much in their home countries).

 

Some people just have no reasoning and their priorities are just unbelievable sometimes.

 

As Dave said earlier...'me..me..ME!!!!' attitude...what ever happened to compassion for those who are in mourning, eh?

[thekidscometoo]

I have to wonder what the reaction would be from the OP had Europa sunk - as with the case of Sea Diamond a few years ago.

 

I honestly cannot understand anyone getting so...for want of a better word...selfish over what has been a traumatic experience and something that could not possibly have been prepared for in advance.

 

On the Thomson section one poster even feels that the captain's 'excuse about an unexpected wave' was 'lame' .

 

I mean, come on....the ship hit a pier in a sudden squall in the dark...it could happen to ANYONE...those who want to vent their spleens over disruption to this and future cruises (Costa & Thomson alike) need to rein it in and think about the families of those three crew who died an absolutely horrible death.

 

A little inconvenience of having to wait for flights is tiny compared to the loss of a loved one (and their wage which the families depend on so much in their home countries).

 

Some people just have no reasoning and their priorities are just unbelievable sometimes.

 

As Dave said earlier...'me..me..ME!!!!' attitude...what ever happened to compassion for those who are in mourning, eh?

 

Although you all dislike my opinions, I feel many of the rules for going into ports are being ignored by may captains in the cruise industry.

 

Ten years ago a captain would have never considered to dock at a port during unstable weather conditions.

 

So yes, there was a poor judgment call on the part of the captain, there were warnings for land and sea. He should not have attempted that docking at all.

 

Either they wait out the storm for a while or at least wait till daylight and maybe they would miss that port, but at the end of the day those crew members would still be alive.

 

Yes the captain made a poor decision. I think the captain was the selfish one here. He did not want to take the heat from guests if he decided not to go into that port because of weather conditions.

 

As three crew are dead a few injured, many guests from Europe and England Ireland were not assisted by Costa to get home and those that were have been dropped off at a hotel in Rome without any Costa rep to be seen. They apparently do not work Sunday so they will be back sometime Monday and these people still have no idea when there would be an opportunity to get home.

 

As for those who want to know why my profile does not give much info... it is confidential information and I do not post often as I have a business to run, two children to raise and a husband dying from tumors in the brain. So maybe I look at thing a bit different than the rest of the population, you have missed my point entirely.

 

Instead of Costa paying ridiculous dollars for flights per person, they should have simply flew them to where they were returning from at the end of the cruise, put them up there and each passenger could have just flown home with their already planned and purchased tickets. Most airlines would allow tickets to be changed, under such circumstances, for reasonable money but they needed to get to their departure destination first.

[ILov2cruise]

As a travel agent I'd think you would know the name of the ship you booked your family on.

 

On another thread you posted the name of the ship as the Mediteranean which is in the Caribbean.

[hat776]

I know absolutely nothing about docking a huge ship. But here in Malta our Grand Harbour is very safe but on the rare occasions when the sea is too rough the Port Authorities close the port.

If the sea was too rough wouldn't it be the duty of the Egyptian authorities to either close the port or communicate to the liner not to enter ? In other words, even if the ship's captain wanted to enter they should have refused permission and not even sent the pilot.

Whatever, can you imagine how horrifying it must be for the captain and senior officers knowing that ultimately they caused the death of the three crew members.

[ehfl]

Why are these passengers acting so helpless? The cruise is obviously over. I would salvage what I could, and do some other type of vacation. I wouldn't sit around a hotel. Why aren't they just going on with their vacations? Are these people invalids that can't make a hotel or flight reservation themselves?

[Joren]

Amazing that by Sunday evening, in Canada they still have no notion what happened in Egypt. Very unlike Canadians we have met, this 'TA' is terribly uninformed.

 

 

Given that it's only Sunday at 4:16 pm as I write this, I offer that the reason many Canadians aren't aware of this is because of the Winter Olympics, todays closing ceremony and specifically, todays Hockey game.

 

Were it not for me being a lurker here, I wouldn't have known about this accident because I haven't read anything about it in newspapers or on TV, which as I mentioned - all seem to be preoccupied with todays Olympic events.