Oceana missing Rome and Tuscany - what will be reasonable compensation?

[MikeRich]

Hi,

 

I'm posting on behalf of my parents who are currently on OCEANA. She has lost a thruster and is currently stuck in Cartagena awaiting repairs. Her remaining itineracy has been changed and will no longer be calling for trips to Tuscany and Rome (other destinations may be cut if the repairs take longer than expected). These two visits were the two reasons my parents booked with P&O and as you can imagine they are absolutely gutted not to be going.

 

Drawing on all the expertise here - don't be modest - what sort of compensation should my folks be expecting from P&O? And, is there any hope that the company will be more generous if my parents make a point that Tuscany and Rome were the highlights of the trip?

 

They had to save pretty hard to afford this trip and might not be able to make it again in the near future.

 

Many thanks in advance,

 

Mike.

[Brayman]

Com-pen-pay-shun, what a horrible word. Shame they missed out but difficult to apportion blame for an unfortunate breakdown. Hope they enjoyed the cruise, it's a great ship to be on, regardless of where it is going (or not going).

[MikeRich]

Com-pen-pay-shun, what a horrible word. Shame they missed out but difficult to apportion blame for an unfortunate breakdown. Hope they enjoyed the cruise, it's a great ship to be on, regardless of where it is going (or not going).

 

Oh it's not a matter of blame and I think they're enjoying the ship; but they've spent a lot of money to currently go nowhere. Let's hope P&O can give them something if not the Eternal City.

 

Thanks for posting,

 

Mike.

[Harvey2442]

If indeed the problem lies with one of the bow thrust units being unserviceable then I don't believe there is any reason to change or curtail the cruise. In most ports tugs could do the job of a thrust unit although it would doubtless cost P&O more. The repair could then be done back at Southampton and might delay the start of the following cruise by a day or so but they would have time to assemble the parts required.

[kevinyork]

Com-pen-pay-shun, what a horrible word. Shame they missed out but difficult to apportion blame for an unfortunate breakdown. Hope they enjoyed the cruise, it's a great ship to be on, regardless of where it is going (or not going).

 

I think its easy to apportion blame. There are two parties involved-the passengers and P&O and it isnt the passengers fault they are missing ports they were looking forward to.

 

However Im sure Ive read others posts that indicate that changes to itinary are in the terms and conditions to try and allow the company from having to pay compensation. If thats the case I would say terms and conditions are unfair and I would take a punt at a small claims court action againt the company.

 

I also think the OP should make them aware that it may be worth thinking twice before accepting something offered onboard (e.g. on board credit or a discount off another cruise) as this could render any later claim invalid.

[MikeRich]

Thanks for your comments.

 

My mistake - it's an impeller that has failed which may or may not be the same as a thruster. The P&O site is still showing the ship in Cartagena, but the alluring webcam image of rusting cranes is no longer available - if you missed it - well you missed some rusting cranes.

 

I'm waiting to hear from Mum and Dad if there have been any other changes or if they've been told anything by P&O.

 

That's a very good point about never accepting any offer there and then. I've passed it on.

 

It'd be nice if P&O actually put up-to-date information about faults with their ships or changes to the itineracy on their website or via Twitter.

 

Thanks again,

 

Mike.

[HomelessBear]

It would be worth you reading the small print in the brochure as usually there is a clause that says something like calling at all ports is not guaranteed and they can make changes as they see fit.

 

We missed Livorno on a cruise a few years ago (and I really wanted to go to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa), due to high winds, the ship couldn't dock so sailed off out to sea. Yes I was very disappointed but I never thought of or expected that I was due any compensation! Its just one of those things that no one has control over.

 

Maybe things are different for mechanical problems, but apart from a refund of port fees, I wouldn't expect anything for two missed ports. If the ship is unable to go into lots of scheduled ports, then this would be different in my opinion, but for two missed stops (although I appreciate that these are the 2 most important ones to them), I doubt that they will get anything, except the port fees refunded.

 

Good luck anyway in your quest.

[MikeRich]

It would be worth you reading the small print in the brochure as usually there is a clause that says something like calling at all ports is not guaranteed and they can make changes as they see fit.

 

We missed Livorno on a cruise a few years ago (and I really wanted to go to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa), due to high winds, the ship couldn't dock so sailed off out to sea. Yes I was very disappointed but I never thought of or expected that I was due any compensation! Its just one of those things that no one has control over.

 

Maybe things are different for mechanical problems, but apart from a refund of port fees, I wouldn't expect anything for two missed ports. If the ship is unable to go into lots of scheduled ports, then this would be different in my opinion, but for two missed stops (although I appreciate that these are the 2 most important ones to them), I doubt that they will get anything, except the port fees refunded.

 

Good luck anyway in your quest.

 

Thanks for replying. The latest I've heard is that they hope to get the ship underway at midnight tonight and make for a Saturday arrival in Monaco.

 

Mike.

[Elaine0138]

It is a sad sate of affairs when the first thing people want is compensation.

Sorry your parents have missed a couple of ports but never book a cruise hoping to get into specific ports, all sorts of reasons can crop up form mechanical faults, to bad weather to local strikes.

[davecttr]

I would expect some compensation offer from P&O as the ship is not even attempting to call at the two Italian ports. They have not cruised there and found they could not dock because of the weather. They have reduced the number of ports of call by two and put nothing in place to compensate for loss of expectation. Your 14 night cruise is now a 12 nighter with a 2 day additional stopover, not good.

 

Can't sail because of loss of a bow thruster? The captain of the Oceana can't be very good if he can't maneouvre the ship without thrusters. Heck, its not rocket science and not too long ago no ships had them, apparently some cruise ships still dont!.

[davecttr]

Apparently this spring Artemis missed 3 ports of call on a 20 nighter because of mechanical trouble and passengers were offered £500 per person compensation. You should expect a similar offer for your parents.

[sandbox]

Every time we have missed ports we were given out port tax back around £20 usually.

Small amount but you can consol yourself with a few beers :D

[annieuk]

Usually if a port is curtailed because of a problem with the ship then the passengers will be given compensation. However, if it is the weather that causes the problem there will not be any. In 2005 we were stuck in New Orleans on Arcadia for an extra day as there was a problem with one of the azipods. We should have left on the evening of the Saturday and were not able to leave for another 24 hours. The result of this was that we had to miss out the port of Key West in order to keep to the rest of the itinerary. On the Sunday evening when we returned to our cabin after dinner there was a letter waiting saying we were being given £100 per passenger compensation for missing out Key West. We were more than satisfied with this.

 

I hope your parents enjoy their cruise - one thing, never go on a cruise specifically to visit a particular place as you may be disappointed. On a cruise last year we had to miss out Athens as there was a storm and it was not safe to enter the harbour at Piraeus. It was not P&O's fault and therefore we did not get any compensation, not did we expect any.

 

It does seem a shame that when anything goes wrong the first thing people think about is the amount of compensation they may receive.

 

Carole

[tom_uk]

Impeller: I gather (from another forum) that the impeller may be responsible for moving coolant around the main diesel engines (or possibly each separate diesel engine has its own cooling system with its own set of impellers).

 

This being so, if the impeller was broken then the relevant engine(s) couldn't realistically be used, so the ship's performance would be affected. Even without the delay for the repairs, Oceana probably wouldn't have been able to get to Italy.

[welshandproud]

Hi,

 

A very similar thing happened to us when we were on Oceana, a number of years back, we had complete engine failure, resulting in power cuts throughout the ship, and had to remain overnight at Civitavechia. It was actually a lovely stopover, the restaurant served a selection of cold food, but it was all lit by candlelight, very romantic, and so where all the bars. we then missed our next port of call (can't remember which one) but had a letter in our pigeon hole apologising for the inconvenience and therefore a token of £150 pp was being offered.

We accepted graciously.;)

[LibraLass41]

Sorry if PandO can't deliver due to their ships being faulty its not the fare paying passengers problem, they pay big money to go on the cruise and the main port of call on a Med cruise is Rome, and its only fair the are REFUNDED some if P&O can't deliver what they advertise ...Not 'compensate' - refund. Why not?

 

I had Cannes port cancelled due to high sea swells with no tenders lowered and didn't want or get compensation, weather problems aren't P&O's fault. Mechanical failure due to keeping their ships sailing 365 days a year is.

OBC will no doubt be offered in the next few days to everyone onboard, not a lot - maybe £100 - £300 , they will get what they are offered no more no less, The fact that they booked the cruise for those ports probably won't get them anymore money REFUNDED (NOT COMPENSATED).

[robanddiane]

Just picked this info up

 

Her new itinerary is now:

Fri 2 Jul At Sea

Sat 3 Jul Monte Carlo Full day

Sun 4 Jul Livorno Full day

Mon 5 Jul Civitavecchia Full day

Sat 10 Jul Southampton 09.00

 

Also £200 obc per passenger as Barcelona & Cadiz are being missed.