Kicked off the ship - only FCC back

[SWEMarcus]

Everyone just had to disembark Costa Mediterrranea on the 15:th of March for a 28 day cruise heading for Venice.

 

The information was terrible and the captain didn't announce a single word. Poor people in Guest service had to deal with anything.

 

Our "compensation" for our cancelled cruise was 150% FCC of fare paid. Not happy at all since we wont even be refunded our port charges and pre-paid service fees. All money locked to Costa for 12 months and I dont even know if we have another chance to go!

 

They should have given us a refund and if they wanted to compensate us they could throw in the FCC.

[Bobbingbob]

How awful, really sorry to hear this. What was the reason your cruise was cancelled and why on earth was the decision to cancel taken so late by Costa?

Apart from the disappointment and inconvenience, obviously what you are being offered does not feel very compensating to you. 
 

[drsel]

1 hour ago, SWEMarcus said:

Everyone just had to disembark Costa Mediterrranea on the 15:th of March for a 28 day cruise heading for Venice.

 

The information was terrible and the captain didn't announce a single word. Poor people in Guest service had to deal with anything.

 

Our "compensation" for our cancelled cruise was 150% FCC of fare paid. Not happy at all since we wont even be refunded our port charges and pre-paid service fees. All money locked to Costa for 12 months and I dont even know if we have another chance to go!

 

They should have given us a refund and if they wanted to compensate us they could throw in the FCC.

Is the value of the FCC

150% of the basic Cruise fare

or

150% of basic Cruise fare + port fees and taxes

Or

150 % of basic Cruise fare+ port fees + taxes + prepaid service charges

Edited March 17, 2020 by drsel

[SWEMarcus]

23 minutes ago, drsel said:

Is the value of the FCC

150% of the basic Cruise fare

or

150% of basic Cruise fare + port fees and taxes

Or

150 % of basic Cruise fare+ port fees + taxes + prepaid service charges

 

I'll look it up as soon as we get back home. Its all a bit of a mess at the moment trying to fly home.

[drsel]

If they are giving you 50% more on the service charges and port fees and taxes then it is a good deal

[drsel]

Of course this in no way will mitigate your hardship, stress, mental agony and precious days of your life which were wasted

[SWEMarcus]

46 minutes ago, Bobbingbob said:

How awful, really sorry to hear this. What was the reason your cruise was cancelled and why on earth was the decision to cancel taken so late by Costa?

Apart from the disappointment and inconvenience, obviously what you are being offered does not feel very compensating to you. 
 

 

It was really such a mess. We were meant to depart Port Louis at 5 PM and the drill was just before. When we were om our way there it was announed it was cancelled, no reason.

 

Om the way to the pool we met our stateroom attendant with a letter and luggage tags... It was just to pack, so it was last minute to say the least. It was a bit weird seeing that they really wanted everyone off as soon as possible, at 9 PM the ship sailed empty towards the Suez Canal??

 

As for the reason? Corona bla bla... That basically they cant promise us the cruise they sold. I would be happy to stay, but we had no saying here!

[drsel]

52 minutes ago, Bobbingbob said:

What was the reason your cruise was cancelled

Costa had to cancel all Cruises ending in Italy because all Italian ports are locked down and do not allow any Cruise ships

[Bobbingbob]

Yes, of course the ports are in lockdown for a month at the moment, aren’t they ? I thought the arrival of the Mediterranean in Venice after a 28 day cruise was beyond the lockdown period but I am clearly wrong about that.

However, the extremely late cancelling of the cruise after everyone had just boarded sounds like a case of panic but however horrible for all the passengers, and I have an enormous sympathy for SWEMarcus and all on board, it is probably better to be safe than sorry especially if there could be other factors involved.

The Costa Luminosa transatlantic cruise ending in Marseille tomorrow has had infections onboard and very sadly one death, I believe. 
SWEMarcus wish you a safe journey home.

[Bobbingbob]

Correction: sorry, I think the Luminosa arrives in Malaga tomorrow and Marseille on 20th.

[kathy49]

On 3/17/2020 at 10:33 AM, SWEMarcus said:

 

It was really such a mess. We were meant to depart Port Louis at 5 PM and the drill was just before. When we were om our way there it was announed it was cancelled, no reason.

 

Om the way to the pool we met our stateroom attendant with a letter and luggage tags... It was just to pack, so it was last minute to say the least. It was a bit weird seeing that they really wanted everyone off as soon as possible, at 9 PM the ship sailed empty towards the Suez Canal??

 

As for the reason? Corona bla bla... That basically they cant promise us the cruise they sold. I would be happy to stay, but we had no saying here!

First why would anyone even get on given the circumstances in the world let alone this ship was going to Italy? In guess no one knew there is a Pandemic and people are dying everywhere.  I say that because above I actually read people asking why was it cancelled???? I say why would you get on in the first place???

[kathy49]

On 3/17/2020 at 10:56 AM, Bobbingbob said:

Yes, of course the ports are in lockdown for a month at the moment, aren’t they ? I thought the arrival of the Mediterranean in Venice after a 28 day cruise was beyond the lockdown period but I am clearly wrong about that.

However, the extremely late cancelling of the cruise after everyone had just boarded sounds like a case of panic but however horrible for all the passengers, and I have an enormous sympathy for SWEMarcus and all on board, it is probably better to be safe than sorry especially if there could be other factors involved.

The Costa Luminosa transatlantic cruise ending in Marseille tomorrow has had infections onboard and very sadly one death, I believe. 
SWEMarcus wish you a safe journey home.

sorry but my sympathy goes to the victims in all countries that are dying or very sick with lack of ICU beds....these people did not board sometime in early Feb. the situation was well known at embarkation...Cruise line money grab and willing passengers.

[gerryuk]

3 minutes ago, kathy49 said:

First why would anyone even get on given the circumstances in the world let alone this ship was going to Italy? In guess no one knew there is a Pandemic and people are dying everywhere.  I say that because above I actually read people asking why was it cancelled???? I say why would you get on in the first place???

I think you are missing a valuable point here. Carnival announced a couple of weeks ago that if you had a upcoming cruise with Carnival you could cancel and get your money back, or a future cruise credit.

To their utter shame people were calling Costa which is part of the Carnival group as late as last Thursday asking if they could cancel and get their money back and Costa refused. You either sailed with them or lost all you outlay, cruise fare, hotels, flights and more. I, like a lot of people were sitting in the port of Dubai last Friday for 12 hours before we learned that the cruise was cancelled. We learned that the cruise was cancelled from agents who were calling their clients in the port, not the Costa agents who eventually came clean and informed us the cruise was cancelled.

On Thursday the day before my cruise, Abi Dhabi to Savona was supposed to depart, we learned that Oman was not going to let the ship berth, Jordan was also not going to let the ship berth. Abu Dhabi refused to let the ship start from there. There were also 3 ports booked for this cruise which we obviously were not going to dock in Italy. And yet to their utter shame Costa insisted you go on the cruise or loose all your money.

The way Costa have handled all this is appalling, I don't blame their call centre staff, I blame their President and senior management who should all do the decent thing, and resign. 

 

[kathy49]

2 minutes ago, gerryuk said:

I think you are missing a valuable point here. Carnival announced a couple of weeks ago that if you had a upcoming cruise with Carnival you could cancel and get your money back, or a future cruise credit.

To their utter shame people were calling Costa which is part of the Carnival group as late as last Thursday asking if they could cancel and get their money back and Costa refused. You either sailed with them or lost all you outlay, cruise fare, hotels, flights and more. I, like a lot of people were sitting in the port of Dubai last Friday for 12 hours before we learned that the cruise was cancelled. We learned that the cruise was cancelled from agents who were calling their clients in the port, not the Costa agents who eventually came clean and informed us the cruise was cancelled.

On Thursday the day before my cruise, Abi Dhabi to Savona was supposed to depart, we learned that Oman was not going to let the ship berth, Jordan was also not going to let the ship berth. Abu Dhabi refused to let the ship start from there. There were also 3 ports booked for this cruise which we obviously were not going to dock in Italy. And yet to their utter shame Costa insisted you go on the cruise or loose all your money.

The way Costa have handled all this is appalling, I don't blame their call centre staff, I blame their President and senior management who should all do the decent thing, and resign. 

 

I do understand that people made a choice to get on under these circumstances...a very bad choice allowed by Cruise line so as to try to mitigate their losses. Given I don't understand why passengers decided  to continue not only with the potential of quarantine and virus on the ship (a high risk) but certain closure of ports ....then I can't really go much further to think about anything else.  Another Costa ship Luminosa is sitting in Marseille with infected passengers. Just what France needs right now.  I hope people can get their full refund because a FCC on this line might be a very big roll of the dice!!

[maryann2]

3 hours ago, kathy49 said:

First why would anyone even get on given the circumstances in the world let alone this ship was going to Italy? In guess no one knew there is a Pandemic and people are dying everywhere.  I say that because above I actually read people asking why was it cancelled???? I say why would you get on in the first place???

 

3 hours ago, kathy49 said:

sorry but my sympathy goes to the victims in all countries that are dying or very sick with lack of ICU beds....these people did not board sometime in early Feb. the situation was well known at embarkation...Cruise line money grab and willing passengers.

 

2 hours ago, kathy49 said:

I do understand that people made a choice to get on under these circumstances...a very bad choice allowed by Cruise line so as to try to mitigate their losses. Given I don't understand why passengers decided  to continue not only with the potential of quarantine and virus on the ship (a high risk) but certain closure of ports ....then I can't really go much further to think about anything else.  Another Costa ship Luminosa is sitting in Marseille with infected passengers. Just what France needs right now.  I hope people can get their full refund because a FCC on this line might be a very big roll of the dice!!

Agree willing passengers who need to take personal responsibility. 

[SWEMarcus]

12 hours ago, kathy49 said:

First why would anyone even get on given the circumstances in the world let alone this ship was going to Italy? In guess no one knew there is a Pandemic and people are dying everywhere.  I say that because above I actually read people asking why was it cancelled???? I say why would you get on in the first place???

 

Kathy, you seem very self centred about your own personal opinion about peoples choises when I haven't really asked for your personal opinion about my travels.

 

1) This cruise was booked 1 year ago with a lot of anticipation

2) We spent weeks in the Mascarene Islands before the pandemic

3) Costa didn't leave us any choise in the matter since the cruise was to depart as normal. If we would cancel we would have lost several of $1000's

4) You are the last person I am looking for sympathy from. This is a thread to how Costa is acting professionally

 

Ok?

Edited March 20, 2020 by SWEMarcus

[SWEMarcus]

On 3/17/2020 at 4:29 PM, drsel said:

If they are giving you 50% more on the service charges and port fees and taxes then it is a good deal

 

Just read the letter again, very vague and just mentions 150% of the cruise fare paid. No more details. What's even worse since I haven't even received any details of our FCC I contacted the Swedish agent of Costa who we booked with. They didn't even had a clue what's going on...

[SWEMarcus]

On 3/17/2020 at 4:56 PM, Bobbingbob said:

Yes, of course the ports are in lockdown for a month at the moment, aren’t they ? I thought the arrival of the Mediterranean in Venice after a 28 day cruise was beyond the lockdown period but I am clearly wrong about that.

However, the extremely late cancelling of the cruise after everyone had just boarded sounds like a case of panic but however horrible for all the passengers, and I have an enormous sympathy for SWEMarcus and all on board, it is probably better to be safe than sorry especially if there could be other factors involved.

The Costa Luminosa transatlantic cruise ending in Marseille tomorrow has had infections onboard and very sadly one death, I believe. 
SWEMarcus wish you a safe journey home.

 

Thank you for your kind words. We got back home eventually but obviously is a shock when a serious operator just decides to throw off 2300 people with just to no warning before. I have full sympathy to Costa and the other company's decision, what I am not pleased about is that we are just being offered FCC and not even a refund.

 

We will survive and life goes on, it's just the handling of this matter is out of this world.

 

Take care and thanks for your input 🙂

[redransom]

Just get home safely.

[gerryuk]

10 hours ago, SWEMarcus said:

 

Kathy, you seem very self centred about your own personal opinion about peoples choises when I haven't really asked for your personal opinion about my travels.

 

1) This cruise was booked 1 year ago with a lot of anticipation

2) We spent weeks in the Mascarene Islands before the pandemic

3) Costa didn't leave us any choise in the matter since the cruise was to depart as normal. If we would cancel we would have lost several of $1000's

4) You are the last person I am looking for sympathy from. This is a thread to how Costa is acting professionally

 

Ok?

Just to point out, last Friday whilst waiting to board the Costa Diadema in Dubai, a young couple I believe from Bulgaria asked the Costa agent in the port if they could cancel get their money back and go home. The response from the agent was that they should email Costa and take it up with customer services, utterly appalling. We sat in the port for 12 hours before it was officially cancelled. 

[drsel]

Does anyone think it is risky to accept a 150% fcc

[drsel]

I read on another thread that its 150 percent of the basic Cruise fare only while the port fees and taxes and prepaid service charges will be refunded at par to your credit card used to pay

Edited March 20, 2020 by drsel

[drsel]

 

3) Costa didn't leave us any choise in the matter since the cruise was to depart as normal. If we would cancel we would have lost several of $1000's

Dear Marcus, you Gerry, Peter and the others are the real victims of Costa's incompetence.

Precious days of your life have been wasted, in addition to all your expenses.

I fully sympathize with you.

 

[SWEMarcus]

2 hours ago, drsel said:

I read on another thread that its 150 percent of the basic Cruise fare only while the port fees and taxes and prepaid service charges will be refunded at par to your credit card used to pay

 

Thats news for us, since we havent got any information about anything even after coming home! Where did you read this? 🙂

[SWEMarcus]

1 hour ago, drsel said:

Dear Marcus, you Gerry, Peter and the others are the real victims of Costa's incompetence.

Precious days of your life have been wasted, in addition to all your expenses.

I fully sympathize with you.

 

 

Thank you! As I have written I have full sympathy for this awkward situation that has arisen. Some people seem to be sure that we wanted to cruise no matter what, but we are vary of whats happening - its Costa who leaves us in the cold kicking us off and then think OBC is compensation enough...