Changed port of departure, who pays ??

[slaine29]

I have a cruise booked on Seaview at the end of August departing from Palma de Mallorca (where i live) what happens if they change the departure port to say Barcelona ( as Palma de mallorca are still not allowing cruise ships to visit) Who pays for the flights to barcelona, or is this good enough reason to cancel the cruise with a full refund. I don't fancy having to fork out another 600Eur and go through the hassle of airports. This cruise has already been pushed back a year due to covid. 

Anybody had experience of this ?

Just a note that Palma de Mallorca is one of the ports on the itinery, so they would also have to make a change to this too for all the other passengers.

[sealynx]

When I was on MSC the port of Ajaccio on Corsica got changed to Toulon on the French main land. Passengers were offered a free ferry service and a hotel stay to get to / from Toulon. MSC paid for this.

 

I wouldn't worry to much about the Palma stop though, that port is much larger and more important than Ajaccio. Therefore I don't think they'll change it for Barcelona. And, ofcourse, most MSC cruises already sail via Barcelona. Ofcourse, weather may permit otherwise, but that's a small change in the med.

[Até]

Reports that I've seen indicate MSC has become less customer friendly regarding changes to embarkation ports.  I remember in 2017 Seaside was changed from Venice to Trieste several months before sailing.  Many people had already planned a pre-trip stay in Venice so MSC provided transport to Trieste for anyone who needed.  There were several sailings impacted at the beginning of the COVID-19 shutdown where embarkation ports/countries were changed last minute due to countries closing down ports.  As far as I've heard MSC offered no compensation for those people.  The last year was full of port changes on Med sailings and MSC changed many people's embarkation both dates and countries with no compensation and hardly any notification.  Most of those people were months away from sailing, but many had already booked flights.  People who have booked flights and then get cancelled sailings are usually referred to their insurance providers.  MSC's decision seems based on how last minute the change is, what caused the change and how easy it is to get passengers to another embarkation point.

 

On your itinerary Seaview has a port stop every day and embarkation at every one of them so any missed port is going to cause trouble for someone.  Unfortunately Palma is not one of the major embarkation points.  I'm only guessing but I think MSC would modify the other port times in order to facilitate at least making a quick stop at each port.  If the port absolutely has to be missed I don't see MSC having an easy way to get you to another embarkation point so your contract with MSC would come into play.

 

I'm not familiar with all your Booking Terms And Conditions but I see it is similar to other country's and appears to leaves it up to MSC to determine if any change is a "significant modification of an essential term of the Contract" to determine whether you have the right to cancel when MSC makes changes (section 14).  MSC also covers themselves by recommending you purchase insurance to not only cover personal injury/illness but also travel insurance for damages that might be incurred because the cruise line or captain is forced to make changes or actions that adversely affect you monetarily, "The Company recommends that all Passengers take out an insurance policy, which sufficiently covers the cancellation costs of the Tourist Package...", and "...the Passenger will assume all responsibility and damages that may arise from the absence of contracting insurance." (section 4).

 

https://www.msccruceros.es/es-es/Terminos-Y-Condiciones-De-Reserva.aspx