Cruise Canceled! Refused to reimburse extra night

[bswtwa]

On May 9, 2024, seven days before we were to embark on an Alaskan Expedition we got an email saying the cruise had been canceled. We had planned to stay two extra days in Vancouver prior to the sailing to recover from jet lag. Our hotel was the same as the one included for the first night of the cruise. We immediately canceled our flights and tried to cancel the hotels. But the cancelation date had passed. We lost one night at $400 each. Since then we have gone back and forth trying to get reimbursed. Hurtigruten refused to compensate for the lost hotel night because we did not book it through them. Our credit card insurance and independent trip insurance also declined. We simply can't afford this loss. With a party of 6 (3 rooms) that's $1,200. Credit card insurance will not cover expenses related to a vender canceling. We didn't have the 'cancel for any reason' insurance. I will never book with them again.

[CDNPolar]

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

 

This is a very unfortunate situation for sure and I am sorry that you are losing money.

 

Unfortunately the reality is that Hurtigruten does not have any obligation to you for this since you did not book through them.

 

For future reference, please take this advice in the helpful way that it is intended.

 

We never book hotels for any trip where we have to pay in advance and are not refundable.  Our experience is that anything can happen at anytime and often things end up in the situation you are in.

 

We book only hotels that can be paid at the hotel itself and generally have a cancellation of 24-48 hours prior to the booking - for any reason.

 

In the off chance that we have to pay in advance, we ensure that we have selected a room that has a cancellation and full refund within a certain window of time.  We have done this only recently with hotels for a post-cruise stay in Mumbai that we are booking on our own.  We have no option but to pay in advance, but there is a full refund if we cancel 72 hours in advance of the booking check-in date.

 

Again, sorry to hear about this and it is for sure an unfortunate situation because in our opinion, Hurtigruten are a very good cruise line and we very much enjoyed sailing Hurtigruten.

 

 

 

 

[twototravel]

@bswtwa Just curious, why was your cruise cancelled? 

[bswtwa]

 They were scheduled for dry dock in South America after repositioning from Norway. Apparently there was a critical part that was ordered but never arrived. Ours was the first sailing AFTER the repositioning through the Panama Canal.  The May 16 as well as the May 27th was canceled. They only notified us on May 9th.