BUMPED OFF MSC June 3, 2006

[ORIENTEER]

BUMPED OFF MSC June 3, 2006 Baltic cruise by MSC Cruises Inc., 6750 North Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 33309. Tel. 1-800-666-9333. Email: info@msccruises.com

Has this happened to you? Were you Bumped Off the June 3, 2006 MSC Baltic cruise from Copenhagen?

We’d love to hear from you.

This letter is asking for advice & give a heads up to those planning a cruise with this company.

We are incensed that MSC appears to think that they can behave in this manner with impunity.

This was a cruise we’d saved & planned for our later life. We can’t afford to try again. The whole experience has devastated us.

We booked & paid a deposit on November 1, 2005 & paid in full on March 13, 2006.

6 weeks before we were to leave for my mother’s 85th birthday prior to the cruise we were told we had been BUMPED OFF due to a group booking.

The June 3rd sailing was the pivotal point of our trip: The hours of planning a family reunion for our 85 year old mother, and trips round the rest of Scandinavia all hinged on the cruise dates. Relatives & friends were inconvenienced because dates had to be fixed to the cruise departure date. Hotels, trains, planes etc. had been booked well in advance to get the best prices & confirmed bookings.

We never got the tickets from MSC & never got a brochure so small print doesn’t come into the equation.

We are furious that this has happened. We had a contract. While we got reimbursed for the cost of the cruise, we had also:

1)spent a lot more money than we needed to in order to coordinate everything with the cruise.

2) had to spend much more money than anticipated in order to fill in the lost cruise week.

If we’d known this sort of business practice was likely to happen we would have done things very differently & saved ourselves at least $4,000.

No one cares about the extra expenses that were incurred, the immense aggravation & total disappointment, time & effort, mailings & telephone to sort out this mess etc.

Letters & phone calls to MSC have been fruitless in this regard. An offer of 25% off our next cruise is useless to us: Who would trust them again? The price would no doubt be higher & the room unavailable. We can’t afford to go through flight costs to Copenhagen again & all the planning that entails.

We need your advice on how we can get recompense. We also hope to warn others.

Thanks for your time in reading this,

Yours truly,

Orienteer

[LiricaBound]

I totally sympathize with you in this situation and like you, cannot believe they have the right to do this to you. I booked a cruise with them through *****.com well over a month ago and am getting nervous because I've not received any requested information as of yet. I do hope others respond. The MSC thread doesn't get much action. Wishing you luck on getting this resolved and getting some retribution...and here's hoping I have better luck and don't get bumped either. :(

[ORIENTEER]

Dear Liricabound

Thanks so much for your sympathy. It has been very harrowing. It's good to have someone show some empathy

I do hope you have a wonderful trip. Look forward to hearing how it went.

All the very best

ORIENTEER

[LiricaBound]

I was dumbfounded when I read the response to your post over on the other thread. Totally turned me off from these boards but I guess there's always gotta be one ***** in the crowd, no?

 

Keep us posted, please. I certainly hope you get what you are entitled to.

 

~Whitney

[Magwa]

Sorry to hear you were bumped, but yes, unfortunately it happens from time to time with all cruiselines. Just search through the cc boards and find the hundreds bumped from Carnival last year, and someone whose wedding was bumped from RCCL last year too. Some people ahve been bumped at the port before now... it happens even though it isn't right. Whole ships are sometimes chartered and everyone then previously booked is bumped. Not nice when it happens to oneself, but it is not something specific to any line in particular.

 

You don't say where you are from?? that could make a difference too.. [note to CC... it should be 'required' to state which continent one is from, so many do not complete that these days]

[antcyd]

Wow, I am shocked to read what happened to you, while it doesnt make it any better, you most certainly have my sympathies. I cant imagine the time spent planning this vacation and the sacrifices you might have had to make to save for this trip, you definitly got a raw deal and there is no justification for it. To offer you a 25% discount on a cruise line that you will never be able to trust again is almost a slap in the face.

 

I do remember this happening on a Carnival cruise last year and the main reason we heard so much about it was because someone who was getting married onboard and her party got bumped and they wrote all about it all over the boards on here. Again, there just is no justification for that and its just downright heartless.

 

I wish you had the luxury I have in living about 20 minutes from MSC's Fort Lauderdale office, I am sure you would have shown your face there by now and rightfully so.

 

Again, I am soooo sorry to hear your story, I hope you get the vacation you deserve in the very near future and can put this all behind you one day soon.

[ORIENTEER]

Dear Antcyd

Your message was gratefully received. You bet I'd have been down at that office. In fact it's funny that you mentioned that idea. I've a couple of friends in the area & thought I'd do just that - pay the office a visit. My registered mail to the President & CEO has garnered no reply. Perhaps he hasn’t even seen it, though I had hoped the fact that it was registered meant that it was for his eyes only?

So your idea to visit Fort Lauderdale is still on the cards.

Thanks again for your kind words & sympathy.

ORIENTEER

[bboyack]

Keep the letters going...also, contact the travel editor of your newspaper if you are in a metro area, also your travel agent should be aware. We had a problem with Norweigian last year, after two rounds of letters with cc:s to everyone we got some results. Good luck. I can't imagine how devastated you were. Keep us informed.