What to Do When Ship Happens By Paul Motter February 26, 2010
Every once in awhile the cruise industry has a tough week, and this has been one of them.
This morning we got the news that one of the nicer Costa cruise ships, the Europa, was blown by a strong wind up against the dock in Sharm al Sheik, Egypt, resulting in the death of three crewmembers. We are not sure exactly how the crewmembers died, but weather conditions were bad enough that all of the passengers were disembarked from the ship, put up in hotels and will be flown home.
Another ship, Celebrity Mercury, suffered one of the worst outbreaks of Norovirus on a cruise ships we have seen for a few years. Approximately 8% of the population of this ship was affected by the virus, about 400 people.
Even five years ago, before much more stringent practices to prevent the spread of diseases on ships were put into place, this would have been a significant outbreak. Fortunately, the recovery seems to be working out well and the line is doing a thorough cleaning that should prevent a similar outbreak from occurring on the next cruise of the same ship.
At least one ship, Carnival Miracle, experienced pod problems and was not able to make its scheduled return to its home port. Just last month we learned that Royal Caribbean had finally settled a long-standing lawsuit the company has had with the maker of these pods, Rolls Royce. For those who do not know, a pod is self-contained propeller and drive mechanism in one structure that is essentially mounted to the bottom of the hull. They not only propel the ship forward, but they can be turned 360-degrees to steer the ship in any direction.
These pods were placed on a number of ships when they were built, including some of the Carnival Spirit class, one of the Regent Seven Seas ships and most notably on all four of the Celebrity Millennium class.
The two biggest challenges to these pods is that they are expensive to build, in the neighborhood of $100,000,000 according to one source I have, but it can also take as long as a full year to build one. Under those circumstances it is not likely that a company would happen to just keep a few spares handy for a quick replacement when needed. In fact, we don't know of any company that has ever completely replaced a pod.
These pods are simply subject to unexpected losses in power for various reasons which cruise lines can often cure with the help of divers given enough time. More serious pod problems require taking the ship out of service for a week or more, putting it in a dry dock, exposing the pods to the open air and taking them apart for maintenance. This results in a substantial loss of income for the cruise line and a great deal of inconvenience for the passengers who were scheduled to go on a cruise during that week.
Now that you know that "ship happens' on cruise ships, you need to be aware of something else; when you book a cruise you are not guaranteed anything more than the number of nights you are scheduled to sleep on the ship and all the meals that are included. If a ship encounters high seas because a storm develops between the ship and its scheduled ports of call it is not the cruise line's fault. In fact, the safety of the passengers comes first and it is the cruise line's obligation to move the ship to safer waters. Therefore, if you didn't know already, a cruise that cannot make its is scheduled itinerary due to weather conditions does not owe its passengers any compensation - any more than an airline does for weather delays. However, in the Costa case above they are taking care of their passenger's costs because the cruise has been truly interrupted and cannot continue.
In many cases a cruise line will offer compensation to passengers even when they are not obligated to do so, but we want you to know when it is mandated and when they are practicing pure good will.
If 10% of the population of a cruise ship contracts a virus it is not the cruise line's fault, disease is a common human circumstance of life. In this case it is pretty unlikely that a cruise line would offer you any kind of compensation, any more than an airline or a hotel would if you happened to catch a virus while you were on their premises. If they do offer you some compensation then consider yourself lucky. In the case of Celebrity Mercury cited above the cruise line did give a cash refund to passengers who fell sick equal to the number of days they were quarantined to their cabins.
It is a little bit different if the ship suffers a mechanical failure or has some kind of accident, such as the ship hitting the dock in paragraph one, especially if the incident affects the cruise in a significant way, such as the cancellation of ports of call. Then in most cases the cruise line will offer some kind of compensation.
That compensation usually comes in the form of a shipboard credit during the cruise so you can better enjoy what the ship has to offer. The amount of credit is purely up to the cruise line. Of course, they do care about their reputation in the minds of their loyal customers, especially in this age of instant Internet communication.
Other kinds of compensation you may receive include credit towards a future cruise on the same cruise line. This may be a partial credit or full credit for another cruise. There are usually limits on when and how these credits can be used, but that does not mean they don't have value, they do.
If you are on a cruise where "ship happens" we recommend a few things. First of all, do not ruin your own vacation by getting upset, with yourself or with the staff onboard. If you decide to vent to anyone onboard, even the captain, the chances are very slim that you would be addressing the person who is actually responsible for the problem. It is also doubtful that your complaining will resolve the damage that has already been done. So do yourself and everyone else a favor and keep your cool. Try to remember that any compensation you receive may be directly related to how they feel about you as a future customer. Like any business, if they feel like you are a good customer they are more likely to be generous with you than if you act like the kind of person they would never want ever see again.
There is no harm in delivering a letter to advise them of the amount of inconvenience you have suffered while onboard, but try to be fair about it. Once you get home, you will want to follow up by sending a version of the same letter to the customer relations department of the cruise line, and send a copy to the president and CEO of the cruise line.
Always also send a copy of both letters to your travel agent. Hopefully you have a very influential, hands-on cruise agent who has a close relationship with your favorite cruise line. The point here is that the people who are valued customers by the travel agent and the cruise line are going to get the best treatment.
CruiseMates has written number of articles on how to effectively complain to a cruise line. Here are the links to these articles:
At least one ship, Carnival Miracle, experienced pod problems and was not able to make its scheduled return to its home port. Just last month we learned that Royal Caribbean had finally settled a long-standing lawsuit the company has had with the maker of these pods, Rolls Royce. For those who do not know, a pod is self-contained propeller and drive mechanism in one structure that is essentially mounted to the bottom of the hull. They not only propel the ship forward, but they can be turned 360-degrees to steer the ship in any direction.