It is with great sadness, and even embarrassement, I have to announce the cancellation of the CruiseMates group cruise on the Zuiderdam, originally scheduled for June 4/05.
Unfortunately the TA who won the bid for this cruise had made some mistakes, She originally had included FREE tips in the list of amenities in her bid for this group, mistakenly thinking tipping was NOT necessary on HAL (their old policy, which changed in April 2004). She was somehow UNAWARE of the change to the system of automatic tipping that HAL had put into place last spring. And even if the "no tipping necessary" policy had still in place, it SHOULD NOT HAVE been included in a list of amenities, as it would be a policy, NOT an amenity. The way it was presented mislead us to believing this was a perk being included in the package.
When called to task for this problem, and others, the TA, Ginny Schonfeld of GreatCruising.com simply notified us that she WOULD not honor her responsibilities to CruiseMates, and she is backing out of her commitment to us.
She told us she would turn over the group and space over to another agent of our choosing, but has since backed out of that promise as well. Unfortunately the time necessary to pursue trying to force the agency to transfer this group, would leave us little time to actually build the group.
The end result is there is NO CruiseMates Group Cruise on the Zuiderdam!! And if you had booked to be a part of THIS CruiseMates group, you should cancel those bookings! With my most sincere apologies!!!
I guess this goes to show that anyone, including me, can make a mistake in judgement when choosing a travel agent. On the other hand I am happy that the problems showed early in the process, in time to cancel, rather than later affecting more people more drastically.
For those looking forward to a great CruiseMates group cruise with Jim, I assure you we will be putting another one together VERY shortly... and I will be VERY careful in choosing the travel agent, and making their obligations clear and specific!
Again I apologize to ALL those who booked to sail with CruiseMates. Hopefully we'll have a group cruise in the future which will interest you. And I promise to be MUCH MORE diligent when accepting bids from travel agents. And the list of agents we request bids from will be shortened by one.
As I sit here red faced for my part in this blunder I suppose I take solice knowing that you are never too old to learn from your mistakes!
IMPORTANT notice to anyone who had booked the CM Zuiderdam g
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