Refunds if port canceled Chankanaab & capt marvins
 

Hi All,

I'm thinking of booking two excursions indenpendantly rather than through the ship.

Chankanaab dolfin swin in cozumel, and stingray city with capt marvins in Grand Caymen. My only worry is if for some reason the port gets cancelled for the scheduled day (weather, ship mechanical problems, political unrest, etc...)

Both claim they will refund if that happens...My Quesiton: Has this happened to anyone where you missed the excursion, and how easy was it to get your refund?

2nd question, How far away is each from the ship, and did you have any trouble getting back in time to board?

Thanks

Jayson

Captain Marvin, has such a stellar reputation, I cannot imagine the company not giving refunds based on your question. Surely, if that was the case, we would have been made aware of it over the years.

Chankanaab is on Cozumel and Captain Marvin is on Grand Cayman. Both are reputable and I have never heard of anyone not receiving a refund in the event the ship is unable to make the port stop.

Grand Cayman is the port that is most likely to be missed because of bad weather.

Chankanaab is about a ten minute cab $6/pp cab ride from the dock. Most of Captain Marvin's tours pick you up near the dock or just across the street.

Take care,
Mike

Refunds
 

Indeed both of those places are well known in ports with good infrastructure and are widely considered reliable.

HOWEVER, in this and any other case of booking with an independent vendor, it is ABSOLUTELY VITAL that you have written confirmation of their exact cancellation policy in advance. It varies widely around the world, and from vendor to vendor. Do not depend on a message board or forum or any other place to answer this question, get it in writing from the vendor.

It is also important to know what the policy is if the ship is delayed but does make the port. Will you get a refund, will your tour be shortened, will the operator cancel? Be sure you know.

I have seen many many posts from people who did NOT do that and were sadly surprised.

Thanks It's good advise. I didn't think of the "delayed" stop thing.

There is a written statement on Capt marvins web site stating the policy, and I have an emial from Chankanaab. Hopefully that is "written policy" enough.

Jayson

Ship can also
 

Good advice here in ensuring it is in writing as to refunds but as mentioned it depends where in the world you are these companies have also made staff and travel ready so sometimes you might have an adnin fee deducted.
On Princess last year we were unable to dock at one of the Islands in the Caribbean after a few attempts that morning and much to our surprise the excursion charge was removed from our account.

We had heard of cases where you might get partial or nothing so we were happy.

It seems it is much easier when you miss a port and have an excursion booked, to receive credit from the cruiseline, but what about when you book independently?

I wonder how many have received a refund because the port was missed when booking outside the cruisline?

Something else to add -- travel insurance. Your travel insurance should (I don't know your specific policy) cover a cancellation of excursion due to a missed port.

This happened to us with an excursion that was booked independently. The tour operator in Guatemala would only refund us 50%. :mad: We missed this port because of a transportation strike in the country, so all roads were closed and transportation had come to a stop. Our captain chose to keep on sailing.

Our travel insurance was prepared to refund us the other 50% that the tour operator would not refund, HOWEVER...and this is a BIG however, we had ONE person in our group (from our roll call, actually) collecting the money for our entire group. So, the excursion wasn't in our name; it was in HIS name. Therefore, we had no way to prove to our travel insurance company that we were actually scheduled for this cancelled excursion.

Live and learn. :roll::mrgreen:

Insurance
 

We recently were on the opposite end of that ...

We had booked and paid for the tour in our name, and had to cancel it because I got ill. My wife and our cruisemates decided not to go on, so we simply filed for the whole thing under our travel insurance, got the check, and divided it up among the party.

I guess the moral is, be sure the LEADER has travel insurance!

:rolleyes:

We have nothing but praise for Captain Marvin's tours, they are great tours to start with, great people, very helpful. On our last cruise we had to cancel last minute, because my DH got a really bad sunburn and didn't want to be out in the sun on the water, all i did when we got to Caymen was to head ashore walk to their office, and tell them that we had to cancel and that was it, no problems whatsoever

Agreed! If I were to participate like this again, either *I* would be the leader OR I'd make sure I really knew the leader and that they were insured. Our leader did feel bad though and sent us all $50 checks (PayPal actually) which was half of what the insurance company would have refunded us. He tried as best he could financially.

Credit Card
 

:arrow: If you meet the written requirements (CONTRACT) and a cancelation is made, your credit card company may reverse the charges, if you encounter problems.
Remember, the fine print will be the process for all contract disputes.
You will be required to perform specific duties for any cancelation within a limited time period, this may include a notice and verification process.

Bon Voyage