Why cruise company had a right to ‘ruin’ woman’s trip

A woman who demanded a refund after a cruise company “ruined” her holiday was shocked to discover she wasn’t entitled to one.

The destinations you visit on a cruise journey seem like a pretty integral part of the trip.

But when a passenger demanded a refund from a cruise company after the ship skipped three of the five ports on her itinerary, it turned out she was in the wrong.

Iris Fennel said she spent a year planning her 60th birthday cruise around the Baltic Sea and booked a journey on Norwegian Cruise Line’s cruise ship Norwegian Breakaway.

She spent time researching each of the destinations the ship would visit after it departed Copenhagen: Warnemünde in Germany, Estonia’s capital Tallinn, St Petersburg, Helsinki and Stockholm before returning to Copenhagen.

But shortly before boarding Norwegian Breakaway for the voyage in September, Ms Fennel was told the ship would be taking a different course, with three of those stops scrapped.

“I feel totally ripped off,” Ms Fennel said in her complaint to US-based consumer rights group Elliott Advocacy.

The itinerary said the journey would take in five ports after leaving Copenhagen: Warnemünde, Tallinn, St Petersburg, Helsinki and Stockholm.

“NCL (Norwegian Cruise Line) cancelled three of the five ports of call on the cruise. These changes ruined my trip.

“This cruise was my dream vacation that I had been planning for so long.”

Ms Fennel said after the ship left Copenhagen, it only ended up calling into Tallinn and St Petersburg, leaving her with a “boring” journey with nothing to do. She said the company didn’t even so much as offer her a complimentary drink for the trouble of changing her itinerary.

She complained to NCL, demanding a 60 per cent refund on the cost of the trip — as she believed 60 per cent, or three of the five stops, of the promised itinerary hadn’t been delivered.

In an email to the company, Ms Fennel said it had “destroyed” her dream holiday.

The ship only stopped at Tallinn and St Petersburg and sailed past the other scheduled stops.

“You should be ashamed of yourselves and your position on this particular cruise,” she said.

“Your captain was booed at the information night the day before we had to leave this terrible excuse for a cruise. There has to be a refund as I did NOT get what I paid for so that would be considered fraud.

“I am not going to accept anything other than a refund for the three ports you cancelled for no obvious or explainable reasons other than the old standby, the ‘weather’. No way can this be your excuse.

“You cannot simply cancel people’s paid-for ports just because the captain thinks he can’t do it. Maybe NCL should consider hiring more experienced captains for the Baltic trips. The weather that we saw the whole time we were there was nothing but rainy.”

The company refused Ms Fennel’s demand for a refund — and they were well within their right to.

The passenger demanded a refund from Norwegian Breakaway’s owner Norwegian Cruise Line, with no luck. Picture: NCL/Andrea Black

As much as the itinerary is usually the main factor we consider when booking a cruise, cruise companies are under no legal obligation to take you to each of the places listed.

Cruise contracts — the fine print hardly any of us read — spell out the itinerary is not a guarantee, and the company can decide to deviate from the original course at any time for whatever reason.

Ms Fennel couldn’t get a refund from Norwegian because of this clause in its fine print: “The Guest agrees that the Carrier has the sole discretion and liberty to direct the movements of the vessel, including the rights to … deviate from the purchased voyage or the normal course for any purpose.” It goes on to explain it can cancel a scheduled point of call at any time, delay arrival times and even suddenly return to the point of embarkation “if the Carrier deems it prudent to do so”.

P&O Cruises, owned by Carnival, has a similar clause in its terms and conditions: “We do not guarantee itineraries, and they do not form part of Your contract with Us,” it says.

Norwegian Cruise Line is not the only company that stipulates itineraries can be changed at any time for any reason.

Royal Caribbean Australia says: “We cannot guarantee that ships will call at every advertised port or follow every part of the advertised itinerary,” the terms and conditions read. “We and the Master of the ship have the right to omit any port(s), call at any additional port(s), deviate from the advertised itinerary in any way or substitute another ship or port …”

Elliott Advocacy executive director Michelle Couch-Friedman said her team were often contacted by angry passengers whose cruises had gone off course, but none of them had properly read their terms and conditions.

“If you take a look at a typical cruise contract, you’ll see that you aren’t guaranteed a trip to any specific destination,” she said.

“Think of your ship as a floating hotel. You’re guaranteed a place to sleep, but the location of the vessel may not be where you expected it to be.

“The bottom line is that cruise itineraries can change at any time. So be prepared to roll with any changes to your plans. In the end, being aware of possible changes will lessen the chance that a surprise deviation will ruin your trip.”