Cruise ship passengers get full refund for curtailed journey

Cruise ship passengers get full refund for curtailed journey

	Published : Sat, 28 Jan 2006 10:20 By : Amy Watts Print this Story

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil: Passengers on the luxury cruise liner Queen Mary 2, who had to miss the several planned stops en route, because of damage to one of the ship's propulsion pads, have called off their threatened sit-in protest after the ship's owner Cunard Line agreed to give them a full refund.

The 2,620 passengers on board the ship had spent six days as "virtual hostages" at sea after the damage was noticed and the ship cancelled three port stops in the Caribbean and Brazil.

Many of the passengers had planned a group legal action and said they would not leave the ship when it docked in Rio de Janeiro. Cunard Line had earlier offered them a 50 per cent refund on the 12-day leg of the 38-day cruise, which cost up to 17,000 pounds.

The company's president, Carol Marlow, who flew to Rio, said all the passengers will now receive either a full refund or half of their money back plus a voucher for another cruise worth 75 per cent of their outlay.

Marlow said the company has made this offer because it has seen its guests were not happy. "This wasn't a true Cunard voyage and we wanted to put that right."

The damage occurred two days after the British-flagged ship left New York on 15 January when it hit the edge of the shipping channel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This meant the ship had to wait for two days to leave the port and then cruise at a slower speed, leading to skipping scheduled stops in St Kitts, Barbados and Salvador. The ship was scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles on 22 February.

There were some 1,000 passengers, mainly British, who were to disembark in Rio and they were angry as they were offered 50 per cent refunds. Passengers travelling onward from Rio can choose between getting all of the fare to Rio back or 50 per cent in cash and 75 percent in future cruise credits.