In June my brother and I booked a week on a very well known liveaboard from Ft Lauderdale over to the Bahamas for a shark diving trip. The boat sleeps 10 and was empty when we booked it.
We paid $3,000 for the liveaboard and separately booked our flights to Miami costing another $2,000+ as the operator doesn't do "packages".
We are flying from the UK Saturday 20th October to Miami and then routing up to Ft Lauderdale to pick up the boat on the afternoon of the 21st.
On Saturday 13th the operator emailed to say "I am very, very, very sorry to inform you that the trip scheduled to depart on Sunday, October 21 has been cancelled. Although it is a very rare occurrence it sometimes happens through cancellations or unfulfilled contracts that we do not end up with enough people booked to be able to run the trip. Unfortunately this trip is one of those very rare occurrences."
There is nothing in the contract that allows the operator to cancel....though there are very stiff penalties if the client cancels.
Since Saturday we have been trying to encourage the operator to run the dive by offering additional cash to fund fuel/staff costs but they have responded by saying they need 6/10 berths filled to make it viable.
Our travel insurers have said the risk of an operator cancelling is not covered...
The operator has offered a week of day-boat dives for free.
This is an interesting gesture; however, we can do day-boat dives where we currently are working (Middle East) has lots of options.
Also we will burn a week holiday doing some very lovely I am sure - but ultimately "average" diving. This precludes us from another trip later this year or in 2013...so I would rather bank the holiday.
We will incur more expense as we're no longer "full board" but will be staying on the dive boat in the marina (the operator offered this to help our costs) but ultimately still buying breakfast and dinner and drinks onshore...
The biggest issue apart from inconvenience, booked vacations etc etc is that the operator is refusing to give us a credit for our wasted airfare.
They will refund the $3k livebaord fee...but nothing else.
Apart from being hugely upset that the trip we booked in June has been cancelled without any discussion we don't want to settle for a "normal" dayboat dive for a week....we booked a unique liveaboard.
Feeling so utterly rotten I need to vent...and get an opinion of where to go next.
I have tried other operators and they are either booked or the travel times are a conflict with their schedule and they cannot do anything.
$2k+ and a wasted vacation not sitting well at the moment.
We paid $3,000 for the liveaboard and separately booked our flights to Miami costing another $2,000+ as the operator doesn't do "packages".
We are flying from the UK Saturday 20th October to Miami and then routing up to Ft Lauderdale to pick up the boat on the afternoon of the 21st.
On Saturday 13th the operator emailed to say "I am very, very, very sorry to inform you that the trip scheduled to depart on Sunday, October 21 has been cancelled. Although it is a very rare occurrence it sometimes happens through cancellations or unfulfilled contracts that we do not end up with enough people booked to be able to run the trip. Unfortunately this trip is one of those very rare occurrences."
There is nothing in the contract that allows the operator to cancel....though there are very stiff penalties if the client cancels.
Since Saturday we have been trying to encourage the operator to run the dive by offering additional cash to fund fuel/staff costs but they have responded by saying they need 6/10 berths filled to make it viable.
Our travel insurers have said the risk of an operator cancelling is not covered...
The operator has offered a week of day-boat dives for free.
This is an interesting gesture; however, we can do day-boat dives where we currently are working (Middle East) has lots of options.
Also we will burn a week holiday doing some very lovely I am sure - but ultimately "average" diving. This precludes us from another trip later this year or in 2013...so I would rather bank the holiday.
We will incur more expense as we're no longer "full board" but will be staying on the dive boat in the marina (the operator offered this to help our costs) but ultimately still buying breakfast and dinner and drinks onshore...
The biggest issue apart from inconvenience, booked vacations etc etc is that the operator is refusing to give us a credit for our wasted airfare.
They will refund the $3k livebaord fee...but nothing else.
Apart from being hugely upset that the trip we booked in June has been cancelled without any discussion we don't want to settle for a "normal" dayboat dive for a week....we booked a unique liveaboard.
Feeling so utterly rotten I need to vent...and get an opinion of where to go next.
I have tried other operators and they are either booked or the travel times are a conflict with their schedule and they cannot do anything.
$2k+ and a wasted vacation not sitting well at the moment.
