Covid-19 (coronavirus) Updates - Liveaboard Cancellation Policy

[Dive and Cruise]

UPDATE (April 2, 2020)

Solitude Liveaboards & Resorts

SOLITUDE ONE - TUBBATAHA CRUISES
For cruises that are not affected by latest and current travel restrictions imposed by the Philippines authorities will be status quo with our booking standard terms and conditions. At this juncture, we do not have any Tubbataha cruises are affected but we are well aware that it may be affected if the Philippines impose extensions to the current restrictions or maybe even the guests' point of origin is restricted to travel out.

Hence, for Tubbataha Cruises embarking on the months of April & May 2020, these bookings (which must have 2nd deposit paid) to reschedule their holiday on Solitude One with us. Here are the options (subject to availability) that will be accepted without any form of extra fees/charges:

1. Reschedule for the same booked itinerary of 6 nights Tubbataha in the year 2021 or 2022
2. Reschedule to a new itinerary of 7 Nights in Palau in the year 2020 or 2021 at NO ADDITIONAL package price difference
3. Reschedule to a new itinerary of 7 Nights in Romblon in the year 2020 or 2021 at NO ADDITIONAL package price difference

SOLITUDE ADVENTURER - KOMODO
For cruises that are not affected by latest and current travel restrictions imposed by the Indonesian authorities will be status quo with our booking standard terms and conditions. That said, we are also well aware that it may be affected if the Indonesia authorities impose extensions to the current restrictions or maybe even the guests' point of origin is restricted to travel out.

Hence, for Solitude Adventurer Cruises embarking on the months of April & May 2020, these bookings (which must have 2nd deposit paid) to reschedule their holiday on Solitude Adventurer. Here are the options (subject to availability) that will be accepted without any form of extra fees/charges:

1. Reschedule for the same booked itinerary of 6 nights Komodo in the year 2021 or 2022
2. Reschedule to any Solitude Adventurer Itinerary in 2021 or 2022, with the amount deposited or fully paid for your current affected cruise credited to the booking (only to pay the balance after credit)

Additionally, we have deferred final payment due dates for cruises and resorts that are due in the months of April, May and June 2020 for the time being and once we are sure that operations can return back to normal, we will make an announcement again to provide the new final payment due date schedule for the bookings.

On a final note, we are committing to have the current published rates for our Solitude Liveaboards & Resorts remain the same for sales bookings made as of today till 31 December 2021 for any period of check-in or cruise schedule.

 

[Dive and Cruise]

UPDATE (April 24, 2020)

La Galigo (Indonesia)
The Indonesian Government has announced that its borders will be closed to all foreign tourists entering the country as of Friday, 20th March 2020. La Galigo will be postponing current operations effective immediately to ensure the safety of all guests and all of our crew during this hard time. Due to the ever-changing nature of this worldwide event, La Galigo has made the decision to postpone all currently scheduled trips from now, until September 3rd 2020 when we can hopefully still plan to run this trip.

 

[P-Dog]

Wow - Seeing what many of you are going through it makes my issues with PADI Travel and Discovery Divers in Egypt/Red Sea seem trivial.

I was supposed to leave today to arrive in time for my sailing that leaves on May 23rd for two weeks (two back to back one week bookings) on the Red Sea. I live in Hawaii so it takes days to get to Egypt. Discovery Divers kept insisting that the trip was going. In fact, it still hasn't been (officially) cancelled even though there is a 14 day quarantine and all commercial flights are suspended within Egypt.

My original flights were cancelled. I booked new flights. They were cancelled. I told PADI Travel I couldn't get to Egypt and had to postpone my trip. I re-booked for August, which is the LOW season in Egypt. The booking is identical to the trips I had to cancel. I was immediately charged 400 Euros more because the cost of the trip has increased.

I e-mailed PADI Travel and explained that my original trip was in the height of the high season in Egypt while the new trip is in the low season. I also told them that a direct exchange seemed more reasonable since I had no control over flights being cancelled into the country. PADI Travel ignored my e-mail. After several days I wrote again and asked for a response. It was, essentially, like it or lump it - that's the policy. It costs more so you have to pay it.

Like others have expressed, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

 

[JustSurfaceInterval]

Well, your travel agent (PADI Travel?) should have told you that Egypt closed air traffic on 19.03.2020 and that the quarantine of 14 days is for everyone entering the country (by sea or by land, obviously).
They are just re-starting tourism with a dozen of hotels opening for locals under strict conditions and with max 25% of capacity (planning to increase to 50% next month).

Personally, i would not take the risk to be quarantined in my hotel room, on the LOB boat or, even worth, in a assigned location assigned by authorities in Egypt.

Anyway... PADI Travel is off my list of options to look at as many others in these times.

 

[outofofficebrb]

Well, your travel agent (PADI Travel?) should have told you that Egypt closed air traffic on 19.03.2020 and that the quarantine of 14 days is for everyone entering the country (by sea or by land, obviously).
They are just re-starting tourism with a dozen of hotels opening for locals under strict conditions and with max 25% of capacity (planning to increase to 50% next month).

Personally, i would not take the risk to be quarantined in my hotel room, on the LOB boat or, even worth, in a assigned location assigned by authorities in Egypt.

Anyway... PADI Travel is off my list of options to look at as many others in these times.

While I can understand the frustration with PADI Travel, they are also acting as a messenger by conveying the policy of the boat. If anything, one should feel a bit turned off by the boat's policy and inflexibility as this is essentially not a reschedule - well, it's a reschedule if you paid more........I am surprised that PADI Travel was not proactive on knowing/researching/conveying travel restrictions to communicate to their customers given this crazy event but I also would not want to rely on someone else for that information anyway. I do my own research and stay on top of that. For what it's worth, I used to use PADI Travel a lot and they were great in good times. I suppose you can say the testament is in bad times. They did nothing wrong but I found an agent/agency that I love that much more.

 

[P-Dog]

Well, your travel agent (PADI Travel?) should have told you that Egypt closed air traffic on 19.03.2020 and that the quarantine of 14 days is for everyone entering the country (by sea or by land, obviously).
They are just re-starting tourism with a dozen of hotels opening for locals under strict conditions and with max 25% of capacity (planning to increase to 50% next month).

Personally, i would not take the risk to be quarantined in my hotel room, on the LOB boat or, even worth, in a assigned location assigned by authorities in Egypt.

Anyway... PADI Travel is off my list of options to look at as many others in these times.

PADI Travel has been terrible. I usually book on my own, but since it's my first liveaboard I decided to go with an agent. They just kept saying it's a "wait and see situation" and that it was good to go at this time.

I kept doing online searches to try and keep myself informed, but Egypt was keeping a tight lid on things as far as I could tell. Discovery Divers kept telling me to contact PADI Travel since I booked through them.

I heard back from Discovery Divers this morning and their reasoning for charging me more is because I booked the trip in late December, 2019. They had a rate increase in 2020. So, although both my original date in May and my new date in August are in 2020, they will not honor my original booking price, because it was the 2019 price.

Then they told me to deal with PADI Travel for all correspondence in the future.

I am thinking of cancelling the whole trip and attempting a charge back on my credit card since I'm so annoyed. I need to sit with this for awhile and think it through.

 

[JustSurfaceInterval]

I am thinking of cancelling the whole trip and attempting a charge back on my credit card since I'm so annoyed. I need to sit with this for awhile and think it through.

I'm with you - it must be very frustrating.

Another point to consider, perhaps: how would you feel meeting the people from Discovery Divers after all this?
It will of course also depend of how much money you will loose, if you cancel.

There are plenty of LOBs doing the Red Sea, so it should not be a problem to find an alternative.

 

[P-Dog]

I'm with you - it must be very frustrating.

Another point to consider, perhaps: how would you feel meeting the people from Discovery Divers after all this?
It will of course also depend of how much money you will loose, if you cancel.

There are plenty of LOBs doing the Red Sea, so it should not be a problem to find an alternative.

That is what I have been thinking. There are so many liveaboards on the Red Sea and I don't like the way they are treating me, and their other customers, during this event. I can't imagine I want to go on their boat.

 

[outofofficebrb]

PADI Travel has been terrible. I usually book on my own, but since it's my first liveaboard I decided to go with an agent. They just kept saying it's a "wait and see situation" and that it was good to go at this time.

I kept doing online searches to try and keep myself informed, but Egypt was keeping a tight lid on things as far as I could tell. Discovery Divers kept telling me to contact PADI Travel since I booked through them.

I heard back from Discovery Divers this morning and their reasoning for charging me more is because I booked the trip in late December, 2019. They had a rate increase in 2020. So, although both my original date in May and my new date in August are in 2020, they will not honor my original booking price, because it was the 2019 price.

Then they told me to deal with PADI Travel for all correspondence in the future.

I am thinking of cancelling the whole trip and attempting a charge back on my credit card since I'm so annoyed. I need to sit with this for awhile and think it through.

I call BS on it too..It's not a new booking. They aren't even able to run the trip as they had to cancel the sailing. It is essentially a reschedule. Please keep us posted.

 

[P-Dog]

I call BS on it too..It's not a new booking. They aren't even able to run the trip as they had to cancel the sailing. It is essentially a reschedule. Please keep us posted.

These are the latest terms communicated to me from PADI Travel:

"These are the terms under which your trip will be rescheduled free of charge:
If a trip postponement is required, and later the alternative trip chosen is more expensive than the "original trip price paid", you will be responsible to pay for the difference in price.
A partial refund will not be provided if changed trip option is less expensive than “original trip price paid"
Since this is a gesture of goodwill by the operator, the cancellation and payment milestones from your initial booking will still apply to the rescheduled booking"


Still no acknowledgement that the original sailing was cancelled due to Egypt banning all flights into the country. And, how is it free of charge is all future bookings are 20% more expensive?