How often are liveaboards cancelled?

[Driznik]

I just confirmed for a Hughes liveaboard to Belize in November, and my wife and I signed up for the Kona Aggressor in January.

The waivers and forms for both companies are very clear and explicit about not having any responsbility and issuing no refund for any cancellations 'outside their control' and recommending that we purchase seperate trip cancellation insurance. The trips are expensive enough that we at least have to think about it.

How often are liveaboards cancelled? Has anybody ever had their trip cancelled? How did the offering company handle it?

 

[Doc]

Peter Hughes and the Aggressor are not a fly by night operations.

Invest with confidence.

 

[Driznik]

Thanks, I'm not worried about Hughes or the Aggressor taking my money and disappearing.

I'm more worried about weather, mechanical failure or something like that washing the trip out. I'm sure the language in the waivers is just a legal CYA clause, so I was curious how often the trips get cancelled and what they actually do when they are.

 

[Doc]

Thanks, I'm not worried about Hughes or the Aggressor taking my money and disappearing.

I'm more worried about weather, mechanical failure or something like that washing the trip out. I'm sure the language in the waivers is just a legal CYA clause, so I was curious how often the trips get cancelled and what they actually do when they are.

Those guys? Rarely if ever. I think they've all learned their lesson about being pre-emtively cautious in regards to weather cancellations, so you may indeed see that someday. weather is a very short lead-time issue.

What you are worried about- I wouldn't. Plan on going.

 

[OHGoDive]

We had already put in a deposit with Mike Ball for a PNG trip next summer when they cancelled all their operations in PNG. No money lost, however we are scrambling trying to make other arrangements now. Their website now shows that they are looking to sell their boat there. So, even with highly reputable operations, it happens, for reasons that you may not even have considered. Get trip insurance, you'll sleep better.

 

[J75]

Most companies will offer you a voucher for a free trip in the future if the trip is cancelled either before your intended travel date, or within a day or two of leaving. So while you aren't getting a refund per se, you aren't out of luck. I generally don't get trip insurance because in the event of a cancellation, I'm only out for the airfare. The insurance itself has been nearly as expensive as the airfare itself. So I just take my chances.

 

[mike_s]

How often are liveaboards cancelled? Has anybody ever had their trip cancelled? How did the offering company handle it?

I've had two liveaboard trips cancelled. One due to weather (15 foot seas and tropical storm) and the other due to dive boat captain/owner being an idiot. I got refunds on both of them since our LDS was the one who booked the trip and he didn't want customers upset about it. However, I think they stuck him with loosing the deposit on both trips, which I didn't know about until much later. The only thing I was out was a few days vacation and the plane fare down on the first trip since it didn't cancel until after we got there.

Lots of times are the general rule is that if the trip cancels before you leave the dock, you get back either the full amount or only loose the deposit. If it cancels after you leave the dock, due to weather, you might not get a refund. Sometimes they offer vouchers towards future trips also.

Thanks, I'm not worried about Hughes or the Aggressor taking my money and disappearing.

When the Richmond Dive Club was caught by hurricane Iris on two chartered dive boats, the Agressor gave the club members their money back. Peter Hughes did not, even though 17 of them died.

 

[divebuddy68]

I would buy insurance. Liveaboards are not cancelled often but it does happen. In addition to the reasons mentioned above, I know of several cancellations for mechanical failure or boat damage. Also, even the Aggressor will cancel the charter if they do no have enough guests on the boat.

 

[Ringo]

I agree, invest in travel insuarnce in case of cancellation. We had a lot of last minute cancellations due to the Tsunami in 2004 and fortunately most people had an insurance.

 

[Damselfish]

It won't happen often, but I'd say the odds of a liveaboard canceling for some reason are a litttle higher than something happening to completely cancel a land based trip. There's a few more things that could happen to a liveaboard unexpectedly. Hotels don't tend to sink, get sold and move to a different country, or have mechanical failures that shut the whole thing down. If a hotel only has a few guests booked they won't close that week but some liveaboards won't go because their costs would be a lot higher than the revenue. (Many will still go, because it's still cheaper than the bad will and impact it could have on future bookings.) Weather could go either way.

I wouldn't worry about it too much but it's like any trip, get travel insurance if you feel the cost of the insurance is worth it to you for a particular trip vs. the odds of something happening. A trip sometime soon on a big name liveboard in the Carribean is probably a better bet (and not as large a potential loss) than something 18 months out someplace far away and exotic.