If there was ever a day where things went bad, well, today was one of them. One of us is an early riser, who often turns on the computer first thing. What a surprise to see on some websites we read that this cruise was scheduled to end in Freemantle on March 22nd, not the 24th, as we had been told. Where had that information come from, we wanted to know?
The stories from other friends at breakfast confirmed what we had read, even though we had not been told by the Captain here. In fact, that announcement was not made until 11:20am, and it came with other details we did not expect. Now this has not been put into writing yet, but every guest, with possibly a few exceptions, will have to debark in Freemantle on March 22nd. The few exceptions are those who can produce medical documents stating they cannot fly due to medical problems. Only those who purchased their air through HAL will have their flights booked for them by the people on the ship. Independent bookings were our responsibility, but we would receive a credit of up to $1250 per person for the air arrangements. Those who qualified for free shipping of their luggage will have those pieces sent home via Fed Ex or DHL from Florida. Suites and verandas have unlimited shipping, and the remainder of us up to an F category are allowed two pieces each. Every extra piece we send will be charged to our accounts, the same as if we were leaving from Ft. Lauderdale. Those who have no luggage allowance, will have to pay for all of the shipping costs.
Needless to say, this did not go down well with the guests, who assumed all of us would get complimentary shipping, due to the circumstances. Then the Captain followed up with credits being given for this interruption of the cruise. It went something like this…..50% back of the cruise fare, with a 50% future cruise credit. OR, a 125% refund on a future cruise. Now is this for the portion we have missed, or is it for the entire voyage? Nobody knows. And so far this evening, a letter has not been delivered with any details.
We did get a form for reimbursement charges we incur during our trips home. We will all need to save every receipt, and send copies to HAL, and hope for some reimbursement. Then we will have to figure out if our trip insurance will cover any of this when we get back home. We have never had to deal with any claims, and are not certain what will be covered, if anything under these most unusual circumstances.
The biggest concern is the length of the flights involved for those of us who live in North America. As far as we know, the majority of guests are from the USA and Canada. There is not one person that is not upset with this dilemma. Well, we are happy for the Aussies onboard, like our tablemates Greg and Heo, who will have the shortest flight of all…..about 4 to 5 hours to get home to Sydney.
Our excellent hosts did call us and offered to help with the arrangements, or relay the message to our travel agent for help. This all went down while Seattle time was close to 11pm on a Sunday evening. So we do not expect communications until tomorrow. It is hard, but we will have to be patient. We have probably said this before, but when we walked out of our house January 1st, we never could have envisioned such an outcome.
Until we get something in writing, we decided to wait to start the packing. And since the weather was beautiful outside, we relaxed at the back pool, cooling off in it as well. Captain Mercer had to come on the speakers two more times during the afternoon. One time was to tell the folks not to crowd the front desk, and give the hotel director and customer relations manager a break, so they could go to lunch. They probably were ready to fly to the moon if they could. The next message was not to line up at the medical center to register reasons for not flying. You know, if they had a well thought out plan for us, none of this would be happening. Being left in limbo is not acceptable.
There had been a planned complimentary sail away in the Lido Pool area had we actually gone to Darwin, which we did not. In fact, there will be no more ports on this trip, and we are on a slow boat to Freemantle. So in lieu of the free for all party, there were complimentary Happy Hours instead. Just out of curiosity, we did go to the Ocean Bar, take our favorite seats, and watched the crowd grow with "Happy Hour" drinkers. There were many of them. The Crow's Nest and the Seaview Bar were also included in this endeavor. It was repeated once again at 6:30pm for one hour.
During the lull at the first dinner time, we took advantage of the slower pace at the front desk, and picked up our passports, and asked if the "use it or lose it" credit on our shipboard account would be refunded. The answer was no. We would have to spend it onboard, the same as always. The gifted credit from our travel agency, as well as refunded port charges is ours to keep…either in cash the day before we leave, or directly credited back to our credit card.
This evening was a special one for one of our tablemates, since it was his birthday. Woody and Susie was all set to have the special meal of empire chicken served, which was requested yesterday. However, it did not happen, and we still do not know why. Then we were all set for the upside down pineapple cake they requested, and that did not happen. Someone had royally messed up, so eventually a small individual cake arrived with a large group of waiters to sing the birthday song.
Right before the cake came, Greg and Heo gifted us all with a box of Tim Tams, which was so sweet. As Barb was passing them, she clipped her glass of wine, and christened Woody with it. Can anything else go wrong??? Good thing he was not wearing white. The dining room manager tried to make excuses, but that only made things worse. Like we said, this had to be one of the most trying days ever.
Instead of going to the last of the flutist's show, we took a slow walk on the promenade deck. It was still warm and humid, even at 10pm at night. And by the way, the clocks went back one half hour tonight, probably the last one on this screwy world cruise.
And we had gifts again….two Steiff penguins to add to our stuffed animal collection at home. We sure needed the smile it produced when we saw them sitting on the bed.
Hope tomorrow is a better day……And by the way, on a positive note, the plants in our window garden are blooming. How about that?
Bill & Mary Ann
Monday, March 16, 2020
Report # 130 Day at Sea March 16, 2020 Monday Partly cloudy & 78 degrees
