Without limiting the foregoing, Vantage is not responsible for any losses or expenses due to delays

On behalf of of Vantage Deluxe World Travel, caesar s palace hotel casino I d like to thank you for your patience and understanding over the course of your French Waterways journey. As you know, dangerously high water levels along the Rhone and Saone prompted French authorities to close all navigation along these rivers.
We of course recognize the disappointment this may have caused you. I would like to extend a $500 per person future travel credit as compensation. Feel free to use it toward any advantage trip of your choice departing by December 31, 2014.
As a seasoned world traveler, you know that acts of nature and other unforeseen events often require us to change the best laid plans. We are glad that in spite of the sailing ban we were still able to deliver the majority of our scheduled sightseeing and cultural activities, and we appreciate the hard work of our regional teams, who acted quickly to arrange alternate activities for you.
Hmm, a $500 voucher for another river cruise? That assumes Chapper wants to come back to Europe within a year, and considering that a river cruise caesar s palace hotel casino is a once-in-a-lifetime vacation, that s highly doubtful.
Is that reasonable? caesar s palace hotel casino he asks. We have reason to believe that they knew of the problem in advance of the trip and should have given us the opportunity to cancel without penalty. We do not want to be greedy, but we feel that the $500 offer is too low.
Without limiting the foregoing, Vantage is not responsible for any losses or expenses due to delays or changes in schedules, overbooking or downgrading of accommodations, defaults by any third parties, including Suppliers, mechanical or other failure of airplanes or other means of transportation, or the failure of any transportation mechanism caesar s palace hotel casino to arrive or depart on time. Vantage is not responsible for acts of God or force majeure events, sanitation problems, lack of medical care, sickness, weather conditions, caesar s palace hotel casino strikes and other labor activities, acts of terrorism, acts of war (declared or undeclared), quarantines, embargoes, blockades, criminal activities or any other act or event beyond the direct control of Vantage.
In other words, it lets itself off the hook for the river closures. (Incidentally, Vantage caesar s palace hotel casino s terms are a really fun read. Did you know that by going on one of its tours, you agree to be photographed and for the images to be used in a Vantage ad? Wow.)
Vantage s adhesion contract is meaningless, because it s an agreement that says it doesn t have to deliver a meaningful product. I believe caesar s palace hotel casino there s an implied agreement that Chapper would get a full 13-day river cruise. I m not at all persuaded that an unredeemable voucher represents a good-faith effort to fix a problem that Vantage may have known about well in advance.
I m very tempted to take Chapper s case, even though I know that the cruise line will point me back to its terms and will tell me that $500 represents more than the three missed days as a prorated portion of a trip.
As a long-time cruise editor who is also a lawyer, and happened to spend time in-house at a river cruise line, let me say this. River cruise water levels and navigability are not knowable in advance. They are subject to hourly fluctuations, and the vicissitudes of officials in various jurisdictions (often different caesar s palace hotel casino countries) along the way. Believe me, river cruise lines don t take disruptions lightly, they in fact spend thousands of extra dollars hiring transport and accommodations for their guests. They would much prefer to not have to pay a full crew on an empty ship, have food go to waste, etc.
Everyone should know that weather conditions sometimes cause itinerary disruptions. That is true during hurricane season in the Caribbean and during flood season on the rivers of Europe. Cruise lines try to provide an experience as close as possible to the original tour. The amount of compensation a good line provides will depend on what was missed and what was substituted in good faith.
Considering that most people really won t have the opportunity to use a voucher for another river cruise in Europe, I think the company is trying to get off without providing any real compensation here. I would suggest that a partial cash refund would be much more appropriate caesar s palace hotel casino with the option of a higher caesar s palace hotel casino value voucher offered for those who could use it.
The idea of being on a bus for more than 30 minutes gives me hives! There s a BIG difference between being able to lounge out on deck and watch the world go by than being cooped up inside a bus watching the river go by. Vantage probably knew about the river conditions in time to cancel the trip, but then they d have to issue refunds. Much better for the bottom line to put passengers on a bus and then offer credits most of them will never use.
I agree. I did this cruise in 2011 with Uniworld. These are expensive trips and cruising the river is part of the experience. We often walked into the towns we cruised to for tours and the few bus trips we took from the ship were ones arranged by the small group I was traveling with to go to specific vineyards.
I knew that I would be seeing this sort of discussion as I returned Sunday from a river cruise on Avalon Waterways. The itinerary started in Prague with the river segment from Passau to Budapest. The river water level in Prague was spring rain rushing and a long way from flood stage. Two days later we boarded the cruise ship in Passau on the Danube. The next day Avalon decided to disembark the passengers because the water was now rising very rapidly. Along with 160 of my close friends, I was now on a bus tour rather than the relaxing caesar s palace hotel casino river cruise caesar s palace hotel casino I had expected. HOWEVER, I believe Avalon responded rapidly and with the best options possible. The rapid rise of the water appeared to stun most of the Europeans we spoke with; this was not your normal spring thaw. Simultaneous hail storms caesar s palace hotel casino and continuous rain have also taken a toll on the food producers in Europe. Avalon was not the only cruise company out there scrambling. Their response was information updates (several times an hour if necessary, a voucher for future travel, no charge for city excursions, and a 50% return on the cost of the cruise. The hotels were 4/5 star, the food (and wine) good and the extra local guides excellent. Did Avalon have to do all of this? This was an act of God if I ever saw one, and there were many other company s in the same boat (excuse the pun!). I was tired and soggy, but life happens and those who were flooded would have liked to have my options, I m sure. And, no, I have nothing to do with Avalon, I read these comments all the time and think some common sense and compassion would go a long way.
I went on a Christmas Market River Cruise two years ago in Germany caesar s palace hotel casino The previous group of passengers were leaving for home as I waited for my ride to the boat. They had missed most of the cruising as the water was too high had to do a lot of it via coach. coach. As it was we had to spend the first night in a hotel but water low enough to complete journey on boat. But it was the coldest winter in a decade although it was beautiful I was always cold.
Especially insulting is the part of the Vantage Deluxe World Travel caesar s palace hotel casino participation agreement that says: Vantage is not responsible for any losses or expenses due to delays caesar s palace hotel casino or changes in schedules, overbooking or downgrading of accommodations. So they get your money but heh no promises about what you ll get in return!
2. If customers have arrived then Vantage Deluxe World Travel should caesar s palace hotel casino give customers caesar s palace hotel casino the choice caesar s palace hotel casino of going on the bus tour (and providing some reimbursement) or the choice of taking care of their own trip at that point and providing a full reimbursement of the cruise cost
Basically it sounds like Vantage Deluxe World Travel is offering caesar s palace hotel casino a pot luck trip the customer provides a set amount of money and Vantage Deluxe World Travel caesar s palace hotel casino will give them whatever happens to be available when they show up!
In some cases, Vantage did put travelers in multiple hotels because they couldn t dock the ship where travelers could board safely. So again, it was not at all a cruise, and should have been canceled, but no, Vantage caesar s palace hotel casino didn t want to lose all that money. caesar s palace hotel casino Instead, they lost the confidence of the passengers and the public who reads this and other negative reports. The companies that did cancel trips, Viking caesar s palace hotel casino Scenic caesar s palace hotel casino to name a couple, gained the confidence of current and future passengers for their actions. I go on a river cruise more for the cruising than the sites and would have been very disappointing had I been in this situation. That is why I will look into getting cancel for any reason insurance in the future.
Chris you re going to be seeing many more of these because friends were on a river cruise (Danube?) just week before last. Europe was inundated. Most people do not know that Budapest is really two cities divided by the Danube. The bridge between Buda and Pest was closed due to high waters. The friends did NOT find the bus tours to be how they imagined they would be seeing this part of the world. Plus they are from Southern California and do not know how to deal with rain!
How navigable were the roads for the buses? If you looked at some of the pictures of the damage from the flooding, it impacted the cities and sites of many of the areas, maybe not in France, but certainly in Central Germany the some roads were impassable. Finding hotel space for 150 people caesar s palace hotel casino as well as restaurants of the same 5* quality must have been a nightmare! Another reason why they should have CANCELED at least some of the cruises. They finally did cancel a few cruises recently, caesar s palace hotel casino I guess after realizing that doing otherwise was impracticable. And did the bus riders caesar s palace hotel casino enjoy looking at all the damage?
I would think they do have insurance for this. But probably a big deductible and don t want rate to go up next year! But it all comes down to the bottom line for the cruise company rather than the customers experience.
caesar s palace hotel casino Not necessarily true. We took a river cruise from