Cruise control: Ports of call can be changed without notice

"Do you know that a cruise line could decide on a change of destination well in advance of the sailing date, and not only not notify the passengers before boarding, but refuse to refund any portion of the fare, or allow rebooking?"

That was the question Emily Frankel, 62, from Thousand Oaks, Calif., posed in a letter in which she told how more than 1,000 passengers on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship bound for St. Petersburg, Russia; Helsinki and Estonia last spring ended up diverted to Amsterdam, Berlin and Bergen, Norway, instead.

Passengers were given notice as they boarded the Norwegian Dream in Dover, England, April 28 that ice conditions in the Gulf of Finland mandated rerouting away from the Baltics. It was an itinerary change that, according to Frankel, altered not just one port of call, but the entire reason most people booked the trip.

"This was not a cruise like the Caribbean where one island is like another," Frankel said. "This was a destination cruise. ... It was like thinking you were going to Hawaii and ending up in Tokyo."

No notice given

The point of the two-week trip was to visit St. Petersburg for the celebration of its 300th anniversary. Frankel feels passengers should have been notified beforehand, and allowed to rebook for another time.

"The decision was apparently made well in advance of my boarding, as I was advised by passengers already on board at Dover who received a letter dated April 26, stating you were not going to St. Petersburg," she wrote in a letter to the ship's captain.

"NCL should have shared that information with us," Frankel said. But passengers who called NCL as late as April 25 to reconfirm said they were told all was in order.

Norwegian says no final decision had been made, and the captain was still holding out hope that conditions might improve.

"We were monitoring the conditions until the very last minute to try and give the passengers the opportunity to go on that itinerary," said spokeswoman Heather Krasnow.

"We sell cruises months and months in advance, and we always try and deliver what we promise, but sometimes it's not safe to go to an area and we don't know that until the time comes."

Passengers also complained that the dates were changed for scheduled ports of call that were left on the itinerary so that they ended up in Copenhagen on a Sunday when the shops were closed and in Oslo on a Monday when important sites were not open.

Frankel, who flew to England with her husband to take the cruise, and others who have been fighting the matter want either a refund, another cruise or a trip to St. Petersburg this year. They aren't, however, likely to get anything more than the $150 in credit for purchases on the ship they received as compensation when they boarded April 28.

Norwegian's policy on itinerary changes is clear, and it doesn't leave much room for negotiation.

Written into its terms and conditions for collecting nonrefundable payments from passengers is a clause that allows the line, for any reason, to make changes without prior notice, including destination changes and arrival and departure times at ports of call.

Standard procedure

The clause is standard in the industry, and while cruise lines can and sometimes do bend the rules (many allowed rebooking with no penalty when they made itinerary changes around the time of the Iraq war and the onset of SARS), it's a matter of goodwill rather than a legal requirement, and cash refunds almost never happen.

Weather conditions are the most common reason for itinerary changes, but political strife can alter the picture, as can medical emergencies, strikes and mechanical problems.

William McGee, a consultant for Consumers Union, publisher of the former Consumer Reports Travel Letter, researched the issue in a story called "Missing the Boat," and found that passengers have little recourse.

"When it comes to canceled ports of call, you're really not entitled to compensation," McGee says.

"If you've been planning for that special cruise for five years and you go to A, B and C instead of D, E and F ... sorry. No one has been successful in challenging that legally that we're aware of."

The type of travel insurance Frankel purchased when she booked her cruise last March ($2,180 per couple plus $163.50 for insurance) through Online Vacation Center, a Florida-based discounter, proved useless, since an alternative itinerary was offered.

She and others hit another unexpected snag when they lost the $299 each they paid Online Vacation Center for a shore excursion to St. Petersburg. After passengers filed complaints, the company this month sent out vouchers for future travel.

Frankel cruised with different lines three times prior to the Norwegian trip, and says she'll go again, but with cruise lines she feels are more likely to handle things differently.

Carnival Cruise Lines, for example, has a written policy stating that if it has adequate notice prior to sailing that a vessel will deviate from its published itinerary, it will notify passengers and give them the opportunity to cancel without penalty.

Seattle-based Holland America Line deals with each situation differently, said spokeswoman Rose Abello. "We look and see how important the port is in the itinerary. It's all case by case."

In the case of one port of call being substituted for another, a complimentary shore excursion at the new destination might be offered, she said. When Holland diverted one of its ships away from Mainland China to Japan last April because of SARS, passengers without insurance were offered the option to cancel and receive a 75 percent discount on future travel.

What should you do if you are thinking about booking a cruise?

• Start by being aware: Become familiar with your cruise line's written policies, especially when booking online. (Never hit "purchase" without first reviewing the terms and conditions published on the cruise company's Web site or in its brochures.) Wading through the fine print is never as much fun as reviewing information about casino and dining options, but it's all there, and it's important reading.

Travel agents who specialize in selling cruises are often aware of a particular line's track record when it comes to compensation for changes.

• Consider seasonal weather patterns.

Because of last spring's problems, Norwegian has canceled its Baltic cruises for April 2004 and moved its first sailings to May.

Hurricanes are common in the Caribbean in early fall and ice tends to stay in the Baltics into early spring. Certain ports of call are more likely to be affected than others, depending on the season.

• Third-party booking. When buying a trip from a third-party agent (in Frankel's case, Online Vacation Center), rather than booking directly with the cruise line or through a travel agent, make sure you're entitled to a refund if the ship doesn't call at a destination for which you have paid for a shore excursion. This isn't always the case.

• Travel insurance. Buy it, but before you do, figure out what kind of coverage is important to you.

"The bottom line is that you can't assume everything is covered under your policy," says McGee. "It's not."

Standard trip-cancellation insurance (the kind sold through online booking agents) doesn't cover you if your cruise line changes its itinerary, and offers an alternative. This type of insurance, however, does cover airline-ticket changes if you have to make them in order to accommodate any changes in departure or arrival dates or cities.

Most cruise lines sell policies that will allow you to cancel your trip for any reason and apply your payment to a future cruise, but these policies aren't recommended if the cruise line is on shaky financial ground, and you're concerned about default.

"If for any reason the cruise line goes under, the insurance goes under with it," McGee points out.

• Pay with a credit card. The No. 1 piece of advice experts give is to pay for advance travel with a credit card. Under the federal Fair Credit Billing Act, you can challenge a charge for goods or services that wern't delivered as agreed.

The appeal must be made within 60 days of receiving your first bill, a time limit that may have passed by the time you take your trip. Most Visa and MasterCard credit-card agreements come with added protection, a "delayed delivery clause," giving cardholders 120 days to file a claim for a refund, starting from the date the plane, cruise or tour was scheduled to depart. Check with your bank on its specific policies.

Carol Pucci's Travel Wise column runs the last Sunday of the month in the Travel section. Comments are welcome. Contact her at 206-464-3701 or cpucci@seattletimes.com