Thread: Honeymoon From Hell.

I too had a dredfull holiday with Thompson Cruise Destiny in June this year on my honeymoon which cost us 2k! we thought we would have a relaxing holiday and paid a lot of money for a higher cabin on deck 6, we actually were right above the live entertainment lounge and the entertainment was so loud we couldnt sleep until it finished at 12 midnight each night, i have kept the intineries showing this, we made complaint on ship and have made written complaint to which they have said tough luck basically and they cannot help a bit of noise... I must be able to go somewhere from here but dont know how to go about it, I dont know how to start my own thread can someone assist me and if necessary create a thread for me on this subject, and tell me how to start my own, its been a good year since been on the site since my claim at bank stayed and just cannot recall how to start a thread. thanks skeggsy

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I am sorry to post here I am sure its not the right place but dont know how to start a new thread, can I have the idiots guide please, and can a helpful mod pse direct this thread to its correct place and let me have a link,

Im desperate to get advice on this issue of a ruined honeymoon with the above holiday company and how to take it to the next stage, I have subscribed to a couple of other threads of a similar nature but cannot seem to start a new post there.

Heres hoping someone will help me.

skeggsy

Skeggs, I'll start you a new thread with this post.


Now you have your very own thread.

Have a look at this thread......

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...i-dummies.html

It's a step by step guide to posting on the forum.

Regards, Rooster.

Thankyou to the person who kindly redirected my post.

Now my story begins.
On July this year my new husband of one month and myself went on a honeymoon cruise with thompson booked over the phone with thompson with a ship destiny which cost us 2k.. a lot of money, we havent had a holiday in 7 years. We paid more money to on a high deck 6 because we wanted to make sure itwas the honeymoon that would be relaxing with a window and perhaps better facilities than the lower decks. i still have the brochure and all the original documentation we booked from and received.At no point during the lengthy telephone conversation prior to booking was I told that we should expect excessive noise below our cabin which would keep us awake every single night of our holiday and that this should be expected.

The situation was that the live entertainments lounge was directly below our cabin and the entertainment did not stop until 12 midnight each night, i havethe original itineries showing this, we were subjected to such loud noise every night that we had to have compulsory entertainment in our room and had no choice but to stay awake until it had finished. I suffer from a disease which means i get very tired and i was not able to sleep and ended up having to catch up on my sleep during the day the following day which meant i missed out on activities and holiday time.

we made an official complaint on the 2nd night of our holiday and this was logged and we were told to write officially when we returned to the uk. we were told there were no other rooms available.

I wrote to thompson who took a long time to reply and when they did just basically told me tough luck we have to expect noise and it was beyond their control to cover every eventuality, they also said that some cabins were subject to noise as per their brochure? ... theres noise and noise and this was insufferable honestly. I want to write back to them telling them that its not on and we suffered loss of enjoyment and it marred a potentially memorable honeymoon, i would be prepared togo to small claims on this but am afraid of where I stand and that I may end up paying their costs if I loose.

can someone advise me of the next letter i should be writing to them to up the anti to the next level, or if i may as well give up?

thanks skeggsy

Originally Posted by mozzat6

>>>we thought we would have a relaxing holiday and paid a lot of money for a higher cabin on deck 6,

devils advocate here... was there something in the advertising literature that implied or guaranteed that ('relaxing holiday'), and therefore induced you to do this (book a higher cabin on deck 6) ?.

I must admit, my only experience of a ship is a cross channel ferry in the summer months where the staff had multiple roles, including a 'dance routine' on an elevated stage (in a hopeless attempt to keep the brats entertained). I'll never forget it, one lass, got her steps wrong and flew off the end of the stage and ended up with a serious hip injury.

I guess never having been on a cruise I was encouraged to go up the decks to have a better quality of cabin, and to be nearer the top deck which seemed to be the most desired location, it would only be proven by the telephone call with the sales person.

2 threads merged-keep them together now !

I also saw you have multiple Nationwide threads-will merge some of those too.

thanks Martin but my Nationwide threads are done and dusted a long time ago.

I reported the holiday to tradin standards today, they redirected my complaint to consumer direct... this is a great source of information a bit like CAG their web Consumer Direct tel 08454 040506 they guide you through complaints, court, all sorts of areas its worth anyone else taking a look. they said I am looking at loss of enjoyment claim, as the holiday was paid via credit card there is also a template letter to send to the credit card as they may settled the dispute. It appears I should have a good chance if I took it to court, but Im scared that if I were to lose and have an unsympathetic judge i would end up payin costs.. I also wonder if anyone out there could help me with a POC, if im going to go for this I need a hand to hold along the way, wrote to thomson today recorded del and told them what i have done and given them 14 days

think this may be useful for others
Thank you for your recent email dated 18/11/08 regarding the holiday you booked through Thompson Holidays , a copy of which is attached below. I am sorry to hear that you were disappointed with the way the delay was handled, and with the accommodation you were given.

When you book a holiday, you enter into a contract, usually with a tour operator and the law gives you certain rights. The main areas of law are covered within The Package travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992. The regulations set out the tour operator's legal responsibilities to you, and what you are entitled to, should the tour operator fail to honour these obligations. Any false or misleading representations or descriptions about the holiday, hotel or facilities made by the tour operator or its representative, are covered by the Regulations. These regulations give you the right to seek compensation for loss of enjoyment if the tour operator fails to honour their obligations. However, it can be difficult to put a monetary figure on this.

The Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 sets out general duties and responsibilities of a seller providing a service. You are entitled to expect that the holiday is of a reasonable standard, as described, and that the holiday organiser provides service with reasonable care and skill.

If you book your holiday with a tour operator via a travel agent, your contract for the holiday itself is with the tour operator, who must accept liability for all elements of the holiday, such as travel and accommodation. The travel agent is considered to be acting on behalf of the tour operator, but also has an obligation to ensure that it carries out the administration of the booking correctly and efficiently.

It would appear that you have followed the correct procedure by making a complaint when you arrived at the ship and your subsequent follow up with Thompson Holidays when you returned home, however you may wish to put your complaint in writing quoting the above legislation. You should also state how much compensation you are looking to claim.

I have attached a template letter below to help base your correspondence on. The letter should be sent by recorded delivery, to ensure it is signed for, along with a deadline date set for reply.



If this fails to have the desired outcome you may need to consider legal action. This could be through the county court and, if your claim is for £5000 or less, it will probably be heard as a small claim which keeps your costs down. Alternatively, if you tour operator is a member of ABTA, you could consider their arbitration scheme. I have provided their details below.

ABTA
(T) 0207 637 2444
Home - ABTA

As a final note, Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 makes your credit card company joint & severally liable for any breach of contract. This means you may be able to make a like for like claim against the credit card company. This may be another avenue that you wish to explore, should you not get a satisfactory outcome from the trader.

Please rest assured that we have also notified the relevant trading standards authorities of your complaint, in order to assist with their enforcement activities.

We hope you find this information useful however, please do not hesitate to contact us on 08454 04 05 06 if you have any further queries.

Your case reference

Kind regards

Skeggs - my best suggestion is you go to the holiday consumer group at

HolidayTravelWatch » Home (or could be .co.uk) contact these people.

These people offer free advice and will tell you how to deal with your complaint whether it's poor quality, illness, travel related issues. (loads of useful stuff in there related to travel etc.. might be worth a look?)

I don't know anything about cruises - there may be a link on the HTW site to cruise information sites - the only one I know of is the vessel sanitisation website Vessel Sanitation Program: Home | CDC which isn't what you are asking about here.

thanks very much Elizabeth for your advice and usefull threads will keep going and contact travel watch. skeggsy

I got a reply from thompson today stating that their cruise brochure a-z guide mentions noise oboard their ships... I dont think it mentions relentless noise on a 2k holiday every single night.

Again they have said that they are unable to offer any form of refund.

Now Im angry.... not got round to contacting abta yet or the holiday watch people but thats next on my list any other suggestions

skeggs I showed you where to go with this - they will know all these "brochure clauses" and loop holes that the tour operators use etc.. and HTW will be able to help you counter argue your points.

Their phone number is 0121 747 8100 (there may be a free phone number on their website or email contact sheet if you look where I showed you).

The tour operators have loads of "cut 'n' paste" answers ready for all types of complaints - what you have had is their bog standard answer - I'm sure you'll agree it's no answer at all.

Thanks Elizabeth, sorry I had already sent my own letter prior to receiving the information from yourself and given them a period of time to reply so I decided I should wait to see what they said. now I am following your advice and will call the company you suggest, I am on a full on course at the moment and in class all day so I am going to have to wait until next Thursday when I will be able to talk, will update then. thanks again

Elizabeth and others if your still subbed to me.
I am ready to go forward with court claim. since my last posts I have had a negative response from thompson, I have been to ts who wont touch it (which isnt right as holiday misold) sent me to consumer direct for advice... then went to ABTA who have now done a PRE ARBITRATION NOTICE which has resulted in nothing. have spoken to travel watch. fantastic people... who have said that if I go down arbitration route it may not be as favourable as if I took to court myself... willing to take to small claims now but havent filed in court for a long time and havent got a clue how to draft up a POC, or what should really go in it.. can it be done online or is it better to print one off from hmcs... really need some help now.