19 & 20 Jan - Compensation details, cocktail party and our first "art lesson"!

Compensation for Itinerary Change
Details of the first offer of compensation have been released by Cunard. Essentially, passengers on the NYC - Rio trip have been offered a 50% refund after the cost of flights (and tax?) have been deducted from individual PAID FARES.

Passengers on 24 or 38 day cruises have been offered a 6 day pro-rata refund also after deducting flight costs etc. I guess Cunard regard the first two days as full value NYC to FL and the following 9 days to Rio as the number of days to apply the compensation offer, which is fair enough I guess, as that's the equivalent to 66%.

It now seems that passengers who booked through travel agents will have to wait for any money due under the recently announced Cunard compensation scheme. 

Quote letter from the Commodore dated 19 Jan 06: "Refund checks (cheques) will be processed by our (Cunard's) account department and forwarded to your travel agent".

This has caused outrage, because most people I've spoken to think that the promised 50% or 6 day pro rata amount will be significantly reduced by involving a third party.

An American travel agent's response sent to me by email (sounds like a nice chap to do business with).

Also, questions are beginning to be asked about the timing of our departure from Fort Lauderdale and the announcement that all of the port-of-calls scheduled before Rio had been cancelled. Many people on the NYC to Rio segment might well have cancelled the whole trip and demanded a full refund had they been informed while still in FL, rather than being virtually forced into a 9 day non-stop cruise to Rio. 

Passengers on 24 & 38 day cruises could also suffer from further port-of-call cancellation after Rio due to the reduced speed of the ship (update: see cruise calender). This could mean an accumulation of compensation offers and make calculating the final amount due to each individual passenger very complex indeed.

Commodore's Cocktail Party
Last night was the Commodore's cocktail Party for guests dining in the Britannia Restaurant - The Commodore once again apologised for the inconvenience etc. - he got a few boos from the old American guy we were sitting with. He was a 91 year old retired business man who had a whole penthouse to himself. Very nice bloke with a great deal of charm and exquisite manners, although I swear he was flirting with Ann (smile)! We had a nice chat with him about this and that and there was another couple who joined us (Americans) who have been married for 61 years! This makes our 27 years look like a short holiday rather than a life sentance! Anyway, I made sure to swipe plenty of free Champagne and we all got very merry by the time dinner was called.

Art Class with Diane Palley-McDonald
This was the "find" of the voyage so far. Purely by chance we decided to attend Diane's Creative Art Class this morning. Fortunately, we arrived 10 minutes early, as the class was oversubscribe and a few people had to be turned away because the room venue is quite small (Entertainments Manager TAKE NOTE). It's easy to understand why Diane's classes are so popular, she makes everyone feel welcome from art virgins (us two) right up to semi-pros. The boundless enthusiasm and a technique of teaching that encourages each person to explore their own ideas was the key to everyone's enjoyment and some truly astonishing "works of art". I full recommend this class and we'll be trying our (newly creative) hands at "New York Landscape" if we can get into tomorrow's class.

Examples of the "Art Virgins" very first masterpieces:

Ann's

Mine

More later

Jack

AskVicki a FREE World Travel & Information website where you can get a Fort Lauderdale Hotel Alternative Price Check.