You’ve planned this cruise for years and finally the dream comes true: boarding the ship you set set sail for glamorous ports in ________ (Asia, South America, the Greek Islands, wherever) with equally-excited fellow passengers. 

storm-at-sea.jpgThree days into the cruise the weather gets bad, the seas high.  The Captain’s voice over the ship’s public adress system is tentative: “Ah….ladies and gentlement I’m sorry but we can’t dock in (Barbados, Singapore, Mykonos, wherever) due to bad weather conditions.” 

How disappointing!  You paid a great deal for this cruise and now you can’t visit one of the highlights of the itinerary.   Even worse, the storm continues and you miss the next port too.   Do you join a group of angry fellow-passengers demanding a meeting with the Captain?  Will you demand your money back?

ship-in-storm.jpgAs you know rebellions like this have increased in frequency.  Passengers aboard the Sapphire Princess raised a big stink when their ship couldn’t stop in port due to bad weather.  Two years ago, on a Queen Mary 2 voyage to Rio, the same thing happened because the ship suffered mechanical problems.

While I’m sure plenty of people have had their vacations ruined because of bad weather, I’ve never heard stories of riots at resorts or hotels.  For some reason, people don’t blame hotels for a ruined vacation but they do fault the cruise line.  And, even though it says in the passsenger contract — the small type on your ticket — that the cruise line isn’t responsible for acts of nature or mechanical problems, passengers expect to be compensated.

What would you do if faced with a ruined cruise vacation due to bad weather or mechanical problems?  Would you write it off to bad luck or get furious with the cruise line?