My friend who had travelled from Sydney and was continuing on, returned to the ship at 2pm today after a shore excursion into Brisbane only to be handed a letter explaining their itinerary had been cancelled and that the ship was now going to Hobart only.

For those unaware, Cairns and the Whitsundays are in Tropical north Australia and this was a hot, tropical cruise, Hobart on the other hand is a Colonial city at Australias most southern point. These 2 itinerary's could not be at more extreme's in terms of types of holiday destinations!

The letter informed that the passengers had 2 options, stay on the ship and receive a $AU100 onboard credit PER CABIN (which in my friends case was 50 each) or dissembark the ship by 4pm (just 2 hours) and recieve a pro rater refund for the 7 nights, NOT the entire 9 night cruise from Sydney!

Now initially they decided to ignore the MAJOR itinerary change and simply stay to enjoy the ship for the rest of the cruise, however whilst in their cabin, the cabin steward came and replaced their incabin menu. After studying it they found the menu items had not changed but the prices had! They went up to a public bar to investigate other prices and low and behold ALL PRICES HAD GONE UP! Cocktails previously $6 were now $8 and beers previously $4 were $6.50. Reception informed them that the itinerary change had meant they couldnt apply duty free alcohol prices, however the origional itinerary to was only domestic? Ontop of these prices they were now required to apply the 10% GST which made the $6 cocktail $8.80! thats nearly a 50% increase in prices! Other services such as the health spa and chargable restaurants also went up!

So while they were giving a measly $100 per cabin with 1 hand they were taking back with the other through hugely inflated prices!

After feeling hugely ripped off and feeling Star Cruises was totally mishandling the entire process they decided to dismbark, which meant packing and being off the vessel in 45 minutes. They were to gather in the Garden Chinese restaurant where they were informed taxis would be pierside to take them into Brisbane however Star would not be covering ANY costs incurred by leaving the cruise, only the refund which would be processed by travel agents!

Now my friends had their Airfare back to Sydney booked for 7 days from now when the origional cruise was to return to Brisbane, however would have to either pay for accomodation for the week or cancel it and book a new flight! Further more the cruise terminal is 40 minutes from Brisbane city and is in an industrial area away from all services, infact 10 minutes by car to the nearest payphone!

(To get an understanding of the total isolation and lack of services at the Brisbane terminal read this warning issued by Star http://www.starcruises.com/Other/port-of-brisbane-letter.pdf )

So after being put ashore and promised taxis they found nothing! no taxis, no buses no nothing, and a long walk to the nearest sign of civilisation! A coach pulled up to drop off arriving passengers and after unloading the driver asked a group of passengers (including my friends) who had decided to leave why they were standing their with their luggage, after explaining he offered them a lift into town for $10 a head (off his own back not organised by Star), so luckily they were able to at least make it to the city where they had phones and were able to make arrangements, however the whole ordeal has turned their tropical holiday (much looked forward to) into hell!

There is much more to this story and i dont have time to go into further detail at the moment but let me tell you, I am totally at a loss to describe the treatment of passengers by Star in this instance, I had a wonderful cruise on Leo last year but they have really dissapointed me and i feel treated my friends and other passengers appallingly! I even recomended them to my friends!

-- firstly i understand Star have no control over the weather and understandably they have the right to change course/itinery to avoid storms etc

-- the treatment of passengers may have been a little harsh... tho under these circumstances i can see a lot of confusion/frustration leading to a stressful afternoon- for both passenger and crew!

[other considerations such as hotels and airfares are another matter- i think as a customer relations thing, star should have offered accomadation for the night... airfares are a different story because unless they are booked through star,(ie fly/cruise package) i think people would have no chance of getting a refund]

-- brisbane port facilities dont seem to be very 'passenger ship friendly'. Again adding to the frustration of the afternoon/evening.

[In their defence tho... i dont think there will be problems in the future as a new terminal is being built at the moment.]

Overal a dissappointing day for star cruises and their passengers! I hope this incident doesnt tarnish their reputation or future plans in australia.

Yes i understand they cannot control the weather, but they are in complete control of their contingency planning and as a hospitality based corperation should have comprehensive service recovery policies in place!

While i would cruise with Star again it has left a sour taste in my friends mouth and ofcourse i feel partly responsible for giving them my highest recomendation.

Just wanted to hear what others thought, and perhaps other occasions you have been on a cruise and experienced a similar cancellation/disruption and how the cruise line handled it, either positive or negative?

Also i have just uploaded a new album of Superstar Leo pictures in Sydney, infact a bit of a different view, taken from ontop of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, looking down giving a birdeye view!

You can check them out here

Sydneyboy

[ 03-15-2004: Message edited by: joe at travelpage ]

Of course they cant control the weather.

But, if the cruise line is offering passengers the option of getting off early with a refund, surely they should also include the same standard of disembarkation arrangements as if the cruise had gone according to plan.

And as for the drinks prices, theyre just greedy.

When you consider that the mark-up on drinks is hundreds of % (eg: it costs a cruise line approx 25 US cents or less to buy a can of beer), claiming they have to increase prices because of GST is taking the ****.

Also i think if Star is offering disembarkation as an option they should have put in place the usual shoreside operations and services of any other disembarkation! Dumping passengers on a dock far from any facilities is hardly acceptable under ANY circumstances - its not like they asked for it! no pictures of that in the brochure!

And probably one of the most important points is the time passengers were given to digest the information and then make a decision between 2 very dissapointing outcomes! I hardly think 2 hours is enough time to decide if you want to terminate your holiday, and then ontop of that you had to pack and be off the ship! I feel at the least Star should have organised shoreside accomodation for a night so people could make new plans, but more professional would have been for Leo to remain in Brisbane overnight and allowing passengers the night to think about it and then say their goodbye's and make plans if they chose to get off!

My firend is since back and told me an interesting story which just demonstrated to me the total lack of service recovery demonstrated by the line!
When in line to tell reception of their decision to disembark and settle their account they heard the lady in front of them talking to the head purser and saying they were happy to stay onboard but were wondering with all the people likely to get off if they could be upgraded from their inside cabin to any outsides that may become available. Now this is a totally no cost option for Star which would have massive PR benefits in turning the days events around for at least these passengers who were sticking with them. However they were informed that no upgrades were going to be offered and if their were cabins available in a higher grade they could pay the difference in brochure fare to move!

What a kick in the guts, and what a total lack of service management. All those cabins that sailed empty that night, which could have been the difference between 700 grumpy passengers who felt ripped off to at least a few hundred who would have thought how wonderful it was that they now had a balcony or a window, and how quickly the days events would have passed allowing a much better recovery of passengers respect.