I haven't been on this forum in ages, because I've been really focused on a different pursuit -- learning SCUBA diving in preparation for my 18-day Auckland-Los Angeles cruise on the Mariner in December. Last I checked, we were scheduled to hit 7 port stops over this 18 day cruise, all of which have fantastic diving. Well, I popped onto the RSSC website tonight and noticed that TWO of our seven port stops have been dropped -- two of the best dive spots! And now I'm reading that the Mariner isn't really fixed?? Does anyone know what's really going on?

I've been attending classes and going on dives for weeks and weeks now in preparation for this cruise. I've passed my Open Water certification and am more than half-way into my Advanced Open Water cert. If we miss these two sites, that cuts in half my entire reason for taking this cruise...which is mainly to pursue my new passion of diving, not to spend three weeks bobbing around the Pacific ocean on a cruise ship.

Hey, I've been a passionate supporter of RSSC, but if I will not be happy if this is true.

Likely to be true and not likely to be fixed until she goes into dry-dock again ( think they've said March 2007?) If it could have been fixed without a dry-dock, they would have done it by now ... :(

Masaki

Well, it's 2:30 in the morning and I can't sleep. I don't know how long this has been known about, but I sure didn't know that what happened in Alaska was going to affect my cruise so significantly. I certainly didn't plan on going all the way to French Polynesia to spend 12 of 19 days on a ship!

I've been trying to look into options, praying there's something available on the PG. If the Gods are smiling on me, I would love to be able to do the back-2-back cruises on Dec 2-13 and 14-20, which would get me to all the islands I want to visit. The only problem (provided they even have availability) is that I've already purchased our flights to Auckland, NZ. Crap!

With all of the weeks and hundreds of dollars I've spent learning how to scuba dive, all so I can go on the spectacular dives in FP, I'll be devastated if the two best dive ports are lost. It wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't worked so hard to get my advanced certification, just so I could go on the advanced dives in Rangiroa. I've been out every weekend for weeks, as well as a number of nights...in fact I'm exhausted from diving all day yesterday, and I'm going out on Tuesday and Wednesday as well. All for a port that my cruise isn't even visiting! I can't believe this.

I feel your pain. Maybe you can do a trip to the Tuomotus separately at some point, a land trip. Then you could dive to your heart's content. It sounds like this passion you have will outlast a single cruise. Is there any way your NZ flight could be changed, or altered? Or could you just turn it into a trip to NZ, and skip the Mariner? Then you could do FP separately.

I would change the trip to the back to back, and then ask them to send a letter stating why you had to, and go to the airline with that.

What amazes me more than anything is the fact they haven't notified people in advance so they can change plans if they want or cut the price of that cruise based on two less ports. I think it's horrible that you book a cruise based on ports, and they are dropped with no notification!!!

In my eyes, this is not the service of a six star line.

Leeanne, I can only imagine how disappointed you must be.

Yes, LeeAnne, several of us here understand completely about missing out because of the Mariner's pod situation. We were on MUSH and missed out on Denali because of it.

I'm calling B&K right now. Wish me luck.

Well my rep is out right now...they said they didn't know anything about this. I did read about the mess on Mush -- I felt so bad for you all. I'm happy that at least you got your cruise in. I just got off the phone with my Mom, and if we can't get on the PG we're going to cancel altogether. This is an enormous amount of money for us, and we really don't want to spend almost the entire time on a ship. We wanted to see French Polynesia, not a cruise ship. If we wanted to just spend weeks on a ship, we'd have booked a transatlantic, which is a helluva lot cheaper than this. I'm about ready to cry here.

Hi LeeAnne,

I can understand your disappointment. I hope that if you decide to cancel they won't ahve the gall to charge you a cancelation fee!

LeeAnne,
Two thoughts. First, regarding Air, does the carrier with whom you booked also serve Tahiti? If so, they might be able to "credit" your Auckland purchase price to your new flights? Second, I know it's not the same time, the 19 May and 3 June itineraries on PG include Fiji...one of the best dive spots in the world as well as Aitutaki (another dive Mecca)plus Bora Bora, Moorea, and Taha'a (with motu Mahana). If you really want diving you can do a pre or post in Fiji at one of their "dive camps" fairly cheaply and knock down some serious diving.

LeeAnne,
With all the emotional energy that goes into planning a cruise, I can certainly understand why you are so upset. Perhaps something even better will come out of this!! I hope Regent compensates you in some way!!
Good luck!!
Sheri

Thanks for all the empathy...I need it right now. I just got off the phone with my Mom, and she's in tears. We've been talking about and planning this cruise for so long now, and to have it all just blow up like this...she does not want to go on a 19 day cruise that only visits 5 ports. This may very well be her last big vacation, and we were looking at this as the trip of a lifetime. Now this. We've decided we're definitely not going to go on it -- it's just not worth this kind of money to spend almost the entire time on the ship. For this kind of money we could visit some amazing places.

I haven't heard back from B&K yet, but I did call Regent directly and they are being really great so far. They are trying to book us on the PG Dec. 2 11 day cruise, which visits all the ports we were supposed to visit, plus a couple more. Shorter cruise, but that's fine...maybe we can do a pre or post, I don't know. That is, if we can get on at all! They said it was waitlisted...but they are trying to do something and said they will call me back. Meanwhile I don't know what to do about our plane tickets to New Zealand...that's a LOT of money too.

Well I'll keep y'all informed. :(

Keeping my fingers crossed that all works out for you and your Mom! Was your air thru Regent or did you purchase on your own - if you got it thru Regent they should be able to make the changes if you get on the PG.

Naturally we purchased our own. :( It was several hundred dollars cheaper buying it ourselves. And of course it's non-refundable.

ITA shows Air New Zealand flying into Papeete. Once you confirm a PG cruise, they should change your flights. They will probably charge you a change fee but that's not usually a huge amount of money.

Good Luck LeeAnne! I feel your disappointment and hope it all works out for you with the PG!

Lemons out of lemonade! It appears that everything's going to work out. Not perfectly -- the cost for the flight change is astronomical -- but we ARE getting on the PG! YAY!!! Susan at B&K is just a gem, she has been scrambling tirelessly for me, and pulling all kinds of rabbits out of her hat.

So here's the deal. Since we'd already purchased our flight from Air New Zealand, what we're doing is keeping our original flight from LA to Auckland, spending several days there, then flying Auckland to Papeete. We'll then board the ship for the Dec. 2 PG cruise, 11 days that include the Marquesas. The best part is that it includes Rangiroa, which is the one dive spot that I REALLY want to do! It's the main reason I've been killin' myself trying to get my Advanced Open Water certificate before we go, because it's the only port stop that has those advanced dives that are supposed to be some of the best dives on the planet.

The costs are going to end up being similar to what we were paying. Naturally the lower categories on the PG are sold out, but we managed to get a D. The only other issue is that the cabin doesn't have twin beds, and I'm taking this cruise with my Mom. But Susan managed to get us a cabin with a pull-out love seat, so we'll have two beds after all!

There are down sides to all of this...the cost, for one. If I'd booked this trip to begin with, it would be costing us at least a couple thousand less. First of all, since we booked this soooo long ago, we surely could have gotten a lower category cabin for much less. Second, we wouldn't have had to go to NZ at all...we would have just gotten flights to Tahiti. I don't even want to say how much the additional airfare is costing! It's insane...but it was either spend that and go to NZ, or throw away all the money I already spent on non-refundable tickets. I'll spend the extra and take the trip to NZ.

The other downside is just that we have to actually fly home -- we won't have those lovely 8 extra sea days on the ship to cruise to LA. The upside is that we'll get home earlier...not a bad thing since it's right before Christmas.

So B&K has really come through for me here, on really short notice. And I can't complain about Regent -- they were wonderful to me on the phone, immediately contacted my TA, and very quickly found a solution, apparently put me AHEAD of the waitlist to get us a confirmed cabin, and waived the cancellation fees involved in dropping the Mariner and switching the funds to the PG.

I'll tell ya, I'll never again book a cruise with anyone else!

Now I've got to get back to the drawing board in terms of trip planning. We're going to be in NZ a few more days than originally planned, and we're going to have to re-do our shore excursion plans. Not that this is a bad thing...hey, I'm back in trip planning, which I haven't been in for several months. See...lemonade! :D

Thanks again for all the empathy. Man, I'm exhausted! ;)

Congrats LeeAnne!! I am so glad you got it worked out!!!!
:woh: :woh: :woh:

So happy you could make lemonade from lemons. The diving in French Polynesia is fantastic, you'll have a blast!! <img border="0" alt="[vhappy]" title="" src="graemlins/icon_vhappy.gif" />

Boy what an emotional roller coaster. Yes, I'm quite relieved. And very excited! We were originally booked on the PG months and months ago, but we switched to the Mariner mainly so we didn't have to fly home, as it visited all the same islands. But I had some ambivalence about it at the time. First, I was kinda bummed about missing out on the whole PG ambiance -- and we've already spent 12 days on the Voyager, so we knew the Mariner would be a very similar experience. Second, as a diver I would have preferred to dive with the PG dive crew, I've read so much about them, and I didn't know what the Mariner does for the dives (work with local dive shops, I guess). Third, I was definitely bummed out about missing out on the Motu Mahana.

So now I'm back to the PG and looking forward to the whole Gaugin experience...and working with the dive crew...and doing the Motu day...oh, not to mention the extra couple of days in NZ! Yikes, I've got some planning to do.

Thanks again for being a great sounding board. And HIP HIP HOORAY for B&K! (Hey, that rhymes!) :D

LeeAnne Rhymes??? LOL

Glad everything worked out for you. We have been looking at the PG for next year so that I could do some diving, and I will be anxious to hear all about it.

LeeAnne, I'm so glad everything has worked out for you! I had no doubt that B&K would flip over backwards to try to help you. And Regent has every reason to want to see you have the best cruise for the purpose you planned it. Actually, I'll bet that you are going to enjoy it better being with the same dive team from the PG for the whole trip.

The story they are telling us on the Mariner is that the 2 cancelled ports are often eliminated at the last minute at this time of the year because the seas can be too rough to use the tenders. Good luck finding the right weather on the PG.
Jim

Well...I'm trying to take an optimistic view of all this. The weather can be iffy on any cruise, so that's just part of the deal I guess. I hadn't heard that it was likely the Mariner would cancel those two ports...so perhaps this all worked out the best for me in the long run, because I would have been really bummed if we did go on that cruise and they just dropped them. At least by switching to the PG I know I'll be getting a lot more actual time in French Polynesia, rather than stuck on the ship.

Plus, even if the weather is bad we can most likely still go diving. That's the main attraction for me on this cruise anyway. Rain doesn't affect you when you're underwater! <img border="0" alt="[hula]" title="" src="graemlins/hula.gif" />

So are you on the Mariner now, or are you booked to be on her when I was?

LeeAnne: Happy things worked out for you and your Mom - I realize how upset and disappointed you were with your original cruise. Your attitude and B&K's and Regent's helpfulness will provide you with an even better trip!! I will fix a large container of lemonade in your honor!! Your optimism is refreshing .... Joanna

LeeAnne, since Jim has probably gone off-line for activities, I will tell you he is on the Mariner now, and has been great about reporting back to us what is happening! He is very honest in his assessment of what has happened, and so far seems to be having a great time, in spite of the slow down! Just click on his name, and you can find his recent postings since he got on the ship.

If every cloud has a silver lining, I hope this will be yours! Extra dive time is definitely a plus, especially from the PG where you will be with people you know each day. Julie is the resident BK diver, and I'm sure she will give you lots of advice when she returns to the office from Africa, where she is currently probably out of touch as they are at the safari camps now.

Thanks Joanna! I was definitely upset, but I am nothing if not persistent and I'm so relieved that I'm working with such great folks to help me get it all worked out.

Olivia, thanks for the heads-up -- I'll go back and read some of Jim's posts for the history. I'm glad that he's able to still enjoy his cruise. I'm sure I would have enjoyed the Mariner cruise as well, except for the fact that had barely any port stops!

Oh, and Susan at B&K is a diver as well, and we had a great chat about the different dives I'll be experiencing. I'm defintely happy about getting to dive with the PG crew!

LeeAnne, so happy to hear you and your Mom are on the PG. I think your new found "lemonade" is going to work out great!!

LeeAnne,
I'm still on the mariner until tomorrow in Tokyo and will return in Auckland for the last leg. I would have preferred canceling Papeete (I've been there several times) and keep the 2 canceled ports, but guests don't make those decisions. We'll at least get some diving / shorkeling tome in FP. Barry is planning a lot of fun events suring the many sea days to LA so it will still be an exciting cruise and I'm looking forward to it. Sea days are great. After LA, I'll have a 3 week break before the SA cruise and I wonder how many missed or shortened stay ports we'll have on the cruise.....Jim

oops, typos there - the internet is on and off while coming into Tokyo so everyone types fast and skips the proofing.

Now I am getting a bit nervous....I hope that the Mariner doesn't skip any of my Singapore - Sydney ports. We already have a lot of sea days. :(

LeeAnn,

All your hard work scrambling to make lemonade out of lemons, combined with the help of B&K & Regent has paid off & you got PINK lemonade. You will have a great time in Auukland & diving with PG in Tahiti plus home for a happy Christmas filled with unforgetable memories of your trip with your mother,

Jackie

LeeAnne - so glad it all worked out for you. Keep up the optimistic attitude and drink lots of that PINK lemonade, I'm sure you will have a fantastic time and it will all work out to be a wonderful trip for you and your Mom.

Glad to read that things worked out well for you and your Mom on this special trip!

Thanks for all the kind words! We're going to make pink lemonade our drink of choice on this cruise.

Good for you LeeAnne - may I suggest mixing a little something with the pink lemonade? You handled a tough situation with much class!

I'm glad to hear they were so accomodating and it all worked out. I'll be reading every word you write in your seamail as we're thinking of doing Tahiti next year.

Why thank you, Joanna, what a nice thing to say! I'm not sure how classy I looked when I was sitting here crying, tho! :mecry: The person who was truly classy was Susan at B&K, who handled this with aplomb.

Arlene I'll be sure to come online as much as I can to send seamail. I'm so excited now! I just booked the Intercontinental in Papeete for our two nights pre- and one night post. I've been reading great things about this hotel.

My thoughts right now are with the people on the Mariner now, and upcoming cruises...I'm hoping that they aren't going to miss any port stops. I'm thinking that maybe my cruise was just more at risk of losing ports because we have so far to go, and even a small loss of speed would impact everything. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for all Mariner travelers.

Glad it is all worked out. LeeAnne I mentioned Julie as the dive expert, I think you have it right that it is Susan! Sorry. Oh how I hope you and your mom will have a great experience in the FP!

Yes, LeeAnne, you have been a class act through all of this in my mind!

Thanks LeeAnne!!
I hope you have a fantastic time!! I KNOW you will. You are going to some really beautiful places. I am dying to hear how your dive experiences are. I have always wanted to scuba dive, but have never taken the time to get certified. Perhaps I can live vicariously though you!! :)