A No Comment From NCL
NCL declined, as a matter of policy, to comment on the pending litigation. However, the company has previously acknowledged service and training problems on the Pride of Aloha last year and said it has taken various steps to correct them.
The ship debuted in mid-2004 as the only large U.S.-flagged and U.S.-crewed cruise ship, and by mid-August, NCL acknowledged it was operating with inexperienced crew members and crew shortages in the dining room.
In an October interview with TravelWeekly.com, Colin Veitch, NCLs CEO, said the low point was during the first two weeks of August.
Seeking to make amends, NCL in August offered passengers who embarked between June 7 and Aug. 15 a 50% refund on their daily service charge and cruise credits worth 20% of the cruise-only portion of the Pride of Aloha ticket, good for NCL cruises booked and sailed through 2005.
Also, any previous Aloha passenger wishing to take an NCL Hawaii cruise in 2005 could book at 2003 prices.
For a period of time last year, customers with future bookings were permitted to cancel their Aloha cruises without penalty. -- N.G.
SAN FRANCISCO --
Passengers on a charter cruise of NCLs Pride of Aloha in Hawaii
last summer brought a class-action lawsuit here against the travel
agency that organized the trip, seeking damages because of an
experience they maintain was way below expectations.
The agency, Blue
World Travel, in San Francisco, in turn, filed a cross-complaint
against NCL, also seeking damages and complaining about a week of
hell that, besides tormenting its clients, undermined a reputation
that the agency spent years building among its primary client base,
the African-American market.
According to
documents filed in the San Francisco County Superior Court, the
agency contracted for two charters aboard the Pride of America in
2003; after that ships delivery was delayed by storm damage at a
German shipyard, the charter was moved to the Pride of
Aloha.
The cruise dates
were Aug. 1 and Aug. 8; the plaintiffs in this case traveled on the
second sailing.
The plaintiffs
alleged that the ship was experiencing severe staffing problems and
that the crew could not provide adequate food-and-beverage service,
cleaning services or safety drills. The ship smelled badly, and the
food was inedible, plaintiffs said.
They said Blue
World Travel knew of these problems during the Aug. 1 sailing and
should have warned them to cancel out of the Aug. 8
sailing.
The suit alleges
the agency violated consumer-protection laws, committed fraud and
breached its contract with passengers. They asked the court for
restitution and damages.
In its
cross-complaint, the agency accused NCL of violating business
practices law, committing fraud and breaching its contracts. Blue
World said NCL should indemnify the agency against such client
claims.
Blue Worlds
complaint includes a nine-page list of customer complaints,
including the following alleged incidents:
Passengers filled
in for crew to take ID photos at embarkation check-in in order to
get the lines moving.
One crew member
handed scissors to a passenger, suggesting he cut up a bath towel
to make hand towels because there were none.
The hotel manager
accused passengers of eating too much, as a way of explaining the
shortage of food.
A food-service
staffer played rap music with unclean language over the
intercom.
Passengers also
complained about staffers ignorance of finger bowls, inability to
pronounce names of wines and failure to properly clean the galley,
bathrooms and public areas.
Safety infractions
also were alleged. According to the court papers, passengers
reported that there were not enough life jackets in cabins, that
crew did not know how to put them on and that no lifeboat drill was
announced.
During the first
sailing, agency President Patricia Yarbrough said she joined the
cruise in an effort to address problems and got assurances from NCL
that the second sailing would have normal full service.
In her suit, she
said that those assurances were knowingly fraudulent, considering
the second sailing was no better.
Instead, Yarbrough
found herself and her staff fielding customer complaints and
performing shipboard cleaning duties, the court papers
said.
After the sailing,
the papers said, NCL represented that it was working exclusively
and confidentially with Blue World to negotiate a compensatory
partial refund of cruise fares.
However, the papers
added, the line without notice to the agency offered each passenger
a refund described as 20% of the agencys net on the charters. The
agency charged that this action usurped Blue Worlds opportunity to
preserve some goodwill with its clients. Also, it charged, NCL
wrongfully and intentionally divulged confidential information
concerning the agencys profit margins -- and the information was
wrong.
Blue World said it
was unlawful, unfair and fraudulent of NCL not to disclose the
situation aboard its ships at the time.
To contact the
reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Nadine Godwin at [email protected].
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For more
details on this article, see "Blue World Travels insurer back on
case."