A WORD FROM OUR EXPERT

Jan’s experience on the Spirit of Discovery was an extreme one that stemmed from Covid which, hopefully, will be much less of a problem now. But such is the nature of seafaring, there is always a chance that bad weather in particular may force a change of itinerary. A ship may need to alter course to avoid a bad storm, or be unable to dock or transfer passengers in high seas.

Because of these uncertainties, cruise operators invariably cover themselves against last-minute changes in itinerary in their terms and conditions and you would not normally be entitled to compensation in such cases. Jan reports that her cruise was so fundamentally disrupted that Saga offered to refund all passengers half the cost and this seems a reasonable gesture to me. I certainly don’t think it would be worth a legal challenge trying to get more.

It would be a different matter if a cruise itinerary was changed substantially after you had booked, but before departure. In that case, you should normally be given the opportunity to cancel with a refund if you were not happy with the new arrangements. Meanwhile, some specialist cruise insurance policies do offer cover for ports of call dropped from the itinerary en voyage. For example, All Clear (allcleartravel.co.uk/ cruise) pays up to £500 (up to £100 per port) for each missed port.

If you miss out on a pre-booked shore excursion because of a missed stop on a cruise, you will obviously be entitled to a refund if you arranged it through the cruise line. But note that if you booked it directly with a local operator, you may find it much harder to get your money back – it will depend on the booking conditions.