water leak in cruise cabin - compensation?

Suzifloozi44

We've just returned from a 7 day Med cruise on Emerald Princess. The ship took on a 4 degree list when coming out of port and I was in the wet room shower and the water overflowed the drains due to the list and soaked a large part of the carpet in the stateroom. It was entirely not our fault. This happened on the evening of the 2nd day of our cruise and was not dealt with satisfactorily and in effect spoilt the other 5 days of our cruise. We were offered small compensation on board amounting to about $120 in good (meal, champagne and a bit of on board credit) but I dont feel that is good enough for spoiling 5 days of our 7 day cruise. Anyone any advice on the best way to complain and get some decent compensation?

pinkshoes

Surely you don't spend much time in your room on a cruise???

Their offer sounds more than generous to me.

bris

You took the good food and a bit of credit, deal is done. If you wanted more you should have refused the offer and negotiated.


How could a bit of wet carpet spoil your entire cruise?

PasturesNew

You want compo (which you got spadeloads of) for a bit of wet on the carpet of a cabin, that's not even your home/carpet??

I'm guessing this was the only time you got out.... because, quite frankly, it reads as if you don't get out a lot

Sorry if that sounds harsh, but as somebody who doesn't have holidays and will never get on a cruise, having a holiday allegedly "ruined" over a bit of damp carpet seems a bit of dramatic!

nearlyrich

Which aspect of the wet carpet ruined your holiday? Carpets dry in 12 hours maximum what did they do to upset you when "dealing with it" ?

tomtontom

nearlyrich wrote: »

Which aspect of the wet carpet ruined your holiday? Carpets dry in 12 hours maximum what did they do to upset you when "dealing with it" ?

Damp carpets can be very traumatic. I'd be looking for the cost of reparative counselling. And slippers, several pairs of slippers

stevemLS

And think of the risk to the children who were inevitably involved and have now had their entire lives ruined.

unholyangel

nearlyrich wrote: »

Which aspect of the wet carpet ruined your holiday? Carpets dry in 12 hours maximum what did they do to upset you when "dealing with it" ?

Bear in mind theres a few variables here to be making such a blanket statement. 1) If the carpet was soaked/completely submerged rather than just suffering a spill/being damp from a carpet cleaner 2) What type of carpet - material, pile/thickness. 3) Depending on the cabin/ship, air probably isn't going to circulate as well as a house with windows open - which is why most cruise ships will have equipment to help speed up the process.

ETA: Just realised OP didnt tell us how much they paid per person. I'd expect the damages to be proportionate to that. OP, how much did you pay?

ThumbRemote

I'd have thought a big part of the attraction of a cruise is the 'luxury' element to it. A sub-standard cabin does not fit in with that. Maybe ask for 10% of the cost back?

Goldiegirl

How much water was there?

Being moving objects, cruise ships tend to be designed so that water doesn't easily flow out of bathrooms.

how much of the carpet was soaked? Was it just the part of the cabin near the door, or did it extend into the rest of the cabin?

Did it ruin any of your possessions?

What did they do to put it right?

They generally carry dryers to deal with any water leaks, so didn't they use these?

Did the cabin smell after the flood?

Just asking, as it's not really clear if the whole cabin was inundated, or whether it was just a small patch on the carpet!

daytona0

Well, a couple of things:

1. Were you unable to use any of the room's facilities due to the damage?

2. Did it cause any (genuine) sickness/illness?

3. What proportion of time did you spend, out of those 5 days, in your room? Was it one of those rooms which is probably fancier than the rest of the cruise? I can't imagine that you'd use the room for anything other than sleeping, changing and cleaning! Did your cruise have full facilities such as swimming pools, restaurants, clubs, bars, casinos, kids play areas etc?

4. What about excursions? Did the cruise stop off at any ports?

5. Did you accept the $120 (or the items) at the time?

6. What does the company Ts and Cs say in relation to this sort of situation? Is it conceivable that they might have a clause hiding away to potentially sting you?


You see, the problem you've got is that you may have accepted the goodwill as offered at the time. This would put you in a weak position because any third party will assume that you had accepted their resolution but were now trying to extort more money from them.

Another problem is that the cost of a cruise does not just cover the cost of a room! It includes all of the extras, the use of OTHER facilities and any ports you stop over at.

---

I'm going to do some maths here, but lets assume that your cruise cost X amount in total. You received 120 (taking out currency) in compensation so let us work from that amount...

Assume your room served the function of allowing you to sleep in it, and only the carpet was damaged (full use of room facilities). You are thus due some compensation for inconvenience. I'd say about 30% off because it would be unpleasant, but you still have the room and use of facilities!

Your cruise covers both facilities and any ports you might visit. It seems that you have to pay for food, so it ain't all inclusive. Still, you have full use of ship facilities and any ports you visit. So I'd say that your room worth 35% of the cost of the cruise roughly

Ok and also, it was experienced for 5/7 days which is roughly 71% of your holiday.

So the sum we can make is:

X*0.71*0.3*0.35 = 120

120 / 0.3 / 0.35 / 0.71

= $1609

So just by throwing in some semi reasonable numbers we can see that a $120 goodwill gesture may be fair for a cruise which cost a total of $1609, which isn't unheard of for a party of two!

We could also take the "how much time you spend in the room vs out of it" line in which case your room in relation to the port and on-board facility access may be much lower (20% brings the cruise cost out as $2816).

In conclusion, I love maths (and your compensation may well be completely fair depending on the exact details)