Poor Phil, he isn't having his troubles to seek at the moment is he. Get well soon.
luci

Hi everyone
I've just got my tickets for the 18th on Melody!! No upgrade but looks a big room. B034.
If anyone has experience of this room please give me the low down
YEAHHHHH!!!!! It's really going to happen!!!!
Pat

Delighted to hear that. Have a brilliant time

Great news and much relief I am sure! Well done Psychopat!

Hi,

We've also got our tickets for the 18th July- no upgrade - counting the days now.

All we need now is Alitalia cabin crew to cancel their strike.

Jean and Steve.

Phil, here's hoping you have a speedy recovery, we all miss you and our daily dose of laughter. Take care Phil!

First I would like to echo the sentiments of Magsy and others re events in London. I was in London, at Kew Gardens, but we heard nothing until we were on the way home.

How can Rise Travel be in financial difficulties over the £10 Cruise promotion? I thought the DE were funding it!

Shall be thinking of those on the Melody on 18th as I, too, leave Southampton on that day for the Med. We shall be following you to Naples! Has anyone done the trip to Capri on his/her own yet?

Keep trying Maureen from Wales and the others.

Hope you are better soon, Phil. We miss your postings but I am sure the girls are looking after you.

Maureen H.

I don't think that DE were planning initially to finance this project. I imagine the plan was for the DE to promote the scheme,and pay for the advertising, while Rise would actually run the booking side of it. This way DE were hoping to sell many more copies of the paper (and probably get some good publicity out of it) and Rise would make a profit by selling all the upgrades and add-ons.

As it transpires, Rise have lost a lot of money and DE have been left to sort out the mess, with its attendant bad publicity. I don't think we will be seeing this partnership again!

Is there anyone still posting who has already cruised [or is due to go in the next few weeks] and paid more than £10? I just wondered how soon before the cruise they contact you about taking the extra money. When you book a package holiday you have to pay the total about ten weeks before if I remember correctly, so how much notice do you get with Rise?

Hi Maureen,
When I was given my confirmed cruise I had to pay the supplement (£159) immediately and it appeared on my on line banking statement as a pending item straight away. That was of course through Rise.

Sorry, I didn't make that clear, it happened when they called me offering my cruise which I accepted straight away! That was on 7th Feb for a June cruise.

Same here, Maureen.

Once everything was agreed the full amount went straight out of my bank account, back in February for June.

R*** explained that they were handling an offer, and they were somewhere between a travel agent and a promotions company. This meant that on some enquiries I haven't had clear answers either from R*** or MSC (normally you ring your travel agent for info). It'll be interesting to see how DE handle it.

Hi
Same happened here money went the day I got the cruise booked.

Not sure that we can write R***/ M** out of the picture just yet. The Express said they are taking control of the offer and M** in a stock market statement said the same but also indicated that they are still involved.

Express is assuming almost all of the liabilities arising from the promotion.

from http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/men/business/s/165/165043_founders_dig_deep_in_mkm_comeback.html
If that report is correct they could have saved a lot of money by just booking every one on a cruise at internet prices

I wonder if the Express know about the M** travel page
http://www.mkm-promotions.com/options_travel_cruises.html
its still there showing £10 cruises