Thanks for cheering up a wet Monday morning Donefor and hello stranger to Allisu!

Shade4321,

Have a super cruise at the week-end - and don't forget to let us know how it goes. We'll all be waiting!

Have fun,

Cruiser

hi everybody

methinks your disguise has been rumbled donefor

vivien

Good Evening Vivien

disguise has been rumbled

What is there a camera on this machine ( I hope not I'm just out of the bath and my flat is very warm so..........) ye Gods you can trust no one these days. no wonder a certain 3 always know what I'm upto.

Donefor, I have and thats for sure.

Whats happened to Marcus and the Court case ?

Whats happened to the protest ?
(Perhaps the D.E. read the site and the thought of amoretto Viv and Jean (or was it Joan) on their door steps was enough to make them capitulate, after all Asian Babe has nothing on this pair)

Well at least a good company is now alocating the cruises at long last, at the rate they are going though we may be into Olympic year before they are all allocated. seems that the 'nacys' are playing again tonight, must upset the corrie fans.

I also see from the paper that the cruise liners are losing out, Carnival who own P & O as well as the bucket shop ship Queen Mary are sinking. I wonder if the curse of the D.E. has hit them.

Very slow site wheres the promised tanker Juro

Donefor PJM

Good Evening
What happened to the Europian Directive on Working Hours
I've been on watch since Wednesday, its now Saturday Evening even good old Cpt Bligh didn't insist on Mr. Christian and the crew doing these hours on watch -
what a lonely shift this is and not even a sighting of Juros tanker wizzing past on the M4

Has everyone gone on a cruise

If you have I only hope you are having better weather than Vivien and I (she just rang) are having. Talk about water shortage - they should bring back the Minister for drought.

I got caught out toniight by Number 3s fella he was here when Viv phoned, he arrived at about 17.30 left at 19.50 he is one of those that can not take a hint (a bit like the 'wonderful 3) 'pass the sick bag Alice' (they who think they should be obeyed they may be looking in)

No there are no prizes for naming the person or the paper who coined the phrase).

Opps shooting star just gone across the sky, oh sorry just the late easyjet arriving from some distant sunny clim.

nite nite

Donefor

Donefor..I am here and the wine tanker is on it's way over the bridge as I type!

hi donefor,enough water around to make the hose pipe banjust a memmory!!!!my pond is full to overflowing i have to bail out my cruiser,and have just decided as its so wet a bottle of wine is called for might as well be wet inside too .!!!!!
any news any one on how the court cases are going?do we know haw many people have had cruises this year?i dont think any of us thought it would all be going on so long,but at least there seems to be moovement now.
how i would love to be going on another one. oh well i can dream...........carol

Hello all,

Im one of those 'returnees' to this site who is still waiting for cruise news. Im glad that the cruise store have now taken over and that the DE are sending them lists of people who still havent had their cruises.

Marcus -

There were 4 of us that applied and as of yet not one of us has received a ltter or a phone call so you can add us to your list. I am willing to wait a little longer after that i will be a bit more persistent.

Rabi

Dear All,

Apologies for the lack of postings recently. I wanted to completely resolve the legal action with the DE before saying anymore. I assumed that the DE monitor the site, and this has been confirmed in conversations I have had with the DE Legal Department.

I applied for 4 cruises back in 2004, and had 3 Med and 1 Caribbean cruise confirmed. I like most others wrote and rang the various organisations involved. I also contacted the Advertising Standards Authority, (who made several rulings against DE), BBC Watchdog, and also the proprietor of the DE. I still got no where, hence taking DE through the small claims court.

I had a court date of June 10th, which was then brought forward by the court to May 16th. It was shortly after this that the DE Legal Department contacted me to resolve the matter. I was told that all 4 cruises would be honoured, though the Caribbean cruise was proving difficult to source. I challenged this as there are 1000's of Caribbean cruises immediately available through the web. To compromise on this it was agreed that I could take all 4 cruises at the same time, thus taking my partner and her children.

I was offered a cruise, I forget which now, but it didn't appeal so I declined. The DE Legal Department were very amenable and as I had particularly wanted to go to Egypt, sourced a Red Sea Magic cruise in Feb on the Thomson Celebration. I also managed to negotiate a few other items, such as upgrades etc, though I wouldn't bank on these being automatically offered.

I was then asked to sign a confidentiality clause, which I declined. (I wonder if this is what has happened to others who have stopped posting on the site??) I made it clear that I was also interested in assisting all the others that were still waiting for their cruise, and presented this as an opportunity to the DE to do the right thing and contact all those still waiting. This didn't go down well and the individual in the DE Legal Department refused to discuss it.

It was getting very close to the court date and so there was a fair amount of urgency to get the matter resolved. I still refused to sign the confidentiality clause, but did want the matter ratified by the court. I was in London the day before the court date, and so popped into the DE offices on Lower Thames St in London. The meeting was civil enough, though it became frosty when I asked if the DE would discuss dealing with the others still waiting. I again brought up the matter of this website, and the meeting concluded that I would take whatever course I chose, but the DE would not discuss it. They were even concerned that I was recording the conversation, which is a sad indictment of how cynical the whole thing has become.

I am delighted to have resolved this fiasco so successfully, and am so looking forward to the cruise next Feb, esepecially with the various additions I negotiated. This has now been confirmed in writing by the cruise store, ratified by the court, and I have received a cheque for my costs.

I learnt as others have that the Cruise Store get a lits of 100-150 every 6 weeks or so, and are working through the list. I do actually belive that most will eventually get their cruise, though wonder how long that will take. I did say to the DE that I wold be advising individuals watching this forum to take legal action, as in my experience this was the only way I got a response. Going through the small claims court was very simple (took half an hour on line), and all of my costs were paid by the DE. Sad that this was the only option I felt was left to me, but ultimately very fruitful.

One thing that made a big difference to me was that I enjoyed the challenge of taking on the DE giant, so it was easy to channel the energy into confronting the injustice. Best of luck to those still waiting, and let me know if you have any questions.

All the best

Marcus

Good Morning
The rain may be coming down like stair rods where you are but get out celebrate in the by 'Dancing in the Street' :pele :pele (ahhhhhhhhhh their back) I dare you to in your swimmers Marcus is an insperation to you all

He did it, YOU can

I am not Donefor

For as soon as I finish my Post Grad course at Sheffield, I shall start to recover my excesive costs that I have incurred, including 67 phone calls.

Come on shake a leg by the way a hear a ding or was it a dong.
Donefor

hi to you ..marcus... ..may i say well done to you ,.it shows what you can do if you stick up for you self......suberb..marcus...regards..john-doe

Congratultions Marcus! Your persistence has paid off in spades! I am still a tad confused! Did you actually go to court or did the newspaper settle? Are you allowed to tell us what the judge said?

Here's hoping the newspaper fulfils the wishes of those still waiting! SOON!

Magsy,

I negotiated the deal with the DE and then sent a 'conent order' to be ratified by the court as extra insurance. Neither I nor DE attended court, which was a major saving for DE, and not required from my perspective as I had got what I wanted.

Long live persistence!!

Marcus

marcus,welldone it sounds as if you have had an excellant result plus youenjoyed taking on the bigboys!!!!!!!i am sure you have given people food for thought.do you do negotiating in your proper job??
i hope we here that others are encouraged to follow your steps.
carol its sunny!!!!!!!!!

Carol,

Interesting question! I'm a consultant and coach, and have trained negotiation skills in the past, though must admit never thought twice about the strategy... maybe its just second nature now. One of the reasons I want to go back to Egypt is because that was the first place I remember haggeling as a kid when I was lucky enough to go on a school cruise on the SS Uganda, so the Red Sea Magic cruise will be nostalgic for many reasons.

Hope it has helped others, as it would be a shame to give up on what was an incredible deal. And just remembered that they also waived the £10 original fee, and of course the £35 fuel charge as this wouldn't have applied any way if the cruise had been offered in the right time frame.

Off for a long weekend in Amsterdam, so be curious to see what thoughts others have when I get back on Monday.

All the best

Marcus

Congratulations, Marcus. I hope you and your family have a fantastic time on your thoroughly well deserved cruise. I also hope the Daily Express have had a good fright and will now speed up the allocation of cruises. There is hope for the cruiseless!!!

Way to go Marcus thats great you have your cruise booked - and one that suits you - I do think most of the cruises will eventually be met in the end, its awful just how long this has dragged on (i say most as some must of given up by now, or those who dont know of this site for support)

Cant believe its fast approaching a year since my cruise - i was wondering how others were getting on and do pop in here occasionaly to see............seems such a long time since i started the thread that got removed due to legal reasons! Still remember getting my call on christmas eve 2004 to book!

Hope others stick with this and get their cruises in the end.............

Alison

Power to the People!!!!

Hi Marcus
Well done you!! I am still waiting for my second cruise, the lady at DE said she would put me on the list for Cruise Store but I havent heard yet. I am certainly going to keep on at them until I get my cruise, even if that does mean Court action. You have certainly given us all fuel for the fight.
Thanks for keeping us informed
Raych
And hello Alit nice to hear your still watching.