Congratulations Raych, that's wonderful news. Not too long to wait now.

Well just an update! I wrote to the DE about 10 days ago asking where my cruise was. Well today i actually received a reply stating my application had been validated i njust have to be patient while they delve througe the backlog, and i can expect to hear from them in a few months as if the saga has gone on long enough. Will keep you updated

Article in the April 7 Guardian (Money section) all about how the DE are settling out of court to claimants. Search for "Express readers' offer hits the legal rocks" on the Guardian.co.uk website.

You can read the full article here :-

http://media.guardian.co.uk/express/story/0,,2052733,00.html

You may have to register (for free) to read it.

Hi Trisantona
Thanks for that link it makes interesting reading. Also it says will have their legal expenses reimbursed. My Cruise Offer letter does not mention my court costs whereas Wallecan and I think Pmad's does, I'm hoping they just forget to put it in the letter but I rang the court for advice and they told me not to advise the court my claim was settled until I'd resolved this with The DE. I've now emailed and written to The DE's Solicitor asking if they are going to cover the fees and that I'm not going to settle my claim with the court until this is resolved

On a lighter note Wallecan should be sunning himself in the Red Sea just now.

The Guardian article should finally persuade anyone else who hasn't claimed to do so now.

Cheers

Richard

How did you get on brett? I hope you got good news.

First a reminder of where I was at. I received a rejection letter and so made a court claim. The claim of course was for money, not for a holiday. I looked up the price of a basic cruise. These are always for twin share, so my guess was that a cruise company would charge more or less double for a single traveller. I therefore more or less doubled the lowest price I could find for a one week cruise in the Med.

The Express did not contest the claim so the court awarded judgement to me. The Express then contested this and this is what the court case was about: they wanted to claim to have the judgement set aside. If they had suceeded with this, we would have had another court case on a different day to hear the actual case.

In the meantime the Express offered me a cruise, but none of the dates were convenient. So I decided to press ahead with the court case.

The Express phoned me and offered me a cruise again, but I said I was going to go ahead in court. I was totally determined. I wanted money and not a holiday.

I have to be careful what I say next. The case did not come to court but I cannot tell you why because I signed an agreement not to discuss the details of the dispute or of the settlement publicly.

Everything before the settlement was public knowledge, so that is why I can repeat what happened up to the moment of the settlement. You will have to guess what the settlement was, but you can note that I was determined to go to court to claim money and that I then agreed to the settlement. You will have to guess whether I achieved all I wanted!

Thanks to all of you for your postings and to some of you for letters etc. you sent me. That kept me going and I hope you all end up with a good settlement. I think that the tide has turned and that at last things are going well for some, and hopefully for everyone.

Well done to everyone whose claims have been settled before going to court. It certainly is a well-deserved result.
The interesting thing, though, apart, I think, from one circumstance, all the out of court settlements have been for people whose claims were rejected as invalid. I wonder what will happen to those of us whose claims have been acknwledged in writing as valid and told to "wait a few months". I still feel we can't take the case to court as we haven't complied with the DE and waited those few months. The question would be, what is reasonable as far as a few months is concerned.

Congratulations Brett!! Well done on battling till the end and not giving in. Another success!

luci

The Daily Express clearly do not want to go to court. If one person wins a case then it would mean that they had to pay everyone. Like the Banks they do not want a case tested in court. No doubt everyone would be only too pleased if they were prepared to put their hands up and settle. The sooner the better! I think you have all been incredibly tolerant to wait so long. If you take a cash settlement then you can spend the money where and when you wish to.
They have made a huge error of judgement and they will have to pay the price for it!

Sue

Wull, i recieved my validate letter in october last year saying wait a few months. I was like you .. how long is a few???? I was at the point of getting up 1 morning in a foul mood and then i would have wrote to them again saying a few months has gone by.. Fortunatly the letter allocating me a choice of 9 cruises arrived before the bad mood and im going on my cruise 19th may so in my case a few months wait was 6 months. This has been a long long wait since the original 2004 and im 1 of the lucky ones im so pleased i didnt have to go through claims or courts i think i would have given up if i had to do that wich is probably what lots of people have done. I would like to thank everyone on here once again for there input and hope to be able to tell you all how fab my long awaited cruise was.

Congratulations Brett,
Its so good to finally get some of our cruises settled. I hope you enjoy your settlement as much as I intend to enjoy my cruise, after waiting so long for it.

Great news to see quite a few of you getting your cruises at long last!

Mrs Wallecan and I have just got back from our Thomson Red Sea Cruise (Egypt & Jordan) and it was excellent, comparing well to the big Cunard liners we have been on recently. I will post a brief review on the appropriate page of HT.

The Red Sea Cruises stops at the end of April when the Celebration moves to the Med. It is back from October I think. If you see this on your list when you eventually get your offer I would recommend it.

Thanks Redo Richard for the text - it was the first thing I got when I switched the mobile on when we reached the airport in Egypt, which was nice.

Well done Brett - I think we have worked out what you were offerred

Good luck everyone.

Another success Story!
Following advice from Raych I sent a letter to the Express legal department (with copies of various letters) giving them 14 days to offer me a cruise or else I would make a claim through the Money Claim Online web-site.
I got a letter today with a choice of 7 cruises and have booked one for the 16th June on the Island Star. The itinerary is Palma-Sicily(Messina)-Italy (Naples and Livorno)-France(Toulon)-Spain(Barcelona)-Palma.
I was intending going alone but, as my wife wanted to visit Italy this year anyway, she has decided to confront her phobia about cruising and come with me. Of course that all adds to the cost (including upgrading to an outside cabin) but at just over £500 for the two of us itś still cheaper than the last-minute prices for the same type of cruise on the Island Cruises web-site (around £550 per person).
By a strange coincidence I happened to take a picture of the Island Star in Palma harbour when we were on holiday there last September.

Congratulations Ivan and thanks for letting us know.

Look forward to your review on your return.

luci

Another success, well done IvanM.

You say you followed Raych's advice, but which letter had you been sent, were you validated or not? A brief outline of what documents you sent may be useful, also did you send the letter addressed to the Legal dept or did you have a name??

Based on the latest settlements we had decided that this week we were definitely going through the small claims route, now just wondering if we should follow your example. Any advice would be appreciated, if necessary you could pm me.

Best regards
Kate

I was one of the people who had been allocated a cruise (to Libya) which was then cancelled. I was told (by telephone) that I would get allocated another cruise in 2006 but it never materialised.
After several letters to the DE I finally got a reply say my claim could not be validated and no further correspondence would be entered into.
I had intended taking legal action there and then but decided to wait and see what happened to other claims on this forum. Raych suggested writing to the Legal Department at DE first as this had worked for her.

I wrote (enclosing copies of all the letters I had received re the original cruise offer) to:

Legal Department,
Daily Express,
The Northern & Shell Building,
Number 10 Lower Thames Street,
London,
EC3R 6EN

I think it's worthwhile trying this first - you can still take the legal route later if necessary.

Hi Luci HT & Ivan M

As stated in my previous login, I received my validation letter approx 7 weeks ago and then the confirmation letter last weekend.

I did not proceed with legal action, but it got very close, I am so excited having never cruised before.

They offered 5 itineraries, I have chosen the Island Cruise on the Island Star departing in June, ports of call are: Messina in Sicily, Naples, Livorno,
Toulon France , Barcelona and then back to Palma, I have upgraded my cabin to a sea view and payed the extra to fly from Luton.

I will let you know how it went on my return.

To all those still waiting all I can do is wish you the best and hang in there,
my offer has taken me nearly three years.

Regards

Botoxman