Lavenderlilly

Details added, thanks.

Wull

I don't blame you one bit for having a moan at the unfairness of it all. I can appreciate your frustration. Everyone should be treated in the same way.

luci

I think this is what is so maddening and is turning many of us to drink and levity is that some people are still being allocated cruises this year and some are not getting a sausage until sept 2006.
Is there a hidden formula to getting a cruise this year or are people who got cruises this year very recently sharing with other cruisers ?
I think it's great that people are getting what they were promised and am delighted if not a little envious but keep on supporting the cruiseless and hope we will soon be posting our cruise details
Judith

Like many others I was recently given the 5 alternatives. I chose to share a cabin in order to get a cruise this year, and I am to be contacted this week with details

I asked if I would be flying from Scotland, but the woman advised that this could not be guaranteed[/i]

Regarding Lavenderlilly's cancelled cruise.Is it because they know what profession she is in that she has got this special treatment.
Why not offer this 10 day cruise to some members who are still waiting for there first cruise.If they can do it for one.They can do it for other's.
As one member said this is not a level playing field,and i agree with him.
Surely this is not fair play by Rise.
I have had my cruise.But i would still like to see justice done,to those members who are still fighting or being offered worthless vouchers.
My MOTTO,is fair play for all.What is good for one is good for another.

William

hi lavenderlilly
Well done, 10 days and great itinerary, did you prebook your trip with Louis direct?

i received a call yesterday that unfortunatly louis were not accepting bookings from rise so that particular cruise was not on..

Jackie, does that mean that you did not have a definate booking with them then. I ask as it gets a bit confusing as some peole refer to "allocated" cruises as "confirmed bookings" which arent the same thing.

Glad you got a good replacement though, well done

WULL, I can feel your frustration and like William71 and others I shall be staying with the forum, until everyone has walked up that gang plank for THEIR cruise.
I have a cruise booked in October sharing with my husband, but I still have issues to be resolved with DE/****/***.

Dizzy

Hear hear Dizzy, me too!

Too right!

(Well done .....slightly envious as I also very much wanted to do Libya but they would not play my game, even if I paid/shared or did a handstand)

I am lucky enough to have a confirmed Med cruise, July 05, £10 only, but that is incidental.....I am sure the only reason most people have got a cruise (including me) is because of the HT/Rise direct link.

The whole tone changed for the better once they knew I was clued-up through being on here. So whether someone has or has not got a confirmation yet, we should continue to work together and be seen to work together until "Every reader" gets the genuine offer of a £10 cruise.

Paying extra, outside of their original, advertised T&C`s should be YOUR choice, not theirs.

There`s a whole lot of bullying going on here when people appear to be susceptible and it makes my blood boil.

Whilst we are not allowed to make specific references to individual employees of the DE/MKM/Rise trilogy, it still seems that some are far more capable and willing to satisfy customers than others.

This, along with the wide variation in `communication skills` account for the contrasting experiences.

It`s almost like they play "Good cop - Bad cop". It must be saving them money somewhere, because it is certainly not contrived to build a database of satisfied customers.

Well done, Jackie for getting the cruise. When I was finally given a booking a couple of weeks ago, there were only two dates - one in May and one in July!

I telephoned about my written confirmation yesterday and to-day there was a message on my machine. It said that confirmation had been sent on the 10th March but they would re-send it to-day by 1st class mail. I told them when I 'phoned that I was sorry to bother them but .... No doubt the original will turn up to-morrow as well.

Maureen H

Lavender Lily how great to get to get a 10 day cruise.it sounds really good i hope we get some news of others doing as well.i wonder how many of the 40,000 have got cruises ?i suppose we will never know.if only all of them had found this site we could have raised the roof..carol.

i wonder how many of the 40,000 have got cruises ?i suppose we will never know.if only all of them had found this site we could have raised the roof..carol.

.....and Van would be out buying a bigger server!

hi there alii
my booking with louis was a confirmed booking and i was awaiting the arrival of the tickets when i received yesterday,s call.

the new offer of the 10 day cruis on the rhapsody is particularly thrilling to me as it means that i can revisit napoli and catania where my maternal grandparents lived. in my earliest contacts with the express and rise i said that although i understood that the take up of the offer was so succesful that it had overwhelmed them i was not prepared to relinquish a trip to libya. the second cruise was allocated to me at random although i am very happy with the outcome i certainly gave no preference to the operator. incidently the same operator who made my original bookings phoned me yesterday and was ,as usual, friendly and helpful..

the fact that i have two booked cruises is nothing to do with my job, although i did see the promotion wobbling some while ago, it lies with the fact that i was able to make contact with "someone at the top" very early on and politely put my case for my two cruises. sadly the sheer number of people now attempting to make contact with someone with the authority to ensure a cruise booking has eroded the shock factor of joe public reaching into the power base of the express group.

believe me if i possed the formula that would ensure a happy resolution for all forum mebers then i would gladly share it.

sorry raych
i did not answer your query. no i have made no contact with louis myself ,in spite of being a recipient of the infamous " do not make contact with louis letter"

with a growing unease i checked out several forums that were raising concerns over the handling of the promotion. I then followed my work formula for trying to alter an official decision for a client, research the facts find the details of the top people most likely to be in a position to alter that situation and politely put the facts to them.

my booking with louis was made by rise aroud two and a half months ago. it was a definate booking i received flight and cruise details and was told that i would receive tickets three weeks before departure
jackie

Tony,

I think you're forgetting a major source of profit: the many people who buy the paper, cut out the coupons, but never send them off.

Also, for the cruise lines, it's an excellent way of filling (preferably off-peak) cabins and introducing people (like me) who would never have dreamed of going on a cruise to the delights on an ocean wave. And getting repeat custom. It's worth their while to give the paper a big discount.

C

The last cruise I had is hard to forget and would take a lot to match. Left London first stop Gibraltar then Marseilles-Genoa=Naples-Port Said-Suez-Mombasa-Tanga-Zanzibar-Dar es salaam-Beira-Lourenco Marques-Durban South Africa four days stay then all ports back to London, did I read that Phil or another person used to work on the cruise ships if so they may have done the same trip. Can Rise match one for me.

Wow Tukumb0,
That was some cruise! How many nights was it?

Hi Jackie (lavenderlilly)

my booking with louis was a confirmed booking and i was awaiting the arrival of the tickets when i received yesterday,s call.

This may be the first "confirmed" cruise to be cancelled as far as I can tell.

The rest of us Louis/Libyan cruisers had "Offers" and itinerary edetails, but not confirmation. "Booking confirmation" by definition should surely make the booking pretty much bomb-proof.

Unless you were misled into thinking that the details you were given, like the ones many of us received, were more substantial than they truly were.

It is somehow perversly encouraging to see, however, that despite your dealing with the `man at the top`, in the end you were treated as deplorably as the rest of us: Leaving it until mid-March to cancel a "confirmed" cruise in April is outrageous.

At least you have ended up with what you wanted.....congrats. on that.

Just make sure all the T`s and I`s are suitably designated before you leave for the airport!

TonyW

Phil's was a confirmed cruise before it was cancelled in January. It has since been reinstated since his visit to the Rise offices.

luci