Holidaymakers demand refunds after £2,000 cruise reaches just one country

TUI passengers are demanding their money back after a £2,000-a-head cruise failed to dock in a third of the ports it was scheduled to because of a broken propeller.

The travel operator’s “Rhine Gems” cruise, was scheduled to visit eight cities in Germany, Switzerland, and France on August 26.

However, the ship only reached one country, with 155 passengers on board left stuck in Frankfurt for three nights. More than 100 travellers have joined a messaging group on WhatsApp to demand their money back.

In a video shared on the app and seen by The Telegraph, the captain admitted they were aware of problems before the cruise departed. Before customers embarked, one destination was changed from the German city of Worms to Ludwigshafen, a city four hours away.

In the video the captain said: “We are dealing with this problem every day.”

When asked how long the propeller has had an issue, he replied: “I don’t know exactly. It must have been there [for] three or four weeks.“

More than 40 of the approximately 155 passengers on board have contacted The Telegraph with their complaints.

Passengers have been offered £200 compensation plus a £200 voucher. However, passengers have said this is not enough for the disruption they faced and are demanding full refunds.

One customer claimed that they had paid £4,353 for the cruise for him and his wife. Another said they paid £8,927 for four passengers. Others said that wedding anniversaries, birthdays and even honeymoons had been ruined by the disruption.

The cruise set off in the evening on August 26 from Frankfurt, Germany, from what travellers described as an “industrial site”. The next day the ship arrived in Koblenz for the morning.

At 9am on the third day, three hours behind schedule, the cruise arrived in Ludwigshafen. Travellers claimed their ship was moving significantly slower than other ships nearby.

At a meeting that afternoon, they were told that the original itinerary would be scrapped because the water levels in the river were too low. Instead of three countries, the cruise would now be confined solely to German waters.

Customers claimed that other ships were able to travel further down the Rhine, despite the low water levels. They were allegedly told that the problems with the propeller meant that the TUI Isla could not maintain the speed the river authorities required.

The damaged propeller was putting extra strain on the remaining engine, and causing it to overheat, passengers claimed they were told by staff on board.

Rather than spending the fourth day of their cruise in Strasbourg, they travelled to Speyer for a part day in port, before turning around. The fifth day of the cruise, which was originally due to be spent in Basel, was instead spent in Rudesheim, before the ship travelled on to Mainz. It was supposed to be in Breisach, 275km away.

Both the seventh and eighth days of the cruise were spent in Frankfurt, where the cruise had embarked from originally.

One customer, Ron Mookerjee, 44, who was travelling with his mother, said he wanted a full refund for the stress and anxiety the disruption caused. He said: “I thought I was going on holiday.”

Another passenger said: “The worst part of this is the total lack of responsibility from TUI.” Other travellers said that they felt like “prisoners” on the ship and described the compensation offered as “incredibly derogatory”.

Cruises are package holidays and therefore come under the consumer protections that apply to all types of package holiday. If something is not as expected, and the travel company is at fault, then customers can expect a refund or a suitable alternative.

TUI has a satisfaction guarantee for its river cruises – “love it or your money back” – but says this does not apply to “events beyond our control”, including unavoidable and unforeseen technical problems or low water.

Jane Hawkes, a travel expert, said that under the Package and Linked Travel Regulations 2018, holidaymakers can request a full refund “if unavoidable/extraordinary circumstances occur at their destination or its immediate vicinity which significantly affect the performance of the package”.

She said that the travellers would be able to appeal to ABTA after eight weeks, or that they could consider small court action.

A TUI UK and Ireland spokesman said: “We would like to apologise to customers impacted by the changes to TUI Isla’s Rhine Gems itinerary departing Frankfurt from August 26 2024. The unfortunate itinerary changes were caused by berthing issues and changes to river water levels.”

“We know this was disappointing news so all impacted customers were given a £200 per person goodwill gesture, along with a £200 per person future holiday voucher.”

The propeller has now been fixed.