I’d forgotten what ‘fun’ this little side-vacation was, until I recently unearthed this ‘letter of complaint’ I wrote. No further explanation necessary!
9th January 1992
The General Manager,
Louis Cruise Lines,
158 Franklin Roosevelt Avenue
Limassol,
Cyprus
Dear Mr. Michaeledes,
I have just returned from an eleven-day holiday in Cairo, for which I used Louis Cruise Lines to get me from Cyprus to Egypt and back. I feel that I must write to you as a result of the complete farce your company made of my holiday, and the disgusting way I was treated by your staff. Please allow me to explain.
I came to Cyprus for a four-week holiday, and wanted to travel to Cairo, spend one week there and travel back to Cyprus from there, sometime during this four-week period. I went into the Limassol branch of the SUNCARE TRAVEL AGENCY on 17/12/91 and explained this to the representative there. She informed me (after making a telephone call to Louis Cruise Lines to confirm) that I could travel to Cairo on your cruise of 26/12/91, stay there for a week, and then return to Cyprus from Cairo on your cruise of 03/01/92, all for the cost of a single cruise, This fulfilled all of my requirements, so I booked up to do this, and duly paid my £c58.00.
On 23/12/91 I was contacted by a representative of Suncare, who informed me that there had been a mistake, and that the cost of travelling to Cairo on one cruise and then back on the next was not the same as the cost of a single cruise, and that I would have to pay another £c55.00 for the return journey. This, I was told, was basically the cost of an additional cruise. As both cruises were only half-full, I do not really see how this can be justified. However, with only one working day left before the cruise, I did not have time to debate ethics with your company, nor time to make other arrangements. I therefore, somewhat reluctantly, agreed to pay the extra charge.
On 26/12/91 I boarded the Princesa Marissa, bound for Egypt. Please note that at this point, I had effectively paid for two full cruises, one on 26/12/91 and one 03/01/92.
Once on board. the ship, I went to reception only to be informed that my ticket did not include food, as I had paid for ‘transport only’! After half an hour of heated debate and many telephone calls, your staff relented and begrudgingly handed over my meal ticket and my cabin key. I was then informed by the Purser that because I was staying in Egypt, I would have to go through a separate customs procedure, which would take longer, and that I would therefore not be allowed to travel down to Cairo on the tour coach!!! Whilst in retrospect I can understand this, it was not made clear to me by your representatives when I bought my ticket. They had, in fact, told me that I would be able to travel all the way to Cairo (and eventually back) with the tour. At this point your staff offered absolutely no help, and did not even attempt to advise me on how I could get from Port Said to Cairo, nor did they explain what I could expect in terms of customs and immigration in Egypt.
The next day, as I came to disembark in Port Said, I was separated from the other passengers and, feeling like a criminal, was ushered onto a small private boat, where an Egyptian charged £c1 to take me to the Customs House. After one very frustrating hour at customs where no-one spoke English and no help was available, I was deposited on the streets of Port Said, and left to make my own way to Cairo. Being completely alone in a strange country where I do not speak the language, I had no alternative but to hire a taxi to take me to Cairo at a cost of £c25.00.
Once I was in Cairo, I had a thoroughly enjoyable week, despite having to pay £E10.00 admission at each of the Pyramids, the Sphinx ,and the Museum (all of which I had already paid for TWICE as a part of your cruises). It is interesting to note that this is the only part of my holiday which went without incident, and also the only part which Louis Cruise Lines was not involved in!
On 03/01/92 I made my way back to Port Said, to catch the cruise back to Cyprus. Once again, I had to pay for this journey myself. However, when I got to Port Said, I was informed that the Princesa Marissa had not sailed due to bad weather, and was now not due in until 07/01/92. This left me without any money, in a strange country, for a further four days. Fortunately, I managed to get back to Cairo and survive these four days. They were, however, four greatly expensive days for which I had neither planned nor budgeted. I would like to point out that at no time did any of your representatives make any attempt to contact me to inform me that the ship would not be sailing, even though they had the telephone number of my parents in Cyprus, who could have easily relayed any message to me.
On 07/01/92 after four expensive days in Cairo, I made my way back to Port Said once more (paying for the journey myself again!) and finally boarded the Princesa Marissa. It was at this point that the whole farce progressed beyond mere inconvenience. The first person I encountered was the Egyptian Emigration Officer. He took one look at my passport, declared that I needed an exit stamp which I could obtain from the Immigration Office in Port Said, and directed me off the boat again.
I was shown to what I took to be the Immigration Office by a ‘friendly local’ who took £c1 off me and vanished into the night. The office he had led me to turned out to be the Louis Cruise Lines office. The representative there took €c12 ‘port tax’ off me (bear in mind that I had already paid this twice as a part of my two cruise tickets) and then appointed another ‘friendly local’ (who also wanted paying) to show me to the actual Immigration Office.
After half an hour of indifference at the hands of the Egyptian Immigration officers, and having to argue my way out of paying my ‘port tax’ again, I finally had my passport stamped. The Immigrations Officer then assigned a ‘friendly policeman’ (who surprise, surprise wanted paying!) to show me to the Customs House.
After another mile of carrying my luggage, I reached the Customs House and had my bags searched and passed by the Customs Officer. The officer then showed me to a small private boat, and told me that as I had now officially passed through customs this was my only way of getting back to the Princesa Marrissa. I then had to pay the man who owned the boat £c5 to take me there.
I finally managed to get back onto the Princesa Marissa, to be greeted with a wry smile from the Egyptian Emigrations Officer. He seemed impressed that it had only taken me two hours to get the requisite stamp, and cheerily waved me on to what I took to be the Cypriot Immigration Officer.
This man managed to bring the whole bureaucratic farce to a level the Egyptians would have been proud of. Firstly, he asked me if I had any money. When I replied hotly that I only had €c5 to my name, having paid out all the rest of my cash in bakshish to assorted officials, he condescendingly asked me how I intended to support myself in Cyprus, and how I intended to get out of Cyprus again “without any money”. I pointed out that I had a plane ticket back to England at my parents’ house in Nicosia, which was where I would be staying until my return to England on 12/01/92. The Officer refused to believe me, and I had to produce my address book, point out my parents address, convince him that I had not written it in just as a part of this clever ruse to enter Cyprus illegally (!!!), and invite him to telephone my parents before he would believe my ‘story’! He then returned to the question of money, apparently not believing that my parents would support me in Cyprus. When I produced my credit cards, the officer had the audacity to ask me to prove that they were all still valid!!!
Having finally conceded this point, the officer then turned to a computer print-out, and searched for my name on it. When he did not find my name on the list (without actually explaining what the list was), he informed me that ‘officially he should not allow me into Cyprus’!!! After heatedly explaining (yet again) that I had already been in Cyprus for a fortnight, had come to Egypt on the 26/ 12/92 cruise, and just wanted to get back to Cyprus before flying back to England on 12/01/92, he finally relented, stamped my passport, and passed me on to another customs officer.
This customs man, after rummaging through my bags (just in case I had somehow managed. to sneak something illegal into my bags since I had left the Customs House) was kind enough to inform me that one of my souvenir bottles of beer had broken, soaking all of my clothes. Seeing the look on my face, he obviously thought better of questioning me further, and I was finally allowed to make my way to the reception desk, some 45 minutes after boarding the Princesa Marissa for the second time.
I would like to point out here that during the whole of this fiasco, your staff did absolutely nothing to offer assistance or explanation, but in fact stood around watching in varying degrees of bemusement / amusement at the situation. Also, not once did anyone apologise for the cancellation of the 03/01/92 sailing. Although I accept that the weather is beyond their control, just to ignore the great personal inconvenience I had experienced, is just downright rude.
Feeling like a character from Kafka’s ‘The Trial’, I finally reached reception, only to be informed that I was not entitled to a cabin as I was not on the outbound sailing!!! After much arguing, during which I am sure one of your stewardesses made some unpleasant remarks about to me to her colleague (although I cannot be sure as she switched to shouting in Greek for this outburst), I asked to see the Purser. I was told that he was ‘currently unavailable’, and told to go and sit in an ‘Aircraft Type Seat’ until he was available.
Once the Purser had deigned to make an appearance some hour or so later, I had to start my arguments all over again. It was only when I produced my Visa receipt to show that I had paid the full £c56 for a cabin (my ticket having been filled in incorrectly by your representative, and there apparently being no records available) that the Purser conceded, and assigned me a cabin and gave me my meal ticket.
In summary, having paid for two full cruises to Cairo (including cabins, meals, port taxes, transport to Cairo and back and entrance fees to the tourist attractions), all I have received from your company is a cabin and food, and transport between Limassol and Port Said and back. And I have had to fight very hard to get that. In retrospect, I could have flown from Larnaca to Cairo direct with less complications, and with greater convenience, comfort, and ease, for about the same money.
I appreciate that your company is primarily concerned with complete cruise packages, but if you cannot offer simple transport from Limassol to Cairo, then you should not say that you can. I also recognise that the bureaucracies of the Egyptians are beyond your control, but if you are offering the transport service, then you should at least inform your customers what will be expected of them, and also what they should expect from the Egyptian customs and immigration officials.
Your company has reduced my holiday to the point of a complete farce. I am disgusted with the whole affair, and certainly do not believe that your company has earned the money it has charged me. I would like a full written apology, and also a refund in regard of the additional expenses I have incurred, and the fact that your company has not provided me with services to the value of one cruise, yet has seen fit to charge me for two. I await your reply, but feel that I must advise you that if this is not satisfactorily resolved now, I will be taking the matter further.
I can be contacted at my address in England, but my parents, who are resident in Cyprus, are aware of the problems and may be able to answer any small queries you may have. They are also anxious to hear the outcome of this whole sorry fiasco. Their address is XXXXXXXXXXXXX, Nicosia.
If look forward. to hearing from you in the near future,
Yours faithfully,
Dirk Manuel
Obviously I never heard from them again, and I never did “take the matter further”, but it did feel good to vent, and it made a nice reminder some 29 years later!
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