ABOUT 1,000 cruise ship passengers received compensation of 600 yuan (HK$768) and US$50 (HK$390) worth of food and beverage coupons after their journey was delayed for eight hours when a disgruntled group on an earlier cruise occupied the ship.
The delayed start to the cruise came after a group of passengers refused to leave the Costa Victoria for 17 hours on 6 February to protest over a missed stop in Halong Bay (下龍灣) in Vietnam (越南).
Leaving Hong Kong late with a fresh batch of 1,000 mainland passengers, Costa Victoria had to cancel a stop in Sanya (三亞), Hainan (海南), and sailed directly to Halong Bay. The ship returned to Hong Kong at about 8am on Monday.
The passengers said the crew had told them the ship would not stop in Sanya and instead sail directly to Halong Bay. A passenger named Lu said the compensation came from a mainland agency.
"The sea journey was delayed [due to the occupation rally]," Lu said. "The compensation is acceptable and it's understandable the ship sailed to Halong Bay directly without stopping in Sanya. But I don't see why those passengers could occupy the cruise."
Another passenger named Chen from Guangzhou (廣州) said, "So far, no passengers expressed discontent for missing the stop in Sanya."
Another passenger, however, criticised the protesters for occupying the ship and delaying their journey.
About 400 passengers staged the onboard sit-in soon after the ship arrived in Hong Kong four days earlier, demanding refunds of up to one-third of their fares of up to HK$18,000 per cabin. Miramar
Travel, which arranged the cruise for half
the original group of 2,000 passengers from Hong Kong, Macau (澳門) and Taiwan (台灣), only offered HK$340.
The ship left Ocean Terminal (海運大廈) on 1 February for the six-day trip to Sanya, and Da Nang (峴港) and Halong Bay in Vietnam. The voyage was uneventful until they reached Halong Bay on 4 February when the Costa Victoria was unable to dock because of a sunken ship.
(The Standard, Eddie Luk, 11 February, 2014)
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