Cunard Line, Queen Elizabeth, Australasia Review

Queen Elizabeth, Australasia

Cunard allowed to get all the way to Australia in order to pick up the ship from Melbourne to tour New Zealand. However they cancelled NZ at 12 hours notice. This was not because of the weather, but because the ship failed to meet NZ marine hygiene requirements. We were sent a choice of excursions to NZ six weeks before and had an email the day before leaving the UK to travel to Australia telling us one of the excursions had been cancelled. When we arrived in Australia we were handed a letter stating that the ship would also now not be doing the NZ fjords. No mention was made of the full cancellation until we had completed the land/ 10 day visit to Australia. It appears that the same ship had also been refused entry for the previous cruise for the same reason and even though they failed to address the issue in the interim period they still advertised the cruise. Customers were given a replacement cruise along the east coast of Australia. Thi included Sydney where we had just spent five days. Cunard offered a 50% cost reduction and on board spending money. However, as our wish was to NZ we were left to make our own arrangements. How can Cunard be allowed to sell a cruise they knew was never going to go ahead? The obviously left customers who had travelled to Australia to join the ship with very little option other than to continue on a trip they felt forced into. We were told 650 guests were affected. Surely there must be a Trade Description of Consumer rights issue here?