This is a shock to read this after arrangements were made with ABTA for her to undertake her world cruise.

Where has this information been published as the new company website, which was set up for Van Gogh Cruises, has no information.

I wonder what will happen with the ship unless the owners can arrange a late charter for her until November.

Van Gogh Cruise Line has cancelled 17 ex-UK cruises on Van Gogh citing failure to obtain Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) membership resulting in a lack of new bookings.
‘The main reason given by ABTA for declining our application is our previous connections with Travelscope Holidays and the obvious effect that their demise has had on ABTA,’ said a company statement.

Van Gogh Cruises general manager Emma Ward told Seatrade Insider, ‘The company has the right to appeal but as with the original application this may take some time.’

Following the collapse of the ship’s previous operator, Travelscope Holidays, in late December, owner Club Cruise in conjunction with ABTA stepped in to save the world cruise, which departed from Falmouth on January 4.

Due to the lengthy ABTA application process Van Gogh Cruises has been unable to promote the summer cruise programme and as a result has missed the prime booking period of the past three months, Ward said.

‘After careful consideration’, she added, ‘we took the decision to cancel the summer schedule of cruises upon the return of the ship due to arrive in Falmouth on April 5 following a world cruise.'

In total 17 cruises out of the UK ports of Harwich, Falmouth and Hull have been cancelled. Passengers due to travel on the Van Gogh during this period will be contacted. The company will endeavour to transfer as many passengers as possible to new dates next year; alternatively they will receive a full refund via ABTA of the monies they had paid to Travelscope.

Whilst the vessel is non-operational it will go into dry dock to complete work related with SOLAS 2010 requirements which were originally planned for later this year.

Van Gogh is scheduled to commence cruising on the British market again on November 22 and a new 2008/09 programme will be released later this week, confirmed Ward.

I would have thought that as they are a Dutch company, running a business in UK, they would have been able to join ABTA.

Looks like the connections with the old company are a problem.

There is no reason for the company to be a member of ABTA to operate a cruise ship from the UK.

ABTA membership does offer a cover for passengers fares if a company should go out of business but a levy is paid to ABTA by companies that are members of the organization

Neil ( Bob )

It would be interesting to see a translation to find out where Van Gogh will be cruising.

A list of cruises was shown on the new UK Van Gogh Cruises website which will no doubt mean that berths had been booked at her ports of call.

I am wondering if Van Gogh will now do these same cruises for the Russian charterers and make use of the port facilities that have already been booked as it is not always easy to get berths for cruise ships at short notice.

Cruise № 1 (24.06.08 – 10.07.08)
St Petersburg – Kiel Canal – Аmsterdam (2 days) – Тilbury (2 days) – Le Havre (2 days) / Paris – Аntwerp – Hamburg (2 days) –Kiel Canal – St Petersburg

Cruise № 2 (10.07.08 – 28.07.08)
St Petersburg – Oslo – Тоrshavn – Reykjavik – Аndalsnes – Geiranger – Bergen – Copenhaguen – Helsinki – St Petersburg

Cruise № 3 (28.07.08 – 18.08.08)
St Petersburg –Kiel Canal – Zeebrugges – Тilbury (2 days) – Le Havre/ Paris – Lisbon – Barcelona – Civitavecchia / Roma – Piraeus – Sochi

Cruise № 4 (18.08.08 – 02.09.08)
Sochi – Piraeus – Dubrovnik – Split – Venise (2 days) – Ancona – Bari – Istanbul – Sochi

Cruise № 5 (02.09.08 – 19.09.08)
Sochi – Piraeus – Livorno – Genoa – Nice (2 days) – Barcelona – Palermo – Istanbul – Sochi

Cruise № 6 (19.09.08 – 07.10.08)
Sochi – Piraeus – Меssina – Palma de Mallorca – Nice (2 days) – Cannes – Naples – Katakolon – Sochi

Cruise № 7 (07.10.08 – 24.10.08)
Sochi – Piraeus – Catania – Маrseilles – Sète (Montpellier) – Barcelona – Civitavecchia – Istanbul – Sochi

Cruise № 8 (24.10.08 – 08.11.08)
Sochi – Istanbul – Port Saïd – Аqaba (2 days) – Limassol (2 days) – Аntalya – Izmir – Sochi

24.10 Pt Sochi (Russia) 19:00
26.10 Vs Istanbul (Turkey) 08:00 22:00
29.10 Avg Port Said (Egypt) 07:00 23:00
30.10 Ct Ashdod (Israel) 08:00
31.10 Fri 22:00
01.11 sat Haifa (Israel) 08:00
02.11 Sun 22:00
04.11 W Antalya (Turkey) 08:00 20:00
06.11 Ct Chanakkale (Turkey) 08:00 15:00
Sat 08.11 Sochi (Russia) 08:00

Many thanks for the charter cruises translation.

It looks as if she will be spending longer than usual at some ports which can affect the earnings on board during a cruise.

This list of cruises is a lot different to those shown on the UK Van Gogh website which were mainly to the Northern Capitals, Iceland, Greenland and the Fjords between May and September.

With all the port arrangments being made so quickly I wonder if due to the drop in UK bookings this charter had been arranged some time back and only just announced.

There was a report in the Falmouth newspapers that on her present round the world cruise they had been offering passengers a booking for her next cruise at a greatly reduced fare.

This was a thirty day cruise to the Caribbean, and should have sailed from Falmouth, UK, on the 5th April.

The report also said that those that booked the cruise on board will get a full refund

quote:

---

Originally posted by Neil Whitmore ( Bob ):
There is no reason for the company to be a member of ABTA to operate a cruise ship from the UK.

ABTA membership does offer a cover for passengers fares if a company should go out of business but a levy is paid to ABTA by companies that are members of the organization.

---

An ABTA Membership is not required, but how many times does one hear the 'travel experts', holiday watchdogs and so on repeat over and over 'Do not book with an operator who doesn't have ABTA Membership'.... etc etc as there is no protection in case of failure of the operator. It is not wise to do so and if Club Cruise could not include the membership in their advertising much business, probably the majority, would be lost and many [most?] agencies would not deal with them. It would not be worth it.

The problem may lie with arranging the bond indemnity and goodness knows what figures would be required by Van Gogh Cruises, I wouldn't even like to guess. Coming to an agreement on this could cause a problem too, which is why things can take so long. Once a figure is agreed the bond/indemnity, g'teed or otherwise depending on the indemnifier's requirements, needs to be in place before membership is granted.

Pam

[ 03-27-2008: Message edited by: PamM ]

It appears Van Gogh has been detained in Funchal, Madeira (last time i was there it was Portuguese - take note BBC!) in connection with debts from Travelscope.

[ 04-02-2008: Message edited by: goodclicks ]

[ 04-02-2008: Message edited by: goodclicks ]

"However, she added that Van Gogh Cruise Lines Ltd were not bonded to Abta."

True, but Travelscope were and ABTA said in Dec

""But we decided that as Travelscope did not own the ship involved and this was a very special world cruise that we would - just this once - make plans for the holiday to go ahead.""

So surely they are still responsible for seeing this cruise through as all pax booked with Travelscope under ABTA bonding - whatever the terms of agreement with Club Cruise who must also have been owed money by Travelscope. I also wonder what right the Portuguese Authorities have to hold a vessel in respect of a debt by someone who did not ever own the ship itself? Curious, but I guess we'll never know the ins and outs of this one.

From reports in some of the UK newspapers today it appears this dispute is between the Administrators for Travelscope, the company that went bust, and the Dutch owners of the ship.

The Madeira webcams show the ship berthed near the end of the breakwater at Madeira !

It would not take a lot to move her out to sea !

Glad they have departed anyway, thanks for that.

The Van Gogh docked in Falmouth harbour this evening about 19.00 hrs.

It is not known if passengers will disembark this evening or on Monday morning,

"The sane in Spain are plainly on the wane."

[ 04-07-2008: Message edited by: Cambodge ]

The cruise ship Van Gogh sailed from Falmouth harbour, UK, at 11.00 hrs this morning.

The port information for Falmouth is showing her destination as Bremerhaven.

The owners have said that she would be updated so that she complies with the Solas 2010 requlations.

It is possible she is heading to Bremerhaven to have this work done before the Russian charter which starts on the 24th June.

Neil ( Bob )

[ 04-09-2008: Message edited by: Neil Whitmore ( Bob ) ]