Imagine Cruising do not fully and fairly disclose

<p>Imagine Cruising booked us on the MSC Grand Voyage from Venice Italy to South Africa departing Venice on 8 Oct 16. Perfectly handled. During July my brother (with his wife), our travelling companions on the cruise was diagnosed with cancer requiring severe chemotherapy followed by surgery. They were compelled to cancel their cruise.</p> <p>We were devastated and no longer desired to do that cruise without them. We approached Imagine Cruising and requested an alternative cruise holiday PROVIDED that we would not incur any penalties.</p> <p>Edwinah, from Imagine Cruising, called us and proposed a cruise with Celebrity Cruises, (a transatlantic to Miami USA) departing Italy on 21 Oct 16. Flights with Emirates to Rome could be conveniently amended and Edwinah confirmed there were NO PENALTIES / CANCELLATION COSTS. She further advised that there were only 2 ocean view cabins available and that I was required to pay an additional amount of R13780 that very day to secure the booking.</p> <p>A couple of days later I revisited the events and discovered that when I simply took the Emirates airfare and added that to the published Celebrity Cruise cost (both costs are readily available on the web) that there appeared to be a CANCELLATION PENALTY OF OVER R30,000</p> <p>On the Emirates site a flight to Rome is R4432 per person. The Celebrity site (I cannot believe that Imagine would do anything other than book directly with Celebrity Cruises ie no intermediary margin) The Ocean View Cabins, not a last minute special, are approx $1100 -- let's say $1500 to allow for not being 'lowest grade'. Allowing a punitive exchange rate of R15=$1 this is R22,500. The total for one person (rounded up) R27,000, for 2 =R54,000. Allowing for an agents (Imagine) commission or a booking fee of 10%, say a further R6000..</p> <p> </p> <p>Let the total be R60,000 for 2 persons sharing. I paid R98,478. My contention is that MSC (or Imagine) app**** a cancellation fee, typically the deposit on the cruise which was R36,000 would be lost as a cancellation fee. It appears that this app****?</p> <p> </p> <p>I requested Imagine Cruising to honestly disclose the 2 costs and remedy the error. The matter was escalated to Ronvin the Customer Service Supervisor who initially advised that I could not expect to NOT suffer penalties. I insisted that that was a specific condition of my holiday change. He excused himself from the conversation, returned and advised that MSC had waived the cancellation fee and that I had suffered NO PENALTIES. He however refused to provide the cost breakdown (Emirates + Celebrity) asserting that I had accepted a package cost and he had no duty to disclose, could not and would not! The change was specific to me and customised accordingly. I am entitled to a full disclosure.</p> <p> </p> <p>I remain firmly of the view that Imagine Cruising have app**** a cancellation cost of over R30,000. I have been unfairly prejudiced.</p>