Sea Day – Apr 6

Sea Day – Apr 6

Wow, there is sunshine today! Still cold, but nice to see the sun! Coming back from breakfast we ran into Tom & Cathy and Cathy and we both had on our Komodo Island free t-shirts.

I spent the morning updating all the changes made to a few of the next 7 ports. All confirmed and got Guide’s names on some. Other than Sorrento/now Naples, the rest were just some admission costs that increased etc. The tours have been more high maintenance this time around, but I guess post-Covid it was to be expected. (and weather affecting stops etc.) Luckily, I have a great group of travel friends that are very “go with the flow”. We all realize travel is an adventure and sometimes “ship happens”.

For the first time in hundreds of tours we have a couple that appear we will not get refunded for missed tours due to not making port. San Juan del Sur was just a deposit, but the Darwin bird guide was paid in full. That one has turned into a real pissing match. He went from responding to Greg to not at all. He said he either lost his phone and or his PayPal account was too messed up to use. (the way we paid him) So, he told us we needed to sign up for WISE another international way to make payments. While on a cruise with slow internet it wasn’t easy, but Greg got it done. (while on our India over-land off the ship) It included putting money into the account to make sure it worked and then taking it backout. That is the only transactions we see. The guide said he sent a link, and we took too long to collect the money. (so, simple solution why not resend the link?) However, when Greg tried the link, it just said it “failed”. WISE says that the guide needs to show proof it was sent which he refuses to do. Then it got weirder. He blamed us for not being able to get the refund and said he was going to contact his attorney for us destroying his company name with a review that stated we are not able to get a refund. At the time, he no longer was returning emails. He said he was traveling in Europe and needed a secure connection to resend the link and said it would be another 2 months. I said, we aren’t at home either and managed to set up WISE and it’s taking a lot of our time and slow internet minutes with trying to recoup the loss. Then a flurry of emails came; each one just sounding weirder and weirder with his excuses. It appears to us that he just bought this business from the previous owner and is flailing at the business side of it. He may or may not be a good bird guide and I guess we will never know, since next time we are in Darwin we will find someone else.

We had lunch upstairs which was good and it’s another formal night without exciting food in the dining room so we will not dress up and go to the buffet for dinner.

The show tonight was a Production Show called Simply Broadway. It was OK, 4 singers and some very different Broadway songs that aren't normally included, except for Music of the Night from Phantom.

Back to the cabin to prepare for tomorrow, which should be around 63* which should feel like a heatwave after yesterday.

I have added the link for Colombo, Sri Lanka to that blog post.