Greek Island Cruise ms H & B
Jul 21st, 2006, 03:32 PM
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Greek Island Cruise ms H & B
We recently took a 7 days Greek Island cruise on the m/s H&B I motoring yacht out of Piraeus, Greece. 20 passengers onboard - could accommodate up to 40. Problems plagued the ship from the start. Foul odors from the bathrooms and showers that contaminated the sleeping area non-stop. Virtually no hot water (so how were the dishes sanitized?). We were given a rating sheet at the end of the cruise - nobody rated the ship above a "Poor" category. Several asked for refunds. Trips were booked through Viking Cruises in the USA and Nexus Cruises in Greece. Neither responded adequately to complaints other than offering a weak "canned" response that the passengers were the problem for putting things in the toilets that were not allowed. This is absolutely not true - the odor was present immediately upon boarding. Complaints were made to crew members, the Captain, and the tour manager who was onboard the entire trip. They all kept responding - "We are fixing the problem." It was never fixed. Additionally, if you visit the Viking Cruise web page, they list under "Impressions" supposed newspaper and magazine articles praising their trips. Most of these are actually advertisements placed by them to hype their cruises. We cannot see how this ship passed any type of Inspection by the Greek Ministry or Coast Guard. A partial refund would have placated most of the passengers. The islands were fabulous, the food traditionally Greek, the crew friendly, and the Captain available - too bad the ship did not meet expectations.
Jul 22nd, 2006, 03:57 AM
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Same thing happened to us onboard the M/S H&B I. There are actually two ships, the H&B I and H&B II. We thought we were booked on the H&B II - the newer ship, but when we arrived we were on the H&B I and were told that the H&B II did not pass inspection by the Greek Ministry. Our trip was in May of this year. We got the same "canned" response from our agent. We do not recommend the H&BI as it does not meet normal American standards. A seweage smell in the bathroom and sleeping area the entire length of the trip coupled with no hot water does not make time onboard pleasant.
Jul 23rd, 2006, 01:56 AM
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We took this cruise last year. The room and bathroom smelled like a latrine for all 7 days. Passengers slept in the lounge/dining room to get away from the terrible smell. We also asked for a refund. Response was the same. If you can't trust your Travel Agent to look out for you, what are the alternatives? We have told all our friends and anyone else who asks about our trip to avoid the m/s H&B I or II - People who ask are potential passengers and every passenger they lose cannot help their business. These people need to learn some PR in handling such problems. We have not heard since of even one sailing that was sold out - usually less than 20 are onboard. We suspect the H&B II was sidelined and did not pass Inspection because of this problem. The H&B I should also be sidelined. We definitely would never recommend them.
Jul 23rd, 2006, 07:07 AM
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We have been invited to make a slide presentation and travel talk about our trip, as well as write an article for publication in the Travel Section of most US major newspapers. Thanks for the other posts. They substantiate our claim regarding this ship. Anyone else who would like to contribute, leave your email address and we will contact you.
Jul 23rd, 2006, 02:25 PM
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Thanks a million...we had almost reached the decision to book a cruise on this ship....sounds so great on their website..the idea of bathroom odors in the cabin totally turned us off......and I need and expect a hot shower every day....how can they get away with this ... we will look elsewhere.
Jul 24th, 2006, 06:13 AM
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The odor problem still has not been fixed. Problem existed on June 2006 cruises as well. Crew well aware of odor problem attempting to disguise it with room deodorizers and keeping the teeny portholes open all the time despite that the air conditioning is also running. Has anyone had lingering health problems as a result? (Email me details if you have been affected.) Several were sick on our cruise but we passed it off as seasickness due to rough and choppy seas. Maybe the illness was due to inadequate hot water in cleaning and santizing the dishes. This ship needs to be inspected again NOW.
Jul 24th, 2006, 10:57 AM
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Will contact ElizabethUSA regarding our health and illness issues while on this trip. Had never connected the dots to unsanitized dishes due to lack of hot water to our illnesses. Had several episodes of vomiting that occured, once even while in port that could not have been from rough seas. Very unpleasant to have to retreat to a sewage smelling cabin and bathroom. Had never had seasickness before and were very surprised when so many got sick at the same time. We have a list of everyone onboard our cruise and will contact each and every one of them to see if anybody has lingering health issues and direct them to this site to post. Thanks for getting this thread going.
Jul 24th, 2006, 12:12 PM
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We echo all that has been said here plus adding a few additional comments. We, too, requested a refund. There were 3 in our party so the latrine odors were in both cabins and we kept thinking they would do something about it. The excuse and response we got from our travel agent upon our return was that it could not be fixed while we were sailing. It's probably not be fixable. For almost $200 per person per day, our expectations were for comfortable and pleasant rooms. Take your money elsewhere - maybe, take the ferries to the islands you want to visit and book a hotel there.
Jul 25th, 2006, 05:52 AM
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Viking Cruises and Nexus Cruises know about this. Passengers have complained verbally, as well as in writing. Basically, they continue to ignore the criticism and pass it off as being caused by the passengers. Evidence suggests there is a serious engineering flaw in the water system that affects the sewage facility and hot water capacity or that water system has been compromised to the extent they cannot correct it without major repairs that they apparently are unwilling to undertake.
Jul 25th, 2006, 11:33 AM
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Ditto all the comments for us. We would never recommend our travel agent who arranged this trip. We will never use that agent again. We both slept in the lounge area whenever there was space. We felt the crew was lying to us when they assured us they were fixing the problem. We tipped accordingly - at least they could have been honest about not being able to do anything. Take your money elsewhere - it is not worth $200 a day to have your space smell like an outhouse.
Jul 25th, 2006, 04:04 PM
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Just received an email from somebody who had planned to book a large group on the H&B. Said they were very close to chartering the whole ship at over $58,000 but have backed out totally. Said to pass her thanks on to this thread. Said there would have been "mutiny" on the Greek Seas if bathrooms smelled and were disgusting.
Jul 26th, 2006, 04:06 AM
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Have any of you who have been on this ship thought of suing your American Travel agents? Seems like they are falsely advertising a ship to be something that it is not - safe, comfortable, sanitary, etc. Why has your Travel Agent not tried to "satisfy the customer?" Travel agents depend on commissions and an unhappy customer means bad publicity and termination of their services. Word of mouth by any and all of these passengers travels very quickly in the cruising world community. I am a Travel Agent and would have done something to appease any customer to keep their business and their mouth shut. A partial refund (my commission, at least) usually works pretty well and is well worth it.
Jul 29th, 2006, 08:50 AM
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There are two commonly known principles of customer service that the management of H&B appears to have forgotten: 1) It costs significantly more to attract a new customer than hold onto an existing one. 2) A customer with a negative experience will share that experience with significantly more people than a customer with a positive experience
Jul 31st, 2006, 05:54 AM
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Yachting - why would someone who is claiming to have taken a cruise as recently as this year and liked it so much that they would go again next year want to make their comments anonymously? Anonymous complaints are understandable. Positive ones are not. If your experience was so positive why not at least leave your email address? We would like to know more - when did you supposedly take the cruise? What cabin were you supposedly in? We never said we didn't like the crew, the Captain, the itinerary or the Cruise Manager. We did say we didn't like the odors in the bathrooms and sleeping quarters. Prove to us that your comments are legitimate and that you were a cruiser and not a travel agent or other person connected with the H&B. Previous comments here can be substantied by the surveys that were completed by past passengers. How a company responds to a written complaint can often determine a longer lasting reputation. So far, the response from them was unacceptable, thus the reason for even starting this forum.
