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Grand Circle Cruise Line

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Grand Circle Cruise Line fleet

• MV Arethusa
• MV Corinthian
• MS River Adagio
• MS River Chanson
• MS River Aria
• MS River Harmony
• MS River Rhapsody
• MS River Allegro

Review of Grand Circle Cruise Line

One of the industry's  small cruise companies , GCCL-Grand Circle Cruise Line (gct.com) was established in 1958 as a travel company serving the American Association of Retired People (AARP). Since then, Grand Circle has expanded as an independent cruise company offering meaningful experiences for the "over-50's". Today GCCL offers a full range of cruise tours and land tour programs. The company's main business is discounted, extended-stay travel vacation programs in Europe, most occurring during winter in the south of Spain. Grand Circle also provides escorted tours all around the world, with a strong emphasis on enrichment.

In 1985 the company was acquired by Alan and Harriet Lewis. They took operations to higher levels by building on the company's original base and expanding the destinations and offerings available. A continuing feature has been the right decision to avoid public advertising, focusing on referrals, past guests and direct requests for information. The Program Directors of the company started out as resident hosts, lecturers, and guides and developed over the years into hallmark service for the Grand Circle company. With each new program and destination, regional offices were opened across the globe, providing support and monitoring operations in an area. The new options often came at request or suggestion of past passengers, who form sort of an "alumni" association. 

Starting in 1997, the company began promoting European river sailings on partially or fully chartered ships to its clientele. Due to the enthusiastic response, Grand Circle tried to ensure both excellent qualities of the product and control of the operations by deciding to have its own ships built - River Symphony was the first one in 1998, followed by a series of constantly improved ships over the years in various regions of the Mediterranean, Europe, Russia, and Egypt. Grand Circle also runs chartered operations in Antarctica, Europe, Panama, China, and Burma, under both the Overseas Adventure and Grand Circle brands.

Along with the current operations, mention should be made of company's sense of commitment to responsible tourism in the regions where it operates. During the last 20 years, the Grand Circle Foundation has committed more than US$92 million to advance education and preserving cultural traditions. In Egypt's Valley of the Kings, Grand Circle has funded the construction of shade/information pavilions to make the travel experience more worthwhile. The Foundation also supports around 100 schools in 30 different countries. 

Grand Circle Cruise Experience

Grand Circle Cruise Line offers a full range of small-ship cruises for the over-50 set. 

As with all Grand Circle Cruise Line's programs, company's passengers are over 50, in some cases even much more so. The line doesn't market to families and doesn't accept kids as passengers. Its guests are generally well traveled, with large percentage repeat passengers and members of their Inner Circle loyalty program, an organization for those who have made 3 or more trips with the line. The majority of passengers are married couples, though clusters of friends sailing together and singles are not unusual. Given Grand Circle's focus on learning experiences, most of the company's guests are open-minded and curious, eager to try new things.

Since Grand Circle is an American cruise line and generally does whole-ship trips, the language of the day at all times is the English. The crews, and most especially the company's Program Directors, are at the very least conversationally fluent. Most of Grand Circle passengers are Americans or American-connected.

While the ships of the line are designed for the regions in which they operate, they are as much about comfort as a destination. All cabins are well-appointed and quite spacious. On the ships operating in Western Europe, the upper-deck staterooms have true balconies, while the lower decks feature large windows. Generally, Grand Circle's Europe-based ships have twin beds only. Shipboard bathrooms are excellently fitted out, and rooms are kept spotless. CNN, movies, alternative music, and language channels are available, along with line's onboard info channel.

Dining is also professionally handled. Depending on the ship, there is a mix of a buffet (breakfast and lunch) and served (dinner). Though menu options vary, regional and local specialties are always included. Specialty evenings are also offered - for example, an Egyptian buffet - depending on the itinerary.

General entertainment is casual and low-key. Nobody goes on a cruise by Grand Circle for bingo or karaoke, though both may be offered. Sometimes there may be a costume night, black-and-white dress evening, or passenger talent show. 

The real focus of any voyage by Grand Circle Cruise Line is the chance to experience other histories, traditions, cultures, and people. Through excursions ashore and onboard lectures, meals and talks with local people, demonstrations by or visits with local artisans, passengers truly have the chance to expand their understanding and knowledge of other places. 

Itinerary of Grand Circle Cruise Line

Currently, Grand Circle Cruise Line's fleet includes the following vessels:

• MV Clio (Tere Moana)
• MV Athena (currently CMV Astoria - CMV charter)
• MV Artania (Phoenix Reisen charter)
• MS Provence barge
• MS River Anuket

Note: You can see the CruiseMapper's list of all river cruise ships and riverboats in the "itinerary" section of our River Cruises hub. All river passenger shipping line companies and their fleets are listed there.

Grand Circle cruises to Cuba

Grand Circle Cruise Line offers Cuba cruises on the MV Clio ship (former Tere Moana). The itineraries are 11-nights in length, leaving one-way from Miami Florida to Havana , or the reverse from Havana to Miami. The sailing part is 7 days, visiting the Cuban ports of call Caibarien, Cienfuegos, Matanzas, Remedios, Santiago de Cuba, Trinidad. Passengers will disembark in port Cienfuegos and will be transported overland to the capital Havana (with included 3-night hotel stay there). Then cruise passengers fly back to the USA. The reverse 11-night itinerary starts in Havana and ends in Miami.

• Grand Circle Cruise Line's Cuba cruise prices start at USD 6,800 pp. fares are inclusive of visas, accommodations, meals, guided land tours, gratuities, port fees, airfare (Miami-Havana, or Havana-Miami), also of airport transfers in Miami.
• The 89-passenger MV Clio (formerly known as Tere Moana) was acquired in 2015 from Paul Gauguin Cruises. Grand Circle invested over USD 5 million in the following refurbishment. The vessel entered into service in May 2016.

The list of passenger shipping lines offering cruises to Cuba included:

• Carnival Paradise leaving from Tampa Florida - cheapest prices (from USD 480 pp)
• Royal Caribbean (ship Empress of the Seas , leaving from Miami Florida)
• Holland America (ship Veendam ) leaving from Fort Lauderdale since December 2017
• MSC Cruises (ship MSC Opera , leaving from Havana)
• Oceania Cruises (ships Marina and Regatta ) starting in 2017, Cuba circumnavigation, stops in Cienfuegos and Havana, also part of some Panama Canal transition itineraries.
• NCL (ship Norwegian Sky , 4-day itineraries with Havana overnights - starting May 2017
• Azamara Cruises (ship on Azamara Quest from Miami)
• Thomson UK / Marella Cruises (ship Marella Dream ) 7-day, leaving roundtrip from Jamaica (Montego Bay) to Havana
• Ponant Cruises (superyacht Le Ponant , leaving from Miami Florida)
• Pearl Seas Cruises (ship Pearl Mist , leaving from Fort Lauderdale Florida)
• Lindblad Expeditions (chartered sailing ship MS Panorama II, leaving from Havana)
• Celestyal Cruises (ship Celestyal Crystal , leaving from Havana and Montego Bay Jamaica)
• International Expeditions (leaving from Havana, charter flights out of Miami)
• Victory Cruise Lines - MS Victory I - fly-cruises from Miami to Havana (home-port Cienfuegos /departures)

Note: According to the current Cuban law, US citizens of Cuban origin (born in Cuba) are not allowed to visit the island country (including on cruise ships). Regardless of their US citizenship status, Cuban-born Americans were denied booking on cruise itineraries visiting ports in Cuba. However, the situation changed in April 2016, after Carnival Corporation negotiated with the Cuban government for allowing ships with Cuban-born passengers, as such US citizens are allowed to visit the country on USA-Cuba charter flights. The Carnival-fathom line started Miami to Cuba cruises in May 2016.

Alaska Airlines offers regular nonstop flights to Havana from Los Angeles (California USA). An 80-min ling JetBlue flight from Fort Lauderdale (Florida) to Havana costs less than USD 100. Previously, air travel from the USA to Cuba was thought charter flights only.

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Help! One Company Refused to Refund Travelers More Than $100,000

Then our columnist intervened with the Boston-based tour operator Overseas Adventure Travel.

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By Sarah Firshein

Dear Tripped Up,

My trip to Egypt with Overseas Adventure Travel was scheduled to depart in late March. O.A.T. canceled the tour because of Covid-19, which was a relief. The company notified me of the cancellation and offered either a credit for rebooking or a full refund that would have included airfare. The next week, I learned via email that I had been rebooked on the same trip next year. Unbeknown to me, the stated policy had changed: O.A.T. was no longer offering refunds. I told them that I had a medical condition and did not know when — or if — I would be able to travel, and asked whether they were just going to keep my $17,500 if I couldn’t travel by the end of 2021. Answer: Yes.

I feel I am being held hostage by O.A.T. How are they allowed to keep my money? Roz

They’re not. But, if the extraordinary number of reader complaints I have received — more than a dozen and counting — are any indication, they have been doing so anyway.

Overseas Adventure Travel is part of Grand Circle Corporation, a family of travel companies based in Boston. The small-group and cruising company has been recognized nationally.

But Massachusetts happens to be one of only a handful of states with specific laws that guarantee consumers protection against travel sellers , including requiring that tour operators offer the option of cash refunds (in addition to vouchers or credits for rebooking) when they fail to provide agreed-upon, paid-for services. According to the law, the cash refund must be “an amount equal to the fair market retail value of any undelivered, purchased travel service.”

Translation: When they cancel your trip, they are legally required to offer you the money back.

But even when individual consumers know their rights, they have few options at their immediate disposal when a customer-service representative — usually the only public-facing proxy for a company’s official or unofficial policies — refuses to relent on refunds.

As Adam Anolik, a San Francisco- based travel-industry lawyer, explained over email, that’s why oversight — forcing a company to comply with state laws — can feel like an uphill battle. “The outcome can often turn on who cancels, which is why a lot of suppliers and travelers are playing chicken right now. In reality, many of these statutes are seldom enforced. This pandemic could cause some of them to be dusted off,” said Mr. Anolik.

This is the third Tripped Up column in a row that addresses the issue of refunds. Although travel has stopped and is only starting up again — slowly and in only a few destinations — the aftershocks of that screeching halt, brought on by the coronavirus, continue to reverberate.

As travel companies now suffer a cash crunch, they are facing off with travelers over credits and refunds . Airlines are sidestepping refund regulations established by the United States Transportation Department and the European Union, betting that negative press (and even class-action lawsuits) are still preferable to negative-balance bank accounts.

It’s not hard to surmise, just by reading your email, what happened at O.A.T.: the realization that issuing refunds en masse would bleed the company dry. Tweaking the immortal words of Biggie: no money, mo’ problems.

To determine if my hunch was correct, I reached out to O.A.T. While they didn’t answer my question directly, I was able to recoup more than $100,000, collectively, for you and 10 other readers. Some got total refunds, while others (including you) received partial refunds or continue to wait for certain fees and sums to clear.

In an emailed statement, an O.A.T. spokeswoman said the company is “working to improve our processes and to better address the needs of each traveler whose trip was canceled or postponed due to the pandemic. We are either rebooking travelers on another trip or providing a refund.” Since mid-March, she said, O.A.T. has refunded more than 5,000 travelers — amounting to more than $12 million.

TripAdvisor, ConsumerAffairs and other review sites show lingering frustrations about the company’s coronavirus policies, but several Times readers, according to emails I’ve received, have made headway by filing parallel complaints with the Better Business Bureau and the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office . That agency said that it has received about 275 consumer complaints so far about canceled O.A.T. trips and has been pressuring the company to comply with the state’s travel-seller laws.

Other travelers looking for refunds may have a better chance if they’re dealing with companies headquartered within Hawaii, Washington state, Illinois or California. In Hawaii, consumers have the right to a cash refund (minus previously disclosed cancellation fees) within two weeks of requesting one. Washington requires travel companies to issue cash refunds within 14 days (or 30 days when the funds are already paid to a vendor, as might be the case for a tour operator) when they cancel a service. In Illinois, the Travel Promotion Consumer Protection Act was created in the 1980s to safeguard against travel scams that promise too-good-to-be-true deals. California, with some of the strongest consumer protections in the country, requires cash refunds for undelivered services within 30 days from whichever date is earliest: the scheduled departure date, the date the refund is requested or the date the service was canceled by the travel company. (Mr. Anolik has a detailed breakdown of other state-by-state travel laws on his firm’s website. )

Back to O. A. T.: In a follow-up note a few weeks ago, you said that you feel the company provides a “good travel service.” But, you wrote, “pushing all the risk of uncertainty onto the client by refusing a refund makes me fearful to ever do business with O.A.T. again.”

You raise an important point. Even though people can’t travel right now, many of us are continuing to dream about our next trip — and that means making conscious and subconscious decisions about which companies to spend money with once the pandemic has passed.

Sarah Firshein is a Brooklyn-based travel writer. If you need advice about a best-laid travel plan that went awry, send an email to [email protected] .

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