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We'd like to try a theme cruise next year. So we were wondering if there are any tacky cruise ships featuring trop rock entertainment as the theme in 2013?

You might want to try this Bearfoot Islands Cruise with coastal North Carolina's own Scearce & Ketner.

Yes Tiki,we did look at that one but the even the lowest priced cabins shivered me timbers.
We want to do a Barefoot Cruise while we can still enjoy a tall ship. We like the smaller islands that the big ships can't dock at.

The Barefoot Island Cruise by Local Knowledge Travel has been cancelled and so far it looks like everyone is going to lose their deposit and first payments. Send me a message if you want more info.

The Barefoot Islands Cruise was cancelled and now many of us are out of luck. We
paid $2,700 and it looks like we ill not be getting a dime back. Do not use Local
Knowledge Travel in Colorado, that is the company that has screwed us all over.

MaParrotheads wrote:The Barefoot Islands Cruise was cancelled and now many of us are out of luck. We
paid $2,700 and it looks like we ill not be getting a dime back. Do not use Local
Knowledge Travel in Colorado, that is the company that has screwed us all over.

We do not understand how a refund can not be offered. The cruise was scheduled for mid-March, 2013. Any cruise line that we have cruised with, offers a full refund of your deposit if you must cancel outside a window of six months. As the the cruise date approaches, the amount of the refund decreases until no refund is offered, usually 30-90 days out. Since this cruise was still over six months away, Windstar Cruises (the ship's operator) should eagerly refund the deposits to Local Knowledge so that they can refund the deposits of its customers. I can not imagine that Windstar Cruise Lines would want this bad publicity. Scratching my head on this one. We had seriously considered booking this cruise when it was first advertised.

We booked through Local Knowledge Travel as this was suppose to be a full ship charter. According to Local Knowledge they sent monies to Windstar.
This is going to drag out and the ones getting screwed are those of us that paid good
money for a cruise that was cancelled (Local Knowledge's full charter). I'm blaming Local Knowledge because we paid them directly.

Windstar has put the cruise back on its list of cruises and has offered everyone to book directly through Windstar. The problem is they want the full price of the cruise which is approximately $2000 per person . We already paid over $2,700 so I'm not paying what amounts to $6,700 for a cruise.

Ma P

Don't dispair, I have talked to my credit card company and they think that I can get the money back because we were mislead. I have booked with Windstar and until December have not paid more than the total so far. Am hoping that Local Knowledge and Windstar will reach some agreement before then. Otherwise, we will make them work extra hard for this grizzled parrothead and his bird of paridise. If I don't see you on board, we will drink a Mai Tai in your honor.

Mytygy

If you paid with a credit card, contact your issuer immediately and deny the charges because they are not delivering the promised goods or services. If the credit card company balks, deny the charges because they don't have an imprint of your card, with your signature, nor have they swiped the card through a card reader. Local Knowledge is not a travel agency, rather they are a company that charters boats. If you paid with cash/check, that's a little more problematic and may require contacting the attorney general's office in your state, as well as the one in Colorado. Given that they are selling travel without the legally required registration numbers, also known as Seller of Travel (States like California, Rhode Island, Ohio, Florida require such things to sell to their residents, which selling over the web qualifies for), they are potentially subject to fines (up to $10,000 in CA.) and other legal penalties. In Colorado, they should have posted a bond, to comply with state regulations. This bond is subject to being forfeited for failure to deliver services.

You contact the cruise line and verify that it received funds and possibly find out if they have refunded the money or not. Another option is to contact Chris Elliott at www.elliott.org and see if he can help you get your money back.

I hope that everyone gets a full refund and soon.

Already lining our complaints up with AG and Consumer affairs Divisions
in Massachusetts and Colorado. We used a Debit Card for payments so we
are out of luck there. We have to give Local Knowledge some time to try and
work things out with Windstar. If that brings us no refund then we take
everyone to court and let the court sort it out.

Have not heard from LocalKnowledge in some time regarding the status of refunds or credits with Windstar. Looks likely that we have been defrauded. I would like to get in touch with others and compare notes offline. I have information on the operator to share. Please PM me and we can discuss.

The last word from Local Knowledge is that they will be taking legal action against Windstar Cruises. I have already filed a complaint against Local Knowledge with the Denver BBB and the Colorado AG. If anyone was unable to get a refund file a complaint with the BBB and AG and hopefully the more complaints the better chance for action to be taken.

As of today Local Knowledge LLC and it's Owner Kevin Clark have made no attempt to
make whole any of the monies paid for a Charter Cruise that was to take place in March and was cancelled last September. I filed a complaint with the Colorado BBB and the Colorado Attorney General to which Mr Clark did not respond despite several requests from those Agencies. I am asking anyone who was defrauded and the Administrators of this website who accepted Local Knowledge's Advertising for the cancelled cruise to call him at (303) 697-0399
and ask him why he will not make whole those he defrauded despite promising to do so. The email Mr Clark sent out in November is attached.


-----Original Message-----
From: knowlocal@aol.com
To: contact
Sent: Mon, Nov 19, 2012 10:43 am
Subject: Barefoot Cruise Status


Dear Barefoot Islands Cruise Passengers,


I regret to inform you that my numerous attempts to reach a resolution to issues regarding the cruise with Windstar Cruises has not been successful. Therefore, due to what Local Knowledge, LLC believes to be a failure of the final service provider, Windstar Cruises, to provide services offered, Local Knowledge will not be able to provide passengers with passage on the cruise scheduled for March 16-23, 2013 as intended.


I realize at this point everyone must be extremely frustrated with the entire situation and, while I know it does not help you, I completely understand and apologize profusely. After numerous successful events since 1999 this is the first instance in which Local Knowledge has had to cancel and is a very distressing situation for me personally.


I assure you I attempted to explore every possible solution in the past 8 weeks to find a resolution in which passengers would either be able to sail in March or be fully refunded. I believe you are entitled to a detailed explanation and have provided an overview below. I have been attempting to resolve this outside of attorneys and courts as that would have brought no quick resolution. Essentially, I took the word of a representative of Windstar Cruises, a cruise line which has had a good reputation in the past, and that person lied to me. She went back on her word. I guess recent changes in the ownership and management at Windstar have also brought changes in the way they do business. Windstar representatives simply refused to communicate and address the problems. When I finally made contact with the cruise line’s CEO explaining the failure of his representatives to follow-through with their offers to credit passengers towards direct bookings, and expressing my interest in resolving this, his reply was "...I will be referring all conversation to our attorneys".


At this time local Knowledge has no choice but to explore legal actions against Windstar Cruises and their representatives for what I believe to be misrepresentation, breach of contract, and malicious defamation. To reinforce these claims is a 16.5 minute recorded telephone conversation involving Ms. Amy Conover- Director of Charters and Incentives for Windstar Cruises. Not only does Ms. Conover make numerous statements in this conversation which are factually incorrect, and which I believe to be defamatory, she also describes the offer she made repeatedly to Local Knowledge which would credit passengers with monies paid towards a new cruise booking (see overview below).


It is the goal of Local Knowledge to make all persons who have paid monies towards the cruise to be made whole wether it be via a refund directly from Local Knowledge, a chargeback from credit card processors, or other means. Local Knowledge will be working on each passenger account individually on a case-by-case basis. Please send a brief email message informing Local Knowledge of your current status with regards to your account- e.g. filed for chargeback with credit card company, ineligible for chargeback due to..., covered through travel insurance, waiting to file chargeback, etc.


For those passengers who have already filed for a chargeback with their respective credit card companies, Local Knowledge has/is receiving copies of these requests and will work with our credit card processor PayPal concerning these.


While Local Knowledge will do it’s best to see passengers receive full refund of monies paid, as communicated previously, Local Knowledge has forwarded all monies received from passengers to Windstar Cruises towards the full ship charter minus approximately 18% which was retained by the credit card processor PayPal. Local Knowledge has not retained or spent one dollar of monies received from passenger deposits and payments towards the cruise. I want to make sure passengers know Local Knowledge has not benefitted in anyway with regards to these passenger payments. In fact, Local Knowledge will lose a substantial amount of money from this situation. As you can imagine, should Local Knowledge take legal action it could be some time before a resolution is achieve if any at all.


Again- I apologize for the situation. I appreciate the patience and understanding everyone has shown and will do my best to bring this to the best resolution possible. I will continue to make myself available at anytime with your questions and concerns.


Kevin Clark
Local Knowledge, LLC
303-697-0399
kevin@localknowledgetravel.com