A story today in the Chicago Reader about a classical music cruise is enough to make you very sad. Listeners of WFMT in Chicago were encouraged to sign up for a wonderful-sounding cruise:
It was a classical music ocean cruise, a dreamy January escape to the Caribbean aboard a luxury vessel, with composer Roberto Sierra, rising conductor Eckart Preu, Grammy-winning chamber group the Parker Quartet, and a 50-piece orchestra providing the live soundtrack.
That in itself was amazing, Dever says, but here was the corker: Bill McGlaughlin, the genial host of WFMT’s nationally syndicated Exploring Music program, would be on board as a guest artist.
The article by Deanna Isaacs cites the case of retired school teacher Judy Dever, who paid $1,698 for the five-day Caribbean cruise plus $319 for trip insurance. The cruise company told her to expect 400 classical music lovers on the ship, which was run out of Miami by Celebrity Cruises.
According to the article, the cruise company, Symphonic Voyages and its president Eric Stassen went bankrupt but didn’t tell Judy Dever. When she tried to talk to Stassen face-to-face he threatened her and got his lawyer to write her a cease-and-desist letter, as though she were the cheat and he was the victim.
What happens in cases like this is that no one is responsible. Stassen declares bankruptcy and probably won’t be able to give the money back. The station has no liability, because the company was just an advertiser, not a partner — although having Bill McLaughlin as a guest and WFMT promoting it as a classical music cruise hurt the station’s credibility a little, whether fair or not. WFMT VP of Programming Steve Robinson has been contacted by some of the victims and told them that the cruise company ran a good trip the previous year.
The Celebrity Cruise folks bear no liability either.
But it’s not a victimless situation. The customers lost $2000, the station’s reputation got tarnished through no fault of its own, Celebrity lost expected revenue — all because someone overextended with other people’s money. He probably should have at least communicated with the customers that he was having problems filling the cruise. I’ve done many tours like this and when they don’t fly you either don’t cash the checks or you refund the money as soon as you know. If all else fails you refund the money out of your own pocket.
Someone correct me if I’ve got this wrong. I’m reporting what I read in the Chicago Reader. I didn’t do any original research on this or check the sources.
**Updated. Music trips can be life-changing experiences, so my wish is that this project gets back on the rails. In the meantime, my colleague Gail Wein took a wonderful music cruise with Travel Dynamics International. You might find them more solvent and better organized.
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Symphonic Voyages 2011 was fabulous and everyone involved loved being a part of the inaugural sailing of the Music Festival at Sea.
Eric Stassen is not a crook. I know that he worked his tail off, to the bitter end, trying to get funding to make the 2012 sailing a success.
Although the musicians who were scheduled to perform in the SV2 orchestra were out the budgeted income for our participation in the orchestra, we did not lose money up-front like the patrons. I can understand that there are angry people out there, but my husband and I (who performed in 2011 and expected to perform in 2012) are not among them.
It is a sad thing for someone’s business to go bankrupt. We fully support Eric’s effort and believe that Symphonic Voyages is still a good idea. Hopefully someone else with fund-raising savvy will agree and help get SV back on it’s feet, off the ground, and into the Caribbean.
Thanks, Susan. I knew there had to be more to the story. I hate to see anyone fail in the classical music business. Still, those who lost out need to get their funds refunded before any new cruise should happen. Fair’s fair.
The story in the Reader was definitely one-sided and doesn’t sound like words that Eric would use with someone, even in the heat of the moment. He is a gentle kind of guy who is passionate about music and anyone who knows him would find it all a little hard to believe. With that said, it is a sad situation, but telling of the current times. SV1 was a great experience for everyone and I know he would not have moved forward with SV2 had it not been. Eric was really aggressive in marketing the trip, but, unfortunately, in the end there just weren’t enough people to justify hosting SV2. I know that most travelers do not have animosity towards the company. I agree with Susan, that hopefully it can exist once more in the future.
Marty, keep using words like “crook,” and you yourself will hear from that lawyer referenced in the article.
Yes, “crook” was not a good word to use, which is why I updated the entry and removed it three days ago. No threats necessary. I’m a pretty reasonable person and want to get it right.
Good, I’m glad to hear that you’re a reasonable person. Let’s proceed step by step. How about removing the words “scammed” and “crime” from this blog post?
You’re right. I have revised the post and made it more neutral.