You hear the horror stories and think, "That'll never happen to me, " and then it does.
After planning another "trip of a lifetime" and using my favourite sport to fulfil that dream, I was looking forward to a trip on the Indo Aggressor with my dive buddy, only to become a nightmare. Travelling from the UK into Bali and then transiting through to Labuan Bajo a day earlier than usual due to a national holiday in Bali where everything stops gave me an extra day to acclimatise and take in this wonderful country. Our trip was due to leave on the 11th of March, so arriving in LBJ on the 10th of March incurred some additional expenses, but nothing compared to what I was about to confront. After liaising with our cruise director, we agreed to meet in the hotel lobby at noon. While waiting in the lobby, I met a young lady who explained that her liveaboard had been cancelled the day before due to the port being closed in LBJ. Almost immediately, our taxi arrived, and we were taken to the boat and greeted as standard, with cold towels, drinks, etc. Then, I went through the whole pantomime of selecting a 15-litre tank, which I'd pre-booked as usual, was a 13.2 litre (100cuft). Hey ho, us Europeans!! We decanted our scuba equipment, set it up, and attended the first briefing. At this briefing, we were told by the cruise director that the port was shut, and they were negotiating with the port authority for us to go the following day, subject to its opening. I smelled a rat (more about rats later).
I pressed the cruise director for his "plan B," but it soon became apparent he didn't have one. This was where the deception started. The whole thing was a charade, as the port authority had closed the port until the 16th of March. Still, we were assured the Indo Aggressor had some superpowers that would give them a higher priority than every other liveaboard in the port. An update would be given to the guest after dinner that evening around 8 PM. At that briefing, we were told the trip had been cancelled and would not go ahead, and we had the option to stay on the boat or leave. I chose to leave and arranged a flight the following day to try and salvage my trip of a lifetime. Sometime that evening, we received an email from Aggressor HQ telling us that as we had boarded the vessel and they'd tried to leave but could not, this was now Force Majeure, and we should claim on our trip insurance. I connected with Larry Speaker (VP of operations), who washed his hands off us, gave me some corporate BS, and wished me and the guests luck. I explained to him that we were all told during the briefing that the trip was cancelled, and he desperately tried to reposition himself and shift all of the $$ responsibilities onto the guests. After being lied to and abandoned by Aggressor, the mood onboard became very contentious. There were couples celebrating birthdays and anniversaries, for which I felt so sorry.
My buddy and I bailed the following day. I would not stay on a boat where the crew/operator and Aggressor thought it appropriate to lie to us. Having travelled halfway around the world, I wouldn't let Aggressor ruin my trip. My objective would be to salvage as much as I could. Luckily, we worked with our UK-based travel agency, who booked us into a resort in Bali. By now, they arranged flights, which were as rare as "hens teeth" due to everyone getting out of LBJ. The guests that remained either chose to or, due to the delays in telling us the truth, couldn't leave due to the booked flights.
In summary, we all need to take out the proper insurance (which I have), but I hate being lied to. No one can change the weather; however, Aggressor knew the trip could not commence as the port authority had told everyone that the port would close on the 11th of March (the day we were due to sail). Even I knew that. Aggressor abandoned us and pointed to their terms and conditions. They created the situation by boarding us even though they knew the port was closed so they could shift the $ obligation onto the guests. Instead of working with us, they abandoned us. Oh yeah the rats; I'll save that for another time
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