Fine Food and Wine Cruise.com Jonathan Baltuch, owner No Cruise, No Wine, No refund! Internet
Buyers Beware of FineFoodandWineCruise.com!!!
My wife and I specifically booked the Merry Edwards Mediterranean Windstar Cruise for June 2013 through FineFoodandWineCruise.com in late August 2012. We paid 2 deposits totaling $7,266.00 with a final payment due January 1, 2013. We were notified by the owner, Jonathan Baltuch on Dec. 19th that the cruise has been cancelled. They notified us by email and immediately closed their office for the holidays and won't be taking any calls until Dec. 26th. They're offering NO refunds and asked us to file for trip insurance. Trip insurance does not cover default as a reason for refunding. Those of us who didn't purchase trip insurance were told FineFoodandWineCruise.com would notify us in 2013 of our options on other cruises.
What a Ripoff!!! We have spoken with Windstar and Merry Edwards Winery. According to Windstar they canceled the cruise with FineFoodandWineCruise.com on November 17, 2012 due to a breach of contract and it has taken FineFoodandWineCruise.com over a month to notify us. Merry Edwards Winery found out about the cancellation the day before we did while talking to Windstar. All deposits went directly to FineFoodandWineCruise.com so Windstar and Merry Edwards have received no compensation.
Interestingly enough the cruise is still offered on the FineFoodandWineCruise.com website and one of the couples traveling with us just booked this cruise 2 weeks ago. There are over 100 of us which are out over $700,000.00 if we don't get refunded. Needless to say we will proceed with legal action if necessary.