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Suggestions and comments in boldface. Most are just word choice and word order adjustments that make the English more conventional; the letter makes sense largely as is.
My sister has MS; I wish your friend all the best with this.
My sister has MS; I wish your friend all the best with this.
We hereby wish to inform you about our trials and tribulations during a cruise in the Caribbean aboard the ***, which left Fort Lauderdale on the ***.
To begin with, you should know that we are two people suffering from multiple sclerosis. Even though we can walk a little and climb a few steps (but we need some support), most of the time we have to use our wheelchairs to move around. I have previously had the occasion to go on two cruises with the company ***, in the Mediterranean and Alaska, and there weren’t any problems whatsoever with me using a wheelchair during excursions.
We were accompanied by two other persons, *** and *** ****, neither of whom suffer from multiple sclerosis. We made reservations for this cruise through a travel agency called ***. We took care to inform the travel agent of our health problem and we requested that we be allowed to go on the excursions to the islands. [I think that's what was meant here - RTF]
In order to make sure that the fact that we use wheelchairs wouldn’t cause any problems and that everything would work out as we expected, I contacted the representatives for both the travel agency *** and for the *** Company in *** to get more information about the trip, especially about the excursions. They assured me that there wouldn’t be any problems. The only excursions that could possibly be cancelled are those places that can only be reached by tender - [I'm with Asher; I don't know what this word means here. Ladder?] and that it was the captain who had the last word about the security of “normal” passengers. But tenders aren’t an obstacle as far as we’re concerned, we can use them without any problem. And we chose our excursions carefully so that they do not ask of us too much physical activity.
But an unpleasant surprise was waiting for us when the ship berthed for the excursion to Bonaire. Without even a hello, we were told that wheelchairs wouldn’t be allowed, under the pretext that there wasn’t enough room on the bus for wheelchairs. And even if they could find the room, there wasn’t enough time to get the wheelchairs out, get them in and then get them out again, etc. Thus we had to stay in the harbour with our travel companion *** ****. But since she only has two hands, she can only push on wheelchair at a time. Needless to say, we were feeling like second-class citizens.
Following this, we went to the tour desk to ask about the other excursions. We learned that it was impossible for us to go to Dominica, Grenada, half of the trips to St-Thomas were off-limits, so was the glass boat of the Princess Cays. Because of the lack of proper equipment capable of accommodating wheelchairs, the majority of our excursions had to be cancelled.
We had planned a four-person trip, but it never happened. Since we didn’t want our travel companions to cancel their excursions for our sake, we had to manage on our own without any help. What should have been a period of rest turned out to be a quite intense exercise as well as a disappointment, all this topped by the feeling that we were second-class travelers.
We feel that we were the victims of a misrepresentation by both *** agency and the *** company. We hold you jointly responsible for the material loss and the mental distress we suffered because you neglected to give us the correct information.
We give you notice to reimburse the cost of the cruise, the amount of which was *** in the 15 days after receiving this letter, otherwise we’ll take the appropriate measures, without further warning or delay.
Please act accordingly,
To begin with, you should know that we are two people suffering from multiple sclerosis. Even though we can walk a little and climb a few steps (but we need some support), most of the time we have to use our wheelchairs to move around. I have previously had the occasion to go on two cruises with the company ***, in the Mediterranean and Alaska, and there weren’t any problems whatsoever with me using a wheelchair during excursions.
We were accompanied by two other persons, *** and *** ****, neither of whom suffer from multiple sclerosis. We made reservations for this cruise through a travel agency called ***. We took care to inform the travel agent of our health problem and we requested that we be allowed to go on the excursions to the islands. [I think that's what was meant here - RTF]
In order to make sure that the fact that we use wheelchairs wouldn’t cause any problems and that everything would work out as we expected, I contacted the representatives for both the travel agency *** and for the *** Company in *** to get more information about the trip, especially about the excursions. They assured me that there wouldn’t be any problems. The only excursions that could possibly be cancelled are those places that can only be reached by tender - [I'm with Asher; I don't know what this word means here. Ladder?] and that it was the captain who had the last word about the security of “normal” passengers. But tenders aren’t an obstacle as far as we’re concerned, we can use them without any problem. And we chose our excursions carefully so that they do not ask of us too much physical activity.
But an unpleasant surprise was waiting for us when the ship berthed for the excursion to Bonaire. Without even a hello, we were told that wheelchairs wouldn’t be allowed, under the pretext that there wasn’t enough room on the bus for wheelchairs. And even if they could find the room, there wasn’t enough time to get the wheelchairs out, get them in and then get them out again, etc. Thus we had to stay in the harbour with our travel companion *** ****. But since she only has two hands, she can only push on wheelchair at a time. Needless to say, we were feeling like second-class citizens.
Following this, we went to the tour desk to ask about the other excursions. We learned that it was impossible for us to go to Dominica, Grenada, half of the trips to St-Thomas were off-limits, so was the glass boat of the Princess Cays. Because of the lack of proper equipment capable of accommodating wheelchairs, the majority of our excursions had to be cancelled.
We had planned a four-person trip, but it never happened. Since we didn’t want our travel companions to cancel their excursions for our sake, we had to manage on our own without any help. What should have been a period of rest turned out to be a quite intense exercise as well as a disappointment, all this topped by the feeling that we were second-class travelers.
We feel that we were the victims of a misrepresentation by both *** agency and the *** company. We hold you jointly responsible for the material loss and the mental distress we suffered because you neglected to give us the correct information.
We give you notice to reimburse the cost of the cruise, the amount of which was *** in the 15 days after receiving this letter, otherwise we’ll take the appropriate measures, without further warning or delay.
Please act accordingly,
ACK!
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