Desperately need help getting to Malta from Sicily!

Change in schedule

Due to a technical problem we shall not be operating until Monday 9 th February. Next voyage yet to be reconfirmed is planned for Tuesday 10th February . We apologize for inconvenience caused.

so looks like it will be Tuesday before you could get a ferry

I dont know what to suggest, if you can get a flight can you not leave car at airport and collect it after tuesday though would mean one of you flying back ?

i feel for you i hope someone comes along soon who may be able to help you

i looked at flights for you doesnt look like its gonna be any easier this is tommorrows squedule http://www.skyscanner.net/transport/fli … &age=9

is this possible  - park the car up....fly to malta with kids  -  then ferry back to get car once the ferry is operational...

Sorry but not much you can do other than one of you fly to Malta and the other stay (with the children) at the cheapest hotel you can find until the next ferry.

Even if you could find a freighter going to Malta it would only take your car and maybe one passenger.

Virtu ferries have been out of service since Jan 17th for maintenance!

Terry

You can park car for around 25€ a week at airport I agree with toon

Thanks.

It looks like our best option is to dump the car and come back for it, especially with them now saying Tuesday.

Hope everything goes ok and it doesn't take you too much longer to get here

If you do decide to wait it out then I would upgrade the Virtu ferry tickets to club class, you will then get priority boarding and a seat once the ferry resumes.

Terry

tearnet wrote:

If you do decide to wait it out then I would upgrade the Virtu ferry tickets to club class, you will then get priority boarding and a seat once the ferry resumes.

Terry

Would that make any difference, or is it a comfort thing?  I don't mind how I get there as long as I get there.

Sam4321 wrote:

tearnet wrote:

If you do decide to wait it out then I would upgrade the Virtu ferry tickets to club class, you will then get priority boarding and a seat once the ferry resumes.

Terry

Would that make any difference, or is it a comfort thing?  I don't mind how I get there as long as I get there.

They have a separate window for check in and the vehicles get loaded first. Once on board you go to the upper lounge and have guaranteed seat. So it may push you to the front if after all the delays on the ferry their are more people than places available!
Its only 10€ more (I think) but well worth it, we use Virtu once a month on average.

Terry

Horrendous, especially for the children. Unfortunately it bears out what Terry was saying about only one ferry for what many see as an essential service. How on earth do you keep the children happy and occupied?

Last night my four year old sat in the back of an over packed car with the Ipad for seven hours.  It wasn't good and then we had to find another hotel at short notice.  I feel sorry for the pensioners that were there as foot passengers.  They were stood out in the cold since midday.

We're trying to get flights at the moment, but we can't find another until Monday.  We're looking at flying to Rome to get a connecting flight from there at the moment. 

It's not good, but I can't wait until Tuesday on the off chance it starts running.

good luck

Try skyscanner it's what I did , also trivago if you need last min hotel

Sorry to hear that Sam, hope everything quickly turns out fine

do you have travel insurance ?

It would only cover them if they had bought the ferry ticket in advance though but yeah your travel insurance would help if you did

not sure how this may help you in terms of Sicily

http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/tr … dex_en.htm

but worth a read

Did you know that you have certain rights when you are on a journey by ship in the EU?

Firstly you may not be charged a higher price for a ticket because of your nationality or where you are buying the ticket from.

Secondly, you also have rights in case things go wrong. This concerns delays and cancellations that prevent you from boarding…

…and applies if you are:

leaving a port in the EU with any carrier
arriving in a port in the EU with any carrier
These rules do not apply to:
ships that can carry fewer than 13 passengers
ships that have no more than 3 members of crew
ships that cover a distance of less than 500 meters, one way
most sorts of historical ships
excursion and sightseeing ships – if they do not have accommodation facilities, or if the overnight stay does not exceed 2 nights on board.
Cancellation or delay
If the service is cancelled or delayed, you always have the right to adequate and timely information about what is happening while you are waiting.

If the service is cancelled or departure is delayed for more than 90 minutes, you will be offered a choice:

Either you can get a refund for your ticket and where necessary a free return journey back to your initial departure point – for instance if the delay stops you from fulfilling the purpose of your trip
or you can be transported, under similar conditions, to your final destination at the earliest opportunity and at no extra cost.
If your trip's departure is delayed by more than 90 minutes, in most cases you are also entitled to:

meals and refreshments – proportionate to the waiting time
accommodation – if you have to stay overnight
If your trip's arrival at destination is delayed by more than 1 hour, you are entitled to compensation. Depending of the length of the delay, the compensation is either 25% or 50% of the ticket price.

You will not receive compensation if the delay was caused by severe weather conditions or natural disasters.

Complaints

If you think your rights have not been respected, you can complain to the carrier within 2 months of the date on which the event happened. The carrier must react within 1 month and give you a final reply 2 months after receiving the complaint.

If you are not satisfied with their reply, you can contact the national enforcement body.

Accidents at sea
If you are injured in an accident at sea, you are entitled to compensation from the carrier or its insurer. In the event of death, compensation can be claimed by your successors.

You also have a right to compensation by the carrier if your luggage, vehicles or other belongings are lost or damaged in an accident at sea.

If you have reduced mobility, compensation for loss of or damage to wheelchairs or other such equipment will cover the full cost of replacement or repair.

You have a right to receive an advance payment from the carrier to cover immediate needs in case of injury or death caused by:

Shipwreck
Capsizing
Collision
Stranding of the ship
Explosion or fire on the ship
Defect in the ship
Complaints

You can submit a claim for compensation for any loss or damage during an accident at sea to a court in the country:

where the carrier has its main place of business or permanent residence, or
where your place of departure or destination is, or
where you permanently live – if the carrier has a place of business there and is subject to that country's jurisdiction, or
where the travel contract was concluded – if the carrier has a place of business there and is subject to that country's jurisdiction.
If your luggage is lost or damaged, you must inform the carrier in writing. You should ideally do this either by the time you leave the ship, or by the time the luggage is eventually delivered. At the very latest, you must inform the carrier within 15 days of disembarkation or delivery, otherwise, you will lose your right to compensation.

In general, you must bring your claim to the courts within 2 years of the incident – although the starting point for this period can differ, depending on the nature of the loss or damage.

wow I. hooe you guys are ok and we dont embark on the same probelms when we teavel March, will be  nightmare
Lots of useful info and I guess flying or transfering you to another ferry operator somewhere else is the only option.  I agree with the above  Virtue have an obligation the same a s a plane carrier service they must provide you with accomodation refreshment s and food.

I will be booking my insurance before we go thats for sure!

Its sounds like this is a real nightmare for you. Good Luck in getting a speedy resolution.

Yep, it's nightmare and has cost us a small fortune already. As most people know, it's the only passenger ferry to Malta so there's not much we can do.  They're not interested and are not liable for anything, it's in their terms and conditions. Today they've actually turned their phones off. Unfortunately no, we don't have travel insurance. Strangely it didn't even cross our mind for some reason. 

Toon, thanks for that I'll have a proper read when we get to Malta.

So an update.  We drove to Catania this afternoon and headed for the docks to see if there was any way of getting our car across, but there was nobody about and nobody answering the phone so we're leaving it here and coming to Malta without it.  We'll work out how to get it across at a later date. Some other people had the same idea who were supposed to be on the same ferry, but unfortunately they had pets so I don't think a flight was an option for them.  We left them hanging around the port thinking about getting flights and leaving one person with the car and pets. 

Luckily we've managed to get flights to Rome and then to Malta tomorrow morning, so we should hopefully arrive just after 12 in the afternoon.  It's been stressful and while searching for another hotel close to the airport we just avoided a head on collision when my husband drove up the wrong side of a dual carriageway.  I don't know how he didn't notice, but I screamed at him as another car beeped, so he just dodged out of the way and managed to turn around.  It's not good, but it's down to lack of sleep, stress and not concentrating while searching for another hotel.

Anyway, we've found a lovely hotel and we're leaving the car here.  Hopefully tomorrow will go more to plan.

I've just noticed they've updated their website and don't have a date for when they're going to start again now, so it looks like we've done the right thing getting flights and not hanging around.  A free ticket doesn't really help with the way they've treated people to be honest.  We didn't get told anything until 9pm after waiting since 4pm and then we just kept getting told to wait around for more information that never came.

"Firstly we would like to apologize for the inconvenience caused to our valued passengers .
The Jean de la Valette has been operating on the Malta / Sicily route for five years and performed over 3500 voyages . This is the first time the vessel could not perform a voyage due to technical reasons. Our technical staff are doing their very best to resolve the issue soonest.
All passengers who were ticketed to travel on cancelled voyages will be offered an additional free ticket excluding port charges which may be utilized throughout this year. Passengers booked will be contacted in the coming days and issued with a voucher / ticket valid for a free passenger ticket.
We shall be announcing the resumption of our service as soon as possible ."

Glad you sorted flight , hope you keep safe tonight and tomorrow don't stress too much and hope you get your car back soon

They only run the ferries Thursday and Tuesdays. So sorry to hear all these problems and hope your journey is much better now.

roadtripper wrote:

They only run the ferries Thursday and Tuesdays. So sorry to hear all these problems and hope your journey is much better now.

Where did you get this info , they run a daily service it's on their website - just not at moment due to technical issues

Rob is correct, it was, usually, a daily service.
Be careful of misinformation based upon little or no experience.
Take heed of those who have been here some time and know what they are talking about.
Malta websites are notorious for not being updated, giving ambiguous information, not reflecting reality or deliberately misleading people.
Also check the date of any updates, many have information from years ago.

Sam, i hope you get back soon and then be able to claim on your insurance for all of this.
Just a thought (and probably too late but) It may be best to telephone your insurers to discuss your arrangements and what they can cover you for.

Sam
       Ferry is now back in service, probably a bit late for you if you have booked flights!

From the Virtu ferries website

Resuming of Voyages


Kindly be advised that the technical problem has been resolved and the service between Malta and Pozzallo will be resumed as from this afternoon first departure Malta / Pozzallo at 15.00 hrs and Pozzallo / Malta at 18.00 hrs. Virtu ferries once again apologizes for the inconvenience caused and thanks the many passengers who have cooperated with the company .

We've just arrived!  Yeah, I know about the ferry - the man at the Hertz desk at the airport mentioned it.  Just our luck, but we beat the ferry and it wasn't worth the risk. We got a very early flight to Rome and then to Malta with a three hour connection time, so it took six hours in the end.  We decided not to wait after it was cancelled twice because I'd lost faith in them after waiting around all those hours with no information.  The flights cost just over €500, the hotels for three extra nights cost another €300, plus we've had to leave our car in Sicily and hire a car here for a week.  That's cost another €200 and we've still got the cost of getting the car back from Sicily to add on. It's not great, but we're here now and all in one piece and have only lost two days.  Our French mobile was due to cancel this morning and we couldn' stop it, but we've not had any emails about the ferry starting again or aything, so I don't know whether people have been rebooked onto that one or not.

Lucky we drove near the apartment before coming to the hotel straight from the airport and saw a piece of paper hanging out of the door saying 'call me'. It was the agent we were due to meet on Friday and then on Saturday.  He's offered to come over with the keys - we didn't expect that with it being Sunday, so we're back on track, but the bank account is a lot lighter.  I'll be looking into what, if anything, we can claim back next week. 

We're here though so that's the main thing!!!!

Welcome back and now....................................breathe 

well done lad and welcome to the rock.....

and enjoy your new life in the med....

Just an update.  Our car is still in Sicily.  It's not been plain sailing since we got here, so we're very behind with our plans.  Hiring a car for a couple of weeks seemed the only thing to do to relieve a bit of the stress concerning getting our own car here.  As compensation we all have free return ferry tickets, minus €38 port fees, but the car wasn't due a freeby.  I don't plan on ever using the ferry because of the stress it caused, so my husband has used his free ticket as a single to bring the car over. He's flying to Sicily early tomorrow morning and was supposed to drive down to the port to get the evening ferry back to Malta with the car, but already it's been cancelled. 

Luckily it's just been brought forward four hours due to bad weather, but I'm dreading a rerun of the ferry being cancelled again and my husband stuck in Sicily alone this time.

SORRY TO HEAR THAT THE NIGHTMARE HAS STARTED AGAIN

Good luck and hope all goes well for you so that you can get back on course to enjoying a new life.

Oh dear! I hope you can claim the extra expenses on your insurance?
A free ticket when you have a car to recover seems hardly good enough.

I don't think that Virtu ferries have compensated you in any way!
A free ticket for a ferry that you didn't use is not compensation
.
Toon outlined your rights in an earlier post, so I would copy the relevant bits and send a recorded delivery letter to Virtu ferries outlining your costs incurred because of the cancellations.

If you can, use a solicitor to give it a bit more weight but don't give up.
You have been treated badly and its your right to expect some form of recompense for your loss caused by their incompetence.

Its interesting that Virtu ferries could not find a replacement when the ferry was out of service for a month but found one to rescue the Italian  diplomats from  Libya !!

nil carborundum illegitemis !!

Terry

tearnet; wrote:

Its interesting that Virtu ferries could not find a replacement when the ferry was out of service for a month but found one to rescue the Italian  diplomats from  Libya !!

nil carborundum illegitemis !!

Terry

That's exactly what we were saying yesterday!  It's a bit disgusting that they couldn't send another ferry for all those paying customers they'd stranded in Sicily for at least two days. Their response was just to turn their phones off and give them no clue as to what was going on, or an indication of when when they'd get them over to Malta.

I don't trust them after what happened, so we'll never use them.  If we need to go anywhere we'll fly and hire a car because I couldn't risk being stranded by them again.  The only reason we're using them to get the car back was because we have no other option.

The compensation is laughable and nowhere near what we lost because of them. I've bookmarked Toons link and next week I'll be sending the forms to them.  It's just everything has been a bit hectic, so we just haven't been able to do much at all.  Being two days late meant we had to start work instantly, but that in itself was a nightmare because Melita didn't get our internet working for a week and they've only just got the phone working.  We've been having to work using the internet on a mobile phone.

My husband is in Sicily now.  He's on his way to the ferry and should be there in about half an hour.  The ferry at the moment is supposed to be returning to Malta at 4pm, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed it does make it this time.

Good luck and keep up the pressure on Virtu.

Malta does have a consumer protection department and may be able to help.

http://mccaa.org.mt/

It would be good if you can keep us updated on any progress.

Terry

Thanks, we will.

I'll update this thread after Virtu Ferries have responded.  According to the link that Toon posted, they have a month to respond and two months to make a final decision before we can take it any further, so I can see it taking a while.