KEY POINTS:
A passenger injured during a Pacific cruise is furious with cruise company P&O for offering her a discount off her next cruise instead of a refund.
Tania Watford, a 39-year-old Opononi secretary, was on the Pacific Sun on its eight-day Auckland-to-Vanuatu cruise when the ship hit storms with seven-metre swells and 50-knot winds before eventually docking at Queens Wharf on August 1.
Ms Watford was flung from one side of the main lobby to the other - a distance she estimated at 10m - suffering an injured neck and concussion.
She has been offered 25 per cent off her next cruise but claims the 57 injured passengers were given a separate undertaking that they would be entitled to a refund. Her fare was about $950, she said.
The Australian cruise company says passengers were aware of the goodwill offer of 25 per cent off before they left the ship.
Ms Watford, who contacted the company last week, said the offer was exactly the same as that made to those who were not hurt - which is at odds with what she understood to be the case when she was on the ship.
"We were told on board we were going to be compensated. In good faith they didn't charge me for medical costs on board, but I also expected to be reimbursed for my fare."
She also claims company representatives told her she would have to prove negligence on the captain's part in an Australian court before she would get a refund.
That is a position she believes is "arrogant - it's just left a very bad taste in my mouth".
She added: "I do think it was negligent because New Zealand was in full alert that a storm was coming. You can't tell me that they don't read the weather forecasts out on the water."
Ms Watford is still suffering headaches and was getting a second medical opinion on her neck injury yesterday. She will be off work for a month.
A P&O spokesman said the company was aware of her complaint but before passengers disembarked they were told of the discount both by the captain over the sound system and by letter.
It was unlikely that Ms Watford would have been told she would have to take the company to court to receive reimbursement, the spokesman said, but the company could not compensate for situations out of its control - in this instance the weather.
He said Ms Watford had been asked to put her complaint in writing so the company could review the situation for any "extenuating circumstances".
