Thread: Star Cruises in Taiwan - right!!!

Star Cruises!!! Ha!

Let me tell you my experience with Star Cruises and what it is like being treated as a 3rd-class citizen.

First, you have to understand that Star Cruises advertises at www.starcruises.com and has a ship based in Taiwan - the Superstar Libra. She sails out of Kaohsiung and Keelung. I live in Keelung.

I learned that Star Cruises was offering 2-3 night trips to Okinawa and wanted to enjoy a small part of my summer vacation at sea. So, I tried to find information on line. The key word is tried. It was not very successful and it seems it is Star Cruises’ fault.

I travel a lot. I have an advanced degree, have visited 30 countries, have been on 4 cruises (1 long, 1 short, 2 military), and I am very good at determining my desires before I make reservations. So, I was looking for information on tour length, berth options and prices. All of this would help me make a good decision - when I had to go to a travel agent.

When I finally found the above website, I found the cruise dates…… yep, that’s it. I could not access any information on the ship, the berths or the prices. Why!?! Because Taiwan is treated as a 2nd class country by Star Cruises!! You see, if I was in Singapore, Hong Kong or Malaysia, I could access the information and make a good decision. But, because Star Cruises thinks very little of Taiwan, I have to travel from my home town to Taipei to see a travel agent.

Wait!!! I did state above that I live in Keelung!! And, that is where the ship sails from. So, to make matters worse, not only is Taiwan treated as a 2nd class country, the home port of Keelung is treated as a 3rd class city…. We don’t even have a travel agent for a ship that departs from one of the largest ports in the world.

I wrote to Star Cruises and told them I needed information on berths and prices. They responded with their website. I wrote back that their website does not give that information and I needed it to make a decision for the 8 July cruise. They wrote back that I had to use a travel agent as Taiwan could not access that information. I wrote Star Cruises and informed them that I did not think asking for access to this information before going to an agent was unreasonable and told them to send me the website and that I would be away from home for three days with work. Their response? They had a travel agent call me!!!! I told him to email me the website and hung up.

When I returned home, I gave them via email, one more day (they have had two weeks) to get me the website. They did not.

So, what am I doing? 1) I am spending my money to fly to some other location. 2) I am never going to use a Star Cruises vessel in the future. 3) I am moving to Seoul in August and will take cruises… but not on Star Cruises. 4) I am withholding tens of thousands future US$ for their bad service. 5) I am writing here and hoping that others also let them know about their lack of concern for customers - should you feel it is appropriate.

Bottom-line - If you live in Taiwan you are a second class country and if you live in Keelung you are in a third class city - according to Star Cruises.

I see that you are new to CLF.



Don't forget to stop by the "Introduction" section and introduce yourself.

Originally Posted by Raven767

Bottom-line - If you live in Taiwan you are a second class country and if you live in Keelung you are in a third class city...

I see you are new to Taiwan as well

On the plus side:

Keelung is a friendly and laid back place, yet mostly ignored by other cruise lines' land packages info to the extent that upon arrival some passengers think they are already in Taipei.

Star is the only cruise company offering cruises to Taiwan residents. They have stuck with it, to their credit.

On the minus side:

You can't get on to other ships calling at Keelung - fly to Hong Kong or other gateways

The Star Libra focus is totally on Taiwanese passengers, so you'd not really get away as far as food, gambling and karaOKe entertainment goes.

Fantasy Travel is one of the five preferred 'agents pak' members, and they have a tiny office in Keelung. There a just a few others (SET, local) in town. Other agents in Taiwan won't make a cent of commission on your trip, so they won;t be interested.

Most Taiwanese agents' web sites are rudimentary when it comes to foreign residents and English - that segment of less than 1% is just not important.

Unfortunately it translates into sloppy English text, dead links and error in searches as you mentioned. One of the 'pleasures' of living in Taiwan is the lack of English skills, equal to South Korea...

Nevertheless... Star and their agents should pay attention to their brand image, which drives revenue.

One first step would be to support a Traditional Chinese (not the simplified Mainland and Singapore version) and English site for Taiwan.