SEATTLE - Milo Myers booked a 10-day cruise from St. Pierre to Halifax aboard the Spirit of Oceanus, but his cruise ended before it began.
"Well obviously it was a disappointment and when you get to be our age we were looking forward to a nice cruise in a beautiful area," he said.
The Myers' flew to St. John's, spent a couple of days there and then were supposed to take the short hop to St. Pierre and pick up the Spirit of Oceanus there.
But Seattle based Cruise West changed owners and on Tuesday posted a recorded message: "Thank you for calling Cruise West. We are in the process of restructuring the company with new ownership. As part of this process, we are suspending all new bookings and our reservation center is temporarily closed."
Cruise West specializes in small-ship cruises in Alaska. It's had problems in the past, including a grounding of the vessel "Spirit of Glacier Bay" in Tarr Inlet two years ago.
Myers is hoping for a refund but the company hasn't returned his calls.
"I had put down about $12,000 for the airlines and cruise so as of right now I'm out that amount of money," he said.
Myers also has to pay for his hotel in Seattle and his flight back to New Mexico and he doesn't have insurance.
"There were some passengers on the ship that had purchased around-the-world cruises and this is about half way around the world," he said.
Cruise West says on its website that it will continue to operate its U.S. ships through October. That includes sailings from Seattle and Portland, as well as tours already underway in Alaska.
No word yet on what will happen to cruises scheduled after October.
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