A man who was on a cruise suing for because of a wake-up call that was, apparently, earlier than he wanted. The Derby Telegraph reported that the British man, David Bookbinder, 71, was on a UK-based Thomson Cruises cruise ship.
The Derby Telegraph reported that Bookbinder, who is a ex-city council leader of Derbyshire is suing Thomas Cruises and Thomas Cook because he had to wake up early on the cruise in order for excursions to be sold. He claims that he and his brother had to get up as early as 3:30 a.m. on their cruise through the Mediterranean in February.
When the ship was due in Israel, Bookbinder said the staff asked passengers to wake up at 5 a.m. to be interviewed by Israeli officials at the port. The Derby Telegraph reported that Bookbinder said that the early wake up calls "ruined" his trip.
He said to The Derby Telegraph, "I'm happy to get out of bed at 3.30am if the ship is sinking - but not so excursions can be sold. My brother is wheelchair-bound and at the time he was 86-years-old. He has many health problems and the aggravation and stress of getting him up at 3.30am was immense. He was jittery afterwards and complaining to me about the situation. All the benefits of the holiday were lost."
He is suing for a total of £1,532 which is the cost of the seven-day cruise, in total. The case will be decided in a small claims court next Tuesday.
A spokesperson for Thomas Cruises said in response to Bookbinder's experience, "We are sorry to hear that Mr Bookbinder was unhappy with the way the immigration process in Israel was handled. Israel has very strict immigration procedures and interviews customers and crew on board. Customers are therefore required to make an early start, which we warn them of in advance. This immigration process is common practice for all ships visiting Israeli ports. Thomson Celebration is one of our most popular ships. Our customer satisfaction questionnaires, from the cruise Mr Bookbinder was on, show that 86% of respondents rated their holiday overall as good or excellent."
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