Originally Posted by j2simpso

That being said, it would appear that you booked your tour through a UK travel agency called Prestige Holidays. Is that correct? If so, then UK consumer protection laws apply here. Long story short, call them up and see if you can get a reasonable resolution to this issue. If not, and if travel insurance is unwilling to help, your next course of action would be reaching out to the UK's Civil Aviation Authority whose responsibility in addition to flights is also packaged holidays such as yours. Prestige's website claims to be certified by ABTA and have ATOL protection which means they must adhere to a certain standard when these things occur. As a last resort, you could also dispute the charge on your credit card considering you didn't receive the service (something you'll want to keep in your back pocket).

If I were you I would have stuck to the travel plans and see what happens when you get to the UK. Professional tour companies have contingencies for precisely when these types of things happen and at the end of the day they are on the hook for travel inconveniences since they sold you this package and are accredited accordingly. I'm unsure if they would have put you on a ship leaving slightly later or from a different port of departure but it may still have worked out. That being said, I've been in similar situations where all I wanted to do was go home.

I would also advise you to take a look at this document published by the UK government on this very topic.”