Injured passengers all at sea over claims for compensation

Many of the passengers injured on the Pacific Sun were Kiwis. Photo / Supplied

Some passengers on board the ill-fated Pacific Sun cruise want compensation for their ordeal, saying they were lucky no one was killed.

"All I could see were scenes from terrible movies - Titanic, Poseidon Adventure" said Thames woman Dianne Connors, who is leading a group of about 50 passengers who want a full refund on their tickets.

She remains unimpressed with the way P&O handled the incident. However, other passengers believe the captain saved their lives and do not blame P&O.

P&O says it contacted injured passengers in the weeks after the accident, to discuss individual claims, which a spokeswoman said were "private matters".

Connors, who was on the cruise with her husband Brian and two children, said she suffered minor bruising but was traumatised. She criticised P&O for playing the incident down. "I think they have been through rough seas before and there had been problems, so why the heck didn't they think of securing them [furnishings] earlier?"

Connors said she had received neither an apology nor refund, but P&O had offered a 25 per cent discount for another cruise.

"I said 'thank you, I won't travel with you again'."

She wants compensation because she believes the accident was avoidable. "Some people want reimbursement for medical costs because they couldn't go back to work for a while."

The P&O spokeswoman said nothing in the official inquiry indicated wrongdoing on P&O's part. The severe weather was "unavoidable", she said. "When cruises are interrupted in circumstances beyond our control such as these extreme weather conditions, it is not our policy to refund the fare. We did, however, offer passengers a discount off a future cruise as a gesture of goodwill."

Joy Vickers and her husband Chris, of Tauranga, paid $3500 for their cruise, but she said she did not blame P&O. "We thought everything was handled well ... the captain saved our lives by turning the ship around. He had no choice. He was hit by a freak wave."

Ruth and Rob Boldrick of Whangarei were also offered 25 per cent discount off another cruise. Ruth said the company told her it would not pay any compensation, despite Rob requiring surgery for an ankle injury. "We heard that the captain was not at fault but when we were in Mystery Island [Vanuatu], we knew a storm was brewing."

P&O said it hoped people realised this was a "highly unusual" incident.