Image it: You arrive on the cruise port, and the ship is true there ready so that you can board. Quickly you may be sitting in your cabin’s balcony, sipping a tropical drink as you sail away.
Or possibly you will not.
Sadly, a tragic scene repeats daily in cruise terminals world wide. As a substitute of being welcomed aboard, some excited passengers are denied boarding.
As a client advocate, I commonly obtain requests for assist from bewildered cruise passengers turned away on the port. With just a bit planning, the next would-be passengers may have simply averted their destiny.
Be taught from these 4 cautionary tales, so you do not lose your subsequent trip — and the cash you spent on it.
Denied boarding for not having proof of vaccination
Erin Beztilny got here down with COVID-19 very early within the pandemic. Shortly after recovering, she got here down with a variant and by no means ended up illness-free for lengthy sufficient to be vaccinated. She and her husband stayed residence for the majority of three years.
When vaccine restrictions have been lifted for a lot of the world, they wished to journey once more.
Working with an agent on the Alberta Motor Affiliation, the couple booked a 14-night cruise from New Zealand to Australia on Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Spirit. They might fly Air Canada nonstop from Vancouver Worldwide Airport (YVR) to Auckland Airport (AKL), the place the cruise would start.
“We selected NCL as a result of different cruise traces nonetheless required passengers to have had the vaccine,” Beztilny advised me. “Due to my bouts with COVID, I had by no means had the vaccine.”
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She says her AMA journey agent checked with NCL and confirmed she may board the cruise unvaccinated.
“It was so thrilling to lastly begin touring once more,” Beztilny defined. “I used to be giddy, reserving cruise excursions, dinners and spa appointments. I simply knew this was going to be an unforgettable journey.”
And it might be an unforgettable journey … however for all of the mistaken causes.
NCL: ‘We can not assist you to board the vessel’
A couple of weeks later, the unvaccinated couple arrived in New Zealand after a 16-hour flight. However as quickly as they stepped into the check-in space on the cruise terminal, issues went downhill quick.
“The NCL agent requested me for my vaccination card and I advised her I did not have one,” Beztilny recalled. “She walked away after which returned with a supervisor and a denied boarding card.”
The supervisor defined that though New Zealand did not require a vaccination card, Australia nonetheless did. With out the required doc, Beztilny was not permitted to board the ship. Even worse? The denied boarding card clarified that NCL supposed to maintain the cash the couple paid for the cruise.
In tears, Beztilny known as her agent again in Canada, whose solely recommendation was to return residence. That night, they have been on a nonstop flight again to Vancouver, fully deflated.
The excellent news for these cruise ship passengers
In March 2023, when this couple was denied boarding, NCL’s web site had incorrect vaccination details about cruises to Australia. Beztilny’s agent made a mistake counting on that misguided steering when she suggested the couple they have been clear to cruise.
These two exterior errors, mixed with Beztilny’s oversight in not checking vaccine necessities herself, led the couple on a $10,000, 72-hour, 15,000-mile journey nightmare.
Most denied boarding instances don’t finish on a optimistic notice, however for the Beztilnys, there was excellent news.
I contacted NCL on their behalf, stating that they might not have booked the journey if the right vaccination info had been posted on the cruise line’s web site.
In the end, NCL agreed with my reasoning and issued the couple a full future cruise credit score. When all COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, the Beztilnys took that dream cruise.
Whereas COVID-19 vaccinations are not required for vacationers, cruise passengers ought to all the time examine well being and security info for all locations on their itinerary. Relying on the place you’re going, you might want different vaccines or preventative medicines.
The U.S. Division of State can give you up-to-date necessities and proposals for each nation you may be visiting throughout your cruise.
This analysis needs to be performed nicely upfront of your crusing, since many vaccines have to be administered a while earlier than they turn into protecting. Or, as with the COVID-19 vaccine, you might want a couple of dose.
Vacationers must also bear in mind that their private medical situation could necessitate vaccines, photographs or different preventative medicines, even when these interventions aren’t a strict requirement. It’s all the time clever to seek the advice of together with your physician previous to worldwide adventures.
No visa for India results in deportation and a missed Viking cruise
In some ways, octogenarians Thomas and Jane Entenza’s expertise was worse than the Beztilnys’.
The Entenzas spent $28,000 on a self-described bucket-list Viking cruise by the Bay of Bengal. A couple of days earlier than the ship was set to sail, they flew from Jacksonville, Florida, to New Delhi. They supposed to discover that metropolis a number of days earlier than boarding the luxurious Viking Mars.
Sadly, the couple by no means made it additional than Delhi Indira Gandhi Worldwide Airport (DEL).
After the arduous 20-hour journey to New Delhi, they stepped as much as the immigration window with out the visas they did not know have been required. The distraught couple was denied entry to India and detained to await deportation.
A couple of hours later, immigration officers put the couple on one other flight headed proper again to the US. It was a devastating flip of occasions for the exhausted husband and spouse.
Cruise passengers should know and possess their required documentation
When Entenza requested me if I may assist, Viking had already rejected his refund request.
Like each different main cruise line, Viking’s phrases and situations (PDF hyperlink) clarify that it’s all the time the passenger’s final duty to know what paperwork they should efficiently navigate their total itinerary: “It’s your duty to make sure that you will have all obligatory paperwork to take part within the cruise or tour(s) bought, and neither VRC nor the Provider accepts duty for acquiring required visas or for advising passengers of visa or different immigration necessities.”
Sadly, cruise passengers usually overlook potential visa necessities for overseas locations.
Entenza advised me that he had relied on his Viking cruise guide to advise him of the paperwork he and his spouse wanted for the journey.
That was a mistake. A cruise guide will not be an official supply to be taught what documentation you should journey.
Some excellent news from Viking
However regardless of Viking’s coverage, the Entenzas’ cruise guide had given the couple incomplete entry necessities steering.
This cruise guide suggested the couple {that a} visa was required for Sri Lanka, giving them the impression that they didn’t want every other visas for the cruise.
As a result of the cruise guide gave his purchasers partial info that in the end led them to overlook the $28,000 cruise, I contacted Viking on their behalf. I urged that the cruise line’s personal consultant bore some duty for this fiasco.
Viking agreed with me and evenly break up the duty between the Entenzas and the cruise line. Ultimately, the couple obtained a bit greater than $14,000 in future cruise credit and a harsh lesson about what occurs if you happen to attempt to enter a rustic with out the required documentation.
Dependable, official sources of details about what you should cruise
Cruise passengers ought to by no means depend on one supply to find out what paperwork they want. Opposite to standard perception, the cruise line is not the place to go to get official info.
The highest sources to get entry and transit necessities are:
- The U.S. State Division: The U.S. State Division web site maintains a web page for each nation worldwide the place you may study entry necessities, together with well being and security dangers, in addition to vaccinations wanted. There may be even a web page devoted to cruise ship passengers.
- Timatic: Entry this free software, created by the Worldwide Air Transport Affiliation, by particular person airways or websites like Seats.aero to get personalised entry necessities for all locations in your itinerary, together with well being and security guidelines. You present your entire info (passport, itinerary, objective and size of go to), and it’ll inform you precisely what it’s essential to need to efficiently full your journey. Timatic is up to date dozens of instances per day with new information.
- Consulate of the nations you are touring to: Visiting the web site of the consulate of the nations in your itinerary offers you additional readability about what you want for entry.
- VisaCentral: Vacationers ought to by no means overlook the potential for needing a visa for entry or transit to any nation on their itinerary. VisaCentral presents a free, easy software that you should use to examine whether or not any of your locations require a visa.
Too pregnant to cruise
Final December, Marissa Vacca and her husband have been wanting ahead to their cruise aboard Celeb Reflection with their younger daughter.
It might be their first cruise ever and the household’s final trip as a trio. Vacca was nicely into the third trimester of her being pregnant when the group arrived in Fort Lauderdale the day earlier than embarkation.
That night, Vacca was casually reviewing their cruise paperwork when she got here throughout a piece that made her coronary heart drop.
Below the part titled “Health to Journey, Denial of Boarding,” it learn (PDF hyperlink): “Any Passenger who will enter the twenty fourth week of being pregnant by the start of, or at any time throughout their cruise or CruiseTour agrees to not e book the cruise or board the Vessel or Transport beneath any circumstances.”
At that second, Vacca was 29 weeks pregnant.
Cruise passengers coming into their twenty fourth week of being pregnant will probably be denied boarding
Vacca says she instantly known as Celeb Cruises and spoke to a sympathetic cruise guide.
“She advised me that I would nonetheless be capable of board the ship,” Vacca advised me. “So we went all the way down to the pier at our scheduled time.”
Regardless of the agent’s considerably encouraging suggestion, Vacca couldn’t take the cruise. She had already crammed out the passenger info type and indicated her stage of being pregnant. And even when she hadn’t, she was visibly pregnant, and throughout the cruise trade, the 24-week rule is rigid.
So the household gathered their suitcases and, as a substitute of boarding the ship, went again to the airport.
Learn your cruise contract and forestall denial of boarding
Vacca had booked the cruise on her personal by the Celeb Cruises web site. As a result of she had by no means cruised earlier than, she was unfamiliar with the 24-week cutoff for pregnant passengers — a rule shared by each main cruise line.
I contacted Celeb Cruises on Vacca’s behalf to see if there was any likelihood of a future cruise credit score for the household.
Sadly, the reply was “no.” When passengers are denied boarding as a result of they don’t seem to be “match to journey,” the ticket contract makes it clear: There will probably be no cruise, no refund and no future credit score.
Ready to learn by the ticket contract till the evening earlier than the cruise was an oversight that brought on this household to overlook their trip and lose the cash spent on it.
Whether or not you are a first-time or a seasoned cruise ship passenger, it’s all the time clever to familiarize your self together with your contract.
Loads of beneficial info is contained in that doc, a few of which is essential. However it’s essential to learn it lengthy earlier than you present up on the pier.
Arriving too late to board the ship
One of the crucial widespread causes cruise ship passengers get denied boarding is exhibiting up too late on the port. Simply final week, John Heald, Carnival Cruise Line’s model ambassador, advised his Fb group a few couple who acquired caught in site visitors on the way in which to Port Canaveral, Florida. They arrived 10 minutes after the ultimate name for Carnival Glory, and the terminal was closed.
The would-be passengers thought that as a result of the ship was nonetheless within the port, Carnival workers simply wanted to reopen the door and allow them to in. They have been incensed when that did not occur and the vessel sailed away with out them.
They despatched their criticism to Heald and requested him who to contact about their “full refund” since Carnival workers had deserted and stranded them on the pier.
The Division of Homeland Safety’s 60-minute passenger rule
The U.S. Division of Homeland Safety requires that cruise traces present a last passenger manifest 60 minutes earlier than departure. After boarding is closed and that listing is filed, no extra passengers can be part of the cruise. That’s nonnegotiable.
These two passengers weren’t denied boarding by mistake; that they had missed the ultimate name for the cruise.
Whereas sympathetic to their plight, Heald defined that passengers should all the time be on time on the port. If that does not occur and so they miss the boat, the cruise line would not present a refund.
This coverage will not be distinctive to Carnival. It’s an industrywide customary a part of each main cruise line’s contract of carriage.
Though these Carnival passengers have been certain they missed their cruise “by no fault of our personal,” it was in the end their duty to reach on time. They did not, and they also missed their cruise and misplaced their cash.
Journey insurance coverage or journey safety
Heald supplied that Carnival’s Trip Safety may have helped these passengers keep away from the monetary lack of their missed cruise. The cancel-for-any-reason a part of that plan permits clients to cancel proper up till the ship’s departure and obtain a 75% future cruise credit score.
Conventional journey insurance coverage may cowl a flight or site visitors delay-related cruise cancellation. However earlier than assuming you are protected, it’s essential to verify the named perils (occasions which might be coated) of your coverage.
Backside line
Being denied boarding your cruise could be an embarrassing and traumatic expertise with heavy monetary repercussions.
Earlier than you enter the penalty part of your subsequent cruise:
- Learn your cruise contract: It is a prolonged doc, however most of what you should know to keep away from being denied boarding your cruise is in it.
- Do your analysis: The Division of State’s web page for cruise passengers is a good place to start out.
- All the time plan to reach at your embarkation metropolis a day early: Many cruise passengers by no means take into account what is going to occur if their flight is delayed or they hit site visitors on the way in which to the port … till it occurs to them. All the time work at the very least a one-day buffer into your cruise trip, so you will not have to fret about arriving too late on the port. Consider the Division of Homeland Safety’s 60-minute manifest rule.
- Think about using an expert journey advisor: In case you’re unfamiliar with cruising or have a very sophisticated itinerary, an skilled journey advisor could be a useful useful resource. The American Society of Journey Advisors’ VeriVacation web site has a search characteristic for specialists specializing in cruise journey.
The excellent news is that, if you happen to observe these steps, you’ll just about assure that you simply will not be rejected on the pier. Pleased cruising!
You probably have an issue with a cruise line, airline, automotive rental company or bank card firm, ship your criticism to ombudsman@thepointsguy.com and I will be joyful to analyze and assist you to, too, if I can.
