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Fiascos and Fixes
This is what happens when bewildered passengers miss their cruise — sometimes through no fault of their own. Unfortunately, often the missed cruise is the result of traveler error. The Consumer Rescue team is here to help correct these fiascos when we can and provide guidance and explanations when we can’t.
Should you receive a refund if you hate your cruise so much that you get off the ship early? What if you leave the cruise before it even sets sail?
Lori Rutt and her husband maintain that if intolerable conditions push you to leave a cruise ship, a refund is owed. She says only hours after they boarded their first cruise ever, they chose to disembark — never to return.
If you get involuntarily removed from a cruise halfway around the world, does the cruise line owe you compensation?
William Coats believes so. Holland America booted him and his wife from the Westerdam in Korea just days into their 14-day cruise. As a result, they’re out thousands of dollars and he wants the cruise line to pay.
It’s never a great idea to cruise with just a passport card. If you’ve ever thought about doing it, you’ll want to read this cautionary tale.
Daniel Sellar’s cruise fiasco is an unfortunate example of what can go wrong if you decide to cruise with just a passport card. Things may go just fine. But you should consider what will happen if you miss the boat and need to take a flight to catch up with it. Because although you can cruise with just a passport card, you can’t fly anywhere internationally with one.
You should never rely on an anonymous stranger’s advice about the required ID you need to take your next cruise. Salvatore Friscia knows this all too well. While planning a vacation on Carnival’s Pride, he says an unidentified phone agent gave him the wrong information about the documentation requirements for the cruise. That guidance led him and his wife to show up for the cruise without the correct ID. As a result, the Friscias were denied boarding the ship and missed the entire cruise.
Maybe you’ve taken an international cruise without a passport and it was smooth sailing all the way. But you might want to consider Earl Wentzel’s troubling tale before booking your next maritime adventure.
Earl’s case should serve as an eye-opener to anyone considering taking a cruise without a passport. When you cruise with no passport, you’re putting yourself in a precarious position that could cause you to miss your vacation completely — no refund included. Or worse. You could even find yourself stranded in a foreign country.
The massive lifting of travel restrictions in the past few months came a little too late for Ann Shepherd. In April, she and her husband missed their much-anticipated Royal Caribbean cruise when Barbados rejected them for entry. As their cabin aboard the Grandeur of the Seas sailed unoccupied, the cruise line quickly refused Ann’s refund request.
Ann says this isn’t fair since she believes the Barbados Ministry of Health refused them by mistake. Now she’s hoping Royal Caribbean will offer a replacement cruise for the one they missed.
Unfortunately, this cautionary tale highlights the confusing evolution of travel requirements and restrictions before, during, and after the pandemic.
Whose mistake really caused this missed cruise? That’s the question for today.
What if you had a newly minted enemy and Royal Caribbean allowed that person to cancel your cruise?
That’s what Rita Yates believes happened to her recently. When she called to make the final payment on her upcoming sailing, an RCCL agent explained that the cruise Rita intended to take to celebrate her 40th anniversary no longer existed. Assuming that the cancellation was another casualty of the pandemic, Rita asked why the cruise line hadn’t informed her sooner.
That’s when Royal Caribbean gave Rita an even bigger surprise: Explorer of the Seas would be sailing as scheduled. In fact, the RCCL representative explained, records showed Yates had canceled her own cruise – and forfeited her deposit.
Rita says she absolutely did not cancel her cruise, but she believes she knows the troublemaker who did. Now, with Royal Caribbean unwilling to refund her deposit or reinstate the voyage, she’s asking for help.
But with police reports, lawsuits, and other threats being tossed about, that might be a lofty request for a consumer advocate.