One issue we write about often is the cruise industry’s refusal to refund cruise fares when tragedy strikes their customers.
We have seen cruise lines refuse to accommodate their guests when family members die unexpectedly, natural disasters destroy their customers’ homes, and even when children develop cancer. The cruise lines pocket the fares and then
National Geographic Traveler magazine ombudsman Christopher Elliott is often asked to try and recover canceled cruise fares when passengers suffer serious illness, a death in the family or other misfortune.
All cruise passenger tickets contain draconian terms and conditions, drafted by the cruise line attorneys, which address what happens when a passenger is forced to
A news station in California KFSN (ABC) channel 30 reports that being ill with norovirus or in a medical emergency presents challenges when you are "days from the nearest port, on a ship without diagnostic equipment like an MRI machine, a blood bank or even specialty doctors."
According to a Consumer affairs medical doctor, although
Consumer Reports published a good article about some of the issues cruise passengers will encounter (like norovirus) and has some advice for the traveling public. According to Consumer Reports medical adviser, Dr. Orly Avitzur:
David Lazarus of the LA Times writes about how Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) refused to either refund or credit the cruise fare to 66 year old David Warlick and his wife after she was diagnosed with bladder cancer and underwent emergency surgery.
In his article "Cruise Line Unmoved By Customer’s Cancer Emergency," Lazarus
The Travel section of the Washington Post has an article today about what happens if you are unfortunate enough to have a heart attack while sailing on a cruise in the Caribbean. Things often get worse when the cruise ship wants to limit its liability and dumps you off in a Caribbean port.
No offense
Last year I published a couple of articles entitled And the Cruise Industry Wonders Why It Has an Image Problem. One of the stories we covered involved a NCL passenger who had to cancel his cruise because his brother died and was being buried on the day of the cruise. NCL refused to permit
A family in Kentucky is going to enjoy a family vacation after Carnival reconsidered its cancellation penalty following a vicious attack on young Troy Walter. The teenage was coming to the defense of his friend who was attacked by a knife yielding man now in jail on attempted murder charges.
The family was scheduled to