On January 31, 106 passengers were denied boarding on Carnival Cruise Lines’ Carnival Splendor heading for South America because they did not have required Brazilian visas. Sadly many watched their hard-earned vacation dollars sail off without them. How did this happen?
Disturbing trend
As more people book their travel online a disturbing trend is emerging — documentation snafus that can turn a dream cruise into a nightmare. Most people can easily book a Caribbean or Alaska cruise without any thought to proper documentation other than a birth certificate or passport. On the other hand, a laissez-fare approach to booking a cruise vacation that encompasses multiple countries with varying foreign entry requirements can be costly.
This problem isn’t just within the do-it-yourself crowd; there is a growing problem with online agencies, too. Many are employing inexperienced travel agents that are not versed in the nuances of foreign travel documentation. That is leading to huge problems for clients of those agencies.
According to Carnival spokesman, Vance Gulliksen, of the 2,800-plus passengers embarking in Miami for Splendor’s South American sailing, 106 guests did not have the required Brazilian visa. “The vast majority of those that did not have visas visited the Brazilian consulate in Miami to get theirs and were then able to meet the ship in the first port of call, Barbados,” said Gulliksen. He noted that a handful of guests opted not to sail on the voyage.
That was the case for one retired couple I spoke with that wishes to remain anonymous since they are pursuing compensation from their travel agency. The couple admitted that they weren’t experienced enough to check on the many countries that were involved in the voyage, so they employed the services of a travel agent. “We checked with the agency to see if we needed visas and they told us we didn’t.” As for not trying to get visas and catch up with the ship in Barbados the couple said that option was simply going to be “too costly.”
It’s a shame the aforementioned couple lost their entire cruise investment even though they had travel insurance. Travel insurance does not cover instances where the policy holder fails to obtain relevant visa documentation.
Without proper documents you walk the plank
Several ‘visa-less’ passengers I spoke with were quick to put the blame on Carnival. But Carnival gave its customers plenty of notice. Indeed, over 97 percent of Splendor’s passengers had obtained their visas.
Back in October Carnival notified its travel agent partners and consumers (who booked direct) via e-mail or fax regarding the Brazilian visa requirement. Subsequent notifications were sent to notify all new bookings after the initial mailing. Guests can only apply for the Brazilian visa 90 days or less prior to the visit date.
Several passengers wondered why they couldn’t just stay on the ship when in Brazil. Unfortunately, that’s breaking the law. Carnival said the fine for bringing undocumented guests into Brazil is $1,655 per person.
The cruise line feels badly for the guests that chose not to pursue getting a visa and flying to the next port. Gulliksen says, “We do really feel for those folks and are very sorry they were unable to participate on this voyage but hope they do understand that the visa requirement is a Brazilian government regulation and not a Carnival policy.”
Like all cruise lines, Carnival offers visa and passport documentation information in the “Ticket Contract” section of their brochures and on its Web site. The information clearly states that it is the “sole responsibility of the passenger to carry and have available all required travel documents.” It also says, “Guests traveling without proper documentation will not be allowed to board the vessel and no refund of the cruise fare will be issued.”
Bottom line: the visa requirement is your responsibility not the cruise line’s. Therefore do the homework necessary well before you leave home or employ the services of a very experienced travel agent whose job it is to know the requirements. You don’t want to miss your hard-earned dream cruise.
Sound off! Do you have a comment, an idea, a complaint or a problem for Anita to solve? Send her an e-mail and you might find yourself in her next column.
They were not experienced enough travelers; yet they knew enough to ask about the requirement for a visa??
The same thing happened on Royal Caribbean’s Mariner of the Seas a few weeks earlier. Many people thought they wouldn’t need the visas because they didn’t intend to get off the ship in Brazil.
I’m curious – I’d like to know how many of the Visa-less passengers booked on their own with on-line cruise agencies vs. directly with Carnical vs. withan actual Travel Agent? Really, just curious.
Hi John,
That’s what they said. Surprisingly their agency was part of the Virtuoso member. Hmmmm…
TTYS
Best
Anita
Hi Mindy,
I am told out of the 106 — 75% were booked by TAs….ouch.
TTYS
Best,
Anita
Yes Anita, but when the cruise line says “TAs” are they counting those on-line booking engines that are supposedly “agencies”? I think they’re saying 75% were bookoed by TAs and 25% were booked directly with the cruise line (really, some clients will simply ignore everything they’re told). I mean, Orbitz is a “TA” right? Cruises.com is also a “TA” – so there probably is no way to figure out who booked their own cruise with an on-line “TA” and who called or sat down at a B&M….
I am astounded that the Agency in this instance was Virtuoso.
I am a traditional travel agent with over 20 years experience, and at least once a week we get a customer in our door who booked online and want us to “fix” their trip because they didn’t know about passport and/or visa requirements. We also get customers who just don’t know. That is one of the reasons they do come to us. I had a customer about a month ago that i informed of a visa requirement and they seriously thought I meant a credit card and I had a hard time getting it through to them. So, bottom line, I am not at all surprised a situation like this occurs.
I find it hard to believe that a professional travel agent who is in the business of selling cruises doesn’t know enough to find out what documentation is needed for a cruise and more importantly, doesn’t know enough to document that the customer has been advised of said documentation.
I’m not surprised to hear that there are folks who booked online that didn’t get the word. All too many of the do it yourself crowd, miss the details. This is true of those selling their own home or repairing the electrical system in their house or booking travel.
I have a friend who is going to Fiji on his honeymoon in just over a week. He booked it all himself, even though I told him to use my travel agent. Well, he booked his nonrefundable air on one site and his nonrefundable hotel on another and didn’t think about the fact that he is crossing the international date line on the way there, so he isn’t arriving on the same day/date that he is leaving the US, which is the date he put in for his arrival at the hotel. He also booked the airfare using his last name, the only problem is that her ID is in her maiden name. Speaking of ID, he’s convinced that he doesn’t need a passport, just one of the new cards. I spent two hours last night convincing him that he has several issues to resolve and not much time. Monday morning he’s off to visit a passport service to see if he can get two passport in very short order. He told me that he was going to call the airlines to see what he can do to fix the issue with the name. And he is trying to get the site that he booked his hotel through to adjust the dates. All this in order to save $35.00!
Anita, I notice that you say that 75% of these were booked through travel agents, have you contacted the agents in question to get their side of the story? For all we know, most, if not all, advised the passengers in question and were ignored.
We also booked a South America cruise with Royal Caribbean; we made our initial deposit for this cruise more than a year ago. Neither Royal Caribbean nor our travel agent informed us of the requirement for a Brazilian visa. Our final cruise documents which we received about a month before our scheduled departure date, didn’t specifically state the requirement for a Brazilian visa. It merely states that each travel needs to check the visa requirements for each country on their itinerary. When I checked-in on-line at the Royal Caribbean website, it did not indicate that a visa was required for Brazil. About a week ago, I was casually reading the Royal Caribbean Shore Excursion booklet and to my amazement it clearly states that a visa is required for Brazil even if the traveler is merely arriving at the Sao Paulo airport and going directly to the ship (which was our planned itinerary). I immediately did some quick internet research and confirmed that a visa for Brazil is required (per the Brazil Consulate web site). Per that website, the processing time for a visa is about 12 business days, which was about amount of time that we had before our departure. We immediately contacted a visa service (CIBT) and were told that they could expedite our visa request …for an additional fee of course. We FedEx’d the forms and our passports to them late last week. Friday morning (February 20th), I called CIBT and they confirmed that they had our paperwork/passports and we would have our passports/visa back in our possession by March 10th (2 days before our departure date). When I checked my email Friday evening, I had received an email from CIBT (the visa service) stating that the Brazilian Consulate had changed the processing time for visas and now required 20 working days (basically a month) for a visa. I tried calling CIBT, but they were closed for the weekend. We met with our travel agent Saturday morning and she was equally startled that Royal Caribbean had not notified her that a visa for Brazil was required. She contacted both Royal Caribbean and their affiliated trip insurance company (Berkeley) and was given the same “song & dance” as others have received “…it’s the traveler’s responsibility to determine which visas are needed and to obtain them…if you cancel the cruise, you’ll receive a credit for only 75% …” In other words, Royal Caribbean has shirked its responsibility to specifically notify their passengers of the visa requirements …why on earth would they treat their current and future customers like this?? Our travel agent is currently working with the Royal Caribbean Resolution Department in an attempt to receive full credit (not the 75% offered) for a future cruise. On Monday, I will call CIBT and have our passports (without the visas) returned to us. We have taken 8 previous cruises with Royal Caribbean and have never encounter a problem like this. On previous cruises, when a visa was required, they specifically informed us of the requirements and how to obtain the visa. Perhaps, Royal Caribbean has grown too large and doesn’t care about their customers. We’ll know next week if Royal Caribbean is going to allow us to transfer the full amount we paid to another cruise … hopefully they will do the right thing.
Hello Joe & Linda,
I’ve actually been in touch with another couple that was on your voyage as well. Please let me know how RCCL resolves this. E-mail me at [email protected]
One last thing: I am DEEPLY disturbed to see the word “travel agent” come up in these complaints. I have been a big advocate of using travel agents to book cruises — I still am. HOWEVER, I am starting to believe that there are too many inexperienced agents out there. Reason I say that is I get some really foolish e-mails from new agents that want me to solve their problem with a cruise line. A column I did a few weeks ago regarding an elderly couple who ended up paying an additional $3,000 because they missed their Delta flight garnered some really outrageous e-mails from new agents. A vast number had no clue what insurance policies cover and don’t cover. What situations constitute when the policy kicks and what the maximum payout is? I was astounded by the lack of knowledge. What are they telling their customers?
Let’s be frank. Big agencies are just hiring warm bodies off the street to fill vacancies. There seems to be a big gap in training to the detriment of the customer.
I am also at the point where I won’t recommend a travel agent or agency unless they’ve been in business for a number of years. I am also at the point that if someone doesn’t have a lot of experience booking cruises I won’t recommend them. I am beginning to believe 10-plus years booking cruises may be the way to go.
I am sad to have to be so blunt.
Best,
Anita
Anita–some good points have been made here. RCCL calls Orbitz, et al travel agencies. If they did not handle the booking, it was by a travel agency, so that is lumping many different concepts together. If you Yugo is a lemon, what is your recommendation–don’t buy a car?
I think that is a critical piece of information that RCCL ought to share.
No excuses for the Virtuoso agency. And no excuses for a legitimate travel professional to make this mistake.
As for your comment about hiring the masses, I am not sure that is the issue. Not many are hiring right now, and the more senior ones are likely being kept. There has been a preponderance of Multi Level Marketing companies in the industry where for $500 you get a cookie cutter website and can call yourself a travel. These people are ill trained, and typically are in it for the perks and have ZERO interest in servicing a travel client. I have written several columns on these types of firms and they are NO good. YTB is probably the largest and currently they are mired in a ton of legal problem–California Attorney General is suing them for $25M and there are several class action suits in excess of $100M against them.
But I woudl like to know the TYPE of agencies that booked these people. I suspect that it will indeed tell the story!
Agree with John. Who’s hiring warm bodies off the streets? Most “brick and mortar” agencies are cutting staff or hours….Or going to commission-only. (Have been happily commission only myself for years.) Now mind you, that doesn’t mean these so called “agents’ that work with credit card company customers. Had an American Express Platinum agent ask once when inquiring about their hotel program if Milan was in France. Most traditional travel agents who are still in business know what they are doing. But there are still some card mills selling travel agent “credentials” so people can book a little travel for friends and whoever else they can snag and get as many perks as possible. Some of these part-time agents actually are competent, many are not.
Hi folks,
This whole thing is a big mess. The problem is there really needs to be a push by the travel agent community to define themselves better. Should someone working in a huge agency with little experience be dubbed a travel agent? It’s just a thought but maybe a ranking system? The more experienced booking cruises the higher the rank? Just a thought…
Best,
Anita
Anita-
How do you know which agency these people booked with?. Did they say?A lot of the MLM’s and card mills; Traverus, World Ventures, YTB, GTI are calling themselves travel agents these days. We TTA’s have been fighting them for years. Don’t lump us altogether.
JJ