Request for travel information from 'cruise only' passengers

[Li-shan]

I'm booked on a Fred cruise from Cairns, Australia in Jan, and I was phoned yesterday by someone from the Fred Olsen office and asked for information about my flights etc, apparently so that they could contact me if there was any change in arrangements. It makes a lot of sense for them to have this, but I have never been asked for it before when joining  a Fred cruise abroad on a 'cruise only' basis, and I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this, ie if it is now standard practice when joining abroad independently. If not, I wonder if they are predicting some sort of issue arising on thie particular cruise

[comcox]

Since I live in the U.S. all my Fred Olsen cruises involve independent flights, but I don't recall Fred asking about this but my previous FO cruises have all been out of UK.  However, when I've cruised on CMV they always ask my flight information and require it before they will print my embarkation documents.

[tring]

I have seen comments about him asking hotel details as well.  Maybe we are of the 'awkward' disposition, but sounds a like unnecessary information being collected and stored to us.  We are on Boudicca in February, but will be in Sri Lanka for just over 2 weeks before we embark and Fred has an email address and mobile phone number which can be used to contact us.  No questions been asked of us (as yet), but if they are, DH will be asking questions of Fred.

 

Will be interesting how Fred considers his request would comply with the General Data Protection Regulations which apply within the EU and make it illegal to collect and process unnecessary data.  Fred's 'contractual obligations' section of his T&C's say he can ask what is normally required (passport info. etc. and including a contact email address and phone number), but no requirement for travel details.  If he wants to contact us, an email or a text to a mobile phone would be the way to go about it.  We always check Fred's website or the telephone number he gives which details any change to schedules, before heading to a port though, which is sensible in our opinion.

Edited December 12, 2019 by tring

[tiggertom]

Don’t think GDPR applies for cruise travel. Anyway, Fred always asks for onward travel arrangements, flight numbers, etc for all passengers prior to disembarkation. I assume that they require information regarding embarkation in case of late arrival or non-arrivals. Makes sense if there are no-shows. 

[tring]

4 hours ago, tiggertom said:

Don’t think GDPR applies for cruise travel. Anyway, Fred always asks for onward travel arrangements, flight numbers, etc for all passengers prior to disembarkation. I assume that they require information regarding embarkation in case of late arrival or non-arrivals. Makes sense if there are no-shows. 

 

We are not far off Platinum level with Fred and have never been asked either, but he has pointed us to a phone number which can be rang, and his website, which can be used to check embarkation is on schedule and you often see banners on his website mentioning late embarkation for some reason.  Anyway we have not been asked anything as yet and may not be asked anything this time, or Fred may come up with a good reason for asking if he does, as our first thought will be to question the need for it.  It could have been part of contractual obligation, but DH checked Fred's website and it is not.

 

I did say we may be of the 'awkward  disposition'.  I can appreciate that some people are happy to give out personal data 🙂

 

[tiggertom]

I suppose they don’t need onward travel arrangements if you booked through them but if you are an independent traveller, as we have been on some cruises, we are always asked for the flight and hotel details. We left Boudicca a few weeks ago and provided our hotel details in Phuket and our flight details. I see no problem with this as they may have needed to contact us after we left the ship. For what it’s worth, we are platinum members and have never provided information in advanced of the cruise.

[Li-shan]

They asked me for:

Airline

Point of departure

Point of arrival

Flight Numbers

Hotel details if staying prior to the cruise

Estimated time of boarding Boudicca (they have already given a time frame of 2.00-5.00pm)

 

I provided this information willingly on this occasion because I only arrive one day in advance of the cruise and if I was uncontactable on a delayed long-haul  flight at the supposed time of boarding, it would be good that they had some information about where I was and how long I was likely to be delayed.

 

Nevertheless I absolutely agree with Tring about being asked for unnecessary information. One can never be too careful these days about where one's information is floating around the internet accessible to hackers and others (Hello, burglars wanting to know when I'll be away from my house). Despite GDPR, I think there are still privacy concerns and we're all going to need to be more cautious about leaking unneccessary information.

[tring]

We have just had Fred ask for our info. prior to cruise.  When told we were leaving 2.5 weeks before the cruise, the caller lost interest in flight details and asked for our hotel.  When told we will be in 6 different hotels, he lost interest in that as well 🙂

 

We did check he has our email address and also our mobile phone number (he did), and stressed it would need to be a text as we would not answer abroad, given the cost to the recipient.  Also assured them we would be able to track the ship and will check the website as they always post on there if there is disruption to an itinerary, which was confirmed by the caller.  Even if the cruise was cancelled before we leave, we would still be taking the rest of our holiday and would just add extra hotel nights in Sri Lanka and a flight to Dubai.

 

I think Fred just wants to make sure any changes can be notified ASAP which may prevent people getting stranded out there, which could leave him responsible for any further plans.  Hence does not really need all that info.  I do not think anything was written down other than our contact details, so thankfully had no reason to fall out with Fred. 

Edited January 9, 2020 by tring