Cruise ship runs aground during Caribbean voyage

[CruiserBruce]

43 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Ever have an auto accident within 5 miles of your house?  Unforeseen circumstances can cause unforeseen consequences.

Absolutely. And humans are involved.

[ontheweb]

4 hours ago, Shmoo here said:

Well, they can.  But it takes time.  It's not like you can just walk in and walk right out with a passport.

They will get home. Not having a passport makes it much harder, but they will get home.

 

It reminds me of a trip we took to an AI in Jamaica for our 20th anniversary (last century LOL). As we were leaving in the airport, Jamaica required a $20 (I think that was the amount) fee to leave. The lady in front of us said she had spent all her money and did not have $20 left. She then said please make me stay. Guess what, they cleared her to fly home.

[Shmoo here]

10 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

They will get home. Not having a passport makes it much harder, but they will get home.

Of course they will.  I never said they wouldn't.  

[Tampa Girl]

5 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

I think the rule is the Captain is ALWAYS ultimately responsible.

That depends on for what responsibility if being challenged.  If it is for getting the ship marooned, that is one issue.  If it is for the passengers without passports, it is a toss-up between passengers who don't realize a passport is important in the event of emergencies, or the cruise  line for not requiring them.

[CruiserBruce]

1 hour ago, Tampa Girl said:

That depends on for what responsibility if being challenged.  If it is for getting the ship marooned, that is one issue.  If it is for the passengers without passports, it is a toss-up between passengers who don't realize a passport is important in the event of emergencies, or the cruise  line for not requiring them.

The passport issue is not what was being discussed. 

[TiogaCruiser]

1 hour ago, Tampa Girl said:

That depends on for what responsibility if being challenged.  If it is for getting the ship marooned, that is one issue.  If it is for the passengers without passports, it is a toss-up between passengers who don't realize a passport is important in the event of emergencies, or the cruise  line for not requiring them.

I don’t see the pax without passports as the cruise line’s responsibility. The pax had a choice. If THEY chose to take their chances, it’s on them. Them alone.

[Tampa Girl]

9 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

The passport issue is not what was being discussed. 

It absolutely was.  See #6, 7, 9, 10, 11(your post), 27, and 28.

[Tampa Girl]

9 hours ago, TiogaCruiser said:

I don’t see the pax without passports as the cruise line’s responsibility. The pax had a choice. If THEY chose to take their chances, it’s on them. Them alone.

 

If the cruise line did not require passports, the cruise line might not responsible.  OTOH, the line should have at least recommended passports, if not actually required them.  The danger of an unexpected landing in a country which requires passports or other indicia of citizenship is hardly unknown.  That danger should have been made known to the passengers at the time of booking.  If it was, than I agree the responsibility is on the passengers, although good public relations suggest that the line needs to do everything possible to solve the problem.

[chengkp75]

52 minutes ago, Tampa Girl said:

It absolutely was.  See #6, 7, 9, 10, 11(your post), 27, and 28.

No, it wasn't.  Those posts were about passports, the other was about who was responsible for the grounding.

[CruiserBruce]

54 minutes ago, Tampa Girl said:

It absolutely was.  See #6, 7, 9, 10, 11(your post), 27, and 28.

My reply about the Captain's responsibility was post #13, directly after post #12, which asked about responsibility. Nobody is claiming the Captain is responsible for whether or not the pax have passports. 

[chengkp75]

45 minutes ago, Tampa Girl said:

OTOH, the line should have at least recommended passports, if not actually required them.  The danger of an unexpected landing in a country which requires passports or other indicia of citizenship is hardly unknown.  That danger should have been made known to the passengers at the time of booking.

From NCL's website of "required documents":

 

Norwegian Cruise Line strongly recommends all guests to obtain a passport for their cruise vacation for the following reasons:

• If you miss your ship at its scheduled U.S. departure port and need to travel outside the U.S. to meet your ship.
• You unexpectedly need to depart the ship from a foreign port prior to the end of sailing, a passport would be required to leave or re-enter the U.S. by air.

Kind of sounds like the warning is there as clear as possible.

47 minutes ago, Tampa Girl said:

although good public relations suggest that the line needs to do everything possible to solve the problem.

And, they have done the requisite of working with the US and DR governments to get everyone home.

[ontheweb]

53 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

From NCL's website of "required documents":

 

Norwegian Cruise Line strongly recommends all guests to obtain a passport for their cruise vacation for the following reasons:

• If you miss your ship at its scheduled U.S. departure port and need to travel outside the U.S. to meet your ship.
• You unexpectedly need to depart the ship from a foreign port prior to the end of sailing, a passport would be required to leave or re-enter the U.S. by air.

Kind of sounds like the warning is there as clear as possible.

And, they have done the requisite of working with the US and DR governments to get everyone home.

I believe there may be some high end cruise lines that do require passports, but other than them don't all the cruise lines also make those recommendations?

 

And from a public relations standpoint, it would be a nightmare for any cruise line with that sort of situation not to work diligently to get their passengers home/

[chengkp75]

Yes, I believe they all have the same verbiage with regards to documents.  And, since there is a "contract of carriage", it is the cruise line's responsibility to get the passengers back to home port, so if they didn't work hard at it, it would just cost more.

[Tampa Girl]

4 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

My reply about the Captain's responsibility was post #13, directly after post #12, which asked about responsibility. Nobody is claiming the Captain is responsible for whether or not the pax have passports. 

 

I agree, and I was not talking about the grounding.  I was specifically referring to the passport issue which had previously been raised.  My apology - I should have been clearer.

 

[Tampa Girl]

4 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

From NCL's website of "required documents":

 

Norwegian Cruise Line strongly recommends all guests to obtain a passport for their cruise vacation for the following reasons:

• If you miss your ship at its scheduled U.S. departure port and need to travel outside the U.S. to meet your ship.
• You unexpectedly need to depart the ship from a foreign port prior to the end of sailing, a passport would be required to leave or re-enter the U.S. by air.

Kind of sounds like the warning is there as clear as possible.

And, they have done the requisite of working with the US and DR governments to get everyone home.

 

Then, as I previously said, the onus is solely on the passenger for not taking the recommendation.  Question, however, doesn't HAL require passports for some voyages, i.e. Grand Voyages?  I thought that there were some itineraries where a visa was required before one even boarded.  

[chengkp75]

1 hour ago, Tampa Girl said:

 

Then, as I previously said, the onus is solely on the passenger for not taking the recommendation.  Question, however, doesn't HAL require passports for some voyages, i.e. Grand Voyages?  I thought that there were some itineraries where a visa was required before one even boarded.  

Some lines require a passport for some itineraries, some for all itineraries.  Some countries require a visa, some don't, and that varies with the citizenship of the passenger.