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The Armonia is Cancelled for April 4th

merryjewelhound

By merryjewelhound,
in MSC Cruises

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Xinran

Xinran

Posted
Posted
34 minutes ago, merryjewelhound said:

We are in Civitacecchia due to get on the cruise tomorrow and I just got a text that the cruise is cancelled. 

 

2 minutes ago, merryjewelhound said:

We are on the phone now with agent The ship is stuck with immigration in Barcelona.

2 minutes ago, merryjewelhound said:

We are on the phone now with agent The ship is stuck with immigration in Barcelona.

Same here. Working out what to do…

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Xinran

Xinran

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Posted (edited)

Are you being given any other options?

We are waiting for the agent to phone back. 
We were finishing the cruise in Venice on Monday, so a tricky one to sort out.

Edited by Xinran
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Xinran

Xinran

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Not good for us, unfortunately our dates are fixed.

The cruise was a bit of a bargain, so the FCC will be little compensation for the additional costs/loss of holiday.

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Xinran

Xinran

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We booked through *****. Our (reputable) insurance company is insisting that ***** or MSC should be sorting out our accommodation and journey to Venice. *****/MSc insists it is the insurance company’s responsibility.

I have no idea what to do next…

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merryjewelhound

merryjewelhound

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13 minutes ago, Xinran said:

We booked through *****. Our (reputable) insurance company is insisting that ***** or MSC should be sorting out our accommodation and journey to Venice. *****/MSc insists it is the insurance company’s responsibility.

I have no idea what to do next…

I completely understand and we are getting the same thing. This was our first (I don't see us trying this again) MSC cruise. What surprised me is that they are a European cruise line and I would think they would be familiar with documents needed. I am Elite with Princess and I am pretty sure they are much stricter regarding documentation for boarding.

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Xinran

Xinran

Posted
Posted

MSc are cheap and cheerful. We expect less with them (and thought we’d covered the risk with premium cruise insurance). However, I feel they may have outdone themselves this time.

Just going to enjoy the evening now, and work things out tomorrow 🙂

 

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CruiseMH

CruiseMH

Posted
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2 hours ago, merryjewelhound said:

I completely understand and we are getting the same thing. This was our first (I don't see us trying this again) MSC cruise. What surprised me is that they are a European cruise line and I would think they would be familiar with documents needed.

The needed documents were presented at check-in but they were faked.

During check in this was not realized and only popped up at Barcelona when the cruise line handed over the docs to immigration authorities.

 

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alserrod

alserrod

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I will disembark in Barcelona by the end of June.

 

I'll have a look to passport control when arriving to Barcelona and will try to chat about what it seems.

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Essiesmom "Live from...." Rare

Essiesmom

Posted
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1 hour ago, CruiseMH said:

The needed documents were presented at check-in but they were faked.

During check in this was not realized and only popped up at Barcelona when the cruise line handed over the docs to immigration authorities.

 

There are a lot of ‘I don’t understands’ in this situation.  Like in the US, I presume the people who do check in in Brazil are port employees, not MSC employees.  This cruise boarded guests in San Paulo and Rio… but they called at ports in the Canary Islands, (Spain), Madeira (Portugal) and then Malaga (Spain), all Schengen country ports, before being detained in Barcelona.  Were they trying to debark there?  I don’t remember my docs being examined again until I got to the airport…

Or could it be that during the cruise the people were researched and found to have false docs and Barcelona was the best place to stop them?  I know when airlines deliver a passenger who turns out to not be admissible, whether for bad background check or fake docs, the airline is responsible for putting them on the first flight back to their point of origin at airline expense.  So, does MSC have to pay for flights for all 69 back to Brazil, or Bolivia?  And if they are not admissible to Spain, they can’t send them to a hotel until their flights.  What a mess.  EM

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merryjewelhound

merryjewelhound

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Well just woke up in Civitavecchia as we had planned to board today. A few of my thoughts about MSC and you can imagine I don't think highly of them. 1. The text was sent out that the cruise was cancelled at 1430 so less than 24 hours before boarding. 2. There was NO phone number or contact person "contact your MSC office" that was hard using an American cell phone and no idea how to find the number. Eventually the travel insurance agent was able to transfer us to them. 3. I fulfilled my obligations' to them. I traveled in a day early, The extremely kind agent could only repeat what corporate told them. Not their fault and we would get 50% free cruise credit.`` I checked airfare and it was over $1000 to fly home from Rome to IAD. No mention of how to get to next port where our travel arrangements were in place or where to stay. NO OFFER OF ASSIST by MSC. I have taken city buses that cared more.

 

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alserrod

alserrod

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

 

Or could it be that during the cruise the people were researched and found to have false docs and Barcelona was the best place to stop them?  I know when airlines deliver a passenger who turns out to not be admissible, whether for bad background check or fake docs, the airline is responsible for putting them on the first flight back to their point of origin at airline expense.  So, does MSC have to pay for flights for all 69 back to Brazil, or Bolivia?  And if they are not admissible to Spain, they can’t send them to a hotel until their flights.  What a mess.  EM

 

AFAIK you are entitled to entry into any port providing you are going back to ship in transit ports.

It is in your final desembarkation port where you will have inmigration and passport control duties.

 

So it seems Barcelona wasn't best place to stop them (any port is enough for these purposes) but just Barcelona was final destination.

 

In addition.... Barcelona (and most of Spanish ports....) is final debarkation only for cruises started in other Schengen port, so they haven't any passport control. Only Grand Voyages means a passport control in Barcelona.

 

This is.... Barcelona is the port out of Florida with the greatest number of passengers in the world. Most of cruises are doing a loop over Mediterranean so embarkation and desembarkation are in the same city. Despite you could have non Schengen ports as transit (Tunisia, Casablanca and even Gibraltar sometimes), there are no duties on arrival

 

One way cruise (embarking in another city and disembarking in Barcelona) are almost always Schengen area cruises too. Coming from Rome, from Venice and even from Athens means no passport control too. Obviously a cruise to Canary islands is not only a Schengen area cruise but even a national cruise (in terms of passport control). I guess only cruises coming from Southampton are coming out of Schengen area and they are the less ones.

 

So... the major issue for a control coming in Barcelona is..... a Grand Voyage.

 

Regarding issues with an airport, as already said, it is a company issue to get back asap to a refused passenger. The problem for MSC is .... it is a Grand Voyage and they will not return to Brazil until october.

 

I was in Barcelona Terminal a long time ago. I remember arriving by the afternoon, and embarkation was extremely fast. There weren't many more passengers by the time we embarked. MSC requested and glanced passport, gave our cards and a person took baggage, crossed X ray and... came with us (a person with the baggage came with us to the cabin because there weren't more baggages to move).

When desembarkation I do not remember anything. Even I do not remember a passport control. But I had embarked in Barcelona....

 

I will be in Barcelona again in a couple of months. I will try to see about desembarkation but it seems again no control 

 

 

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alserrod

alserrod

Posted
Posted

Fresh news

 

This link is from one of the main Spanish newspapers.

https://www.abc.es/espana/cataluna/retenido-puerto-barcelona-crucero-problemas-visados-pasajeros-20240403114709-nt.html?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.abc.es%2Fespana%2Fcataluna%2Fretenido-puerto-barcelona-crucero-problemas-visados-pasajeros-20240403114709-nt.html

 

 

According to what they indicate, the Bolivian passengers did not want to leave Malaga for the port but rather stayed on the ship, so there was no control there.

 

A passenger who boarded in Malaga says that MSC must have suspected something because they were called over the public address system.

 

And the families of all the Bolivian passengers were waiting for them at the port of Barcelona. At the moment you can see them from a distance

 

 

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alserrod

alserrod

Posted
Posted

More news

 

 

Bolivians had paid 9.000 euro to a travel agent for a cruise and a visa which was fake

 

MSC Armonia will depart today to Venice. It is expected to start regular cruises from Venice next Monday as scheduled

 

275 Brazilians with a cruise planned until Civitavecchia had desembarked in Barcelona and will flight home from there

 

https://es.euronews.com/2024/04/04/los-69-pasajeros-bolivianos-seran-trasladados-a-otro-crucero-para-su-deportacion

 

https://www.telemadrid.es/noticias/sociedad/El-crucero-atracado-en-Barcelona-zarpa-hacia-Italia-sin-los-bolivianos-que-no-tenian-visado-en-regla-0-2657734228--20240404121404.html

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