Question about Around-the-Horn Cruise

[petesweet]

Whatever happened to the large group of people who did not have visas for Brazil?

 

(We had considered this cruise but looked into it too late to be sure we could get our visas.)

 

I was out of town at the time it was probably discussed on Merion-Mom's blog.

[Merion_Mom]

Whatever happened to the large group of people who did not have visas for Brazil?

 

(We had considered this cruise but looked into it too late to be sure we could get our visas.)

 

I was out of town at the time it was probably discussed on Merion-Mom's blog.

 

They were offered the opportunity to go to Miami and get expedited visas at the Brazilian Embassy there.

 

I believe (I have no proof) that it was primarily at their own expense, although RC provided the bus transportation.

 

Most of them joined the cruise in St. Maarten, earlier than had been announced. (we were told that they would board in Barbados)

 

Some opted to go home.

[petesweet]

They were offered the opportunity to go to Miami and get expedited visas at the Brazilian Embassy there.

 

I believe (I have no proof) that it was primarily at their own expense, although RC provided the bus transportation.

 

Most of them joined the cruise in St. Maarten, earlier than had been announced. (we were told that they would board in Barbados)

 

Some opted to go home.

 

Thanks. That's really a sad situation after paying all that money. Guess there were some unhappy cruisers-to-be.

 

Did you get any feedback from the ones who boarded late?

[glgolfer]

I talked to one couple that boarded in St Maarten. Their attitude was it was their fault even though RCI told them they didn't need a visa.

 

Others were blaming everyone but themselves.

[Janice M]

This was a different cruise. Last year for the Splendor cruise we arrived in Sao Paulo and some people did not have their visas. They made arrangements to fly to Buenos Aires Argentina and catch the ship there.

 

Jan

[owl61]

I talked to one couple that boarded in St Maarten. Their attitude was it was their fault even though RCI told them they didn't need a visa.

Others were blaming everyone but themselves.

I live in Brasil and am just a bit curious about this. Did RCCL (RCI) advise its Brasil-bound passenger contingent that a Brasilian visa was not necessary for US citizens? If so, why would not they have some blame when boarding was refused? It would be different if the crusie co said nothing, but this makes it appear that it affirmatively represented visas were not needed.

p.s. RCCL has advised its Brasil, then Uruguay bound passengers that a yeloow fever certificate is not required when the CDC site says Uruguay does require it after coming from Brasil within a short time frame.

[rubrrick]

I live in Brasil and am just a bit curious about this. Did RCCL (RCI) advise its Brasil-bound passenger contingent that a Brasilian visa was not necessary for US citizens? If so, why would not they have some blame when boarding was refused? It would be different if the crusie co said nothing, but this makes it appear that it affirmatively represented visas were not needed.

p.s. RCCL has advised its Brasil, then Uruguay bound passengers that a yeloow fever certificate is not required when the CDC site says Uruguay does require it after coming from Brasil within a short time frame.

 

I believe what Royal Caribbean was saying was to check with the consulate for visa requirements. The vast majority of U.S. cruisers knew that entry into Brazil needed a visa.

 

I think that Royal Caribbean could have done a better job of letting all U.S. passengers know that Brazilian visas were a must, as about 5% of the booked passengers did not realize or think that they needed them.

 

I understand that about half of the group worked with RCCL to get expedited visas and rejoined the ship.

 

It would be interesting to know how insurance would handle that situation. If you were refused boarding because of the lack of a visa, and had obtained travelers insurance thru RCCL.......would they be refunded monies if they elected not to cruise???

 

Rick

[wrp96]

It would be interesting to know how insurance would handle that situation. If you were refused boarding because of the lack of a visa, and had obtained travelers insurance thru RCCL.......would they be refunded monies if they elected not to cruise???

 

Rick, most travel insurance will not cover lack of appropriate documentation like a missing visa or passport.

[xpcdoojk]

I talked to one couple that boarded in St Maarten. Their attitude was it was their fault even though RCI told them they didn't need a visa.

 

Others were blaming everyone but themselves.

 

Paul, do you believe that RCI actually told them they didn't need them? I mean what did RCI and or your Travel agent tell you?

 

jc

[glgolfer]

Paul, do you believe that RCI actually told them they didn't need them? I mean what did RCI and or your Travel agent tell you?

 

jc

 

jc, I already knew we needed a visa. I double checked that on the Brazil website as well as the state department site. I had seen the news stories about Brazil retaliating to our visa requiremenrt for them by requiring one for us.

 

Even on our roll call folks were saying they were told they didn't need a visa if they didn't get off the ship. Some were told they didn't need a visa at all. Some TAs and some RCI reps had no idea what was required.

Everyone on our roll call did get the visa and did get on the ship.

 

One thing that happened at the port was a RCI rep wasn't going to let some folks on the ship because the visa was stamped with 10/11/2008 which is the international way of dating things. They were old it was more than 90 days out from entry into Brazil. Luckily RCI had a rep From Brazil that said it was fine and to let them on the ship.

10/11/2008 in Brazil means 10 November 2008 which was within the 90 days. The RCI rep was insisting it meant Oct 11 2008.

 

 

Yellow fever shots. Reqardless what was on the Uruguay and Costa Rica websites about the shots, nobody asked anything about them. The yellow cards showing we had the shots were never asked for.

[FLACRUISER99]

Sent to all TA,s and direct RCI Bookings was a notice that I tried to attach

[xpcdoojk]

Paul, generally, unless you go up the Amazon the yellow fever shot is not required, probably should be. When we went on HAL a few years ago, we were told that we needed the visa and the yellow fever shot. We didn't need the yellow fever shot, and I verified this prior to leaving based on where we were going. However, everything was very clear that a visa was required. I am surprised that RCI didn't just say up front that the visa was required along with the yellow fever shot and then the onus is on the passenger to meet the requirements.

 

The date thing is always confusing we are about the only country on earth that routinely says todays date is 03/09/09... Most of the rest of the civilised world is 09/03/09.

 

jc

[xpcdoojk]

Sent to all TA,s and direct RCI Bookings

 

What was?

 

jc

[FLACRUISER99]

What was?

 

jc

A PDF file that I tried to post(too large). It clearly states that a visa is necessary email me at J2Tak at bellsouth dot net if you would like me to send it to you.

[xpcdoojk]

No thanks! I don't personally have any involvement in this, but I do appreciate you confirming my basic belief about what the cruiselines would typically do in a cruise involving Brasil. This is why most of the cruiselines do the around the horn cruises to/from Chile to Argentina and not the more logical to/from Chile to Brazil.

 

In other words I believe that everyone was informed that they were required to have a visit to sail to any port in Brazil. :cool:

 

jc

[cruisenfever]

jc..........the same thing happened to 50+ folks on our Splendour cruise out of Valparaiso to Sao Paulo last March........denied boarding because of no Visa for Brazil.

 

About 8 weeks prior to sailing, we all received a large 8x10 booklet. The first 5-6 pages had all the information regarding our cruise. It clearly stated to check to see if special documentation, like Visas, were required.

 

When traveling/cruising to places that are new..............people must take responsibility to find out what special documentation is needed.

[glgolfer]

Paul, generally, unless you go up the Amazon the yellow fever shot is not required, probably should be. When we went on HAL a few years ago, we were told that we needed the visa and the yellow fever shot. We didn't need the yellow fever shot, and I verified this prior to leaving based on where we were going. However, everything was very clear that a visa was required. I am surprised that RCI didn't just say up front that the visa was required along with the yellow fever shot and then the onus is on the passenger to meet the requirements.

 

The date thing is always confusing we are about the only country on earth that routinely says todays date is 03/09/09... Most of the rest of the civilised world is 09/03/09.

 

jc

 

 

The visa requirement was embedded in the excursion books we got from RCI, but you know how many people read all the info in any of the books or the cruise contract.

RCI needs to train their reps better in all areas. Maybe the visa requirement was someplace in the info tro the reps, but the same thing applies to them. How many read everything they get.

We all know you can call RCI 3 times and gewt 3 different answers.

 

It was interesting there was a bus at the port to take people without visas to Miami. There was also a rep from the Brazilian Consulate at the port. So, RCI obviously knew there would be folks without a visa.

 

We got the yellow fever shots because we didn't want to trake any chances. All it takes is one mosquito that's a carrier that finds you.

[xpcdoojk]

Thanks Patti

 

I know I am going to sound like a snob or know-it-all, but here goes anyway.

 

On my HAL Rotterdam cruise which started in Rio de Janeiro, everyone made the ship at sailaway. Now in that case everyone from the USA (80%) of the passengers flew to Brazil from the USA so, no visa you are stuck at the airport and returned to the USA(of course American Airlines would not let us board without verifying we had a visa when we flew from Dallas DFW).

 

Here is the harsh bit. I think on cruiselines like HAL most of the clientele has travelled a bit and are aware that not all vacations are like a 7 day cruise to Mexico, Jamaica and a private island, and those people are aware of the realities and complexities of International travel. I think the RCI clientele is far less sophisticated. Hence they are far more likely to mess up the details associated with a more complex vacation. This is not necessarily a bad thing since the average age on our HAL cruise was probably mid 70s where as I would guess more of the RCI customers are much younger.

 

This is not a judgement of intelligence, but of experience.

 

jc

[owl61]

Paul, generally, unless you go up the Amazon the yellow fever shot is not required, probably should be. When we went on HAL a few years ago, we were told that we needed the visa and the yellow fever shot. We didn't need the yellow fever shot, and I verified this prior to leaving based on where we were going. However, everything was very clear that a visa was required. I am surprised that RCI didn't just say up front that the visa was required along with the yellow fever shot and then the onus is on the passenger to meet the requirements.

jc

I´m sailing on the Radiance in a few days - around the horn including Brasil, then Uruguay. Strictly speaking (acc to Center for Disease Control website), Uruguay requires a yellow fever certificate if you recently come from Brasil regardless of wherther you have travelled into an endemic zone within Brasil. After all, how do the Uruguayan customs offcials know where in Brasil you have been. But RCCL doesn´t require passengers to have a yellow fever certificate for this cruise and it may be that in actuality the Uruguayan customs authorities do not ask for it because they figure the ship passengers are not a serious threat and the local economy would suffer etc. Nevertheless, I find it highly curious that RCCL would not require it. Has it cut a deal with Uruguay?

 

jc, ...Some TAs and some RCI reps had no idea what was required... One thing that happened at the port was a RCI rep wasn't going to let some folks on the ship because the visa was stamped with 10/11/2008 which is the international way of dating things. They were old it was more than 90 days out from entry into Brazil. Luckily RCI had a rep From Brazil that said it was fine and to let them on the ship.

 

Yellow fever shots. Reqardless what was on the Uruguay and Costa Rica websites about the shots, nobody asked anything about them. The yellow cards showing we had the shots were never asked for.

 

After cruising over 55x I have reached the conclusion that many cruise co reps are annoyingly uninformed and that almost all online TAs are nothing more than phone order takers with absolutely no knowledge about the product they are selling. It comes as no surprise they had no idea what was required although the refusal to let passengers board because of the inability to correctly comprehend the date stamp starts to approach a new standard for incompetence.

With respect to not having to satisfy the official yellow fever requirement in countries like Costa Rica and Uruguay, I´m reminded of the words of Harry Callaghan in the Dirty Harry flick. "You have to ask yourself...do you feel lucky, today, well, do ya?"

[xpcdoojk]

I agree with most of what you say owl. I am pretty certain most of the latin American countries treat those arriving via cruiseships differently than they do at the border and at the airport. I know the experience crossing from Brazil to Argentina and back to Brazil was a lot different than the experience at Sao Paolo airport for me or arriving in Buenos Aire or Montenegro via the Rotterdam VI was. I imagine it was far far more different from either one for those on the Mariner of the Seas arriving from the USA via the ports of call. The potential for exposure while not zero, has to be pretty close to it. As compared to someone coming down the river and showing up in say Montenegro from the Rio Platte. One heck of a big river by the way.

 

jc

[glgolfer]

jc, I believe there were reports of yellow fever in Rio. My cousin is a retired doctor and her attitude was to get the shots while our immune systems were still good. They last 10 years and if we do go someplace where YF is endemic or more of a risk than other places we're covered.

I'm 67 and had no reaction except a day or two of off and on slight chills and the start of a sore throat which might have been a reaction.

 

I agree with Owl the cruise ship pax were probably treated differently than folks arriving by other methods. If you fly into Chile, you pay $131 entry fee. We did not pay that on the ship.

[FLACRUISER99]

No thanks! I don't personally have any involvement in this, but I do appreciate you confirming my basic belief about what the cruiselines would typically do in a cruise involving Brasil. This is why most of the cruiselines do the around the horn cruises to/from Chile to Argentina and not the more logical to/from Chile to Brazil.

 

In other words I believe that everyone was informed that they were required to have a visit to sail to any port in Brazil. :cool:

 

jc

Everyone was informed but several folks thought that they would just stay on the ship so they would not need them. BTW on my Grand Princess TA Stopping in Brazil people were also refused boarding in Rome. The ship came in very late due to bad weather and several people managed to get onboard. They were put off the ship in Dakar, Senegal.

[xpcdoojk]

Everyone was informed but several folks thought that they would just stay on the ship so they would not need them. BTW on my Grand Princess TA Stopping in Brazil people were also refused boarding in Rome. The ship came in very late due to bad weather and several people managed to get onboard. They were put off the ship in Dakar, Senegal.

 

 

Yikes! Dakar Senegal! Talk about a drastic change of vacation plans!

 

jc:D

[Merion_Mom]

Yellow fever shots. Reqardless what was on the Uruguay and Costa Rica websites about the shots, nobody asked anything about them. The yellow cards showing we had the shots were never asked for.

 

Paul, generally, unless you go up the Amazon the yellow fever shot is not required, probably should be. When we went on HAL a few years ago, we were told that we needed the visa and the yellow fever shot. We didn't need the yellow fever shot, and I verified this prior to leaving based on where we were going. However, everything was very clear that a visa was required. I am surprised that RCI didn't just say up front that the visa was required along with the yellow fever shot and then the onus is on the passenger to meet the requirements.

 

 

 

jc

 

I´m sailing on the Radiance in a few days - around the horn including Brasil, then Uruguay. Strictly speaking (acc to Center for Disease Control website), Uruguay requires a yellow fever certificate if you recently come from Brasil regardless of wherther you have travelled into an endemic zone within Brasil. After all, how do the Uruguayan customs offcials know where in Brasil you have been. But RCCL doesn´t require passengers to have a yellow fever certificate for this cruise and it may be that in actuality the Uruguayan customs authorities do not ask for it because they figure the ship passengers are not a serious threat and the local economy would suffer etc. Nevertheless, I find it highly curious that RCCL would not require it. Has it cut a deal with Uruguay?

 

 

 

 

Paul (et al), most people were not asked for the YF immunization verification, BUT SOME PEOPLE WERE.

 

I talked to someone (I certainly don't remember who!) who was asked for their YF papers. They had them but not with them. The official made them RETURN to the ship and GET their papers and SHOW them before they let them off in Punta Arenas, Costa Rica.

[xpcdoojk]

Carol, I wonder if they looked sick or were dealing with whatever a lot of people on your sailing were dealing with?

 

I mean if someone walks off a cruise ship and looks happy and carefree that is one reaction, walk off looking like death warmed over that might well be another reaction from an official.

 

Just a thought.

 

jc