Don’t forget your visa!!!

As part of my day to day role the “visa” questions come up a lot…do I need a visa? how do I get a visa? how much does it cost? All valid questions and it’s so important that you get the correct answers as the wrong visa or no visa can mean you can’t board your cruise ship!

As a cruise specialist we know all there is to know about cruising, but when it comes to passport and visa advise it’s not something we are able to specialise in, of course we can point you in the right direction on how to get the correct and up to date information but it’s something we are not trained to know about in detail. Visa requirements are forever changing and can be quite complicated so it’s important you speak to the right people about it. Usually the cruise line will send you details of visa requirements and offer a service to  process your visa should you wish for a fee. I always always advise my customers to check themselves to find out if there any visas needed, it’s your cruise and you don’t want anything to spoil it.

This week I was chatting to one of a lady who had just returned from a dream cruise, 50 nights to the Far East setting sail from Southampton. This lady arrived at the port so excited to board her cruise and was taken aback when she was asked for her Indian Visa !! She didn’t have an Indian visa and was completely unaware she needed one! Thinking quickly for a solution she said “I’ll just stay on the ship at those ports affected”. This sounded like a good plan to her however it wasn’t…. you need to visa to sail in those waters so no visa means no cruise.

Very luckily on this occasion the lady was able to make special arrangements with the help of the cruise line and her family to fly from one of the ports to get her visa, it meant paying for extra flights and hotel stays, missing part of her cruise and not to mention all the stress and upset caused. Imagine if there had been  no spare time before the Indian ports to get  the visa, imagine she didn’t have the funds available for the extra flights, hotel stays and other costs, then the dream cruise really would have become a nightmare.

Can you believe that there were 30 other passengers in exactly the same situation on the same cruise!  All of which had to do the same , fly to India obtain the visa and then fly back to meet the ship. Stressful doesn’t even come close and it’s certainly not what you want on your cruise.

So what’s my advice….check any passport and visa requirements well in advance, call a company who specialise in this, don’t leave it until the last minute only to realise it’s too late….if in doubt ask your cruise specialist who will direct you to the right people who can help.

Has this ever happened to you, have you missed your cruise or come close to missing it due to not having the right visa? As always I would love to hear from you.

Abbi x