Hi I'm Gary Bembridge and this is another of my Tips For Travellers. In this episode,
I'm going to tell you the 12 ways that you could find yourself being kicked off a
cruise. But before I do that, remember please subscribe and every single week
you'll get another video packed full of tips and advice to help you make more of
your travel time and money. So what are the twelve ways that you can find yourself
being kicked off a cruise. Well first of all you may find yourself never even
getting on the cruise because if you don't have the right documentation, which
these days increasingly is a passport, a valid passport normally with six months
still to go before it expires and often, depending on where you're going, visas.
Some Cruise Lines will not let you get onboard without the right visas if
you're going somewhere exotic, because they're not allowed to actually venture
into that space carrying passengers who do not have a visa to land. So absolutely
make sure that you've got your passport and before you go check do you need any
visas. The second thing is also one way you may find yourself not even getting
on the cruise, so being kicked off before you've even got on, and that's if you
refuse to go through security. Cruise lines now have Airport type security and
everything gets screened, including yourself, and if you refuse to go through
that you will not be allowed to get on the cruise. The third one is kind of
obvious. If you try and smuggle onboard anything that's either illegal or
prohibited by the cruise line you're likely to find yourself kicked off the
cruise. So some obvious things for example recreational drugs. There's many
cases of people being caught with recreational drugs on board and they
have been thrown off a cruise. But there also may be things that the cruise line
does not allow you to bring. So for example many cruise lines are clamping
down on alcohol. They will not let you bring onboard alcohol. If they find
you're trying to bring a lot of alcohol on board you may find yourself kicked
off, and that could even be trying to return from an excursion with lots of
booze. But also make sure that you're not bringing on board anything prohibited, so
for example most cruise lines will not let you bring a drone on board. In most
cases with things like alcohol and drones the cruise line will
confiscate those and hand them back at the end of the cruise. The fourth way you
can get kicked off a cruise, and this is becoming more and more common, is if you
refuse to take part in the muster drill. By law cruise lines have to do
muster drill and if you refuse to go to the muster the cruise line is likely to
throw you off the cruise.You absolutely have to go and
on many cruise lines even if you're doing back to back cruises they require
you to go to every single muster. You must go to the muster station, have the
security briefing and you also learn about evacuation procedures and of
course you also learn how to put on your life jacket. The fifth way you could
get kicked off a cruise is if you do not pay attention to the all aboard time.
There's many videos of people running along the quay side as a ship departs.
Ships will leave on time, so unless you're on a cruise line organized
excursion and it's running late the ship will wait for you. So if you're doing
your own thing in a port and you're not back by the all aboard time, it's very
unlikely the ship will wait. It will leave without you and you'll find yourself
stranded in a port. It is possible sometimes to rejoin the cruise at your
own cost and your own expense. It can be quite a hassle if you don't have things
like your passport and there's a chance that the cruise line will just disembark
you completely. If you're really concerned about it always go on a cruise
line organized excursion because they will always wait for late excursions. The
sixth way is an unfortunate one but if you fall ill or injure yourself and
actually require a hospital level of treatment you will be disembarked from
the cruise. The cruise lines have medical centers and they can deal with
everyday things but if you get really ill and need sort of hospital level
attention, or they're concerned about you, or you injure yourself you will be
disembarked at the port. Now very important this is going to be at your
own cost, so you absolutely need to make sure that you have travel insurance when
you go on a cruise that is going to cover you if you have to leave a ship.
Because if you're injured or ill you're going to have to cover your hospital
costs, you have to cover getting back home, you might have to cover costs of
people traveling with you to stay with you. I've been on many cruises where
you'll see people being disembarked for medical reasons. One definite way to get
yourself kicked off a cruise is to throw something overboard, especially if it's
cigarette butts because they are extremely dangerous. There are very
strict regulations about throwing things overboard, you can throw nothing
overboard whatsoever. So even the old days where you used to practice things
like shooting golf balls off the back of a ship and we used to throw streamers off
ships. You are not allowed to put anything over the side of the ship and
you will be thrown off a cruise if you're caught doing that. There are
security cameras all over the place and
if they see you throwing things overboard you will be thrown off the
cruise. The eighth way of being thrown off a cruise is pranks. So if you joke
about a man overboard or anything related to bomb threats, you will be
thrown off a cruise. The resources and the effort behind man overboard and bomb
threats is enormous and anyone joking around and pranking you will find
yourself thrown off the cruise. If you break the law either in the port or on
the ship you will be thrown off the cruise. So let me give us examples I've
been on cruise before where actually some of the cruisers, some of the dancers
were caught shoplifting in one of the stores in a port and they were thrown
off the cruise mid contract. The same is true of passengers. So if you do anything
in a port and you're caught by the police or reported, the cruise line will throw you
off. The same on board, so if you're caught thieving on board or doing
something inappropriate on board you will also be bundled off. Another very
important thing to consider is underage drinking. Many cruise lines will throw
you off a cruise if they catch you encouraging and facilitating underage
drinking. That's particularly important because on some cruise lines and based
on where you're cruising they will follow the USA rule on drinking, so
people have to be over the age of 21. Other cruise lines, particularly when
they're in Europe, will follow the more European approach of drinking allowed by
over 18s, but if you're caught buying drinks and allowing underage kids to
drink you're very likely to be thrown off a cruise. The next one and this is
the one that gets publicity in the newspapers and on television is being
disruptive on board. If you have some big argument and especially punch up
fight, you'll find yourself bundled up and chucked off on the next port. There
have been some very spectacular reports about fights breaking out on a cruise
ship, for example, there was an Australian family on a Carnival Cruise who got in a
big fight on board and the whole family was collected together and thrown off at the
next port. There have been examples of lounger rage where people got really
irate at people hogging loungers on board, which is big bugbear of cruisers, and
they've got into a big fight about thrown loungers around and they have been thrown off.
There's also a couple that once got very irate as they felt others were
being anti-semitic and after a four-letter trade they got bundled up
and thrown off at the next port. So again abusive behavior and fighting
is not tolerated. The next example of being thrown off is something that I've
seen a couple of times, and this is where people break a curfew during a norovirus
outbreak. Obviously norovirus outbreaks do happen occasionally on
cruise ship, not as much as people think they do, but one of the ways that the
cruise lines deal and try and get to grip with the norovirus outbreak is
people who have the symptoms are confined to their cabin. And they could be
confined to the cabin for a number of days. If you break that curfew and start
going around the ship, there is a very strong chance that the captain will
throw you off the cruise. And I've seen it happen twice on two different cruises
where people have been disembarked because they didn't stick to the curfew.
One of the ways that cruise lines try and deal with norovirus outbreak is by
ensuring that people who have the symptoms are not out about the ship
spreading it, so if you do break the curfew on norovirus you could well find
yourself being disembarked. So what is the twelfth way of being thrown of a
ship? Very simply being rude abusive or aggressive to the captain and the crew.
So even if you're uptight and upset about something that's going on the
cruise be very cautious about how you deal with it. Be firm, be assertive. Do not
bang the table, do not swear, do not get aggressive because if you are seen as
being abusive and aggressive towards the crew, the captain has the right to
actually disembark you and within the actual cruise contract which you approve
when you buy your ticket and pay for your ticket you've agreed not to be
abusive and rude and aggressive towards the staff. So no matter how frustrated
you are try, be calm and be assertive and do not be rude and
aggressive. There's a surprisingly large amount of ways that you can be thrown
off a cruise. These are the twelve most common ones that I've come across, if you
have any other examples of course where you know people are being kicked off a
cruise and they're not included in these I'd love to hear from you. If you've
enjoyed this video I'd love it of course if you watch many more of my Tips For
Travellers videos because they'll help you hopefully make much more of your
precious travel time and money on both land and at sea.