A word of warning to anyone taking a cruse: Don’t trust anyone with your valuables.
When a luggage porter took Jim Van Ness’s bag as he boarded Royal Caribbean’s Majesty of the Seas recently, he should have stopped him. “I didn’t intend to give my backpack with my cameras inside to the porters,” he told me. “But I laid it down to pick up my granddaughter and a porter grabbed it and off it went.”
Guess what happens next?
“When it got to the stateroom it was trashed,” he says. “The camera was packed inside a strong plastic case and inside a camera bag. Whatever they did had to be negligence. Total damage comes to about $350.”
Is the cruise line responsible?
Here’s Royal Caribbean’s disclaimer from its ticket contract (PDF):
Liability for Loss of or Damage to Baggage. Unless negligent, Carrier is neither responsible nor liable for any loss of or damage to Passenger’s property, whether contained in luggage or otherwise. Liability for loss of or damage to Passenger’s property in connection with any air or ground transportation shall be the sole responsibility of the provider of the service and in accordance with applicable limitations.
c. Limitation of Liability for Lost or Damaged Property. Notwithstanding any other provision of law or this Agreement, Carrier’s liability for loss or damage to property during the RCT Land Tour portion of a CruiseTour is limited to $300.00 per Passenger. Notwithstanding any other provision of law or this Agreement, Carrier’s liability for loss or damage to property for the cruise (or for the cruise only portion of a CruiseTour) is limited to $300.00 per Passenger, unless Passenger declares the true value of such property in writing and pays Carrier within 10 days of final payment for the cruise, a fee of five percent (5%) of the amount that such value exceeds $300.00. In such event, Carrier’s liability shall be limited to its true declared value, but not exceeding $5,000.
So Van Ness made a claim.
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Elliott
Christopher Elliott has been called one of the world’s leading travel experts. But his focus isn’t on the destination, or ev…
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