Tuesday, December 2, 2008
An expensive surprise: Life at sea takes a visa
Cruising couple dinged $420, all for a few hours in Brazil
Aaron and Shelly Belams of Wisconsin looked forward to their Princess Cruises vacation from Rome to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The couple found a deal through an online travel agency that priced the 21-day cruise at $2,200 per person — a good value. Or so the Belams thought.
Expensive surprise
About six weeks before sailing, Princess notified the Belams’ travel agent stating the couple would need a Brazilian visa. The cruise line noted that it was the passenger’s responsibility to get them and any passenger who did not have a visa would be denied boarding.
The visas would cost $210 per person (actual visa cost, plus expedited service) — an unwelcome $420 surprise. It gets worse — the cruise ship was only stopping at one Brazilian port, Fortaleza, for only nine hours! “If we’ve known that it will cost us that much for a few hours in Brazil, we would have looked for cruises that do not go to Brazil at all,” says Aaron Belams.
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