Cruise lines that sail out of the United States generally follow federal laws.
That’s why you can’t bring any cannabis-related products onboard even if you have a legal prescription in your state. Bringing so much as a CBD gummy bought at your local liquor store or gas station can get your thrown off the ship and even banned from the cruise line.
Related: Carnival Cruise Line shares 2 new fees many passengers must pay
Cruise lines also follow the federal drinking age of 21 even though many ships are flagged in countries where 18-year-olds can legally drink. There are, in fact, some ports where passengers under 21 can buy alcohol, but they cannot consume it on the ship.
The cruise lines could serve 18-year-olds once they reach international waters, the same way they operate casinos. They opt not to, however, because the added revenue would likely not make up for the additional problems.
In many cases, cruise lines make rules designed to create the best and safest environment onboard. That’s why their are slight variances when it comes to power cords, cubes, and outlet extenders between various cruise lines.
Royal Caribbean has the strictest rules, banning not only surge protectors (which are a known fire hazard) but also any outlet extenders. The cruise line only allows plugs with multiple USB or USB-c ports, not multiple outlets.
Carnival has slightly looser rules in that area, but there are some rules that all cruise lines must follow, That can lead to unfortunate situations where cruise lines have to enforce rules that are outdated and make little sense.
John Heald, Carnival’s Brand Ambassador, shared one such situation that all passengers need to know about during a Jan. 16 video he posted on Facebook.
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John Heald often has to deliver bad news to passengers.
Image source: John Heald/Facebook
Carnival Cruise Line can’t allow this
Transcript:
But something happened which is very, very important, and I’m going to read the letter out and then I just want to make sure that we make people aware of this. It is very clearly written and I’ll come to that in a second.
But I did receive this message two days ago and it says, this cruise is not my first rodeo, but it is the first time I’ve ever missed the ship. This is all because of bad weather in Atlanta and a cancelled flight. We did not get to the Carnival Dream on time, so my sister and me decided to rent a car and drive from Miami to Key West. This is the first port of the ship.
We were exhausted but excited to start the cruise, but Carnival refused us boarding. They said it was a breach of rules. They refused to listen and the ship’s officers refused to let us on the boat.
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We were then told there would also be no reimbursement for the $140 car hire, and then they told us we would have to pay for our flights to join the boat in Amber Cove. Nowhere is it written on the website that this is a rule. John, you need to make this right.
Carnival should make payments to our flights and the car hire. This would be proper customer service from you.
Okay, so before I start, to all the cruise news people who make a living from copying and pasting stuff that I say, if you’re going to quote me on this, please make sure that you get it right and not say Carnival announces.
It’s not Carnival. It’s me, John, just talking about this. Okay, so if you want an official statement on anything, call Carnival.
Cruise lines must follow the Jones Act
Anyway, here we go. So nothing but sympathy for this lady and her sister who flew from Atlanta, was it? Or I don’t know if they had a connection there, but it was cancelled. And they were not the only ones, by the way, who missed the ship.
I do want to say that. They drove to Key West and they were not allowed on board. And here’s the reason.
Yes, you’re right, Ralph, and everyone else who’s saying it. It’s the Jones Act. Now, this is extremely complicated, and I’m not educated enough to go into the nuances of this act.
But basically, in its raw form, it says that if the ship leaves from a United States home port, it must go foreign. You must go foreign. The ship has to go foreign, and you have to go on that ship and go to a foreign port.
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If not, you cannot join in the next port if it’s a U.S. territory or part of the United States. And that’s why some of the people ask, why don’t we do cruises that just go to U.S. ports, which, you know, if you’re looking at, you know, up the coast of California or Nantucket and Boston and all that, we would love to do that.
But it’s prohibited by the Jones Act, which says you have to go to a foreign port.
So, because these ladies drove to Key West, which of course is part of Florida, which is part of the U.S., they were not allowed to join the ship. It would have been a huge fine for them and for us, which is why this was stopped.
And if you are ever going to miss the ship, if you think you’ve missed the ship and you want to try and join in another Alaskan port, for example, or Key West or anywhere that is a U.S. port or U.S. territory, you can’t do so.
It’s a breach of the United States Congress Act, which is called the Jones Act. Now, that’s why the people, the ship’s agent who you spoke with, these ladies spoke with, when you got to the ship, explained after checking with the ship that this wouldn’t be possible without paying a huge fine. So, I hope you have cruise insurance.
I wrote that to you. I’ve sent a little something to your cabin because I know you joined yesterday, so you’re probably not watching this. You did fly to Amber Cove.
The ship did tell me that you’ve joined the ship and I’m so very, very happy that you did. I sent you a little something to cheer you up. We can’t pay for the car hire.
We can’t pay for the flights. This is all hopefully something that your own insurance will take care of. But it is part of the nuances of the Jones Act, which maybe one day will not be in existence and it would certainly open a few other doors for bits and pieces, but that’s way out of my jurisdiction and it’s probably best I don’t comment on that anymore.
I know the crew are taking brilliant care of you. I know they are and I know that they’re going to give you the best of times. So, that’s just a little insight into what is the reason why you can’t leave from the United States without going foreign and why you can’t join the ship the next day if it is a U.S. port.
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Now, if the next port had been the Bahamas or Grand Cayman, etc., etc., then yes, absolutely that would not have been a problem. So, there you go. I guess we’ve learned a lesson and I’ll say it again.
Insurance is not necessary. Cruise insurance is not necessary until it is. That’s all I’m going to say about that.
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