Should passengers have to pay for a cruise wrecked by norovirus?

[Grumpy]

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/cruis...=65860979.blog

Longtime travel industry watcher Chris Elliott raises the issue today at his online travel site, elliott.org, offering up the heart-breaking tale of an extended family that saw its $10,000-plus vacation ruined by a severe outbreak of the illness on a Disney Cruise Line voyage.

Elliott says the entire family -- four generations of whom were on the trip -- fell ill within hours of eachother and spent day after miserable day trapped in their cabins.

"Both our rooms smelled of vomit and diarrhea," the matriarch of the family, Patricia Branham, tells Elliott. "Our bedding had to be changed constantly as . . . we had no control of bodily functions."

Elliott says Disney offered the Branhams 15% off a future cruise after they complained about the experience. But the family thought they deserved more, and they successfully disputed nearly $7,000 in charges from Disney on their Visa card.

Should Disney have offered the family more compensation? Should Visa have reversed the charges? As Elliott notes, the fine print in cruise contracts is quite clear that lines will not be held liable for passenger illnesses.



What are your thoughts?

[LuvDisney]

Hmmm, that's a tricky one. I think I will plead the 5th on this one. But if the contracts state they are not liable for passenger sickness, I guess that settles it. Would I be happy with that if it was me? Doubt it, but what can you do? What a crappy vacation. (ooops, no pun intended)

[Grumpy]

LOL
My thought is I do not htink any cruise line should have to refund it but they should get a sweet deal on the next 1