This Heartless Cruise Line Refuses To Refund A Family That Had To Cancel Because Their Son Got Cancer”
Here’s an example of why you should always buy travel insurance:
One day, you might be getting ready to go on a big, highly anticipated vacation with your family, and then your five-year-old will muck it all up by getting a cancerous tumor, and then you will owe the cruise line a 100% cancellation fee.
That’s exactly what happened to one New York family, the Coluccis. According to My Fox NY, their son Nicolas was diagnosed with cancer a few weeks before the cruise date, and his tumor required immediate surgery, so the Coluccis tried to reschedule their trip or at the very least get a refund on the money they had already paid. The cruise line they were using, Norwegian Cruise Lines, told them sorry not sorry, should have bought the insurance, and now the family is out over $4000.
I sympathize with the family so hard here. All over the comment section of the places where this article is up, you’ll find people in the comments chastising the family for not buying travel insurance. That’s something they probably should have done, but I’m only guessing because I don’t know that I would have. It just sounds made up, like that crap they try to sell you when you buy a new television and they offer you the super duper ultra mega awesome extended protection plan for just two hundred dollars more
I get that cruise lines need to recoup their costs when a family has to cancel, so it’s not that I’m being heartless to that most downtrodden group of people–corporations. It’s just that there is something that is so douchey about the following statement:
“Our hearts, thoughts and prayers are with the Colucci family and we wish Nicholas a speedy recovery…We strongly encourage all of our guests to purchase travel protection insurance when booking a cruise so that they will be covered if a situation such as this arises. Our overall policy states that any cancellations made within 14 days or less of the sail date are subject to 100% cancellation fee.”
Wow. Sorry, kid with cancer. Your mom and dad didn’t anticipate you coming down with your illness, so you’re going to have to go fuck yourself. What sucks here is that Nicolas is old enough to get excited for stuff like this, and was apparently keeping a big poster and countdown for when he got to go “on the big boat”.
There’s already a slew of people crying “slippery slope!” and claiming that if Norwegian refunded this, they’d have to do it with every cruiser who came down with a serious illness or death in the family.
But honestly, if they would have just given the Coluccis their money back, no one would even know. Now they just look like assholes with all of this bad attention, which sucks for a company even if they are in the right.
Meanwhile, the CEO of another company has offered to book the family a cruise for free whenever Nicolas recovers, but has asked to remain anonymous, which is refreshing. We hear so much about corporations as people, so it’s nice to see that there are actually people with human emotions working at at least some of them.
(Image: MyFoxNY)
