Website terms of use

1. What this Site is

We publish cruise research and a planning form for families, couples, grandparents, and multigenerational parties. We are an independent advisor. We are not a cruise line, an airline, a hotel, or an insurer. We do not operate ships.

Unless a written proposal you accept says, in those words, that we are the organizer of a package, the contract for the cruise, flight, hotel, or excursion is between you and that supplier. We do not currently issue a package-organizer contract. An enquiry is not that contract.

We do not claim a bond, a trust account, or a government financial-protection scheme of our own. Any registration that applies to a booking is the host agency's, and only if that registration is in force. We will not print a registration number until the host has confirmed the one that covers this trade name.

2. The planning service

The first conversation and a short recommendation are complimentary. Extended research is charged only if a fee is agreed in writing before that work starts. That fee is non-refundable once the described work has started, except where a statute that cannot be waived says otherwise.

Figures on the Site are planning figures per person. They are not an offer and not live inventory. Nothing is reserved until you confirm and the supplier accepts. We will say when a ship is a poor fit. We do not invent urgency. Opinions on the Site are ours, not an independent rating.

One specialist owns the file from the first reply. We do not pass you to a call center.

3. Commission

If you book through us, the supplier may pay a commission to our host agency. We are paid from that arrangement. The commission is not added on top of the supplier price in the proposal. We do not publish the rate or the split. Any fee you pay us is a separate amount, agreed in writing before we start.

4. Your responsibilities

You are responsible for passports, visas, entry rules, vaccinations, pregnancy limits, and fitness to travel, for every person on the booking, including children. Official advice is at travel.state.gov and gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice. The page Before you sail collects those duties. A proposal is not a visa and not a medical clearance. Names must match the passport. A wrong age can void a kids' club place or a fare. Travel insurance, including medical evacuation on an expedition sailing, is strongly recommended and is your contract with the insurer.

5. Acceptable use and intellectual property

You will not disrupt the Site, probe it without written permission, send malware, or scrape the ship notes to build a competing product. The selection and text of the notes are ours or our licensors'. Line names and ship photographs belong to their owners and are used to identify the vessel. You keep what you send us. We will not publish you as a testimonial unless you agree in writing to the words. A copyright notice can be sent through the planning form with the page URL.

6. Travel disclaimer

Content is general planning information. It is not medical advice and not a promise that a sailing, cabin, or fare will be available. Cruise, river, and expedition travel involves weather, ice, sea state, a master's decision to change a port, limited medical facilities, and infectious illness. We are not a physician. No clinical relationship is created by using the Site. Wildlife rules for what we will plan are at Wildlife and animals.

THE SITE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE”. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT DELAWARE LAW ALLOWS, WE DISCLAIM WARRANTIES OF ACCURACY, MERCHANTABILITY, AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

7. Cap and indemnity

We are not liable for a supplier's act, a change of itinerary, weather, ice, illness on board, or a fare the supplier withdraws. To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or lost profits, or loss of enjoyment.

If we are liable in connection with the Site or a planning service, liability is limited to the greater of (a) the fees you paid us for that service in the six months before the claim or (b) USD 100. The cap does not apply to fraud or to liability Delaware law does not allow us to limit, including death or personal injury caused by our negligence where a limit is prohibited. The cap does not cover money you paid a supplier.

You will indemnify CheckUpfront Technology, Inc. against claims arising from your misuse of the Site, content you submit, or a traveler's lack of documents, except to the extent caused by our fraud or willful misconduct.

8. Arbitration

Any dispute arising out of these Terms, the Site, or a planning service, including arbitrability, will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Commercial Arbitration Rules and, if the arbitrator finds they apply, the Consumer Rules. The Federal Arbitration Act governs, not a state arbitration act. The arbitrator has no power to award class-wide relief or punitive damages unless all parties agree in writing. The seat is Delaware. The hearing may be virtual. The arbitration is confidential except as the law or enforcement requires.

YOU WAIVE A JURY TRIAL AND ANY RIGHT TO A CLASS, COLLECTIVE, OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION. If the class waiver is held invalid, this entire arbitration agreement is void and the dispute goes to court under section 9. Either party may bring an individual small-claims action, or a claim for intellectual property, defamation, or interim relief, in the state or federal courts in Delaware.

9. Court, force majeure, changes

10. Measurement and advertising pixels

We measure how the Site is used and we may run advertising pixels, including the Meta Pixel, where a campaign requires it. A pixel tells the ad platform that a browser reached a page or sent a form so we can measure and improve our advertising. It receives page and product identifiers and the platform's own cookie identifiers, never the contents of a form. Pixels run without a banner and the Site has no opt-out control of its own; the only way to prevent them is to block the vendor or its cookies in your browser or to not use the Site. The Cookie Notice names the pixels in use.

Subject to section 8, the only venue is the state and federal courts in Delaware, and you consent to personal jurisdiction there. Delaware law governs. Neither party is liable for delay caused by an event beyond reasonable control, including storm, ice, pandemic, government order, port closure, or supplier failure or insolvency, provided notice is given when it reasonably can be. A force majeure event does not by itself refund a supplier deposit. We may change these Terms by posting a new version. A fee already agreed in writing is not rewritten by a later posting. These Terms, the Privacy Notice, the Cookie Notice, and any written fee agreement are the whole agreement on the Site. You may not assign these Terms. We may assign them to a successor of the business.