Before you sail

Read it when you enquire, again before you pay a non-refundable deposit, and again in the week you sail.

1. Official advice

Read the advice for every country on the itinerary, including transit countries and countries you only pass through.

• United States: travel.state.gov
• United Kingdom: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice

Tell your specialist if a traveler's passport country is not the one we assumed. We will not guess a visa outcome. A planning figure on this site is not confirmation that you can enter a port. If a government raises its advice after you have booked, any remedy is in the cruise line's conditions, not on this page.

2. Documents

Names on the booking must match the passport, character for character. Cruise lines often require six months' validity beyond the end of the sailing, which can be stricter than the country's own rule. Visas, electronic travel authorizations, and transit visas are yours to obtain for every nationality in the party. A port call can require a visa even if you do not plan to go ashore. Minors traveling with one parent, or with neither, often need a consent letter. We do not check these unless a written proposal says we will do a named check. Even then, the decision to board is the line's. We are not liable for denied boarding or refused entry caused by documents.

3. Health

Fitness to sail, pregnancy limits, vaccinations, medications, and any health form the line requires are for you and your clinician. We are not a physician. Nothing on this site is medical advice. Do not delay care because of a journal article.

Medical facilities on a ship are limited. A ship doctor is not a hospital. Evacuation from a ship can be expensive, can be delayed by weather, and is not always possible in polar waters or mid-ocean. Antarctica, the Arctic, and similar sailings usually require the line's own medical form before you are allowed to sail. Read it before you pay a non-refundable deposit. An evacuation plan is the line's condition and your insurer's, not a promise from us.

4. Insurance

Buy insurance that covers cancellation by you, cancellation or curtailment by the line, medical costs, and evacuation from a ship, before you pay a non-refundable deposit. Name any expedition activity you intend to do, including zodiac landings. Read the exclusions: pre-existing conditions, named storms, and “reason of disinclination” are common gaps. We do not sell a policy and we do not insure you. A waiver offered by the line, if any, is the line's product. It is not a substitute for a policy you have read.

5. The ship and the port

Tender ports and expedition landings are not all step-free. A ship with an elevator can still use a tender that is not step-free. Tell us about mobility, pregnancy, and the ages of children before we shortlist, so we can ask the line for the current fact sheet. The fact sheet controls what can be booked. We cannot override a line's refusal to board.

A cruise line may refuse boarding for missing documents, for illness, or for a failed health form. That decision is the line's. Copy us if you want help reading the options.

6. Money and changes

Deposits and cancellation scales are the line's, and are often severe inside 90 days. They can be the full fare close to sailing. Detail is in the Booking Terms. Commission paid to our host agency is not an extra charge on the fare. Any fee you pay us is agreed in writing before we start.

A port closure, a government order, ice, or a schedule change by the line is the line's matter. We pass on what they tell us. We do not keep a running restriction board on this page.

7. What we may refuse

We may decline a request we cannot place through the host agency, or that would breach sanctions. We will refund any unearned design fee you paid us. We do not decline a ship because a commission is lower. We decline a ship when it is a poor fit.