Cruise Wedding Plans Sinking....

We have a relative who got "trapped" on a cruise in the very early days of the pandemic. Their 14 day cruise turned into 30 days stuck on a ship because no ports/countries would let them dock/disembark. It cost them roughly an additional $25,000 in order to eventually get home, where they were then in govt supervised quarantined for 14 days.... They are frequent international travelers and this cruise was at least their twelfth; it turned into a real-life nightmare where they were truly worried whether they would be able to get home before borders closed for months. I would just go ahead with a plan B, if I were you.

Unfortunately this situation has so many unknowns that there is no telling what it will be like come November. Florida is one of the hot spots right now for the virus so I would definitely avoid that area. I believe cruises have been pretty much been put on hold for now so I would definitely consider a back up plan. It would probably be best to plan something local rather than traveling especially to an area like Florida. I'm so sorry this is happening.

I would reach out to Carnival and see what the options are. I have my doubts thee will be any cruises at least for 2020 unfortunately. And Florida is also not looking too good at the moment.

I would start making a plan B. I think at this point its with 100% certainty that a cruise in 2020 is not going to happen. I would start planning for a local wedding in TN for your November date. I would avoid planning anything that involves travel.

In my original post, I forgot to mention that there has never been a single case of Covid-19 associated with our relatives' cruise.... They set sail on March 1, when the only known cases were in Asia and there were no general travel advisories or warnings.... Despite that, multiple countries, including the US, still refused to let them dock/disembark passengers -- they were literally trapped, sailing from country to country (and continent to continent...), and once the initial scheduled 14-day cruise ended, the remaining 16+ days included nothing more than basic food, services, etc. The crew did their best in a terrible situation, but there wasn't much they could do with limited supplies, staffing, and options. (They've now been home for about 12 weeks and all their claims for refunds/expense reimbursements via insurance, airlines [multiple cancelled flights], and the cruise line have been denied. They are just out the additional $25,000 [beyond what they originally paid for the cruise/trip]. And, they lost an additional six-weeks of income when they couldn't work because they were stuck on the ship and/or in govt mandated quarantines.)

Like others have said, I'd make other plans for your wedding. Good luck.

It was.... Their cruise was covered in the national TV and print news.... They have traveled and cruised extensively for decades and don't expect to EVER get on a ship again....

No, they weren't charged to stay stuck on the ship -- that was "free" (although, they were charged for additional fee-for-service items, like beverages, laundry, internet, etc. during the 16 additional days, which were all included in the cost of their original 14-day package); the extra charges were mostly for the multiple last minute international plane tickets they had to buy -- at least three different sets, beyond their original tickets. When they booked the cruise they were supposed to fly home from New Zealand to their home in Australia. When they weren't allowed to dock in NZ, those nonrefundable tickets went to waste. Then, during the 16 additional days, they were initially told they would be able to disembark first, in Tahiti or Bali, then in Honolulu, and then finally in San Diego. Within 36 hours of approaching each of those ports with the expectation of being able to disembark, they were required by the port countries to have plane tickets that would get them out of that city/country within 12 hours of disembarking (no country wanted them "hanging around contaminating people"). So, at the last minute, they first bought a set of tickets from Tahiti to their home in Australia; when they weren't allowed to dock/disembark there, those tickets were no good. Then, they were told they would be allowed to dock/disembark in Hilo, then that was changed to Honolulu, but again, they had to have paid for tickets in hand. At the last minute (it was super political), Honolulu wouldn't let the ship disembark any passengers except HI residents.... And those VERY expensive, last minute tickets also went to waste. Finally, with no guarantees, the ship headed to San Diego, and they were again told a condition of disembarking was to have tickets out of So Cal within 12 hours of disembarking -- if the ship was allowed to dock -- a HUGE "if" at that time (by then they'd been sailing across and around the Pacific for more than 2 weeks with no country willing to let passengers off the ship. They were finally given clearance to dock/disembark in San Diego, and had less than 6 hours to make it to the last flight from the US to AU.... Those tickets alone were well over $15,000 (basically same-day international tickets, the LAST seats on the LAST flight -- they didn't know for how long at the time; but US Customs wouldn't let them off the ship unless they could guarantee they'd be out of the country within 12 hours. Good thing they made it, as it turned out the be the last flight between the US & AU for months...). So, in total, they lost the cost of three sets of tickets they couldn't use (all non-refundable by the airlines' interpretations of their rules) and the one phenomenally expensive set of tickets they used to get home and a wide-variety of "incidental expenses" like mandatory supervised transportation between the port in San Diego and LAX, etc. Luckily, they have credit cards with high limits, but they will be paying them off for a good long while. If it sounds unbelievable, Google "Holland America Maasdam cruise March 2020"; for example, https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/hawaii/articles/2020-03-18/2-cruise-ships-turned-away-by-other-ports-head-to-honolulu). Honestly, they were lucky compared to at least two other Holland America ships that floated around practically forever -- with many Covid-19 infected passengers.... Travel insurance hasn't covered a thing, the airlines won't even give them credit for the unused flights, and so far no help from the cruise line.... I saw that the OP just got word her planned cruise is officially cancelled. Based on our family's experience, that's probably a huge blessing in disguise!