November 26 a terrible situation happened, my family (me, my wife and two of our childrens) were not allowed to board on a cruise ship by Costa company's staff at the port of Trieste. Due to the fact that we only had Swiss ID cards and didn't have our passports. Although 3 weeks before the start of the cruise, I called to Costa call center and asked if I could book and go on this cruise with these documents, and also emailed a photo of our Swiss ID cards, to which I received an affirmative answer, that is possible and the call center employee even made a reservation for me.Also, two days before the start of the cruise I once again emailed copies of our ID cards to finally make sure that everything is fine and I won't have any problems, and again I received an answer that everything is fine and they wished me a pleasant cruise. But Costa staff at the port said that they could not let my family onto the ship, because there must have been a mistake and the call center staff who advised me did not notice that Croatia and Montenegro were among the ports of this cruise not in schengen area and that is why you need a valid foreign passport! I can't tell you the horror that my family went through during the 3 hours of the "investigation" of these circumstances in the port of Trieste, especially my little children (4 and 6 years old), who cried all the time holding their printed name cruise tickets given to them "by Santa". We were in shock and asked Costa staff to provide us with a written reason for refusing to board the ship in order to have at least some evidence that we showed up on time and in the future could apply for compensation or go to court and they all refused us and even refused to give us their names and take pictures their badges. We had to calm down our children and take them away from the port with hysterical force, they are under a lot of stress now. And now my family is in a terribly depressed state. I tried to "peacefully" resolve this situation and send a detailed email to Costa customer service with a proposition that would be enough for me an apology for the misunderstanding (human factor) and the rebooking of my cruise for other dates. But today I got an answer that it is always the passenger's responsibility to check that their own documents are suitable for travel abroad with the competent authorities and in this case refund is not foreseen. I totally do not agree with this decision! Because before buying this cruise I am checked twice by the official Costa call center and by the official Costa email. Also I send them twice the copy of our current ID cards, and ask direct questions: can I book and go to this cruise or not. By the call centre I get the answer that I can.By email I get two responses, first with cruise reservation, second with wishes for a good time on cruise. More than 6 million Ukrainians became refugees after the start of the russian invasion and war. Hundreds of thousands left home without documents. My family (and especially my children) have experienced a lot of stress and in the last 8 months since we became refugees, I have become accustomed to constantly checking the compliance of our documents. In this case, I was sure that we were doing everything right and I am shocked first from the actions of Costa staff ine the port of Triest and now from customer care email response. Also, I must give publicity to my situation, so that no one will ever have to experience such terrible emotions as my family!
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