It is annoying to wake up your fellow travelers every time you leave the bed – especially in the narrow cabin of a cruise ship. But can the cruise line do anything for it? Sometimes a judge now shows it.
Cruise with obstacles: If one of the beds in a two-person cabin is not immediately accessible, the guest can request a little money back. This is the case, for example, when a vacationer first has to cross another bed or squeeze past it, as a judgment of the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court shows (file number: 2-24 S 216/18).
Cruise passenger receives travel price reduction
In the negotiated case, the plaintiff could only get to her bed through a narrow gap at the foot of the other bed – according to the court, a lack of travel. Because the beds in a cabin for two people would have to be arranged in such a way that both travelers can effortlessly get and leave their beds – without waking the other one. A small gap is not enough.
The regional court awarded the plaintiff a travel price reduction of five percent: 343.80 euros for a travel price of 6,876 euros. The German Society for Travel Law reports on the verdict in the magazine “ReiseRecht aktuell” (issue 6/2019).
More examples of shortcomings on cruise trips
Other shortcomings during the trip on a cruise ship do not necessarily have to be accepted. What lowers the travel price in court – and what doesn't:
- The constant noise pollution caused by an unusually loud air conditioning system (OLG Koblenz, judgment of 13.6.2012, 5 U 1501/11) does not have to be accepted, but a certain level of noise caused by the ship's engine and other equipment does (however, AG Munich, judgment of 18.7 2007, 242 C16587 / 07).
- If a cruise ship does not call at ports and the trip does not allow previously agreed shore leave, this is a deviation from the contractually agreed services (AG Munich, judgment of 1.4.2009, 262 C 1373/09).
- The same applies to a significant deviation from the originally planned route (LG Bonn, judgment of 13.3. 2009.10 O 17/09). It can be declared as a defect.
- If the booked motor sailing ship is actually a pure motor ship without any possibility of sailing, the journey is deficient (LG Hamburg, judgment of 3.11. 2000, 317 S101 / 00).
More Cruise Articles:
Cruise trips are still very popular. Many German passengers also enjoy the all-round carefree package on board and let themselves be pampered – sometimes to the dismay of the ship's crew. Now cruise workers are unpacking. Read more about it here.
- Recently, many new cruise ships were finished later than planned – and trips were canceled. Also with Aida, Hapag-Lloyd and Nicko Cruise. Why is that? And what does it mean for vacationers? Here you can find more information.
- From 2020, the cruise company Carnival Cruise will prescribe which clothing they are no longer allowed to wear on board. The cruise operator has adjusted its rules for wearing clothes on its ships. You can read the whole story here.