P&O Ventura: Couple miss dream cruise due to Brexit rule

Allan Wilson, 64, says he and his wife were "made to feel like criminals" over the mistake which they were unaware of.

He's demanding a refund from the cruise giant which is refusing to budge.

Allan has been trying to convince his wife Vivian to agree to a cruise trip for 43 years.

She finally agreed to go on a 10-night cruise around Spain, Portugal and France to celebrate her 72nd birthday, so when she said yes, Allan booked the holiday within half an hour.

But after spending over £3,000 on the trip, Vivian was turned away at the terminal on October 26 because her passport was more than ten-years-old – despite its expiry date being May 2025.

P&O Cruises and Allan’s insurance company are both uninterested, saying the situation is the couple's fault, and are not planning to issue a refund.

This is despite the Southampton-based cruise liner previously issuing refunds for the same situation, as reported by our sister paper Bournemouth Echo.

READ MORE: Passengers on cruise ship P&O Ventura face sickness outbreak

A rule change post-Brexit means that for travel to the EU, even if a passport has more than six months left until expiry, it cannot be older than 10 years.

“We were made to feel like criminals, I’ve never experienced the likes of it,” Allan told the Echo.

“We had no idea about the rule but I just don’t understand why P&O wouldn’t make that rule clear.

"Even the guy at the parking place we used said he'd never heard of anyone being turned away for that."

P&O Cruises' Ventura. (Image: Michael Seymour) Allan explained that he had spent £2,598 on the cruise, £200 on a balcony upgrade fee, £162 on insurance, £100 parking and £200 on fuel to drive down to Southampton from Hull.

“That’s not even thinking about how much we spent on clothes for the trip,” Allan said.

‘I would’ve thought P&O care about their customers’

The 64-year-old explained that P&O make customers input their passport information when booking the cruise, and was confused as to why the cruise company did not immediately flag up that his wife’s passport would be ineligible.

Allan said: “If they’d have told us, we would’ve gone out and got another one, there was enough time to get a new one.

“It’s now taken them one month for their customer service team to give me an answer, and it’s not the answer we want, they won’t refund us.

“I would’ve thought P&O are surely a company who are supposed to care about their customers.”

READ MORE: P&O Cruises update after Ventura sickness outbreak

Emails shared with the Echo show that P&O told Allan that it is "ultimately the responsibility of the guest to ensure that their travel documents are current".

They argue that this is made clear in their terms and conditions, on their website and on the websites of the locations he was set to travel to.

The email said that P&O will not be issuing any compensation.

A spokesperson for P&O Cruises said: "We are so sorry that Mr & Mrs Wilson missed their holiday due to an expired passport.

"The requirement for a valid passport (and any other necessary travel documents) are clearly laid out in our booking terms and conditions and it is the guest’s responsibility to check they are adhering to the external legislation set by the countries they are visiting."