Ebola scare: Cruise passengers received $200 credit, excursion refunds

Carnival Magic passengers who returned to Galveston, Texas, on Sunday know firsthand what it’s like to have travel plans go awry and out of their control. Their Caribbean cruise last week was interrupted after Mexican officials refused to allow a port stop at Cozumel because of an Ebola scare.

Carnival gave passengers a $200 ship credit and 50% off a future cruise for the inconvenience. The cruise line said in a statement Friday: “We greatly regret that this situation, which was completely beyond our control, precluded the ship from making its scheduled visit to Cozumel and the resulting disappointment it has caused our guests.”

In addition to the ship credit, Carnival refunded money spent on shore excursions that passengers would have taken in Cozumel. A swimming with sea turtles adventure, for example, costs $109 for adults and $79 for children.

Given the events that played out, would travel insurance have helped?

Megan Singh from Squaremouth, a website that compares travel insurance coverage, explains it this way in an email: If you’re the healthcare worker and you had trip interruption insurance, you could file a claim for expenses for items you were unable to use, such as the cost of a shore excursion or other cruise expense.

However, passengers who weren’t quarantined have no such claim even if they had the coverage. Trip interruption service kicks in for things like extremely bad weather and personal illness.

In the end, things turned out well. The Dallas healthcare worker who voluntarily isolated herself in her cabin on board the ship later tested negative for the disease. The worker had handled lab tests for Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man who was treated at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where he died Oct. 8.