A traveler posted a viral TikTok saying Carnival Cruise wouldn’t let him on the trip that he paid for. Viewers are divided on whether or not he’s in the wrong.
TikToker Brian (@bnblifestyle) has reached over 522,000 views and 3,000 likes on his video. He captioned his video, “I will never use this company again.”
In the clip, Brian added an on-screen caption that says, “Carnival didn’t let us on the cruise we paid $2,000 for. What a joke.”
To start, Brian records a Carnival worker walking up to him and a companion in a waiting area and handing them each a piece of paper.
“So, I talked to my mom, and she actually has my card at the house,” the companion says, referring to a COVID-19 vaccination card. “So [the] physical copy, even if I brought it, wouldn’t work?”
“Well, I’m getting ready to close the doors in 10 minutes,” the worker tells him.
“So it would work?” Brian asks. “But 10 minutes ago, you said it wouldn’t?”
“All right. I’m confused, but OK,” he adds.
“It’s better to have the physical copy, but it still needs to be verified digitally,” the worker tells Brian.
Brian says, “All right, have a great day,” before walking away and ending his video.
@bnblifestyle I will never use this company again #carnival #carnivalcruise #cruise #kickedoff ♬ original sound – BnB | Lifestyle Creator
Viewers left their opinions in Brian’s comment section. One said, “so you didn’t pack your documents. and want to blame everyone else for your lack of preparation.”
“Wait, you didn’t bring proper paperwork and it’s their fault????” another asked.
Brian responded to one of the comments in a video, giving more context on the situation.
First, Brian says to keep in mind the encounter happened “at the time of COVID, and you needed your vaccine card. However, I didn’t post this until now.”
Brian says he and his cousin showed up three hours early for the Carnival cruise and had their IDs, passports, and photocopies of their vaccine cards. “I’m watching all of these people show them a picture of their vaccine card, which worked for them,” he says.
However, Brian says his cousin had to be taken back when they got to the front of the line to do “additional screening.”
“We’re back there, and they tell us that we need to call his doctor to have them send an email and verify his vaccine card,” he says.
“I kind of caught on to what was going on,” Brian continues. “That it was at the discretion of these people whether the vaccine card looks good or not, which is kind of BS.”
Brian says his cousin is from Florida and they were traveling out of California, so they could not get in contact with his doctor at that time. He adds that he asked whether getting a physical copy from his cousin’s mom would work as verification.
He says the worker responded, “No, you need to have your vaccine card digitally verified.”
“Which makes no damn sense, but because they said his picture of his vaccine card looked fake, they have to have it verified,” Brian adds.
“They tell us to leave, we can’t get on the boat,” he says.
@bnblifestyle Replying to @Efrain guz story time for everyone that thought they knew the whole story!! #carnivalcruise #cruise #travel #kickedoff @BnB | Travel + Lifestyle ♬ original sound – BnB | Lifestyle Creator
A viewer told Brian, “hard truth- this was a tough bought lesson; read through the instructions for pre board and always have the original document plus your electronic copies just in case.”
“You know what would have prevented this?” another said. “Having your original document on hand.”
“Lol it’s all good we booked another trip the same day,” Brian responded.
The Daily Dot reached out to Brian via TikTok direct message and Carnival Cruise Line via email.