Ukrainians were not allowed on a Royal Caribbean cruise, citing 'sanctions' against their homeland

An employee of Royal Caribbean International did not let a family of Ukrainians with a six-month-old child on board the cruise ship. The representative of a large company could not clearly explain the reason for this decision, the YouTube channel reports.The Bureau".

Photo: IStock

Florida resident Grigory Rubshtein told the channel that his wife was taken off the cruise ship right in the terminal. It is worth noting that the spouses are from Ukraine. In a short video that Gregory managed to shoot, you can see how a representative of the Royal Caribbean company asks Gregory's wife about her green card, about her origin. The spouses answer that they are citizens of Israel, that they have been living in the USA for 3 years. Hryhoriy tried to explain to the company representative that his wife had not been in Ukraine for more than 5 years.

“You've seen our green cards, our documents - what else do you need to let us on board?” — Grigory asks the company representative in the video.

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Gregory says that he filmed this recording in the terminal right before boarding. His family has never been on a cruise before. They bought the tickets and collected all the indicated documents. Gregory emphasizes that they prepared in advance all the documents that the family had to present.

"Everything was fine. They let me on the cruise with an Israeli passport and license, and they asked my wife where she was from and started asking for some kind of Real ID. That is, it can be based on a Travel License or based on Florida residency. We didn’t have this because it wasn’t in the requirements,” says Grigory. — I asked why we should present this document. A company representative said that because Ukraine is now under sanctions.”

Hryhoriy asked the company employee several times whether she was sure about the sanctions against Ukraine. She very confidently answered that yes, there are sanctions, and asked for proof that Grigory's wife lives in America, and not “under sanctions” Ukraine.

“She said she talked to their boss at Royal Caribbean. I don’t really believe it, but she said so,” says Gregory.

From the documents, Grigory’s wife had a green card and a passport of Israel and Ukraine. Gregory says that the Ukrainian passport stated where it was received - in Zaporozhye, and not in the territory that may somehow be subject to sanctions.

Grigory says that after his family went through a check-in 2 weeks ago, they sent him a document stating that Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk fall under some kind of sanctions list. Gregory sent the companies green cards and Israeli passports in response, wrote that they were permanent residents of the United States.

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“And this shouldn’t apply to us at all. If this was at all relevant, they should have written about additional documents. They sent us that they had received all the documents. They didn't ask for anything else. We went to the terminal without any second thoughts.” - says Gregory.

Gregory says that they went on a trip with a six-month-old child, and it was very disappointing to make such a journey in vain. He said he wasn't ready to leave until he spoke to someone more senior. A spokeswoman for the company said she was the highest-ranking employee there. For two hours, Grigory tried to prove his case, but the company representative ignored his requests to connect him with the management. The sheriff who arrived at the scene, as Grigory says, did not interfere in this matter. The family was asked to leave the terminal.

“My wife has a green card, we received it 2 months ago. They already checked that we live in the United States and the address and that’s it,” says Grigory.

Grigory asked the representative of the company to give him the reason for the refusal in writing. He wanted to see the reason for the refusal in an official format.

“It’s good that I made a video recording - it would have been difficult to prove what she said, that Ukraine is under sanctions. I just wanted to see it officially, but she didn’t provide any paper. The only piece of paper they gave us was that our cruise was canceled due to the fact that we did not have the necessary documents,” says Grigory.

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“Now I will look for a lawyer, a lawyer. I have never had such situations, such experiences in my life. I would like to hear an official response from Royal Caribbean. I called them many times, tried to contact them. They replied that only after the ship returned from the cruise would they talk to us. So far they are not even ready to return the money,” says Grigory.

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