12 January 2023 , 12:15
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A woman who missed out on the cruise of a lifetime has urged holidaymakers to check their passports twice before heading abroad.
Tricia Newbury's Christmas plans ended in tears when she was stopped from boarding P&O Cruise's new Arvia ship along with her husband on December 23, due to falling foul of new passport rules in force following Brexit.
The Buckinghamshire couple had to collect their bags and walk to their car down a line of festive holidaymakers eager to get aboard the brand new vessel.
Despite insisting they did nothing wrong but make a simple mistake, it looks unlikely the duo will get any of their £5,278 back.
The Christmas wash-out has highlighted the importance of checking your passport thoroughly before jetting off to make sure it is inline with new post-Brexit requirements.
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Tricia said her Christmas was ruined by the incident (Tricia Newbury)
The cruise ship's big launch was before Christmas (P&O Cruises)"Christmas and new year was ruined," Tricia told the Mirror. "P&O send you regular emails before you board and they say check your passports. We did.
"They took our passport details twice, once when we booked and three weeks before."
She added: "We've lost thousands".
Tricia and her husband fell foul of new requirements which have come into force post-Brexit.
Under the new rules you must have at least three months of validity left on your passport after the day you plan to leave, and your passport must also have been issued less than 10 years before the date you enter the country.
They were caught out on the latter.
"When you look at your passport, you look at the expiry date," Tricia continued.
"Ours isn't until July this year. But we were able to renew our passport early and did it in October 2012. They gave us ten years and an extra nine months of validity, which meant our issue date was more than ten years ago."
Tricia was not able to enjoy the ship's many luxuries (P&O Cruises)"The majority of people we have spoken to don't know about (the rule). People are still being turned away."
After handing their luggage to a porter and their car keys to a valet, the couple headed to the check-in desk.
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"A girl looked at our passport and went off to speak to another lady, who then asked us to come with them," Tricia continued.
"They said there's a problem, that said since Brexit the rules have changed. They had to get our luggage back off the ship and car back.
"We had to walk away with everyone looking at us. That was it. We contacted P&O but their response is 'it's down to you'."
She claimed that a member of staff told them they'd turned six families away in one week due to the new rules.
The couple ended up spending a "miserable" Christmas at home.
"We had saved up for two years to be able to go away," Tricia said. "Both my husband and I are pensioners and to lose that amount of money is disastrous."
P&O Cruises has been contacted for comment.