Delays cost our family £5k, says great-granny

A GREAT grandmother says her family was forced to pay an extra £5,000 for their holiday after they were caught up in the aftermath of the rescue operation.

Joan Berry, 93, had already paid £24,000 for her family of 13 to go on the cruise to celebrate her son’s 40th birthday.

But their long-awaited trip took a turn for the worse after the ship’s captain announced that a passenger had gone overboard.

As a result of the rescue mission, the cruise was more than eight hours late when it arrived at Venice, where the family was booked on a flight back to Gatwick.

Due to the delay, the family, which included a two-year-old, missed their flight and had to pay to stay in a local hotel overnight. After finding there were no other suitable flights from Venice airport, they were forced to book a train to Milan from where they were able to fly home.

Mrs Berry said: ‘Everyone is focusing on the woman who went overboard, but what about the other 2,000 people on the cruise who were affected because of it?

‘We’re £5,000 out of pocket as we had to pay for a night in a hotel, a train and new flights.

‘Three family members also missed days at work and missed out on pay for that. It was a horrible end to a lovely holiday.’

She said her travel insurancer had warned her she would not be covered for the extra costs.