Coronavirus Worries Disrupt Toms River Couple's Wedding Cruise

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Jocelyn Kirchner and Daniela Kenmure have been meticulously planning their wedding and cruise vacation aboard the Norwegian Gem for months.

"I wanted something where I didn’t have to take care of a million details," Kirchner said. "What if I forgot to call someone and rent the chairs?"

That was how the Toms River couple settled on a harborside wedding with a vacation cruise to celebrate their nuptials. But with their March 6 wedding just days away, the couple's carefully laid plans are in disarray, thanks in part to the coronavirus scare.

Kirchner, 28, and Kenmure, 29, had plans to take a 10-day Caribbean cruise with 25 friends and family members, following a ceremony that would have included an additional 50 guests, the couple said Friday. While the cruise is intact, they are scrambling to put together the wedding ceremony and reception that were to be held.

That's after the wedding coordinator through Royal Ocean Events, which handles arrangements for several cruise lines, informed them last week of an additional requirement: all guests coming for the ceremony only would have to provide a passport showing they had not traveled to China within the last 30 days.

Some of the guests who were coming only for the ceremony do not have passports, Kirchner said, and getting one in under three weeks was a burden she and Kenmure were unwilling to place on them.

"We'd already asked them for so much," she said. Every guest had filled out a security form and in January the couple had to provide a complete guest list with photocopies of their driver's licenses, which were then going to be held as collateral when guests attended the ceremony.

"I called the cruise line directly," Kirchner said, hoping to get some kind of understanding or waiver so close to the scheduled wedding. Norwegian Cruise Lines would not accommodate them, she said.

Norwegian Cruise Lines and Royal Ocean Events have not responded to repeated requests from Patch since Friday for comment.

In addition, the cruise line is refusing to refund part of the money the couple had paid already.

"We paid a nonrefundable deposit of $500" when they booked the package in December 2018, Kirchner said, but has paid $13,000 total for the ceremony, plus $5,000 for the 10-day cruise for themselves and their daughter.

Norwegian has refunded just $9,000, she said, and refused to refund the cruise tickets for them or any of the friends and family who were set to join them.

"There's nothing in the contract that says they would only refund 70 percent," Kirchner said.

"They said, 'We can just reschedule the event," Kenmure said. "But we can't."

Kenmure's brother is in the military and had taken leave to be at the wedding and on the cruise. Other family members and friends had specifically scheduled their vacations to accommodate the wedding and cruise as well.

"Plus there's hotels, the rehearsal dinner," Kirchner said. "It's not just the money we paid to Norwegian."

It's left them trying to plan a wedding in two weeks with a much smaller budget. "We saved for four years for this," she said.

Now they're trying to find catering, a DJ and all of the items that were included in the harborside wedding package.

"Our whole wedding photography package was included," Kirchner said. "We just had to worry about our hair and makeup, our dresses and flowers and favors."

Kirchner said the frustrating part of the issue is the passport requirement was only for the wedding guests who were not going on the cruise.

"The people coming on the boat for two hours need a passport but the sailing guests do not," she said. "I'm all for health and safety, but to me it's an unfair rule if it's not consistent."

"We feel a little blindsided, a little disheartened," Kenmure said.

The couple has a wedding venue, after the James Ward Mansion in Westfield agreed to host the affair at no cost, with Westfield Mayor Shelley Brindle officiating the ceremony, the Asbury Park Press reported.

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