General conditions

General Terms and Conditions of Splashtours Lübeck

The following General Terms and Conditions (GTC) of the company Splashtours Lübeck, Helge Gabriel, Wallstraße 17, 23560 Lübeck, hereinafter referred to as “Carrier”, shall apply to liner, special and tourist tours which are carried out within the framework of the carriage of passengers.

The General Terms and Conditions announced, inter alia, by notice in the retail outlets and offices, on the ships and the amphibious bus (hereinafter referred to as “Amphibus”), online at www.splashtour-luebeck.de or on request by delivery, shall become part of the Contract of Carriage.

By accepting the ticket, the confirmation of the transport service for group travels or eventually by using the service, any passenger, customer or sender accepts the GTC. Any conflicting General Terms and Conditions of the other party shall herewith be expressly objected to; they shall at no time apply unless the parties have agreed on a full or partial non-application of the GTC in written form prior to the conclusion of the contract.

Any amendments or additions to the GTC of Carrier shall be reserved to Carrier. They shall come into force from the date of their publication on the notice board in the offices or by delivery.

1. Contract of Carriage

Passengers and their hand luggage will be carried only if previously a contract of carriage has been concluded. The contract of carriage shall exclusively be subject to our General Terms and Conditions and shall already be effected by the use of our service – at the latest by payment of the standard fare – and delivery of the ticket or free ride certificate. Any surcharges, reservations etc. shall be deemed to be tickets in accordance with these GTC.

The captain or handling employees decide on what items and vehicles shall be excluded from the carriage taking into account the maritime safety. Any weapons, dangerous goods and hazardous substances and items whose possession is prohibited or whose carriage is not approved, will not be transported. If these items are only discovered during the voyage, then the vessel’s management may take them into custody and give them at the earliest opportunity ashore at the owner’s expense.

Carrier undertakes to the carriage of passengers and their hand luggage only. Additional services, such as catering etc., shall only be included if this is especially agreed upon according to standard fare. Seats should be vacated for severely disabled and handicapped passengers on presentation of their certificates of disability. The same shall apply on request of the crew to frail or otherwise vulnerable passengers as well as passengers who would like to eat the meals bought aboard.

The captain – and his deputy – shall be entitled to arrange the vacation of seats and passenger compartments for the purpose of maritime safety or compliance with the GTC.

The carriage shall be excluded in the following cases:

Drunken passengers or those who offend common decency or do not comply with these General Terms and Conditions. Passengers who are unfit to travel due to general or contagious disease, infirmity or other reasons or who would physically or mentally impede other passengers.
Passengers who oppose to the orders of Carrier or the vessel’s management.
Passengers who have booked a carriage service based on false information. Passengers who disturb the peace on board by their behaviour. The carriage of animals shall be prohibited.

In the event of exclusion from carriage, passengers will not be entitled to assert a claim for compensation of the already paid travel or freight costs or compensation for the direct or indirect damage suffered by the exclusion.

Passengers shall be fully responsible vis-à-vis Carrier for all consequences resulting and damage caused pursuant to Section 1.

If Carrier withdraws from the Contract of Carriage, then they will refund the full ticket price to passengers if that had been paid in advance. Any further refunds for follow-up costs of passengers or senders shall be excluded by Carrier.

It shall be prohibited to passengers to contaminate or damage rooms, facilities or objects of the vessel, to abusively damage safety equipment or to throw objects of any kind off the vessel. Any smoking bans, especially in the passenger compartments of the passenger vessels shall be strictly observed.

Maritime safety

Carrier undertakes to carry out the tour with a vessel/Amphibus complying with all applicable safety regulations. Passengers shall be obligated to comply with the General Terms and Conditions, particularly to all orders of the vessel’s management referring to the safety and order on board or other Carrier’s authorised representatives. Carrier may exclude passengers who violate these rules of carriage without further notice. In this case, passengers shall not be entitled to any refunds.

In addition, passengers shall be obligated to take all reasonable measures in the event of malfunctions to help remedy the malfunction and to reduce any possibly resulting damage as much as possible.

For security reasons, a possible search and/or control of persons and hand-luggage before boarding must be allowed. If this is refused, Carrier shall be entitled to deny boarding without refunding the already paid fare.

2. Withdrawal and Complaints

Both, Carrier and passengers shall be entitled to withdraw from the contract until commencement of the tour.

2.1 Fees in the event of withdrawal:

In the event of withdrawal from the tour according to clause 2, the contractor of Carrier shall pay the following compensation:

2.1.1 30-15 days prior to departure:

10% of the transport rate (minimum € 5,-)

2.1.2 14-8 days prior to departure:

25% of the transport rate

2.1.3 7-4 days prior to departure:

50% of the transport rate

2.1.4 Less than 3 days prior to departure (or non-appearance):

100% of the transport rate

2.2 A processing fee is charged for all changes of reservations already made by customers in the amount of € 3, – per change.

2.3 Any claims for reimbursement of non-used tickets according to clause 2.1 shall be reported in writing within 14 days at the head office of Carrier, enclosing the original ticket. Lost tickets will neither be replaced nor refunded.

2.4 Any complaints about the execution of the Contract of Carriage shall be filed and described fully vis-à-vis Carrier within a period of six weeks. The period shall commence with the completion of the tour, but no later than at the time that passengers has obtained knowledge of the reason for complaint. If the complaint is filed later, then this may result in the loss of relevant claims against Carrier.

2.5 Likewise, no refund will be granted in the event of (return) journeys operated by third party carriers.

2.6 For purchased vouchers we grant no refund. The vouchers are valid for 3 years.

3. Timetable

The timetable has been prepared with regard to normal weather and water conditions so that a guarantee cannot be given for the compliance with the times of arrival and departure.

Carrier expressly reserves the right to change the timetables, to cancel tours and to make any other changes in scheduling, to the extent that this is required due to special wind and weather conditions in maritime traffic, official instructions or reasons of maritime safety.
The safety of passengers and the vessel or Amphibus are a matter of priority. The captain shall be entitled to such changes. If required by the above reasons, the captain may limit the number of passengers to be taken on board. For any damage resulting thereof, Carrier shall exclude all liability. Carrier also expressly reserves the right to interruptions of travel, changes of the vessels or the Amphibuses, changes in the itineraries and changes in the place of departure and arrival due to unfavourable weather and tidal conditions, technical failures as well as changes or failures due to conditions that Carrier is not responsible for and all dispositions required with regard to the particular circumstances in maritime traffic. In the event of an impediment to the use of the Amphibus, which Carrier is not responsible for; Carrier shall not be obligated to perform the tour with this particular Amphibus. Carrier may use any of their own or chartered vessels as a substitute and shall further be entitled to replace the intended vessel or Amphibus until departure with an equivalent vessel or means of transportation or alternatively, to offer alternative itineraries.

Passengers shall arrive on time, but minimum 15 minutes prior to departure at the point of departure. Should passengers not comply with these times of arrival, then Carrier shall be entitled to otherwise dispose of reserved vehicle spaces and/or passenger seats.

4. Carriage fares

The respective applicable fares for the carriage of passengers will be hung or laid out at the arrival and departure points as well as in the means of transportation and be available on the Internet. Granted fare reductions, such as e.g. discounts for children, cannot be combined with further discounts. Special tours shall be subject to special agreements.

Carriage fares, excluding the service-specific taxes and public charges applicable on that day shall, unless already included in the fares, in any case be paid prior to departure. All fares shall be in euros.

If a pre-booking was made, Carrier will send passenger an invoice. The invoice will be settled by passengers to Carrier free of charge, without discount, deferral or offset within 14 days after the invoice date, but no later than with departure. In case of late payment, passengers will be in default. The default costs incurred may be invoiced vis-à-vis passengers according to statutory provisions.

5. Tickets

Tickets may be purchased at the ticket offices of Carrier at the points of departure, at travel agencies or at the places specifically designated for that purpose (e.g. booking agents) or on the Internet.
At departure, each passenger must be provided with a valid ticket. Passengers shall always carry official proof of a collective fare discount and present it on request; this proof is part of the discounted ticket. Passengers, who could not get a ticket anymore for some reason, shall notify the ticket inspector immediately. If a passenger is caught without a valid ticket, then Carrier may charge immediately the fare plus the applicable surcharge, currently € 60,–.

By that, Carrier will not waive any further claims. A ticket shall not be transferable. Each passenger shall be obligated to voluntarily present their tickets to the ticket inspector when boarding the vessel or Amphibus. The tickets and stubs may only be separated from each other and validated by a person authorised by Carrier. Tickets whose stubs have been removed prior to the inspection of the person authorised by Carrier, shall cease to be valid. Tickets that were purchased prior to the announcement of a change in fare shall remain unaffected of such a change.

Seat reservations shall be valid only in combination with a ticket order. A claim for certain seats shall not exist.

Pre-ordered services shall be paid by credit card, direct debit or bank transfer.
Tickets, whose content has been modified without authorisation, shall be collected as invalid without replacement. After collection of the invalid ticket without replacement, the fare will be charged from passengers. If passengers refuse to pay the fare, they will be excluded from the carriage.

6. Catering on Board

A price list for potentially offered food and drinks can be found on the tables pursuant to Section 4 of the Regulation on Price Markings. Any complaints about the catering on board shall be submitted to the vessel’s management. In the lounges, the consumption of alcoholic beverages brought on board shall not be permitted.

The consumption of food and drinks brought on board of the Amphibus shall be strictly prohibited.

In the event of violation against this provision, our staff shall be entitled to place the food and drinks into custody until the end of the tour.

7. Leaving the vessel / Amphibus

Passengers shall be responsible themselves to leave the vessel or Amphibus on time.

8. Liability

Carrier shall be liable for damage, including injury to life and body, caused to a passenger during the carriage if the event causing the damage was either based on gross negligence or wilful intent by Carrier, their vicarious agents or other agents acting in the performance of their duties or if Carrier used a chartered vessel/Amphibus, a corresponding fault of the charterer or their vicarious agents or other agents acting in the performance of their duties.

The carriage shall commence for passengers with boarding from the landing pier which includes ramps and gangways and shall end with leaving the vessel/Amphibus.

Carrier, their representatives and their vicarious agents shall be liable vis-à-vis companies, legal entities of public law and special funds of public law for intent and gross negligence only.

Exclusions and limitations of liability in the General Terms and Conditions shall not apply to damage arising from injuries to life, body or health which are based on an intentional or negligent violation of duty of Carrier or an intentional or negligent violation of duty of a legal representative or vicarious agent of Carrier or third parties for whose actions they are liable.

Should an exclusion or limitation of liability however still be permitted by statutory regulation, then Carrier will make use of it. The liability for any consequential damage shall be excluded to the extent permitted by law.

8.3 Statute of limitations

Any claims for damage due to injury to life or body of passengers or due to loss of or damage to luggage shall be subject to the legal state of limitations.

In the event of body injury, the limitation period shall commence with the day of carriage. In the event of injury to life suffered during the tour, the limitation period shall commence with the day on which the passenger should have gone ashore and in the event of body injury suffered during the tour with the day of death if the body injury resulted in death after disembarkation, provided that this period does not exceed a period of three years from the date of disembarkation. In the event of loss of or damage to luggage, the limitation period shall commence on the day of disembarkation or on the day on which the disembarkation should have taken place, whichever is later.

9. Liability and Obligations of Customer

Passenger shall be liable vis-à-vis Carrier and their vicarious agents or other agents for any damage culpably caused, particularly including damage caused by failure to comply with these General Terms and Conditions of Carriage.

Passengers shall indicate in writing any visible damage of their luggage and other goods until disembarkation at the terminal or until return. Not externally visible damage to luggage as well as loss of other goods shall be notified to Carrier or one of their authorised representatives in writing within 15 days and in all other cases within 3 days after the day of disembarkation.

10. Amendments to the General Terms and Conditions, conflicting GTC

Any amendments to the General Terms and Conditions of Carriage without prior notice shall remain reserved. They shall have binding effect with their publication on the notice board in the office or on the above website of Carrier for all parties involved.

Any conflicting General Terms and Conditions of contract partners shall not be recognised by Carrier. A separate objection to this extent shall not be required.

11. Place of Jurisdiction

The place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising between Carrier and entrepreneurs for who the Contract of Carriage or other contract forms part of the operations of the commercial enterprise, shall be Lübeck and be subject to the value in dispute.
Lübeck shall be the place of performance of Carrier. These General Terms and Conditions shall be governed by the law of the Federal Republic of Germany.

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