Legal
Version 2026-09-13
Every couple signs this agreement electronically on the guest details link we send after booking. It sits alongside our website and messaging terms and our Privacy Policy. if you would rather sign on paper and send it to us.
These are the terms on which Covenant Retreats arranges travel for you. They apply to every booking made through us, whether it is a group retreat or a private trip. Please read them; by signing, you agree to them for yourself and for everyone travelling on your booking.
Covenant Retreats is an independent travel agency owned by Bryant and Debbie Jones. We plan and host faith-centered retreats for couples, and we arrange the travel that goes with them. We book through our host agency, WorldVia, which processes bookings and payments with the cruise lines, resorts, and tour operators (the “supplier”) who actually provide your trip.
This agreement covers our services to you: planning, booking, and hosting. Your cruise, stay, or tour itself is provided by the supplier under the supplier’s own terms and conditions, which form a separate contract between you and the supplier. Where the two sets of terms address the same thing, the supplier’s terms govern the supplier’s services, and ours govern ours.
We act as your agent in dealing with suppliers. We do not own or operate ships, hotels, aircraft, or ground transport, and we do not control them.
A booking exists when the supplier has accepted your deposit and issued a confirmation number. Until then, cabins, rooms, and prices are subject to availability and may change without notice.
The person who signs this agreement (the “lead traveller”) confirms that they are at least 18 years old, that they have authority to book on behalf of everyone on the booking, and that each traveller has been told about these terms and the supplier’s terms.
You are responsible for checking every name, date, and detail on the confirmation we send you and telling us at once if anything is wrong. Names must match the travel document each person will carry. Correcting a name later may be impossible or may carry a supplier fee.
There are two kinds of payment on a Covenant retreat, and they go to different places:
The retreat supplement covers what we add to the trip: the retreat sessions, group gatherings, materials, and the time Bryant and Debbie spend hosting you. The amount for your retreat is stated on the retreat page and on your booking summary, and is charged per couple unless the retreat page says otherwise.
The supplement is due 45 days before departure unless a different date is shown on your retreat page or booking summary. If it has not been paid by its due date, and we have not heard from you, we may treat your place in the retreat program as released.
The supplement is refundable in full if you cancel before its due date. After the due date it is non-refundable, because by then we have committed to venues, materials, and group arrangements on your behalf. If we cancel the retreat program ourselves (section 7), the supplement is refunded in full.
The supplement does not include the supplier fare, travel to and from the port or resort, travel insurance, gratuities, drinks, shore excursions, spa or specialty dining, or anything else not listed as part of the retreat program.
Prices shown on our website are the supplier’s prices at the time of publication and are subject to change and to confirmation by the supplier until your booking is confirmed. A “from” price is the lowest category available when it was published and may no longer be available.
Suppliers reserve the right to add or change taxes, port charges, fuel supplements, and government fees after a booking is confirmed, to the extent their terms allow. We pass these through without markup and will tell you as soon as we know.
All prices are in U.S. dollars unless stated otherwise.
Tell us in writing — an email to info@covenantretreats.com is fine — as soon as you know. A change or cancellation takes effect on the day we receive it.
Changes and cancellations of the supplier fare are governed by the supplier’s terms. Most cruise lines and resorts charge penalties that increase as departure approaches and become 100% of the fare in the final weeks. We will point you to the supplier’s schedule before you pay your deposit, and we will apply it exactly as the supplier does; we cannot waive it.
The retreat supplement follows the rule in section 4. Where a supplier allows a booking to be transferred to another traveller, we will help you do that, and the supplement can transfer with it at our discretion.
If one traveller on a booking cancels and the other continues, the supplier may re-price the remaining traveller at a single-occupancy rate. That is the supplier’s rule, not ours, and we will tell you the new figure before anything is changed.
Suppliers may change itineraries, ports, ships, sailing times, and accommodation, before or during a trip, for weather, safety, operational, or other reasons. Their terms set out what, if anything, you are owed when that happens. We will keep you informed and help you with any claim, but we are not responsible for the supplier’s decision or for its consequences.
Our retreat program depends on a minimum number of couples travelling together. If that minimum has not been reached by the supplier’s final-payment date, we may cancel the retreat program. If we do, we will refund the retreat supplement in full, and you may choose either to keep your supplier booking and travel without the retreat program, or to cancel it under the supplier’s terms as they stand on that date.
If we have to cancel the retreat program for any other reason within our control, we will refund the supplement in full. Our liability for cancelling the retreat program is limited to that refund.
We strongly recommend travel insurance for every trip, covering at least trip cancellation and interruption, medical care abroad, and emergency evacuation. Cruise-line penalties are steep, and most domestic health plans do not cover you at sea or overseas.
Insurance is sold by the supplier or by an insurer, not by us. On your guest details form we will ask whether you have chosen to buy it or to decline it, and we keep a record of your answer with your name, the date, and the address it was sent from. If you decline, you accept the financial risk of cancellation, interruption, medical costs, and loss that a policy would have covered.
You are responsible for holding the documents your trip requires: a valid passport or other accepted document for each traveller, any visas, and any health or entry paperwork required by the countries visited. Requirements are set by governments and suppliers, change without notice, and vary by nationality; we will share what we know, but it is your responsibility to confirm them for yourself.
Most countries and cruise lines require a passport valid for at least six months after your return. A traveller who is refused boarding or entry for lack of the right documents is treated as a no-show by the supplier, and no refund is due from the supplier or from us.
Passport details you give us are handled as described in our Privacy Policy: stored encrypted, passed to our host agency to issue your travel documents, and deleted from our systems once that is done.
You confirm that everyone on your booking is fit to travel and to take part in the trip as described. Suppliers have their own rules on medical conditions, pregnancy, and mobility, and may refuse or limit travel under them.
On the guest details form we ask only whether anyone has mobility needs or health considerations we should plan around. If you tick yes, one of us will call to discuss it, and any detail will be recorded with our host agency and the supplier rather than on our website. Please tell us early; the supplier can often accommodate a need that is known in advance and cannot accommodate one first raised at the pier.
Any medical care you need during the trip is provided by the supplier or a local provider and is at your cost, which is another reason we recommend insurance.
Our retreats are built around Christian teaching, scripture, prayer, and conversation between spouses. Every session is optional, and no one will be asked to share more than they wish.
The retreat program is fellowship and encouragement between couples. It is not marriage counseling, therapy, or professional advice of any kind, and it is not a substitute for care from a licensed counselor, pastor, physician, or other professional. If you are in crisis, please seek that care.
Program content, session times, and speakers may change. We will do our best to deliver what is described, and to tell you in advance when something has to change.
Everyone travels under the supplier’s rules of conduct, and the supplier may remove a traveller who breaks them. Within the retreat program we ask for the courtesy and respect you would expect at church or in a friend’s home. We may ask a traveller to leave the retreat program, without refund of the supplement, if their behavior endangers or seriously disrupts others.
We take photographs and occasionally video during retreat gatherings, and we may use them, along with first names and general locations, on our website, in social media, and in other marketing. By signing, you agree to that use for yourself and anyone you have booked for. If you would rather not appear, tell us at any time, in person or by email, and we will honor it going forward and remove anything already published where we reasonably can.
We will never publish your surname, contact details, or anything you share in a session without asking you first.
We will arrange your booking with reasonable care and skill, pass on accurate information from suppliers, and host the retreat program as described. That is the extent of what we undertake.
Because we act as an agent, we are not responsible for the acts or omissions of any supplier or of anyone the supplier engages, nor for injury, illness, death, loss, damage, delay, or expense arising from them, from weather, sea conditions, mechanical breakdown, strikes, government action, pandemics, war, terrorism, or any other cause outside our control.
To the fullest extent the law allows, our total liability to you and to everyone on your booking, for anything arising from this agreement or from the retreat program, is limited to the retreat supplement you have paid to us. Nothing in this agreement limits liability that cannot be limited by law.
Travel, and cruising in particular, carries inherent risks, including at sea and in foreign ports. You accept those risks for yourself and for those you book for.
We collect and use your information as set out in our Privacy Policy at covenantretreats.com/privacy. In short: we share with our host agency and the supplier what they need to make and service your booking, we never sell your information, and we do not keep passport numbers once they have reached the supplier.
Most communication about your booking is by email to the address on your booking, so please keep it current and check it, including for confirmations and payment reminders. If you have opted in to text messages, we may also text you, on the terms at covenantretreats.com/terms. A notice from us is effective when sent to the address on your booking.
You agree to sign this agreement electronically, and that typing your name in the signature box and pressing the button has the same effect as signing on paper. We record your typed name, the date and time, the internet address the signature was sent from, and the exact text of the version you signed, and we keep that record with your booking. You may ask us for a copy at any time.
If you would rather sign on paper, print the copy at covenantretreats.com/terms/booking, sign it, and send it to us; we will note that on your booking.
If something goes wrong, tell us first. Nearly everything can be put right with a conversation, and we would rather hear it from you than after the fact.
This agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Any claim that cannot be resolved between us will be brought in the state or federal courts serving the county in which Covenant Retreats has its principal place of business, and you consent to that venue. Claims relating to the supplier’s services are subject to the supplier’s terms, which commonly include their own venue, time limits, and arbitration clauses.
Any claim against us must be brought within one year of the end of the trip it relates to, or it is waived.
This document, our Privacy Policy, and our website terms are the whole agreement between us about our services. If any part of it is found unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we choose not to enforce a term on one occasion, we may still enforce it later.
We may update these terms for future bookings. Your booking is governed by the version you signed, identified by the date at the top of this document; a later version does not change it unless you sign that one too.
Covenant Retreats · info@covenantretreats.com · 888-910-7079 · covenantretreats.com
