CoolCruisings

Thank you for your responses, everyone! It is very much appreciated at this time! He hasn't been to court as of yet, but will be relatively soon and we will find out what charges are likely to be enforced and to what degree of trouble he is in. Unfortunately, due to some of the over zealous police officers involved, it looks like he will be convicted on multiple small time theft charges, we're just all hoping that because of his mental state and the situation as a whole, they will be lenient in sentencing (which has been implied). Poor chap has been an absolute wreck and lost his job through it all, it's horrible to see how little the police actually care about people in this country.

But aside from all that, it's lovely to read the comments from those who've given advice and are showing some support via the forum :) I've relayed the info to him as best he can understand it, and know he appreciates you all! All being well, this saga should be over within the next few weeks and he can pay his fines/do whatever service is required of him, and then later in the year we can take him away for a bit to have some fun abroad in the Med to take his mind off things!

I can tell you from my experiences it is entirely dependent on the waves/sea, and when they flare up, when you're in transit. On one cruise in 09 we had particularly bad weather, and my cabin was a lower level cabin, whereas friends were higher up, and in either cabin I had bad seasickness! It didn't matter where I moved to on the ship, as soon as I stopped physically moving, the sickness started up again. Definitely go for the transderm patch, they're very effective at neutralising the effects!

It appears I'll need to do some more research on Canada, then! I was hoping that he'd be able to come with us to Canada in a few years, but from what you're saying we may have to make different plans so he can still come with us wherever we end up going. Trying to find out which countries he can and can't go to in the future is mind-meltingly frustrating. And thank you, lbjen! I just don't want him to suffer forever for some silly mistakes that he didn't understand, so I want to make sure he can still enjoy the world out there!

Thanks for your input germanfflyer! That's what I was thinking/hoping for his sake too. Yeah I didn't give too much info in case they decided to blacklist him altogether, but wanted to see what their official policy was before we made any kinds of bookings. Hopefully we can put everything behind us and he can still get to appreciate the world out there!

Thank you for your quick response, Ms Jo UK! I thought that may be the case, we were hoping that due to freedom of movement, he should be okay to join us. I suppose that will all change when Brexit eventually happens, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

I've spent hours and hours trying to find out which holidays he can and can't go on now, and I know all American destinations will be off limits, but Canada he will be able to do once his convictions are spent, it's just very hard trying to explain that to someone who still has a child's mind and doesn't really know what he's done :( looks like European cruises are going to be our immediate future holiday-wise for now. Thanks again!

Congratulations!!! You will love St. John if you can go, absolutely beautiful place!

Hey guys, long time cruiser and reader of the forums here but first time poster! I was wondering if anyone could give me some feedback on something here. My family and I, all from the UK, have been cruising for around 10 years now and none of us have had any records whatsoever as we're law abiding citizens so this has never been a question for us, but recently my younger brother (who has learning difficulties) was arrested and charged for some petty theft crimes.

He's most likely going to have community service and fines to pay as his learning difficulties meant he didn't understand what he did was wrong at the time (he works with a scrap collection company and picked the wrong things out of porches which resulted in his arrest after CCTV saw him taking items to his van) and the authorities have acknowledged that and don't wish to persecute him harshly for what was an honest mistake in his limited mind. We were supposed to be booking a cruise for later this year, in the Mediterranean, and it just hit me that he may not be able to come with us to certain parts or we may have to cancel due to what will be a criminal record on his part.

I have called RCI today to find out what their policy is, and the man I spoke to admitted he didn't really know what to tell me, just that I should check with the embassies of the countries we'd be docking in, so I was wondering if anyone else here had any experience on the topic? His crimes were none violent, just silly mistakes, and he has since begun a cognitive behavioural therapy course, so he really isn't a threat to anyone, and he has no restrictions on travel passport-wise. If he isn't allowed into a certain country or another, he would most likely stay on the ship and I would stay with him, but essentially we wanted to know if there will be any problems with him coming aboard? If there would be, we would most likely cancel the trip altogether. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated to put our minds at rest or allow us chance to try something else holiday-wise, thanks!