Netopr

In What way do you think notarizing your letter is going to help you? do you undersand what a nottary on a document means and why some ahve to be notarized but your letter would not fit into tthat category. A re you by chance confusing your terminology and meant to say certiied, mail, retrurn receiptt requestted? where would you go to find your notary? Do you happen to know a notary public? They are very common and there are many of them pariticularly around law offices. I suspect you might be thinking certified mail. Whta is the goal you wish to achieve with your notary/

 

 

Don't get your hopes up too high to tthink RCI is going to refund you anything. Maybe some of the ;posts here explained to you why they are not wrong to refuse in the opinion of many very experienced travelers/ cruisers. who post here.

I am not familiar with notarizing documents, i might just have a lawyer from my family send a letter to RCI. I am just waiting for him to get back from the cruise so we can discuss more details. I am just afraid that if i dont do that, RCI will never give me a response back.

Isn't it up to the individual to keep their papers up to date? If BCs were update, each individual should be held responsible to get their updated one.

 

Did you ask if they would accept a BC before the 2010 requirement?

I didnt know that BC where updated in 2010, i have mentioned many times here. I moved to the mainland in 2008 to work for the government. I didnt get notified or read about it when it happened.

Should i ask if they accept BC for all years since i was born?

As far as I know there is no new style passports, it's the birth certificate that was the issue. If OP's passports were still unexpired they would have had no issue getting on the ship. When they discovered that their passport was expired they switched to plan B, which was to use birth certificates. Unfortunately under Puerto Rican law any passport issued before 2010 is no longer valid. If OP had checked the RCI or CBP website then they would have found no information indicating that there was a problem with their birth certificate's validity, which is the fly in the ointment. I agree with your earlier post about personal responsibility and all, and ultimately it is the passenger's responsibility to make sure they have the correct documentation but one would think that the information they need would be readily available.

Correct, this issue is not noted on RCI or CBP websites and i called RCI to ask if i could use a PR government issued birth certificate and they said yes as long as its government issued. They didnt mention the 2010+ requirement.

Good point LH, :)

 

 

Adult people customarily are responsible for their own needs. If someone wishes to travel, one would expect they can find ttheir way to getting necesssary information to plan safe and successful travel for themselves and their family. Does no one get the conc ept of self-responsibility anymore? It is not always up to someone else to take care of everything for us. Sometimes it is our responsibility and sometimes we must individually take the blame for what might go wrong. JMO

 

OP, you did the right thing, you came to a forum full of people who aggregately have done a great deal of travel and cruising an d you asked. You have gotten answers, now you decide what to do. Please let us know what you decide

My plan is to send a notarized letter to RCI explaining everything, hopefully they will provide a full or partial refund or credit even if they say its my responsibility on their policy. I will also recommend they add a note on their website when you select that you are using a PR issued certificate. My family booked 8 rooms so well see if they care.

Other than that, from now on i will only trust passports and passport cards, never a BC from PR for traveling.

I will also create a video explaining this issue on YouTube for those Puertorricans living in the mainland and planning to book a cruise to the Caribbean. I may not explain my story there...

Thanks for all the replies, i wish my other hobby forums would get so many responses like this one.

TSA has no participation in cuise shhip ssecujrity or documentation. Whomever represerntred to yhou TSA's involve ment at a cruise ship terminal was mistaken.

Sorry i should have said customs. Thanks for clarifying

It's too late to help you, but......

 

When did you notice that her passport was expired?

 

I got my new one in 10 days in November. You can get one faster by paying for expedited service.

 

 

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I did but decided to go with plan b since i thought i was too late for issuing a new one.

this is what you say RC should do. What should the raveler do? It is always the responsibility oft he traveler to have the proper documents and the onus is on them to learn whatt is required. RC could not know your dw was holding an expired passport .But you and she should have remedied that.

 

The irony is seeing you live 'somehwere' in Maryland, how longg a ride could it be to Wash, D.C . and the Sttate Department? Could y ou have made an appointment and gone there for a renewaL? There is nothing RC needs to do for you to make things right. It is not on them. Sorry, Iknow that is nno wha you wish to hear but..........

Like i said we went with plan b ( birth certificate) since RC said it was propoer documentation. They say that its the travel responsibility to have the propper documentation but they do provide support and guidance..

I am so sorry this happened to you but agree with the others.

 

As for pre-paid items. Call the cruise line. They should return all port fees and taxes and im pretty sure they will at least give you a refund on the drink package since you obviously are not using it. If you pre-paid your gratuity they should also refund that.

 

More importantly - Did you and your family find a place to stay? Can you make a vacation of your time off while there? I know things are not perfect in San Juan right now but the beaches are still beautiful

 

Best of luck to you and your family

Yes, fortunately we are staying in a family members house that is letting us use the house while he is traveling on the ship. Many of the beaches are contaminated, we visited two today and they have red flags so we are concerned on goin in. Going out for dinner, lunch, etc gets expensive (on our side) since we already paid more than $5000 on tickets and cruise and we dont have unlimited funding. We tried booking in the conquistador resort with hilton points but its closed for fema refugees. I mean we understand the island needs and issues they are facing and have no complains on that. We will try to make the best out of our current situation, at least we have time off from work and we are resting well (physically).

Thanks for asking

Outside the U.S. ?

 

Puerto Rico IS U.S.

 

as is Maryland, :)

 

 

Your d.w's passport which expired is U.S., is it no/? Did she originally get it when she was a resident of Puerto rico? Was she not aware for some months that it was expiring?

 

 

I may be mistaken bgt somewhere buzzing arround in my head I seem to recall Puerto Rico's B.C's were being frrraudulently produced and they had to change to a diferrent model in order for those being used couled be assured to be legitimate. In these days of immigration dssues, it is reasonable authorities have to be sure ID's that rae rp resented are legal and appropriately being used by the named persoon the documet n. This is a legal and safety issue in this and otther countires. Any questionable documents are being refused as they should be. iMMO

 

I am very sorry to say you and your DW caused this circumstance and hopefully, lesson learned and it won't happen to you again or to anyone else who may be reading this. . Wishing you all the best.

Yes my wife is a US citizen, and she issued her passport back in 2007 while she was living in PR. We moved to Maryland in 2008 since we where able to get jobs with the us government.

I mean we did noticed that her passport expired too late to issue a new one, thats why we went with plan b.

And btw, according to the tsa manager, this still happens every time on cruises departing from PR.

I think the PR government did right in issuing new BC in order to take care of these fraud issues but should provide a 24/7 service or at least Saturday and Sunday for issuing BC or some kind of emergency service that would send it via email (which RC would accept according to them).

RC should also let customers know about this rule. When you check in online you have to select where the BC is issued. They should provide a warning and more information to those whos BC are from PR.

Thanks everyone for your contribution to this post, i really appreciate your thoughts and honesty.

I didnt really research on the birth certificate much since i called Royal Caribbean one week before the cruise ship departure date and they told me as long as the BC is government issued, you will have no problems boarding the ship. I also called to verify other things such as id for a recent teenager who turned 16 on November.

I mean why would RC offer support on travel documentation but then on their policy they specify that we should check with the government travel restrictions. The local government is a mess right now due to hurricane Maria and their lines dont work. The only office that was open on Saturday that could provide the newer BC was closed due to hurricane Maria.

Bottom line i have learned a very painful lesson. I will never trust a birth certificate again and will only use passport from now on. The most painful part of all this is that this cruise was planned for the specific purpose of all my family and wifes family to spend quality time with me, my wife and my kids since we are the only ones that live out of PR and we havent seen them since about a year. Some family members didnt even know my one yr old son. Some even wanted to cancel their trip but i kind of obligated them to go! I even made payment plans for some of them since they couldn't pay for the trip all in one..

This will never be repaired even if they give me my money back..

Thanks

I am sorry for the mess you have found yourself in. Unfortunately, I think if you read thru all the RCI stuff that you "agreed" to online, it will tell you that you are responsible for presenting the proper documents. So it is your fault..

 

Do you have insurance Does it cover cancellation for any reason? If so, you should be able to get a full refund, but most may be a credit toward a future cruise.

 

Can you get proper document tomorrow and fly to catch up with the ship? Be sure RCI will let you board before you start paying for flights.

 

Good luck.

For me to even try that my wife and one yr old son would need passports since the port of call on Monday is ST John Antigua and they do require passports and a return airline ticket in order to enter the island. I would need to see if in Puerto Rico there is an emergency passport center that would give the passports right away and somehow gets a flight that arrives before 5pm since thats the time the cruise ship departs...

Thanks everyone for your comments. I guess this is a leassons learned.. my understanding on birth certificates was that they where official documents no matter when they where issued. Honestly, i will never trust any document from Puerto Rico from now on. The government did not make it clear to pr citizens outside the us of this rule. Also, if Royal Caribbean provides guidance on documentation, the least they could have done is to let us know very clearly on their sitr that individuals should validate a birth certificate with their state.

Would they be able to refund additional pre-purchased services like beverage packages and tours?

Btw, i found out from someone that Royal Caribbean does now allow Puerto Rico citizens to book their own travel because of this issue. They have to go through a trave agent...

Hello everyone, i am a new member of the forum and am looking for advice on my current situation below:

i had a 20 people family cruise that departed today from San Juan to several Caribbean islands and my wife had document issues; we had to stay behind (me, wife, 5 yr old daughter and a 1 yr old boy). We live in Maryland since 2008 and we started doing check in of our trip about one week ago. I noticed that my wife passport expired just 2 months ago but since she had a valid id and a puerto rico issued birth certificate then we didnt really pursue getting another passport. So we flew to PR one day prior the cruise and we got to the cruise terminal about noon on a Saturday. By the time we where at the counter for document processing, it was about 2pm. There we found out that the PR government issued new birth certificates in 2010 and nothing prior was valid. We didnt know this information and after many discussions with management, we where not able to do anything. We called the PR government and of course they where closed on Saturday and my wife was not able to get another birth certificate. This government is absolutely terrible, they should have an emergency location for them to process these documents.

I called Royal Caribbean to explain our situation and they did nothing. I explained to them that no where on their website or policy specifies that Puerto Rico birth certificates need to be from 2010+ or they wont be accepted. My wife's certificate is government issued and meets the RC travel requirements according to their policy. They wont even issue a full refund for the trip because they say that we are responsible to verify travel documentation requirements with the state and not with the ship and yet they do provide guidance on documentation.

My entire family was upset since we havent seen them for a year... Pretty much all decent hotels are closed due to Hurricane Maria and we have no where to go... This was supposed to be the perfect family vacation and it has converted to a nightmare for us. My daughter still cries when she thinks about it and says that now she cant play with her cousins and go on the slide and ice skating.

Who is at fault here? Did i make a mistake? What can i do now?