I'm afraid my mom will be turned away at the pier! Any advice/suggetions????

[jcanino]

I've been a TA for 3 years and have never been asked for birthdates with Royal Caribbean.

 

I'll second that. They won't even take a DOB from us. All they want is age so they can assign them to an age category.

[imsulin2]

I'm also a TA, and the only cruise line that has asked for a DOB is Carnival. RCI has never asked for this information, even when I've indicated that a family with children are travelling together. RCI only asks for ages of the children.

[Ericknow32]

I've been a TA for 3 years and have never been asked for birthdates with Royal Caribbean.

All I know is that when my TA booked she was on speaker phone and RCI asked for the birthdays of everyone going.

[Patfan]

So, how did she make out?

[Cruising Jedi]

Credit card number. That's what they want. That's what has to be right. All the rest of it? piffle. :D :D :D

 

LOL!

 

Anyway, thank you so much to you guys for talking me down from my near panic-attack! (Though RCI contributed greatly to that with their doom-and-gloom-good-luck-to-your-mother-but-don't-bet-on-it attitude. Sheesh!) You guys were right, everything did turn out to be okay!

 

I haven't actually spoken with my mother yet so I still don't know if they were given any kind of hassle or just let right on...but the bottom line is that they did get on and so now I can just be happy again. LOL.

 

Royal Caribbean is not too forthcoming with information I find, it seems I had to jump through hoops to even find out that they boarded - I guess they have their reasons for that though. However, I can definitely say they have some employees who do not leave a good impression with their customers AT ALL. A good deal of the time, it is not what you say, it is how you say it - some of their employees know this rule some, most definitely, do not.

 

Anyway, thank you all again.

 

When I see my mother next week I will come back with a quick update to this thread, for anyone who might be interested what the reaction was at the pier to the wrong information and what their boarding experience was like. Maybe, it could be used for future reference for the next person having a heart attack like me.

 

In the meantime, thanks again. I really appreciated the advice, stories, and opinions.

 

You guys rock. :)

[newmexicoNita]

All I know is that when my TA booked she was on speaker phone and RCI asked for the birthdays of everyone going.

Your TA asked for birthdates for her record plus the cruise lines do try to seat people together by age groups. The cruise lines do not ask for birthdates. NMnita

[Sheffie]

Crusing Jedi - thanks for the update, and what wonderful news! You WILL be able to sleep tonight!

 

Yes, we want to hear the scoop when she returns.

[holomuku]

Just a note- my DH and I have the same birthDATE- not DAY- as we were born the same day/month as each other but not the same year. (I am MUCH younger!!!) On one of our cruises they switched who was who on the date of birth year- not an issue made although of course our passports were correct.

 

And just to make it a bit more difficult- we have the same initials. We've had several mix-ups with health insurance since we go to the same Dr....you can only imagine what happened when his insurance company was billed for ....ugh,, a "female" exam?

 

My experience has been that if you've got a reasonable explanation for the mix-up it's going to be okay. Not that anyone wants any issues when you're going on vacation-- I guess we've adjusted to it. We'll be celebrating 20 years of marriage next year and we've had several of these things happen over the years. We've learned to make the best of it and hey- I figure one of the good things is we save the cost of one "going out for a birthday dinner" night every year...we go on our joint birthday and put the savings of the other night towards a cruise! Makes life simpler for sure (and...he has NO excuse to forget the date!).

 

And I'm very glad your Mom has someone that cares enough to worry about her. I feel bad you've had to go through the stress (which I can relate to...some call me the "queen of stress" ) but it's fortunate you would have been there to help if needed. I hope she has a FABULOUS time!!

 

Again, she's fortunate to have someone who cares about her and what happens. Sounds like it all turned out okay-- and as we say, "lesson learned." We now double check every document that includes birthdates....

[leavnofingerprints]

I've been a TA for 3 years and have never been asked for birthdates with Royal Caribbean.

 

I must respectfully disagree with you. Each time I've sailed with Royal Caribbean, I've been asked for my birthdate, including a very recent sailing.

 

LNF

[Rala]

Glad to hear it is all good!!! I am a worrier of the first magnitude, so I was feeling your pain! Let us know what happened at the pier.

[cruisinfanatic]

I must respectfully disagree with you. Each time I've sailed with Royal Caribbean, I've been asked for my birthdate, including a very recent sailing.

 

LNF

If you booked directly with the cruiseline, they may ask for birthdates, but booking through a TA? No. Your TA does not need this information.

[PelicanBill]

When we booked through a TA she asked for both our drivers licenses and put our birthdates into the reservation screen.... wrong as it happened. I had to fix them when I did the registration for the setsail pass.

[Bebet]

I booked five of us for a Royal Carribean cruise with a TA and had to have all of the correct spelling of names AND birthdates for each one of us. This was done with in the last 3 weeks.

[cruisinfanatic]

I booked five of us for a Royal Carribean cruise with a TA and had to have all of the correct spelling of names AND birthdates for each one of us. This was done with in the last 3 weeks.

Names yes, but the TA has no business collecting birthdates. People wonder why mistakes happen so often and this contributes. Too many people handling your information.

[Cruising Jedi]

But I'm confused then - if Royal Caribbean doesn't ask for birthdates, then why is there a spot for birthdate on the cruise documents? They wouldn't have had a wrong date of birth for my mother if they never asked for one in the first place. :confused:

[SAS21]

I Booked A Cruise Last Week And All They Asked Me Was Our Age Group. 35-45, 45-55 Something Like That. No Birthdates Mentioned And That Was Directly With A Rcl Agent.

[Michuck]

I'm so glad you Mom got onboard....I know how awful you would've felt if she hand't!!

 

Michele

[cruisinfanatic]

But I'm confused then - if Royal Caribbean doesn't ask for birthdates, then why is there a spot for birthdate on the cruise documents? They wouldn't have had a wrong date of birth for my mother if they never asked for one in the first place. :confused:

After you book the cruise you go to "online checkin" and enter your birth dates, passport #'s and other important info.

[zuscruiserz]

DH's DL shows him a year older that his birth certificate, why he hasn't changed it yet, I don't know:rolleyes: . But we've gone on 5 cruises so far and have never been denied boarding, and he was only questioned about it once.

[cruisinfanatic]

DH's DL shows him a year older that his birth certificate, why he hasn't changed it yet, I don't know:rolleyes: . But we've gone on 5 cruises so far and have never been denied boarding, and he was only questioned about it once.

I think he'd better get it fixed. You get someone who's having a bad day at the pier and you might miss your cruise.

[wrp96]

When I booked online with RCI a couple of weeks ago, it asked for exact birthdates.

[canuckof5]

When I booked online with RCI a couple of weeks ago, it asked for exact birthdates

 

 

Us too..and they mixed up our birthdates at first also..and when we did our online stuff it also asked for all that info.. this was RCI also.

[cruiseknots]

All this paranoia about mistakes on the docs started when the Dept of Homeland Security started requiring cruise lines to submit a passenger manifest for vetting the same way airlines do. The big difference is that cruise lines must submit their list 3 days prior to departure. Yes names and birth dates are supposed to be exact. At some point in 06 or 07, cruise lines and airlines will started getting fined for errors in their manifest. These fines are not cheap and are per mistake. Right now it is more like a trial/transitional phase in which there are no fines. I am sure cruise lines are putting a lot of emphasis on the importance of getting information correct. What's not being taught is that there are and will be situations beyond the control of the cruise lines that will necessitate amendments to manifasts even inside of the 3 day window. There is a way to amend the manifest so long as the correct one is submitted with X number of hours prior to arrival in a US port. The cruise lines are also required to submit the crew manifest for the same vetting process.

My point is that even if someone tells you that no changes can be made or nothing can be done, ask to speak to their supervisor or someone in charge. Changes can be made as long as they are done right.

Don't worry about it as long as you do have the correct documents and have a great cruise.

[Cruising Jedi]

All this paranoia about mistakes on the docs started when the Dept of Homeland Security started requiring cruise lines to submit a passenger manifest for vetting the same way airlines do. The big difference is that cruise lines must submit their list 3 days prior to departure. Yes names and birth dates are supposed to be exact. At some point in 06 or 07, cruise lines and airlines will started getting fined for errors in their manifest. These fines are not cheap and are per mistake. Right now it is more like a trial/transitional phase in which there are no fines. I am sure cruise lines are putting a lot of emphasis on the importance of getting information correct. What's not being taught is that there are and will be situations beyond the control of the cruise lines that will necessitate amendments to manifasts even inside of the 3 day window. There is a way to amend the manifest so long as the correct one is submitted with X number of hours prior to arrival in a US port. The cruise lines are also required to submit the crew manifest for the same vetting process.

My point is that even if someone tells you that no changes can be made or nothing can be done, ask to speak to their supervisor or someone in charge. Changes can be made as long as they are done right.

Don't worry about it as long as you do have the correct documents and have a great cruise.

 

Thanks for the interesting and informative post!

 

I must say, I find it interesting that you say changes CAN be made! I would have thought it was possible but the people there were so adamant. It just didn't make sense to me to find a mistake, the TA knows it is a mistake, RCI knows it is a mistake, someone's cruise is possibly riding on it and no one will fix it! That doesn't make sense to me.

[ruttie]

last january we booked a cruise for my wifes parents on teh mariner on saturday at 11:45 am they were on teh ship less than 24 hrs later on sunday. we also thought there was a rule about time before the cruise but we found out we were wrong...