Baby kicked off mid-voyage

[ScottRaia]

Last week on Thanksgiving, Princess forced my infant daughter to disembark the Regal Princess mid-voyage on a remote island in Africa. They said it was because of a computer system error that showed her date incorrectly. Even though they allowed us to book, pay for and board the cruise, the baby was 82 days too young to cross the Atlantic according to their policy. (They had a copy of her passport since August, so how did they not know before we boarded?) We were stranded on the island of Tenerife on our first Thanksgiving with our tiny 9-month old daughter. It was horrible. 

 

We have sailed on seven different Princess voyages. After this, I don’t know if we’ll ever cruise again.

[kitkat343]

Princess absolutely should have caught this at time of booking or at the very least at boarding, but I think your child was  3 months too young to sail to Africa under their guidelines:

 

 

Please note the following minimum age for children:

Minimum age of 6 months for cruises to Alaska, Europe, Canada & New England, Caribbean and Mexico

Minimum age of 12 monts for all other destinations

 

 

https://www.princesscruises.de/en/holiday-princess/important-information/age-restrictions

 

 

Most cruise lines - but not princess - have a rule that for children under 12 months of age, you cannot sail on any cruise that has 3 or more sea days in a  row.  A young child can get sick quickly and need more medical attention than can easily be provided on a cruise ship, so  they do not allow children to sail on voyages that would keep them too far from a medical facility for any extended amount of time.

 

 I don't agree with disembarking you in the middle of the voyage (especially if your child was healthy at the time) but do understand that given the very limited medical care available on ships, a cruise line might prefer to lose some money from not having as many family bookings than run the risk of a baby contracting covid or rsv on the ship and not getting the medical care they need in time.  I'm so sorry they didn't enforce their policy sooner so you would have avoided the stress of being disembarked with a baby.

[boulders]

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

Tenerife is in the Canary Islands and is part of Spain. It's not a remote island in Africa. The requirement to be at least 12 months for a voyage with more than 2 consecutive sea days is part of the cruise contract, in section 5, that you signed. This one's on you. 

 

https://www.princess.com/legal/passage_contract/pcl.html

[kitkat343]

3 hours ago, boulders said:

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

Tenerife is in the Canary Islands and is part of Spain. It's not a remote island in Africa. The requirement to be at least 12 months for a voyage with more than 2 consecutive sea days is part of the cruise contract, in section 5, that you signed. This one's on you. 

 

https://www.princess.com/legal/passage_contract/pcl.html

 

I just realized the page I had googled and posted earlier was (I think) the German version of Princess' website (it has a .de ending).  On Princess' American website it states (https://www.princess.com/learn/faq/onboard/cruising-with-family/)

 

What is the minimum age to cruise? 

Minimum age requirements:

Guests must be at least 6 months of age at the time of embarkation and at least 12 months of age for trans-ocean crossings and remote itineraries.

 

 

 

It does seem that a search of the family section of Princess' website would indicate the OP  could not take a child under 12 months of age on a transatlantic.  However, if Princess' cruise contract states that a child under 12 months cannot sail on an itinerary that has more than 3 consecutive sea days, I think they should include that information on their  FAQ page and not expect customers to read their entire contract.

 

 I live near NY and NJ ports, and Princess sometimes sails from NY.  I would not necessarily personally consider a trip from NY to the caribbean to be remote but it might have 3 consecutive sea days depending on where in the caribbean it goes (I'm not sure about the length of  Princess' sailings out of NY, but RC sometimes has itineraries leaving from the NYC area to the caribbean that have 3 sea days on the way back sometimes). I think that information about 3 or more sea days should be added to the FAQ section, but the OP's situation was fairly clearly explained in the FAQ section.  

[ChutChut]

Hmmmmm - I've heard another side to this story. It appears Princess was justified in its actions. I would refer readers to Princess forum and get the real story.

[justafem]

The family booked a standby fare (IE crew) and bypassed the age requirements for trans-ocean cruising for their daughter.  He knew what he was doing and knew how to get around the restrictions.  He didn't think he'd be called out; Then when he was, it's 'all the cruise lines fault' for not catching them when boarding.  Good gawds, take responsibility for your own actions.   

[dog]

For the future- read the fine print. Book with a good travel agent.

I am disappointed in how Princess handled this- they slipped up too!

Are you crew?

[DCThunder]

Alex, the ED on Regal had his baby daughter on this cruise, but I believe that she was older than 12 months.

[that]

On 12/3/2022 at 11:10 AM, ScottRaia said:

Last week on Thanksgiving, Princess forced my infant daughter to disembark the Regal Princess mid-voyage on a remote island in Africa. They said it was because of a computer system error that showed her date incorrectly. Even though they allowed us to book, pay for and board the cruise, the baby was 82 days too young to cross the Atlantic according to their policy. (They had a copy of her passport since August, so how did they not know before we boarded?) We were stranded on the island of Tenerife on our first Thanksgiving with our tiny 9-month old daughter. It was horrible. 

 

We have sailed on seven different Princess voyages. After this, I don’t know if we’ll ever cruise again.

Are you a former Princess Employee?

[bdever]

On 12/3/2022 at 11:10 AM, ScottRaia said:

Last week on Thanksgiving, Princess forced my infant daughter to disembark the Regal Princess mid-voyage on a remote island in Africa. They said it was because of a computer system error that showed her date incorrectly. Even though they allowed us to book, pay for and board the cruise, the baby was 82 days too young to cross the Atlantic according to their policy. (They had a copy of her passport since August, so how did they not know before we boarded?) We were stranded on the island of Tenerife on our first Thanksgiving with our tiny 9-month old daughter. It was horrible. 

 

We have sailed on seven different Princess voyages. After this, I don’t know if we’ll ever cruise again.

Scott, I hope you turned lemons 🍋 into lemonade on this special trip. Assuming you had travel insurance, there is no place in the world I would rather be kicked off a cruise ship than Spain 🇪🇸. You’re blessed beyond measure and would gladly trade places with you if I could. It sounds like to me you took a measured risk that was going to be a win win either way. 

[oyme]

After reading both this thread and the other in the Princess forum I still don't understand why people are saying you knew what you were doing, even if you were a crew member I'm sure most don't know all the rules when it comes to age of sailing into certain locations. That never was cleared up for me. As a parent I don't read my entire passage contract, most of us don't, let's be real. I think a lot are judging you too harshly but that seems to be human nature and it must be stopped. But you know pot callin' the kettle and all lol. Don't take it too seriously I bet half those people who are being super judgy also don't read theior entire 13,000 word document. Hopefully karma comes for them. 

 

I feel for you, both you and Princess were at fault but Princess should've caught their error.

 

Thank you for sharing your story so hopefully it won't happen to anyone else. Even if you helped a few families from avoiding the same mistake, that's what matters.

[Ombud]

3 hours ago, oyme said:

... you knew what you were doing, ... I don't read my entire passage contract,

You SERIOUSLY don't read your contract?!? Not even the highlighted portion on the top of your travel summary??  Wow just wow. That's kinda like those hoping to cruise to Chile w/o visas getting upset they're denied passage because it's too much trouble to be in compliance. Or miss calculating a baby's age and thinking 82 days = 6 months. It is unfortunate but it is on them. Meanwhile enjoy Tenerife as it's a lovely Spanish island

[kitkat343]

On 12/13/2022 at 11:05 AM, oyme said:

After reading both this thread and the other in the Princess forum I still don't understand why people are saying you knew what you were doing, even if you were a crew member I'm sure most don't know all the rules when it comes to age of sailing into certain locations. That never was cleared up for me. As a parent I don't read my entire passage contract, most of us don't, let's be real. I think a lot are judging you too harshly but that seems to be human nature and it must be stopped. But you know pot callin' the kettle and all lol. Don't take it too seriously I bet half those people who are being super judgy also don't read theior entire 13,000 word document. Hopefully karma comes for them. 

 

I feel for you, both you and Princess were at fault but Princess should've caught their error.

 

Thank you for sharing your story so hopefully it won't happen to anyone else. Even if you helped a few families from avoiding the same mistake, that's what matters.

Honestly, I don't read the entire contract either.  But I would expect a parent to read the FAQ about children section to research the minimum age of children and to learn more about what services are available for kids on ships and the rules that apply to children.   Now that my kids are big enough to not be affected by minimum sailing ages, I check to learn the rules of the kids clubs and to learn if my older ones go to the teen club (this will make them happy) or preteen club (get prepared for whining).  It was pretty clear on the American version of Princess' FAQ page that transatlantics ban children under 12 months.

 

 I also agree Princess should have caught this at the time of booking or should have at least stopped them at the pier, which gives them some liability here too.

[Jenig0013]

Ya sorry this is your fault - when we looking into cruising with my infant (now toddler) this was abundantly obvious. And Tenerife is not a remote island in Africa.

[nattie]

+1 to Jenig0013,

 

Tenerife is Spanish territory and a very lovely island, largest of the Canary islands in fact with daily connections to Spanish mainland, England, etc.

 

Yes, Princess should have caught this sooner but the fault is not entirely theirs.