23 yr old taking 7 yr old sibling w/o parent on excursion

[CRUIZIN SUZAN]

My SIL has a ? about our upcoming cruise on LOS and I told her I would post it here tonight.

 

One of our ports will be COZ, and most of my sister in laws family wants to do a tour of the Tulum Ruins. One of her daughters is 23 years old and one is 8 . They do not want to do the Ruin's tour and want to join up with their Aunt, Uncle, and cousin to do the Dolphin Adventure instead. The mom is OK with the girls skipping the Tulum tour w/her and having them join up with letting the two girls go on the tour w/their other relatives.

 

The 2 sisters will be in different cabins and of course the Aunt & Uncle are in another cabin. The mom of the 2 sisters is concerned that the cruise line may have a problem with a minor child being taken off the ship without her parents and may not let them do the excursion. They want to pre-book and do not want to wait until boarding to do this in the event this popular tour sells out.

 

I have seen paperwork on a previous sailing that proper documentation needs to be provided to take a minor child out of the country if both parents or guardians are not present. I think it has something to do with international custody issues.

 

Does anyone have any PERSONAL EXPERIENCE or knowldege about if it will be an issue- to let a minor child leave the ship in a foreign port without a parent or legal guardian? My SIL said she called customer service and spoke with a rep. who told her she did not know but would check and was put on hold "forever" and then disconnected. I told her I would ask here and she can try to call them again on Monday.

 

Thanks for taking the time to share.

[iluvkst]

I don't have an answer for you but I would suggest posting your question on the forum that discusses different ports or general cruise questions that are not specific to a cruiseline. You might have better luck there!:)

[Bethee99]

I think they should be fine since the one is 23. When I went on a Disney cruise a few years ago I was 21 and I went off with no problems with my then 9 year old cousin.

[CRUIZIN SUZAN]

Iluvkst for the info. I posted here specific to RCI due to reading this post in the "family" threads- "--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I am not sure what rules the cruiseline that you are going on has...

 

 

But with Carnival you can leave and go as you please on the port days...so like last time we left early to go shopping and then came back on to eat lunch and if we wanted to we could of gotten back off to do more shopping etc.

 

 

So I would check with your cruiseline and see what their rules are...most likely it won't be a problem.

__________________

 

Hopefully my sister in law can get a definate answer from RCI on Monday- I did not have the heart to tell her that my experience is that you can talk to 4 different reps at RCI and get 4 different replies and even then there is a chance that NONE of them will be the right answer. I figured someone with a real life experience here could share.

 

BETHEE99- thanks too for your reply. Hopefully RCI will feel the same way.

[madforcruising]

My SIL has a ? about our upcoming cruise on LOS and I told her I would post it here tonight.

 

One of our ports will be COZ, and most of my sister in laws family wants to do a tour of the Tulum Ruins. One of her daughters is 23 years old and one is 8 . They do not want to do the Ruin's tour and want to join up with their Aunt, Uncle, and cousin to do the Dolphin Adventure instead. The mom is OK with the girls skipping the Tulum tour w/her and having them join up with letting the two girls go on the tour w/their other relatives.

 

The 2 sisters will be in different cabins and of course the Aunt & Uncle are in another cabin. The mom of the 2 sisters is concerned that the cruise line may have a problem with a minor child being taken off the ship without her parents and may not let them do the excursion. They want to pre-book and do not want to wait until boarding to do this in the event this popular tour sells out.

 

I have seen paperwork on a previous sailing that proper documentation needs to be provided to take a minor child out of the country if both parents or guardians are not present. I think it has something to do with international custody issues.

 

Does anyone have any PERSONAL EXPERIENCE or knowldege about if it will be an issue- to let a minor child leave the ship in a foreign port without a parent or legal guardian? My SIL said she called customer service and spoke with a rep. who told her she did not know but would check and was put on hold "forever" and then disconnected. I told her I would ask here and she can try to call them again on Monday.

 

Thanks for taking the time to share.

 

 

I can´t answer your question but to avoid dissappointment I would go ahead and book the tour. You can always cancel without any problems up to the deadline which is usualy somewhere in the range of 24-48 hours of the tour. Online cancellations can be made until 10 days prior to the cruise and the amount is charged back to your credit card. After that you have to wait until you board to cancel and the amount is credited to your onboard account.

 

If you don´t get a definite answer until boarding you can still ask about it onboard and as I see from your itinerary Cozumel is towards the end of the cruise, so you could even try if there´s a problem.

Just let at one port the 23yo and the 8yo go ahead in line to go ashore with the parents a couple of people behind in line. That way you will see if the security has any problems letting the two ashore without parents in sight. If there´s a problem the parents are just nearby to clear up the situation and they know how it works then.;)

[sea-cruise]

DH & I took our grandsons on and off the ship at different ports and excursions, and the staff never questioned us. In our case, our last name was even different than theirs, but it didn't seem to matter at all.

[morgan1312]

We've always taken our grandson with a different name on and off cruise ships, most of the time his mom doesn't come on the cruises with us so we have her fill out a notarized form saying we can take him, on about 5 cruises without her so far and we've never been asked for anything.

 

Also, it's not impossible for a 23 yr old to have a 7 yr old child, (especially since no one knows either of their exact ages when you're coming and going) so once you've gotten through initial boarding, whose to know they aren't a child and parent? Also not uncommon for a mother to have a different name than their child.

[jerin]

I don't think she'll have any problems. My aunt takes her grandchildren on different excursions than her children and their spouses when they cruise. The adult just needs to make sure to keep the child's seapass in a safe place. Every child does need their correct seapass to get back on the ship. They did have an issue once with that ... in their hurry to get off the ship to the excursion, Grandma didn't check to make sure she had everyone's cards. Thankfully, mom was on the ship and had the seapass and a cellphone, so they were able to call her and have her come down and give them the pass to get the child back on the ship.

[labeachcomber]

I would agree with all. I don't think she has anything to worry about. If the younger child leaves with the aunt and uncle, there definitely wouldn't be a problem. Or as one suggested, it's not impossible for a 23 yr old to have a 7 yr old child either, so it shouldn't be a problem with her as well.

 

I think the only time it might be an issue is if the 7 year-old tried to leave the ship completely by herself.

[CRUIZIN SUZAN]

I appreciate all the info shared. I especially liked the idea to give it a trial run before the COZ port day.

 

I knew I would get great info and I appreciate it.

 

Happy Mothers day to you all.

 

Susan

[cb at sea]

There will be no questions asked. Once you are onboard, no one really cares who goes with whom, who sleeps where....etc...!

[Lisichka]

My 10 year old son went with a new friend he found on the cruise on and off the ship in port. Absolutely no problems and no questions asked.