14 year old daughter denied boarding due to fever.

Hi, we arrived at the ship (Splendour of the Seas) on Saturday 18th October 2014 at Venice. Our daughter, aged 14, had had a day off school the previous day due to a high temperature (there are a few bugs going around the school at this time of year) but felt fit enough to fly out from London to Italy the next day for the cruise. When we arrived at the cruise terminal we were presented with the health questionnaire at check-in. The first question asked whether anyone had had a cold/cough/fever etc., the second asked if vomiting or diarrhoea were experienced, the third enquired whether we had been to West Africa recently. My wife and I discussed this and thought it best to answer "yes" to the first question, and "no" to the others. If I remember correctly, the questionnaire stated that answering "yes" would not necessarily mean being refused boarding of the ship. We were then directed by the check-in clerk to wait for a medic to assess our daughter. The doctor arrived, measured her temperature, said it was too high and that she could not travel. This was a massive disappointment to my family (me, my wife, 16 year old son and 14 year old daughter).

After a great deal of thought I managed to persuade my wife and son to remain on the cruise, and I managed to buy tickets on the last British Airways flight back to London that evening. We were initially told that my daughter would receive a refund for her cruise fare, and were later given a letter informing us that she would receive a "cruise credit". The Royal Caribbean staff were very pleasant throughout but it really was looking like the holiday from hell at that point.

I do believe that as the parent of a 14 year old minor, it would have been impossible for me to have done anything else other than leave the cruise to care for her, indeed it would probably be a criminal offence to do otherwise. I would hope that Royal Caribbean recognise this and award me a cruise credit too, to do otherwise would certainly send a message that honesty may not be the best policy when completing health questionnaires, something that no one would wish to encourage with the current Ebola epidemic in mind.

I would be very grateful for any thoughts that anyone can pass on to me, if anyone has been through a similar experience. We look forward to vacations and it is especially disappointing when they are snatched away at the last minute, with the possibility of the loss of a much anticipated holiday, and a large amount of money. I wait to see whether my insurance will reimburse me for any of the cost of the cruise, and the extra air fares purchased.

My daughter visited a hospital in England the following day, the nurse believed her to have flu, a few days later things were back to normal for her. My wife and son enjoyed the cruise, but it wasn't the same for them without us accompanying them.

I'm sorry that you and your daughter missed the cruise and I am pleased that you didn't lie on the questionnaire as some others would have done. I don't know the cruise insurance policy in the UK, but in the US I do think insurance would pay as your daughter was unable to travel as she had the flu. Here we would have to have a doctor fill out part of the form stating she had the flu etc.

It would seem that Royal Caribbean would also give you credit, although I think it should be a refund, as they are the ones who decided your daughter wasn't able to travel. You certainly could not send a minor home alone. I would call Royal Caribbean and see what they have to say. I'm glad your wife and son enjoyed the cruise and agree that it wouldn't have been as great a trip without the two of you.

Good luck.

Two things. I'm so sorry this happened to you. It's something that's always in the back of my mind, the week prior to a cruise "OH, EVERYONE, STAY HEALTHY."

The other thing is "THANK YOU FOR BEING HONEST." Whenever noro or acute respiratory illnesses start running rampant through a ship w/in 24-72 hours of boarding, the likelihood is that a passenger (or several) brought the illness aboard with them. (yes it may have started with a crew… but it didn't spontaneously combust w/in the ship itself). It's happened to me that w/in a few days of boarding I got sick and it definitely impacted my holiday, as well as others who got sick.

STILL I'm sure many, many people just check "NO", figuring "it's only a cold, (food poisoning, whatever) and it's no big deal. I don't want to take a chance on missing MY cruise."

I hope your honestly is rewarded with a similar cruise credit. As you said, you can't send a minor home on a plane with the suggestion "Fend for yourself while we're on a cruise, Cookie." And THANK GOODNESS YOU HAD INSURANCE. If no cruise credit is in the making I hope insurance covers your expenses 100%. Good luck and please let us know what the outcome is.

Hi, we arrived at the ship (Splendour of the Seas) on Saturday 18th October 2014 at Venice. Our daughter, aged 14, had had a day off school the previous day due to a high temperature (there are a few bugs going around the school at this time of year) but felt fit enough to fly out from London to Italy the next day for the cruise. When we arrived at the cruise terminal we were presented with the health questionnaire at check-in. The first question asked whether anyone had had a cold/cough/fever etc., the second asked if vomiting or diarrhoea were experienced, the third enquired whether we had been to West Africa recently. My wife and I discussed this and thought it best to answer "yes" to the first question, and "no" to the others. If I remember correctly, the questionnaire stated that answering "yes" would not necessarily mean being refused boarding of the ship. We were then directed by the check-in clerk to wait for a medic to assess our daughter. The doctor arrived, measured her temperature, said it was too high and that she could not travel. This was a massive disappointment to my family (me, my wife, 16 year old son and 14 year old daughter).

 

After a great deal of thought I managed to persuade my wife and son to remain on the cruise, and I managed to buy tickets on the last British Airways flight back to London that evening. We were initially told that my daughter would receive a refund for her cruise fare, and were later given a letter informing us that she would receive a "cruise credit". The Royal Caribbean staff were very pleasant throughout but it really was looking like the holiday from hell at that point.

 

I do believe that as the parent of a 14 year old minor, it would have been impossible for me to have done anything else other than leave the cruise to care for her, indeed it would probably be a criminal offence to do otherwise. I would hope that Royal Caribbean recognise this and award me a cruise credit too, to do otherwise would certainly send a message that honesty may not be the best policy when completing health questionnaires, something that no one would wish to encourage with the current Ebola epidemic in mind.

 

I would be very grateful for any thoughts that anyone can pass on to me, if anyone has been through a similar experience. We look forward to vacations and it is especially disappointing when they are snatched away at the last minute, with the possibility of the loss of a much anticipated holiday, and a large amount of money. I wait to see whether my insurance will reimburse me for any of the cost of the cruise, and the extra air fares purchased.

 

My daughter visited a hospital in England the following day, the nurse believed her to have flu, a few days later things were back to normal for her. My wife and son enjoyed the cruise, but it wasn't the same for them without us accompanying them.

Please believe when I say I am very sorry you and your daughter missed your cruise. It is always a disappointment when our travel plans go awry.

But I'm sure you must also understand now that Ebola has begun to be a concern to us all, the cruiselines must take every precaution to keep passengers safe.

You stated that the next day in England your daughter was diagnosed with the Flu......which as you know is highly contagious. It would have been very bad for your fellow passengers....some of whom are elderly....to have been exposed to this virus.

While I know you are disappointed......you are to be commended for doing the right thing! I hope you are able to get things worked out with the cruiseline!

I hope you post to let us know if your insurance covers your extra expenses.

Shirley, Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

I, too, am very sorry this happened to you but am glad you did not lie and put others in danger. Your cruise travel insurance should cover your expenses but I really don't believe you are entitled to any compensation from the cruise line. After all, it's really not their fault your daughter got sick - that's why people buy insurance. If they do offer some sort of future cruise credit, that would be very nice of them.

I commend you for being honest on the questionnaire. In all honesty, I am pretty sure I would not have done the same thing in that situation. These vacations cost a family of four around 5-6k for a balcony room and airfare. That is just more than I would be willing to give up if a member of my family was running only a fever. Now if a member of the family was full blown sick that would be an entirely different matter of course. It is really too bad that RCCL has priced their cruise insurance at almost highway robbery rates, as that would be an alternative that would be helpful in this situation. I hope RCCL takes care of you and your daughter, but I bet it will only be your daughter that is compensated. If RCCL can save a buck on literally anything they will do so unfortunately. I wish you luck.

Kudos to the OP for being honest. Too bad more people aren’t. I’m glad RCI was doing their job and denied the OPs daughter from boarding. Bummer the OP and his daughter didn’t get to go on their family Cruise. Better luck next time.

That is just more than I would be willing to give up if a member of my family was running only a fever. .

You will be flamed for this but I totally agree. I am one that can go from a perfect well being and a normal 98.6 temp to a raging 101+ degree fever at the drop of the hat because of UTI/kidney issues. I just got over one in fact.

If Im running a fever because of that reason a day or so before I board my cruise there is no way I will check yes now that I have read this. Likely I would have already been to the ER or my Dr, got a script for an antibiotic and am well on my way to feeling better. The fever can reappear a day or so after until the meds start working so its very possible I could run a fever the day or boarding.

With that said, the OP says his daughter was diagnosed with the flu. Its a good thing she didnt go on the cruise :)

You and your wife are to be commended for answering the questionnaire honestly. Every year tens of thousands of people die from the flu. I am certain there were elderly people onboard that ship as well as others whose immune systems were compromised for various reasons and exposure to your daughter's illness could have led to their deaths. I'm certain that you, your wife and your daughter would not want that on your consciences.

This is exactly the type of situation that travel insurance is for and your travel insurance policy should cover both you and your daughter since she is a minor and obviously could not be expected to find her way home from a foreign country alone.

However, in this situation, before leaving London, you should probably have contacted your travel insurance company, told them your daughter had a high fever and asked for advice on what to do. They may have advised you to leave your daughter at home with a relative and go on the cruise with your wife and son and refunded your daughters entire cruise fare and plane tickets. To be honest, since you knew your daughter had a fever and was sick with something, your daughter should not have flown on an airline as she may have infected others with her illness. However, once your daughter was denied boarding, with no other option, you had to leave with her and fly back, so I believe the insurance WILL pay for both you and your daughter's cruise and your return flight and the unused portion of your original return flight. So, I believe that you will get all of your money for your cruise fare and your daughter's cruise fare as well as at least some of your flights back.

As it stands now, you will be getting 3 cruise fares - 2 in cash from the insurance company and 1 as a voucher from RCCL. You have a family of 4 - so you have a very inexpensive cruise in your future where you will only pay for 1 person to cruise!

Technically, RCCL owes you nothing. If you check your cruise contract you will see that illness is a valid reason for being denied boarding. That they have offered your daughter a cruise credit is wonderful. Cruise lines almost never give refunds in this situation, it is almost always a cruise credit. Accept it graciously.

I think, if you are polite about it, you also may be able to persuade RCCL to offer you a cruise credit, but understand, they didn't deny you boarding. There are two ways to look at what occurred:

1. As the parent in this situation, knowing that your daughter had a fever since the day before, it was your fault your daughter was at the port to board the ship at all.

2. On the other hand, at least you and your wife were honest about your daughter's illness.

Your daughter could not have reasonably returned home on her own since she is only 14 and was in a foreign country and really was ill. Also, due to her age, she needed someone home with her to take her to the doctor and take care of her. So in denying your daughter boarding, a case could be made that RCCL was also indirectly denying one of the parents boarding. Based on this, I would request they give you a cruise credit as well and see what happens, but in your position, I would not be demanding nor act entitled to this credit and if they refused, then I would accept that since you WILL be refunded by your travel insurance. Still nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Thanks for your honesty and integrity; that memory will stick with your children longer than the disappointment.

Sorry that you two didn't get to cruise but thanks for being honest and not giving many other passenger the flu.

I think the sad part here is that people are saying "Thank you" to someone for doing what they should do -- be honest. Having said that, it just shows that too many people are 'not honesty' and many would have answered otherwise.

OP, please come back and let us know how Royal handled the reimbursement.

I wonder how many passengers on that British Airways flight now have influenza?

I think these questionnaires are intrusive and fatuous, and for everyone like yourself who answers honestly, there must be twenty who lie.

Those who cruise often know the draconian consequences of a wrong answer, as you have discovered, hopefully not to your cost!

When I fly into Taiwan, I am pulled to one side, presumably as a white man, and evidently a foreigner, and they point a kind of ray-gun at me which gives a temperature read-out.

I have noticed they have have a more sophisticated system at some airports with this Ebola scare, where everyone walking past the scanner has their temperature read. Coming soon to a cruise terminal near you!

Thank you for doing the right thing, and showing your children an example of integrity in action.

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

I think the sad part here is that people are saying "Thank you" to someone for doing what they should do -- be honest. Having said that, it just shows that too many people are 'not honest' and many would have answered otherwise.

True. Many would have just went on the cruise. 5 years ago I almost lost my father to the flu ( he saw the white light, etc... They revived him). In that same week my parents next door neighbor died of the flu. As healthy adults it's hard to realize what the flu can do to the many elderly passengers on board. I appreciate the OP doing the right thing that many wouldn't have. I hope Royal rewards him for his honesty.

Several years ago, I was booked on another cruise line over Thanksgiving. I am prone to sinus infections, which as many know, can mimic a cold, but are not contagious. As luck would have it, I came down with one, approx. 4-5 days before I sailed. I contacted my doctor, who immediately wrote a prescription for a decongestant and an antibiotic (yes, I know there is debate about the effectiveness of antibiotics on sinus infections- I am not here to discuss that.). She also gave me a notarized letter stating that I was under a physician's care, stating that I had a non-contagious sinus infection and listing the medications she had provided. All of this was in medical speak! I answered the ship's questionnaire- no to cold, fever, sore throat. However, when I checked in, I sounded so awful that the cruise line employee at the counter questioned my health. I agree to see the nurse, who read the letter from my doctor, took my temperature, and cleared me to board.

While that solution was not available to the OP because of the timing issue, it does show that being proactive, if you are exhibiting systems, but are not contagious, may save your plans to cruise.

Please believe when I say I am very sorry you and your daughter missed your cruise. It is always a disappointment when our travel plans go awry.

 

But I'm sure you must also understand now that Ebola has begun to be a concern to us all, the cruiselines must take every precaution to keep passengers safe.

 

You stated that the next day in England your daughter was diagnosed with the Flu......which as you know is highly contagious. It would have been very bad for your fellow passengers....some of whom are elderly....to have been exposed to this virus.

 

While I know you are disappointed......you are to be commended for doing the right thing! I hope you are able to get things worked out with the cruiseline!

Ditto...everything you just said!

I wonder how many passengers on that British Airways flight now have influenza?

 

I think these questionnaires are intrusive and fatuous, and for everyone like yourself who answers honestly, there must be twenty who lie.

 

Those who cruise often know the draconian consequences of a wrong answer, as you have discovered, hopefully not to your cost!

 

When I fly into Taiwan, I am pulled to one side, presumably as a white man, and evidently a foreigner, and they point a kind of ray-gun at me which gives a temperature read-out.

 

I have noticed they have have a more sophisticated system at some airports with this Ebola scare, where everyone walking past the scanner has their temperature read. Coming soon to a cruise terminal near you!

A temp scanner is not intrusive from my perspective!! I hope you are right and they are "Coming soon to a cruise terminal near you!"

The rules are in place to protect everyone. I think if anyone has a fever right before a cruise you should not go on the plane or near the ship. A fever means you are sick and most likely what you have is contagious unless diagnosed by a doctor otherwise. There are just so many reasons to stay home if you are sick. I wish more people would take responsibility and do that. I am glad this poster was honest but the BEST course of action would have been to not leave London at all with a sick traveler. Like someone said, now everyone on two airline flights were exposed to the flu which for some people is as bad as ebola and can cause death.

OP, I'm concerned about something. That this might have been totally unnecessary.

I embarked Vision of the Seas on the 18th, and the new health form asked about fever AND other symptoms. It sounds like ALL she had was fever? I wouldn't have answered yes. Because "yes" is not the right answer if it wasn't fever AND something else.

You stated that the next day in England your daughter was diagnosed with the Flu......

The OP didn't state that.

The nurse believed her to have flu, a few days later things were back to normal for her.

There's a HUGE difference between a nurse believing someone to have the flu*, and actually being properly tested and diagnosed with the flu.

The fact that a few days later the daughter was fine pretty much proves the nurse was wrong.

The daughter had a fever one day, a fever the day of embarkation. I'm assuming they got home the following day, when the nurse saw her, and a few days after that she was normal? Yeah, NOT the flu.

And anyone up in arms about her being on a plane or the cruise should probably look to the very fact that the rest of the family didn't get the illness. Not so communicable after all.

A story about "diagnosis"....

Back in 2011 I was desperately sick. I got diagnosed with being really really sick. "Flu" wasn't mentioned. I was given antibiotics (which I almost never take, but I took) and slowly got better.

A week later I contacted my family, and found out that my dad stepmom two brothers and sister, who all live together were dealing with a problem. Dad stepmom one brother and sister were diagnosed with "the flu". The other brother had been diagnosed with H1N1.

Were the others tested for that? No, because the hospital (where my stepmom works) said that everyone else was "too old" or "too young" to get H1N1. The second brother is barely 2 years younger than the one "with" H1N1. :confused: Actually that emoticon goes for the whole thing.

The symptoms that they had, the symptoms that I myself had two states away and a week earlier, were EXACTLY the same. There was nothing different in symptoms. But only that one person was tested for H1N1. (quick test, notoriously bad)

He got sicker than the rest of us, which I blame on him being a smoker and an addict in other ways as well and generally unhealthy to start. My dad and I have been diagnosed with asthma before and therefore have dealt with inhaled steroids and albuterol and their serious side effects. That brother, when they tried to give him a breathing treatment a few days before diagnosis, flipped out once the drugs hit his system and he left. Didn't finish the breathing treatment and then got worse and worse. I finished my breathing treatment at the urgent care, took the drugs they gave me, and got better. He ended up on a ventilator for a month because the next time he saw a heathcare person (besides his mom, who had NO idea he was getting that bad, sigh) his oxygen saturation was in the 70s. I walked into urgent care bent over with the difficulty in breathing, but was in the solid 90s because I was working SO hard to breathe AND because I wasn't inhaling smoke for a decade or more and during my illness like he had.

Diagnosis is a hilarious guessing game.

My thanks to everyone for taking the time to offer advice, it's much appreciated. I have sent an email to Royal Caribbean regarding my situation and am awaiting a full reply. Whilst I expect my daughter to be offered the cruise credit as stated in the letter handed out, it would be commendable on the part of the cruise line if they recognise the position that their decision placed me in. I understand that they need to take a cautious approach to passenger health but I will need a lot of convincing before I sign up for another cruise.

My wife has a long term health condition that was my focus in the months leading up to the cruise, she stayed healthy but I was unexpectedly caught out by my daughter's schoolgirl illness. As someone who worked in the airline industry for 35 years, it was not unusual to carry passengers who were not feeling 100% fit, much as when one takes a bus ride there is a chance that you could be sitting near someone with a cold or cough.

As for travel insurance, I have general travel insurance designed to cover me for medical costs on a recent trip to the USA. The cynic in me thinks that the insurance business is always looking for ways in which it can escape the cost of a claim, so I wait to see what they will say. One point, the insurance came into effect on 1st July, the cruise was booked with RC on 10th June, final installment paid on around 22nd August, do I generally need to have insurance on the date it was booked as well as the dates of travel?

I certainly do not want both a credit for myself AND a payout from insurance, but we have enjoyed our family cruises in the past (QE2, Hurtigruten, Thomson Destiny, Independence of the Seas) and it would be good to have an outcome that will encourage me to take another cruise, and not view it as a high risk venture!

Thanks again for your many constructive and supportive comments. I shall keep you posted on any developments.

I’m glad RCI was doing their job and denied the OPs daughter from boarding.

I don't. All they reportedly diagnosed was a 'too high' temperature. Though evidently it wasn't too high that the child felt unwell - and children feel sickness when it's bad.

Given just a few days of sickness were felt, what would have been wrong with a quarantine? Would have kept the passengers happy, and everyone as equally well.

Herman Smith, most people here take out trip insurance for individual trips, so I'm not sure about your particular policy.

The other place where you may get some money returned would be through your credit card, IF you booking using a credit card and IF it offers such a benefit.

http://www.ehow.com/facts_5660304_credit-trip-cancellation-insurance-benefits.html