Carnival rescued our family vacation

[LRene]

Wow...I'll bet that hug was worth a million dollars! :) So glad it worked out for you to cruise instead of doing a land trip.

 

It never occured to me that people didn't realize the rules were the same for children as they are for adults! Hopefully this post will keep others from having the same issues in the future. Get a passport...get a passport...get a passport.

[oncruisecontrol]

I have been on over a dozen cruises to the Caribbean many of which were with my DD who is currently 6 years old. We have always been able to board with just a birth certificate. We decided this time we would just travel to St. Maartin for the week. When we arived at the airport in Boston, we were informed that even though my DW and I had passports and my DD had a birth certificate, we could not board the plane without a passport for my 6 year old. You can imagine my suprise to learn of this after traveling only 3 months earlier to Mexico, Grand Cayman and Jamica all with just a birth certificate for her. My DD was in tears as we had been talking about this trip for 6 months now.

 

What was I to do. I had air fare to St. Maartin we could not use; a 6 year old little girl in tears and not understanding what was happening. I quickly picked up my cell phone at 5:00 AM on Saturday morning and spoke to the rep at Carnival. With in 20 minutes we were booked on the Carnival Legend departing from Tampa for the following day. Jet Blue allowed us to change our tickets to Tampa for $85 per ticket, which I guess all said is not too bad.

 

As I write this post, I am sitting in my hotel room at the Marriott Waterside in Tampa, only 5 minute walk from the Legend. I woke up at 6:00 AM today and walked with my DD to the ship to show her the home she will have for the next week. She turned to me, gave me a big hug and told me how excited she now is.

 

 

 

I am glad it has worked out for you. I have one question though: Since you planned to fly to St. Maarten, I assume you were booked at a land resort there? Is that resort going to refund your money? I realize that you are probably on the Legend right now (great ship, by the way), and you may not even see my question. Still curious, though.

[oncruisecontrol]

What was I to do. I had air fare to St. Maartin we could not use; a 6 year old little girl in tears and not understanding what was happening. I quickly picked up my cell phone at 5:00 AM on Saturday morning and spoke to the rep at Carnival. With in 20 minutes we were booked on the Carnival Legend departing from Tampa for the following day. Jet Blue allowed us to change our tickets to Tampa for $85 per ticket, which I guess all said is not too bad.

 

The above is from the OP's first post on this subject.

After reading this from the OP, I disagree that Carnival didn't do anything. They got a call at 5am and had them booked on the Legend for the next day in 20minutes, thus saving this family's vacation. My original statement is all we here about is negative about the Carnival CSR's and how nice it is to read something positive. I bet this family thinks that Carnivals CSR's did something special, just sayin.

 

 

I think Marie51 has misread the OP's oringinal post, as Carnival does not (to my knowledge) have any ships embarking (initially) in St. Maarten. I read the OP's original post to mean (as it seems you did) that they had planned to fly to St. Maarten for a land vacation.

[bplazo]

How did they get you on so fast? I thought due to security reasons, post 9/11, etc that they had to have the roster for people sailing and checked about 2 weeks before for clearance for everyone. Glad it turned out okay but just wondering. Also just got off the Legend last week so know you'll enjoy the vacation!!

 

I was thinking the same thing although I thought that it was about 72 hours needed.

 

Have a great cruise!