Single parent cruising

[lowbass]

We are taking a family cruise later this month. It will be my wife and I(grandparents). Our 3 sons and 2 grand kids. So I called Carnival today asking a couple of questions and it came up that our 2 sons would need letters from the their kids mothers saying it's alright for them to go on the cruise with their fathers??????? IS THIS CORRECT? Has anyone else heard of this or had to do this?

 

The grand kids have birth certificates with their fathers name on them and the father is going on the cruise with them. Why does the mother need to give her permission? The Carnival rep said the letter does not need to be formal or notarized. But still, why is that needed? What if the father has custody of the child. Does he need to bring court documents or a letter from the judge? That just seems silly to us and a waste of time.  

[cyntil8ing]

Yes, it’s correct. See https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2544/~/minor-guest-policy

 

[deelightfull]

Something like 3/4 of all child kidnappings in the United States are by non-custodial parents.  Carnival just wanted to keep everything above board and make sure that both parents know and are okay with the fact that the child is (temporarily) leaving the country.

[icft]

2 hours ago, lowbass said:

We are taking a family cruise later this month. It will be my wife and I(grandparents). Our 3 sons and 2 grand kids. So I called Carnival today asking a couple of questions and it came up that our 2 sons would need letters from the their kids mothers saying it's alright for them to go on the cruise with their fathers??????? IS THIS CORRECT? Has anyone else heard of this or had to do this?

 

The grand kids have birth certificates with their fathers name on them and the father is going on the cruise with them. Why does the mother need to give her permission? The Carnival rep said the letter does not need to be formal or notarized. But still, why is that needed? What if the father has custody of the child. Does he need to bring court documents or a letter from the judge? That just seems silly to us and a waste of time.  

I understand what you are saying and in a perfect world none of this would be necessary. Since we are not in a perfect world and there have been large numbers of cases in which a foreign national parent with an American ex and American children has abducted the children and taken them to their native country this kind of documentation is unfortunately necessary.

 

Once a foreign national has taken the children to their native country there is nothing the U.S. can do absent cooperation of the foreign government. Not many countries cooperate and for the few that do it is extremely expensive to go through the years long legal process. Most don't cooperate and none of the real hell hole countries that treat women as property and practice genital mutilation do. So a little inconvenience for the sake of saving children from that is not too much to ask.

[Elaine5715]

There are also custodial agreements that require the court and other parent to be notified when the child leaves the state.  Being in arrears with child support can trigger an issue or just a vindictive family member calling in a report can start a chain of unpleasant events.    

[1025cruise]

The letter is a safeguard that the other parent is aware of the travel out of the country. It's a prevention against human trafficking.

[Kermarkim]

Yes it is a safeguard but has never been viewed by Carnival when I checked in.  I have gone on at least 6 cruises with my son without my husband and was never asked for a letter from my husband.  In addition, I have taken my son's friend with us on a few cruises.  I did get a notarized letter from the parents for permission to travel out of the country with them and Carnival once again never asked to see it even though the child had a different last name than mine.  Lastly, I just returned from an MSC cruise 2 weeks ago and took my grandchildren and got a notarized letter from my daughter which was not signed by the Dad that it was ok to take the children out of the country.  MSC did ask if I had a letter.  They did not collect it, they simply looked at it and told me to keep it handy if I had any troubles in the Bahamas that someone may ask for it.  We only went to MSC's private island so it was not an issue.  I guess better safe than sorry.  However, if it doesn't need to be notarized, I don't know how they know who signed it.  That's the odd part to me.

[CGinMTL]

This is not new 

20 years ago, when I would travel with my daughter, brought a letter from her dad 

.

Ii have never been asked 

But if everyone is on good terms, why not.

 

Fyi . This is recommended even when parents are still together

[icft]

9 minutes ago, Kermarkim said:

Yes it is a safeguard but has never been viewed by Carnival when I checked in.  I have gone on at least 6 cruises with my son without my husband and was never asked for a letter from my husband.  In addition, I have taken my son's friend with us on a few cruises.  I did get a notarized letter from the parents for permission to travel out of the country with them and Carnival once again never asked to see it even though the child had a different last name than mine.  Lastly, I just returned from an MSC cruise 2 weeks ago and took my grandchildren and got a notarized letter from my daughter which was not signed by the Dad that it was ok to take the children out of the country.  MSC did ask if I had a letter.  They did not collect it, they simply looked at it and told me to keep it handy if I had any troubles in the Bahamas that someone may ask for it.  We only went to MSC's private island so it was not an issue.  I guess better safe than sorry.  However, if it doesn't need to be notarized, I don't know how they know who signed it.  That's the odd part to me.

 

Unfortunately Carnival, and other businesses, are very interested in looking good but don't much care about doing good. The result is they put out rules and policies that make them look good but don't enforce them. And I agree about notarization not being necessary making the whole thing meaningless.

[OddJob]

1 hour ago, Kermarkim said:

 However, if it doesn't need to be notarized, I don't know how they know who signed it.  That's the odd part to me.

Agree

[cyntil8ing]

It may be a foreign government requirement, not the cruise line, and all cruise lines have some form of this. Rather than maintaining a list of countries and their ever-changing requirements, it's easier to just have a requirement.

 

This is from https://www.usa.gov/travel-documents-children

This concerned me when my son was young. He was internationally adopted and is of a different race. All it would take is one port agent getting a wild hair. I always had all my documents in order, maybe not in hand, but scans I could easily produce if needed. We always travel with passports.

 

Only once did I have a care. My son was about 4 and we were returning from a cruise. The US Customs agent asked him who I was. My son answered that I was Mom and we went on our way. He has been asked in airports also.

[carohs]

It doesn't have to be complicated even. "Baby daddy has permission to take Baby on cruise ship XYZ on date." I wonder if a post-it would be sufficient? 🤔😂 Especially with accounts that they barely even look at the letter if they do at all. Given that a passport can't even be issued without both parents' on the birth certificate signature, that should be permission enough (if you get a passport for the child). I mean yeah things can happen in 5 years, but also anytime and there's no time stipulation on said required letter either. 

[john91498]

My brother in law takes my niece all the time on cruises since his wife hates cruises. Not a single person has ever asked for a letter or the matter ever brought up.

[broadwaybaby123]

Yes, it's correct.  I've had to do it 3 times with my niece (twice on Royal and once on NCL).  Your TA will have that form, if not, Carnival I believe has the form on their website.  It needs to be notarized as well.  You'll also need copies of the birth certificates for the grandkids if they don't have passports.

[blueskadoo]

My MIL recently took my nephew on a Bahamas cruise on RCCL and they demanded a notarized letter or were going to deny boarding since it was her grandson and no parents were travelling. He was 17 when this happened. We just happen to have a notary in the family, so we got it done and sent it in via email to the port but otherwise they were going to turn them away. When we've traveled with DH's daughter who is much younger on Carnival (before nephew's experience), we were not asked for the same, but we had a text message that we planned to use if needed as proof that we had permission even though we knew it wasn't really "official". I've heard that it makes a difference if it's a biological parent traveling vs nonparent, but I think it comes down to the whims of the agent and the day. I've also heard that if you're going to Mexico they tend to be more strict...but again, that's simply anecdotal.