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Open Letter to Celebrity: I'm Extremely Disappointed with how your staff handled our multiracial family at check in.

wahooker

By wahooker,
in Celebrity Cruises

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ChutChut

ChutChut

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, soapbxking said:

Kudos for Celebrity taking this issue seriously  This was my area of expertise for almost 28 years(deling with sex offenders and victims of such).  People should stop whining and live within the rules.  yes i understand delays etc, but if proper rules are followed i have no issue.

Are you suggesting that it's acceptable to single out a person solely based on race? If so, I've got lots of federal and state laws you might want to peruse and digest. They WEREN'T following the rules. They WERE ignoramuses. To suggest that multi-racial families should shut up and take the abuse is outrageous. 

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snyniew

snyniew

Posted
Posted

That’s just wrong. I’ve traveled with my “niece” (friends kid) who was a minor. I’m mixed race and she is Caucasian with different last names. I was never asked for additional documentation even though I had a notarized letter from her parents saying she could travel internationally with me as per their instructions.

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Georgia_Peaches "Live from...." Rare

Georgia_Peaches

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, gordiej said:

Okay, then right - the passport only proves the familial relationship to the GOVERNMENT that issued the passport. It doesn't prove it to the cruise line.

Are you suggesting that a given cruise line should require more documentation than a readily accepted government issued ID/passport?  I would think that if it's good enough to satisfy a government then it's good enough for cruise lines...after all, most cruise lines model their travel and documentation requirements after what the government deems as acceptable, no?  Confused.

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Ferry_Watcher Excellent Advice! Rare

Ferry_Watcher

Posted
Posted

As someone who checks-in passengers for Alaska cruises, I am trying to figure out what happened in this situation.  My gut tells me that it was not racially motivated, as we see many different types of families cruising.  As additional street cred, I am also the parent of an internationally adopted child, and I do not share the same last name as my spouse.  So I understand the nuances of traveling with an adopted child.

 

I am wondering if there had been some sort of past incident or problem either at the embarkation pier, or at another terminal that caused corporate to ask check-in agents to be hyper-vigilant with checking in.

 

I also wonder if the entire family of 6 (and 3 staterooms) were sent to different agents for check-in.  It would be surprising if a single check-in agent checking in a family of 6, all with the same last name, all traveling with passports, would question the family relationship.

 

If the family was being checked-in  by different agents, I wonder how the staterooms were divided between the two adult parents, and the 21 yr old adult son, and the two 17 yr old twin boys, and the 17 yr old daughter.  How the staterooms were booked - particularly who the 17 yr old young woman was booked to share a room with, could have played a role in this saga - especially if she was booked with an adult male.   Again, if the embarkation port was on a higher alert for possible trafficking, or questionable situations, it is possible that the staff was playing it safe, and making sure that the 17 yr old was really safe traveling.

 

I am also curious why this took 30 minutes, multiple supervisors, and even the ship's Documentation Officer to get involved.

 

I know when Royal Caribbean rolled out their Minor Child Consent to Travel crackdown last summer, it caused lots of delayed embarkations for families.  We were waiting for Celebrity to start as well, but they said that it was going to be put off, and we didn't have to deal with it during the Alaska season.  I wonder if Celebrity's minor travel consent rollout just recently happened and that may have played a role in your delayed embarkation.

 

In any case, I am glad that it all worked out for you, and I hope that the rest of the cruise was enjoyable.

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CruiseRQA Great Review Rare

CruiseRQA

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, ChutChut said:

I don't see where anyone is being accused of a crime. Please explain what "crime?" Racism is not a "crime" unless it's attached to an actual crime like murder, assault, etc. 

I think the issue at hand is child trafficking.   Certainly a crime.   In this case we have a white father with (we know now) an Asian daughter.   How is it "racist" for the white father to have been suspected of something and therefore asked to provide additional documentation.   They were acting to protect and Asian girl.

 

Now I agree completely that the port authorities were acting stupidly and ignorantly.   They seemed to have been poorly trained.   There seemed to have been absent procedures to quickly and professionally deal with this.    All of this could be the likely explanation rather than racism.   Again again, the person being "accused" is a white guy!

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Torfamm

Torfamm

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, wahooker said:

Why was my family singled out? The only answer that I see is because the boarding agent saw my daughter was of a different race than her parents, and asked us "Is your daughter adopted?".  I saw no other families being asked if their kids were adopted, and this has never happened before. I suspect this is more because the boarding agent was poorly trained rather than malicious intent on her part or official policy of Celebrity.

What do I want? An Apology and a much better effort on training their staff to handle things correctly, and not pull random requirements out of thin air that are not documented anywhere on any website.

Also, being accused of being potential sex traffickers by a second boarding agent was WAY the F*** over the line. That definitely deserves an apology all by itself.

I absolutely agree that what you experienced was dead wrong. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how much control Celebrity (or any cruise line) has over this sort of issue with employees of the Port Authority. I hope you have also complained to the Port Authorities.

 

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Spif Barwunkel

Spif Barwunkel

Posted
Posted
27 minutes ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

As someone who checks-in passengers for Alaska cruises, I am trying to figure out what happened in this situation.  My gut tells me that it was not racially motivated, as we see many different types of families cruising.  As additional street cred, I am also the parent of an internationally adopted child, and I do not share the same last name as my spouse.  So I understand the nuances of traveling with an adopted child.

 

I am wondering if there had been some sort of past incident or problem either at the embarkation pier, or at another terminal that caused corporate to ask check-in agents to be hyper-vigilant with checking in.

 

I also wonder if the entire family of 6 (and 3 staterooms) were sent to different agents for check-in.  It would be surprising if a single check-in agent checking in a family of 6, all with the same last name, all traveling with passports, would question the family relationship.

 

If the family was being checked-in  by different agents, I wonder how the staterooms were divided between the two adult parents, and the 21 yr old adult son, and the two 17 yr old twin boys, and the 17 yr old daughter.  How the staterooms were booked - particularly who the 17 yr old young woman was booked to share a room with, could have played a role in this saga - especially if she was booked with an adult male.   Again, if the embarkation port was on a higher alert for possible trafficking, or questionable situations, it is possible that the staff was playing it safe, and making sure that the 17 yr old was really safe traveling.

 

I am also curious why this took 30 minutes, multiple supervisors, and even the ship's Documentation Officer to get involved.

 

I know when Royal Caribbean rolled out their Minor Child Consent to Travel crackdown last summer, it caused lots of delayed embarkations for families.  We were waiting for Celebrity to start as well, but they said that it was going to be put off, and we didn't have to deal with it during the Alaska season.  I wonder if Celebrity's minor travel consent rollout just recently happened and that may have played a role in your delayed embarkation.

 

In any case, I am glad that it all worked out for you, and I hope that the rest of the cruise was enjoyable.

Only sensible post on this entire thread. 

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d9704011

d9704011

Posted
Posted
Just now, Ferry_Watcher said:

 

Because we don't have all the pieces of this puzzle.

Of course we don't.  Way too much speculation going on here and, in my opinion, there's not much in the way of 'sensible' that can be offered for what is very likely (as you outlined) a more complicated scenario than any of us understand.

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Ferry_Watcher Excellent Advice! Rare

Ferry_Watcher

Posted
Posted

Let me share a check-in story from this past summer.

 

I have a adult male and a older HS age girl (16 or 17 yrs old) standing in front of me to be checked in. 

 

The girl tells me that she has had a legal name change and gives me the legal document showing the name change.  She has her long form birth certificate, and she might have had her passport with her birth name (I don't remember, but she had her birth certificate).  The adult male has his passport..

 

I pull up the stateroom on my computer and I can see that I have a minor girl and an adult male with different last names.  I ask for all the ID / travel documents and begin to look them over.  The minor girl has legally changed her original Middle Eastern name, to an Anglo 'influencer' type of name.  Her photo ID matched her new name, and the name change document was all in order.

 

During the initial interaction, the man tells me that he is her father (it is just the two of them in the stateroom).  I look at his passport (he had a very Anglo name) and the name of the birth father on her long form birth certificate, and the man listed as her father had a Middle Eastern name.  I point out to the man checking in that his name isn't listed as the father on this young woman's birth certificate.  Then he tells me that he is the stepfather.  At this point I know that I need a supervisor, and I am about to excuse myself, and then the man tells me that the young woman's mother is also checking in, but with another agent.  I ask the young woman if she could bring over her mom.  While she is doing that, I let a supervisor know what is going on.  The mom has ID that matches the mother name on the birth certificate. The mom was checking in with another agent because they had booked two staterooms because there were other minor children traveling.

 

Once we had the mom, and all the documents lined up (that the minor young woman was indeed traveling with her mom), off they went on their cruise.  It probably took 10 or 15 minutes, but I/we had to make sure that this minor young woman was okay to travel.

 

 

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vjmatty

vjmatty

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, ChutChut said:

Are you suggesting that proper skin color of the parents, etc. should be part of the criteria??????

Where in the world did you get that? I said paying and having proper documentation DOES necessarily give them the right to board. 

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Ferry_Watcher Excellent Advice! Rare

Ferry_Watcher

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, mayleeman said:

@Ferry_Watcher 

Good job. You saw a discrepancy in the documentation and followed up on it.

 

How is that relevant to agents ignoring passports that were all exactly as would be expected of any group that is in one family?

 

If the young woman was checking in separately from the parents - possible scenario since there were 3 staterooms: Mom and 17 yr old twin son; Dad and the other 17 yr old twin son; 21 yr old adult son checking in with 17 yr old female ("But she is my sister - Agent: "Is she adopted?").

 

I really do believe that the intent was honorable, but the actions were problematic.

 

 

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