Check minors ages BEFORE cruise time

[PokerMom]

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to tell about my experience last week. We are booked for 12/20 Coral Princess. 2 cabins.. 2 Adults plus 15yo. 9yo. and 5yo. Booked in Oct. through Princess, got a confirmation # then paid with American Express miles. I checked the passenger names when I received the docs, as instructed, everything was correct.

I went online last Sat. to fill out the immigration info to hasten check-in. While entering the passport # and birthdate for 15yo, I got an error message stating "no additional 15 year olds permitted on cruise" I called Princess and was told they had my oldest daughter listed as 12 years old, not 15. The rep then told me "I'm sorry, the 13-17 year old group is closed out"

Huh?

Apparently they limit the number of children on the ship(completely understandable) but do not list the ages on the cruise documents you receive. Am Ex was able to fix the problem on Monday, but it was a looong weekend waiting to see if we were indeed going to be able to cruise.

To make an already long story short. Call your Travel Agent or Princess after booking to confirm ages of any minors. It is not listed on the cruise docs and you will never know if there has been mistake.

 

Wouldn't it make sense to place the child's age next to their name on the documents if it is that important?

 

Happy Holidays to all!

Kim

[Pam in CA]

Your TA should always ask for the birth dates of any minors traveling with you. If they don't, get another TA. This is very basic and it's up to the TA to make sure that the kids' ages are listed correctly with Princess (or any other cruiseline.) They are your representative with Princess and should have the correct information... and double-check with Princess that it's correct.

 

I've often made travel plans for others in the past (no, I'm not a TA) and my TA always made sure she had the correct ages and birthdates.

[PokerMom]

Hi Pam,

I didn't use a TA, I booked through Princess. I gave them my children's birthdates at booking. Clearly a key-stroke mistake. I just wanted to help anyone avoid the problem I had.

[Pam in CA]

I didn't use a TA, I booked through Princess. I gave them my children's birthdates at booking. Clearly a key-stroke mistake. I just wanted to help anyone avoid the problem I had.

Ahhh... glad they fixed the problem, as they rightfully should have.

[bdjam]

Sorry you had to hassle with it and glad to hear it's cleared up.

It is interesting to know that Princess still is limiting the number of kids on board - I thought they had given up that practice. Dawn Princess will have 900 kids on Xmas week...what kind of limit is half the ship??? :confused:

[fathercop]

Sorry you had to hassle with it and glad to hear it's cleared up.

 

It is interesting to know that Princess still is limiting the number of kids on board - I thought they had given up that practice. Dawn Princess will have 900 kids on Xmas week...what kind of limit is half the ship??? :confused:

 

 

We had almost 700 kids on the CB in August of 2006. That was nearly 1/4 of the ship. I, too, am surprised that Princess was limiting the number of young people. My youngest two girls are 15 and 12. So far we have not encountered this problem. Nice to hear it was resolved to your satisfaction.

 

Good luck and enjoy your cruise!

[sonomaphil]

How do I get them to ban kids? :p

[Verycatchy7939]

i 2nd that how can we get Princess to Ban kids.

[kaseyoz]

you also should check the date of birth of your kids.

here in australia we put day, month year. My son was down as 1st november instead of 11th january.

this may have caused a problem as he turns 18 on this cruise, hence me double checking dates.

this is more of a problem for overseas people booking american cruises but this was booked in australia with an australian TA on sun princess which is running as an australian ship so you just never know

[tigger8792]

sonomaphil and Verycatchy7939 yall my feel that way but I bet PokerMom doesn't, and a hole lot of other parents who love having their kids with them on a cruise.

 

Now the rude and misbehaved kids lets ban them. But that goes for some adults too

[willysgrandma]

How do I get them to ban kids? :p

 

We cruise between September and November so there are less kids on board. We did a June cruise on Celebrity and it was run rampant by teens with nothing to do so they got into a lot of trouble- and I attributed that to the lack of things for kids to do on that ship. We learned from that experience.

 

Families deserve vacations too - and they pay dearly for it. If you don't like cruising with kids, cruise when they are in school.

[DrivesLikeMario]

Hi Pam,

I didn't use a TA, I booked through Princess. I gave them my children's birthdates at booking. Clearly a key-stroke mistake. I just wanted to help anyone avoid the problem I had.

 

If you booked through Princess, then it's your responsibility to check those kind of things. All TAs ask the birth date of EVERY passenger and give that information to Princess when calling in to book cruises or when booking online through POLAR.

 

This is one reason it's good to chose a TA vs. going through Princess. A TA has your interests in mind whereas Princess is just happy to hold on to that commission. Also, a TA would've given you back a goo d part of their commission, saving you a lot of money. Next time, find a reputable TA that will look out for YOU.

 

Enjoy your cruise - glad you're able to go! ;)

[sonomaphil]

Families deserve vacations too - and they pay dearly for it.

 

That's why God created Disney.

[DrivesLikeMario]

That's why God created Disney.

 

Talk about an expensive vacation choice! :eek: We've wanted to spend a week at DWorld many times, but the cost was more than going on a cruise! :eek:

[hill6]

My travel agent always provides me with a copy of the printout they get from Princess with everyones info on there. It does list ages there.

[gbcruiser72]

Now the rude and misbehaved kids lets ban them. But that goes for some adults too

 

Amen!!

[chasetf]

Dawn Princess will have 900 kids on Xmas week...what kind of limit is half the ship??? :confused:

Actually they will probably only be about a 1/3 of the passengers because most of them will be 3rd and 4th in a cabin which means instead of 1950 passengers there will be 2500 passengers..... which will further tax the ship's capacity. :eek:

 

One of the major reasons we stay away at those times. ;)

[genoa]

To SonomaPhil,

 

I think we should ban all people from Sonoma from cruising so I would never have to meet you! Hopefully you don't have children or grandchildren because I would never want a father/grandfather like you.

[tonethebone]

you must be one of those GOF's. Give it a rest or maybe Rest In Peace

[tonethebone]

I know How do we get to ban all the scooters, walkers, canes on board ? They are danger on board, the majority of the GOF's should not be allowed to use these, no respect for others. GIVE IT A REST PEOPLE, last time i checked we were once all children, besides they make me smile unlike some of you rude people.

 

Just my thought take it as you will

 

Tone

[junglejane]

Hopefully PokerMom has left by now for a fun cruise on the Coral Princess, and won't notice that her thread has been hijacked.:( Thanks Kim for the tip about checking the accuracy of birthdates.

 

--Junglejane

[nrdsb4]

Sorry you had to hassle with it and glad to hear it's cleared up.

 

It is interesting to know that Princess still is limiting the number of kids on board - I thought they had given up that practice. Dawn Princess will have 900 kids on Xmas week...what kind of limit is half the ship??? :confused:

 

Yes, but apparently there won't be 900 15-17 year olds. As a mother of a 17 year old, I feel that's probably a good thing, lol.:)

[blindrid]

To SonomaPhil,

 

I think we should ban all people from Sonoma from cruising so I would never have to meet you! Hopefully you don't have children or grandchildren because I would never want a father/grandfather like you.

 

A little testy today??????

[cruze610]

That's why God created Disney.

 

I never knew that Disney was created by God! lol

[Jayjoans]

To SonomaPhil,

 

I think we should ban all people from Sonoma from cruising so I would never have to meet you! Hopefully you don't have children or grandchildren because I would never want a father/grandfather like you.

 

Yeah, Sonomaphil is a PITA. Put him on your ignore list, then your surfing is much more enjoyable.