Disney bounces family with infant from ship mid-cruise

Everyone does what they think is best for their kid, but I'm surprised anyone would see the doctor because their kid spits up. It would have been a daily occurrence for us. Still, that seems kind of lame, and worse because they didn't make sure they were fully taken care of.

Well, there's spitting up and there's projectile vomiting. Who knows what was really happening there, and maybe the cruise line is at fault for being overly cautious. Then there's a flu epidemic, Ebola happening in places here and there, and after all, cruise ships have the reputation of being floating petri dishes these days.

It's a shame for this family though. I've never been on a cruise, but I've always wondered what would happen if I was put off the ship for some reason, or got really sick, or missed the boat at a stop somewhere? What does one do?

Figure out how to get home, mostly. :) The Disney line is pretty crazy about being clean. They always have people handing you hand wipes at every eating venue, and like the parks, everything is clean in a way that you don't think is really possible. The rooms, restaurants, common areas... everything looks like new. I suppose anything can happen, but I can't say that I've felt any concern about those ships being a risk for disease.

Illness or cleanliness isn't the reason they gave for forcing them off the ship. They said they were told they would have to leave because their daughter was too young to be onboard. This sounds like one of those stories where there's far more to it than what's being reported.

From what it looks like, effective Jan 1st, 2015 - the minimum age was raised to 6 months for children. It also looks like these people were grandfathered in under the old guidelines, since they bought their tickets long before then.

I have to question whether or not age is the real issue, as they child shouldn't have been allowed to board in the first place if that was going to be a concern. There has to be something deeper here.

Ageism.

Irrational hate towards the very young.

I brought up the clean factor because of Mac's comment around the "petri dish" reputation.

The article says they cleared it before boarding, and obviously the person at the terminal checked them in (Disney requires a birth certificate for minors). If it was an age thing, they sure screwed up.

If it was a medical thing, then what was the basis? Disney dropped the ball in so many ways.

Lord Gonchar said:

Ageism.

Irrational hate towards the very young.

When did Carrie start working for Disney cruises??

Jeff said:

The Disney line is pretty crazy about being clean. They always have people handing you hand wipes at every eating venue, and like the parks, everything is clean in a way that you don't think is really possible. The rooms, restaurants, common areas... everything looks like new. I suppose anything can happen, but I can't say that I've felt any concern about those ships being a risk for disease.

Norwegian was the same way. You had to use sanitizer whenever embarking, entering food locations, exiting things like the ropes course, etc., you were supposed to use a paper towel to open bathroom doors.

They also stated that if you were sick you were to be confined to your quarters. They'd deliver your food, drinks, etc. but you couldn't roam the ship or mingle in any way while projectiling from either end, which seems like a fair enough policy for everyone. This seems like a total fail on Disney's end.

On our cruise this past fall, a young boy got severe appendicitis and had to be taken from the ship. We were between the USVI and Bahamas, and they diverted toward Puerto Rico so the US Coastguard could come out and meet them. One of the ship's nurses disembarked and accompanied the child (along with a couple other members of his family) to a hospital on PR.

Reading the article, it sounds like the change in policy was not communicated to all employees in the same way. My first thought was an abundance of concern that the child might have something contagious, but that clearly would have come up already.

Spitting up is mainly a symptom of being an infant.

Who takes an infant on a cruise with them? Get Grandma to babysit, then you can actually enjoy it. It's not like the infant is going to remember the cruise anyways.

You assume they had a choice to leave the child home.

Read the article. Grandma was on the cruise and has cancer. This was the one last family hurrah. To assume that it's about whether or not the kid will remember it is pretty narrow minded. We made the decision before Simon was born to not avoid travel because of him. I have great memories of him on the beach in Malibu that he'll never know, but I sure as hell won't forget.

I admit that that was my first reaction and I am not really interested enough in the article to actually read it. I was speaking generally anyways, and not directly about the people the article is written about.

Grandma was an example.

And I never thought about bringing my future (probably nonexistent) infant children along on my hypothetical family cruise until I read your comment Jeff. It's a lovely choice, actually.

I think kids should stay home until they're old enough to sit quietly and order dinner on their own.

Which might explain why the kids I helped raise still live at home...

:-)