DCL on local news

[slindamood]

I've never had kids so I honestly don't know the answer to this. Is this a normal thing to get a note when you want to travel and your pregnant?

Some cruise lines require a doctor's note of "fit to travel and weeks of pregnancy", even if under 24 weeks (or perhaps to confirm under 24 weeks). DCL does not require a note - it is up to the passenger to report. My DD had a note just in case there were questions and to have Dr. info at hand.

 

[cgolf]

Just saw this morning that this story made the Daily mail website. 15 minutes extended.

One thing that is strange about this is the mom says the kids got sunburned faces, but not the parents? Does this make sense, do kids get sunburned easier? I have a now college aged daughter and I don't recall, but then again my wife was always making sure both her and I had sunscreen on.

 

[jliehr]

Just saw this morning that this story made the Daily mail website. 15 minutes extended.

One thing that is strange about this is the mom says the kids got sunburned faces, but not the parents? Does this make sense, do kids get sunburned easier? I have a now college aged daughter and I don't recall, but then again my wife was always making sure both her and I had sunscreen on.

Kids get overheated easily which is what I would guess caused the red faces.

 

[jliehr]

She can just say 33.

And if an incident occurs would be in violation of the conditions of carriage which would could be an issue. The airline/cruise doesn’t care about anything other than their liability if something happens.

 

[pezgirlroy]

As someone who had a stillborn daughter at 23 weeks and had to be put on bedrest with a subsequent pregnancy at 22 weeks, in my opinion this is just not something that you mess around with. To each their own. I did fly with one of my pregnancies at 34 weeks and was given the okay to do so and yes I did have a doctor's note just as a precaution. Honestly you just never know what is going to happen.

 

[cgolf]

As someone who had a stillborn daughter at 23 weeks and had to be put on bedrest with a subsequent pregnancy at 22 weeks, in my opinion this is just not something that you mess around with. To each their own. I did fly with one of my pregnancies at 34 weeks and was given the okay to do so and yes I did have a doctor's note just as a precaution. Honestly you just never know what is going to happen.

To me there is a difference with flying, they can do an emergency landing at the nearest airport rather quickly. While a cruise ship on a sea day doesn't have that luxury and I am guessing no cruise ship has the ability to handle an early birth.

 

[kiford]

She brought the doctors note along KNOWING she was past the 24 weeks at time of sailing..otherwise why bring it at all.

I did wonder about this too. Why get a doctor's note saying that you're 25 weeks and it's OK to cruise if you didn't know that there was some kind of restriction at that point? I suppose it's possible that she simply did it as a matter of course when travelling, but I have to say that my first thought was that the cruise was booked before the pregnancy, then they realized she'd be over the maximum and then thought that maybe they could skate by with a doctor's note or bully their way on. My second thought was that they are making a big deal out of this because, although DCL refunded their fare even though not required to, they state that they are still out of pocket and are hoping for a larger settlement to cover it by making negative news and putting the worst perspective on it. While I try to give the benefit of the doubt to people when problems occur, knowing that not everyone knows all of the rules about cruising, AFAIK all cruise lines have a 24 week restriction and it's not that hard to check out the regulations once you know that you'll be pregnant on a cruise. I would have thought that checking that out would be a given but I recognize that not everyone does their homework. However, as others have pointed out, I do recall seeing the question about the 24 weeks on the online check-in so it's just difficult for me not to think that they saw that when doing their check in and went "uh-oh" and tried to get around it. I do feel a bit sorry for them - mistakes can happen and you don't want to lose out a lot of money and lose a vacation, but it's the way that they are behaving now that have definitely reduced my sympathy.

 

[ladyofthetramp]

pezgirlroy-so sorry for your loss. Having suffered a miscarriage with my first pregnancy, I never wanted to take any chances with my subsequent ones. Honestly-read your cruise documents and just follow their rules. You sort of have to-if you want to go. Pregnancies can change from normal to emergency in a flash. Why would you want to risk the life of your child? There are other types of vacations to enjoy until you have your baby or you are less pregnant or not pregnant.

 

[pezgirlroy]

To me there is a difference with flying, they can do an emergency landing at the nearest airport rather quickly. While a cruise ship on a sea day doesn't have that luxury and I am guessing no cruise ship has the ability to handle an early birth.

Completely agreed.

 

[pezgirlroy]

pezgirlroy-so sorry for your loss. Having suffered a miscarriage with my first pregnancy, I never wanted to take any chances with my subsequent ones. Honestly-read your cruise documents and just follow their rules. You sort of have to-if you want to go. Pregnancies can change from normal to emergency in a flash. Why would you want to risk the life of your child? There are other types of vacations to enjoy until you have your baby or you are less pregnant or not pregnant.

Thank you. And your own life to as the mother. Honestly you just don't know. Any personally I like a nice refreshing cocktail or two when on a cruise, can't do that when pregnant so I would just wait.

 

[ladyofthetramp]

I am in the cocktail camp as well pezgirlroy!

 

[Spotthecat]

I had booked my first Disney cruise 5 years ago. Lo and behold, much later we find out we are expecting #3 (total surprise) and at the time of the cruise Iwould be too far along to be allowed to cruise. So we moved the cruise booking up 3 months. DCL was more than accommodating. And yes, my family of 4 at the time all had to change our flights, hotels, etc, so yes it was a pain, but very doable. I still wanted that cruise darnit!

 

[jliehr]

To me there is a difference with flying, they can do an emergency landing at the nearest airport rather quickly. While a cruise ship on a sea day doesn't have that luxury and I am guessing no cruise ship has the ability to handle an early birth.

Not necessarily, plenty of flights where you would be hours from an airport, flying overseas or in bad weather conditions you may not have clearance to land. Or even having just taken off and having a full fuel load they would be too heavy to land and would have to dump tons of fuel. Not only would this be an immense cost to the airline, you are inconveniencing hundreds of others just because you can't follow the rules.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Yeah, I flew at 36 weeks, too, but a direct 2.5 hour flight domestically to an area where my family was and I knew the hospitals. I would never have gone any further that pregnant and certainly not out to sea.

 

[MUN]

I just read that DCL gives pregnancy tests now to "pregnant looking" women to determine how far along they are in the motherly way. Those past 24 weeks are denied boarding. I guess this new procedure just started yesterday, April 1st.

 

[TestingH2O]

I just read that DCL gives pregnancy tests now to "pregnant looking" women to determine how far along they are in the motherly way. Those past 24 weeks are denied boarding. I guess this new procedure just started yesterday, April 1st.

Well played. Glad I read to the end.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

Just another "the rules don't apply to me, and I want my 15 minutes" attention hound.

Too bad that Disney refunded her money.

 

[MomOTwins]

I had to fly domestically at around 34 weeks for my brother-in-law's wedding and was TERRIFIED the whole time, and thoroughly researched the fastest routes from the hotel and wedding venues to hospital with a NICU. If the plane had to be diverted I would have been mortified, and that is only inconveniencing about 100 people with a few hours delay--not ruining a cruise for thousands. The nerve of this woman is astonishing.

I also wonder that people just don't think about the medical insurance implications. I recall a story a few years back of a women who flew to Japan, gave birth prematurely, and incurred debts of hundreds of thousands of dollars in hospital bills, not to mention the cost of a hotel for the many weeks the baby spent in the NICU. Many health insurance plans do not cover international care.

 

[Krandor]

I watched her second video today that "anwers questions" (after an overly produced section on the trip first" and she admits that people were getting upset with her filming but she was doing so anyway because she was a vlogger. Somebody in the comments indicated they were there and she was being unruly and uncooperative.

So reading between the lines, I think the family got upset and made a scene and security was called and somehwere in all this she was asked by others and probably security to stop filming but refused because as a vlogger she is more important and so they got sent outside instead.

She wasn't at WDW. She was at a port that is a high security zone that has to watch out for drug smuggling and all other types of things and they (the port authority) need their security people armed to deal with these things. When you cause a scene and get security called if you then don't listen and stop filming or calm down then you WILL be kicked out.

 

[DCSWO]

I love it when rules are enforced!