Traveling With Someone Else's Kid

[kcbonnies]

Hey Cruise Experts:
Has anyone ever taken someone else's child on cruise? We are thinking about taking a cruise and bringing my daughter's best friend along. My concern is whether there is any additional paper work to consider. I figure we will need a power of attorney to be able to make any medical decisions, but I was also concern about immigration. Anyone have any thoughts or past experiences which might be helpful?
We are looking at the 5 Night Cruise on the Disney Wonder out of Miami. So any thoughts on that specific cruise would be welcome as well. It would be our first cruise as a family though my wife and I did cruise Royal Caribbean together 16 years ago.

 

[keaster]

Being from Canada, we have to have a notarized letter stating we have permission from the parents to take their child out of the country. If you are an American going on a closed loop cruise, I'm not sure if that applies?

 

[crafty91]

We have done this with our son in the past and our daughter is taking a friend this March. The only doc you really need is the Unaccompanied Minor form from the DCL website. That said, I have made sure that whomever we bring along has a valid passport just in case something comes up we have options. I think you can do passport cards, and maybe other options but I just wanted the passport so everything was straight forward if we needed to get home another way for any reason. The first time we did this I took along a letter from the parents saying that their child was going with us and that we could make decisions etc and had it notarized but did not need it. Since its not a big deal to get a signature of a parent notarized it may fall in the "better safe than sorry" category. With the form mentioned above the additional child basically becomes "your child" for the cruise.

The other piece to consider is the mental side, you don't mention ages but you become responsible for a child that isn't yours for 5 days. On a big boat. In a foreign land. So just make sure there are clear ground rules laid out for do's and don'ts.

As an aside, if your daughter wants to take friend because she is worried about meeting other kids, that shouldn't be an issue. We took (are taking) along friends of our kids that will probably NEVER take a cruise so there was a bit of a different decision than just taking along a best friend.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

The minimum paperwork you need is the Minor Authorization form from the DCL website. However, it is strongly recommended you have a notarized letter signed by both parents stating you have their permission to take their child out of the country. This is recommended but not required by US Customs and Border Control. There are countries which do require this letter for you to take a child who is not yours across their borders. Canada is one which is very strict on this, but there are others.

I took my niece with us on our cruise. I had the authorization form from DCL plus the additional notarized letter. For some reason DCL didn't even ask to see the minor authorization form and I didn't even realize it until after we were boarded. I wondered if it was because my niece has my same last name so they missed that she wasn't my child even though I had listed her at a separate address with different emergency contacts than me and my daughter. I wouldn't chance traveling without that though.

Like crafty91 stated above, I required my brother and SIL to get my niece a passport. I didn't want to take someone else's child out of the country without a passport even though they weren't required for the cruise. And I asked for a full passport, not the passport card since that doesn't work if you need to fly back early from a foreign port. I also had them include in the notarized letter that I had their permission to make medical decisions for my niece. Better to have all your bases covered.

 

[kcbonnies]

Thank you guys for your input. She is, for all intents and purposes my niece as her parents are our best friends. We have traveled with her (and my daughter with them) many times in the past, just never out of the country. Thank you so much for the thoughts!

 

[persimmondeb]

Always a good idea to take a notarized letter. My sister always brings one from her husband when she travels with her son, because they don't have the same last name, and when we were on Celebrity last year the cruise line definitely wanted to see it.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

Always a good idea to take a notarized letter. My sister always brings one from her husband when she travels with her son, because they don't have the same last name, and when we were on Celebrity last year the cruise line definitely wanted to see it.

I agree it's good to have when one parent is traveling out of country with their child, whether or not they have the same last name. Some countries will require it for a single parent. I'm a single parent and my DD has a different last name. I carry a notarized letter from DD's dad when taking her out of country. I've noticed she gets a little extra scrutiny when we go through TSA even when traveling domestically. It's subtle so I don't think she realizes what they are doing but they definitely ask her a few extra questions about "what is your name?", "who is this person traveling with you?" and "where are you going?".