The Cortes family of Orange County, Florida, found their cruise aboard Royal Caribbean’s Majesty of the Seas anything but fun and relaxing. When the family’s baby became ill with vomiting and diarrhea, they say RCCL security gave them 10 minutes to get off the ship in Nassau. Some family members were told there wasn’t time to change out of their pajamas, so that’s how they were put ashore.
“We had to find our way to the U.S. Embassy. All of this on foot. A family of five in this town we knew nothing about,” Cortes said.
The embassy issued them emergency passports for $455. They spent another $650 on plane tickets back to Florida. The emergency room bill was $600. All together, the Cortes family spent more than $3,000 on their disastrous vacation and they want a refund.
“I don’t want this to happen to another family,” Cortes said.
Royal Caribbean told Eyewitness News late Friday they were concerned because the child is so young and they didn’t want to take any chances. The company said they will give the family a credit to use on another Royal Caribbean trip, but they will not reimburse them for the passports and plane tickets because they didn’t pay for trip insurance. [From WFTV.com – Family Says Cruise Ship Kicked Them Off Boat Because Child Was Sick.]
Perhaps there is more to the story than this – it’s hard to imagine a cruise line treating its passengers so shabbily, and then even refusing to cover reasonable expenses. This is one of those situations where the cruise ship company will end up spending a lot more on public relations (and, probably, lawyers) than they would have spent to satisfy the disgruntled customer.