By Kim…
Well Good Morning. I have just returned from a 5 day cruise to Cabo San Lucas from LA. I was relatively nervous but had done extensive research from others here and elsewhere on what to do pre-travel and what to expect.
Full disclosure: my incident was in 2007 and I have been off parole since 2012. Also: I am a woman and even though I believe in feminist ideologies, I also believe that women for obvious reasons do not have the same stigma attached as men (not relevant to this discussion but thought I would share). I have been on 3 cruises prior to 2016 and was denied Carnival after that with a letter and phone call and returned my money. This cruise was on Norwegian. I gave the 21 day notice “over the phone” to my registering agency and she did not ask for anything but the dates and destination. All she said was thank you and ill “put this in the computer”. I didn’t ask anything else because another person here had mentioned that we don’t need to give our full life story or share too many details.
OK, so getting on the ship was no problem. I have a passport in my maiden name but chose to use my Calif ID and my birth certificate, as I am married and that name obviously is my Legal name now. NO problems boarding. 2 days in, I get a call from the assistant someone saying that they failed to get my proper travel documents upon boarding and would need to retrieve them and make copies. Keep in mind, I knew this was BS. I was quite irritated but I also know the cruise line itself doesn’t truly care, this is Angel Watch or whoever confused.
So the cruise line was really, really nice. They acted like they knew nothing, anyway. The Weird part was the cruise line said because my passport was my True traveling document that I would have to change my name on-board to my maiden name. I was livid because that is no longer my name and I felt like they were pressuring me to be someone I’m not, if that makes any sense but whatever I did it.
So Cabo was no big deal, I got off and on without any problem whatsoever. But I knew, just knew they were going to F with me upon return. So getting off the ship, my name was on some manifesto. There was a gal waiting who escorted me down to customs like a criminal (mind you crime 13 years ago), and the officers looked at my passport (non-legal name) and asked me to go in the back and searched my luggage. I have to say Everyone the whole time was very nice, discreet, and polite. The officers were nice and joked that at least I skipped the line and this would only take a minute and Never asked me about the incident or was an RSO or anything like that.
So the thing is I was aware that all of these things could happen and I was expecting it and I was with my husband so maybe that is why everyone was so respectful, I’m not sure. But I know this small incident will NOT deter me from traveling. I don’t always check this, if someone has any other questions.But I thank Everyone who shares their travel experience because it was super helpful to me on being hyper-aware of expectations.
You got in because you didn’t travel by air. Travel by air triggers SMART. I traveled by air and was denied entry. Time since offense matters not. I had 18 yrs.
My 2 cents. My wife booked a cruise on Carnival. I duly notified my compliance officer. All good. But then, a couple days later, my wife got a call from the Carnival “security” office who stated that my passage has been rescinded. So it seems that Carnival will book anyone, then check and rescind.
My wife researched and suggested Norwegian, but I didn’t want to go through the whole thing again so tried to call Norwegian and explain and see if I could speak to whoever makes the decision and get any kind of assurance. The front line person kept saying it’s case by case and refused to provide me with anyone to contact to try to get specific. So I suppose a SOR can book Norwegian and hope for the best.
I did figure a cruise was a good idea as my first out of country trip (been off probation for about five years). Hey, if they won’t let me off the ship in the Bahamas, I’ll just stay on the boat.
I am kind of surprised that the Mexican authorities allowed you to visit. I had heard that Mexico is a definite no go zone.
What are other travel-friendly destinations for RSOs? I’m afraid to try much of anything.
More power to you for not being deterred from traveling. We lost about $5k on a trip because we weren’t allowed in and sent right back home on the same flight we arrived on.
Thank you for sharing. I’m glad you were brave enough to go through with a cruise from LA to Mexico and I’m also happy to hear that you had relatively no issues. I travel Europe regularly, but have been wanting to take a cruise. I now know which cruise line to chose. Might I suggest that we boycott Carnival Cruise lines? Not just us, but ask our family members and friends to do the same. Money talks loudly. Again, thank you for sharing!
It’s my opinion that even though the author had a successful trip, that does not necessarily mean that Norwegian is friendly to registrants. If word gets out that they are considered a registrant friendly cruise line, you can bet they will be rushing to change their policy.
Whether or not a registrant is allowed on board may very well be at the discretion of the supervisor of that particluar cruise and doesn’t mean that every cruise within the company is going to be the same.