Photo: @scottraia / TikTok
Her first Thanksgiving was spent in a foreign country.
By Megan Quinn — Written on Dec 07, 2022
When you embark on a cruise vacation, you may never imagine being kicked off of the ship mid-voyage and stranded in a foreign country.
However, this is exactly what one man and his family experienced due to a computer error on the cruise line’s behalf.
The family were left stranded on Thanksgiving after being kicked off the cruise.
The man and his family were asked to leave the a cruise ship after it was discovered that their infant daughter traveling with them did not meet the age requirement to travel.
In a TikTok video that has been viewed over 1 million times, father Scott Raia shares that he and his family were kicked off of a Princess Cruise ship due to his infant daughter Lucy’s age.
“This is the story of how this baby got kicked off a cruise ship this week on her first Thanksgiving,” Raia says as he holds his daughter.
Raia explains that he and his family boarded the Regal Princess Cruise ship for a vacation across the Atlantic Ocean to Florida from Europe.
Three days into their voyage, guest services approached Raia and his family.
“They said that there was a computer system error that misidentified Lucy’s age,” he says.
The cruise line had a minimum age requirement of 12 months for a transatlantic voyage — making Lucy too young for the ship.
Since the family had already been on the cruise for a few days with no issues and it was an error on the cruise line’s behalf, they were unprepared for what happened next.
“They kicked our family off on the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa,” Raia claims.
“So this little baby and her family spent our first Thanksgiving together stranded in a foreign country.”
At this time, Raia says that his family has yet to receive refunds, expenses paid for their time in the Canary Islands, and an apology from Princess Cruises.
TikTok users expressed their shock and anger over the situation in the comments.
“They let a baby ON the ship so how can they just decide three days in?? What in the world,” one user commented.
“It’s not safe for you to be on this cruise ship, we’re just gonna drop you off at this Island. Bon voyage!’ that’s not how you treat a tiny princess,” another user pointed out.
Other users suggested Raia hire a lawyer to ensure that he gets his money back.
“If all documentation shows her age and they had her passport… lawyer up,” one user urged.
Raia posted a follow-up video in response to a user asking why he did not see the age requirements on the cruise’s website prior to booking the trip.
Raia shared that he is a former Princess cruise employee, and he booked the trip through a stand-by cruise program.
“Of course, we did not lie about the baby’s age,” he adds. “We gave them the correct date of birth and we uploaded her passport. It was a computer system error that didn’t catch it.”
Raia also praised guest services on the ship for their “kindness” and dedication to doing everything in their power to keep the family on board.
The decision to boot them was made by representatives of the company Princess Cruises itself.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.