Princess Cruises Princess Cruises Denied our boarding and Keep our $5758.00

Why didn't the agent I talked to on the phone tell me straight out that passports were imperative and necessary for boarding any Princess ship?
- You were not told that because that is not true depending on various conditions. But you don't even keep the requirements straight 2 sentences later. As by your own narrative you were told that you need a valid passport physically in your possession OR a certified birth certificate. So no a Passport is NOT imperative if you have a Certified copy of your Birth Certificate and are going on a "Closed Loop" Cruise.

We were led to believe otherwise.
- Here is the problem with that. It depends on more than what you were told. Because you could have very easily led them to an answer that was correct but not valid for your situation. As I said if you infered you had an "Enhanced" ID not just a RealID then they would have given you a valid answer. If you just asked if you could use your RealID for ID, again the answer is yes. But there are two parts, ID and Citizenship.

SO unless you asked if that met the Citizenship requirements they wouldn't know to tell you. It also depends on what you heard.  As we have seen here you didn't even keep what the requirements were for more than a couple of sentences.

Since we have traveled with Princess for 30 years,
- This actually works against your claim. As in that 30 years did you ever travel without a Passport? So why now all of the sudden would you decide to do that? You seem fairly computer savy, so why didn't you verify this on your website or in the terms. I can't guarantee but I would also bet that this requirement was specifically spelled out in your cruise documentation.

and since it was their agent that miss lead me it would seem reasonable that Princess would at least offer us some consideration.
What's Reasonable? Well 13 other members of your family all understood the documenation requirements. Which is actually surprising, and doesn't help your claim. As this means that not once did any of you talk to each other about this. 

As if you told this to them at least one other would have left theirs home..unless they ignored you knowing you were wrong. The flip side could have been them telling you that you were wrong.. but again you ignoring them.

As for you wanting some consideration. You didn't want "some consideration" you wanted a refund or credit of your $5700 cruise.  A cruise that due to your error they had no opportunity to resell to someone else. Even if you had bought Travel Insurance they wouldn't cover it either because again this was something caused by your error.

By the way I cruise as well but with another cruise line. They have the exact same regulations and if you are thinking that the "Grass is Greener" where another cruise line would be any different..think again. They would have the exact same policies.

 We were told unequivocally at the check-in counter in Long Beach , "You must have a valid passport physically in your possession or a certified birth certificate in order to board the ship." If this is a cardinal rule and everybody at Princess knows this,.

why didn't the agent I talked to on the phone tell me straight out that passports were imperative and necessary for boarding any Princess ship? We were led to believe otherwise. Since we have traveled with Princess for 30 years, and since it was their agent that miss lead me it would seem reasonable that Princess would at least offer us some consideration.

Most of your report was written for one reason..to try and gain sympathy for your situation. However, there really is none warranted here.  At 84 years old and by your own narrative a very experienced cruiser and world traveler...you should be showing more common sense and knowlege.  The fact is that 13 other members of your family figured it out, and so did the couple thousand other people on the cruise.

You seem to think that Princess is doing this to you, but the fact is that they are following GOVERNMENT regulations. Loyalty has nothing to do with this. It took about 30 seconds to find the documentation requirements, and another 3 seconds to see that it is very clear that if you fail to provide the appropriate documentation you will be denied boarding WITHOUT refund. This is standard with every cruise line.

You can say "But the told me"...yes but they could have told you based on incorrect information you gave them. Or you could have not heard everything completely. As a RealID is valid for the ID portion, but you are still required to provide your Birth Certificate.

The only case you wouldn't is if you provided a WHTI complient document, which a RealID is NOT. Now, if you slipped in the term "Enhanced Drivers license" that is a WHTI complient document, but only 4 States issue those and CA is NOT one of them.

We asked if someone could get our passports and mail them to the ship in Hawaii, and the answer was No. Could someone get our passports, take a picture of them and send it to us. Answer No. Since we have been traveling with Princess for years we asked if there was something in the Princess record system that would verify that we are U.S citizens. Answer. No.-
- You actually asked them this with a straight face? Had they actually followed this suggestion, not only would the cruise line be severly fined but likely not even be allowed to leave port until they can certify that you have been removed from the ship. That is why they close boarding 60-90 minutes before departure so that US Immigration can verify all of the documentation.

Regardless of if it is "Required" when you are traveling Internationally you should ALWAYS take your passport. Princess Recomends this, every other cruise line recommends this, and just about every travel professional recomends this. So it is really a mystery why you would have a Passport and then just not decide to take it.

As a cruiser you should also know that not getting off the ship has anything to do with this and does not change the documentation requirements at all.

By the way the cruise was not "Technically" a US cruise with 1 stop in Mexico. It is an International Cruise..there is not technicallity about it.

In the end if they do ever decide to credit/refund you a portion of the expenses consider yourself very lucky.