A New Jersey family says Celebrity Cruises dropped off their autistic son on Christmas Eve over an alleged misunderstanding and forced him off the ship in Mexico.
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- An autistic man was removed from a Celebrity Cruises ship on Christmas Eve after buying a teenager a drink.
- The man’s mother said she did not know the Long Island Iced Tea he purchased contained alcohol.
- The family was given 90 minutes to pack up and disembark in Cozumel, Mexico, late at night.
Carolyn Pirro and her four sons were planning to celebrate Christmas together on a cruise.
The New Jersey-based family spent Christmas Eve in Mexico, where their Celebrity Cruises ship was docked. “We went to Cozumel and swam with dolphins,” Pirro, 61, told USA TODAY. “It was really fun.”
However, when they returned to the ship, Pirro’s son Sean Curran, 31, who has autism, went to the pool on his own. Shortly afterward, she was called to the ship’s security room, where Curran was told she had 90 minutes to pack up her belongings and disembark after buying cocktails for her teenage guests.
The girl asked Curran to buy her a Long Island Iced Tea, but said she didn’t know it contained alcohol. “Sean thinks Long Island iced tea is Long Island iced tea,” Pirro said.
Curran said he bought the Sprite himself, and the girl followed him to the hot tub. “We got in the hot tub,” he recalled. “I picked her up like Shrek did with Fiona, like a groom picks up his bride.”
Pirro said his parents arrived and “started screaming at him.”
“She got out of the bathtub and then I got out of the bathtub,” Curran said. “Then I went to my parents and apologized.” They called security, the family said (Pirro said he only knew the girl’s first name).
In the security room, Pirro said a flight attendant asked her to confirm that Curran was autistic. “And I said, yes, he is,” she recalled. “And they said, ‘But this is high-performance, right?’ And I said, ‘That’s a relative term.’ You see, he can’t make pennies, but he can make frozen pizza. ”
The staff had Curran write a statement and then asked for Pirro’s credit card to book a flight out of Cozumel. “They said, ‘Who’s going to go with Sean?’ So they knew he couldn’t go by himself,” she said.
The earliest flight was the next day, so Pirro had to book a hotel in Cozumel that night. A security guard escorted them to their cabin and waited while they packed their bags. One of Pirro’s other sons joined her and Curran, but her other two children, both in their 20s, one of whom has Mosaic Down Syndrome, remained behind.
“So Sean, his other brother, and I were seen off the ship,” she recalled. “It was pitch black and everything was closed.”
She had no cell phone service, but she happened upon an emergency worker who spoke some English and stopped a taxi. The driver turned on the hotspot on his cell phone so Pirro could look up the address of the hotel. “And that was our Christmas Eve.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer first reported the news. Royal Caribbean Group, Celebrity’s parent company, told USA TODAY that after reviewing the incident, it “concluded that the ship could have been more sensitive” to the needs of guests during disembarkation and will provide additional training to its staff.
In a separate statement, the company added: “Given this serious violation of our Guest Conduct Policy, we support the action of disembarking the guest.”
Celebrity’s website says it offers a number of activities and accommodations for children and adults with autism, from quick check-in, boarding and disembarkation to sensory-friendly movies and more. Passengers can notify the cruise line of any special needs or dietary restrictions using a form available online.
“This is something we can learn.”
Pirro said she flew back to Florida with her two sons for Christmas, secured a hotel and waited for the ship to return to Fort Lauderdale three days later.
Pirro said Curran had been on multiple cruises with celebrities and had “no problems” for four days on the December voyage. “I’m not making excuses,” she said. “Sean shouldn’t have bought a stranger a drink, he shouldn’t have picked up people in the pool. Was he aggressive? Was he malicious? Was he, you know, a predator? No, he’s neither of those things.”
Pirro contacted the celebrity about a week after returning home. She said the company initially apologized and offered to cover the costs and expenses of the cruise. However, the offer she received was lower than the amount she paid. Ms Pirro, who works as a therapist, also demanded that the security team apologize directly to Ms Curran and offered to take part in training for staff.
“I said, ‘I’m happy to come. I’ve done corporate training. I’m happy to come and participate in security training. Please don’t let my story fade,'” she said. “‘Don’t erase it. This is something we can learn from.'”
Pirro said she received an email from the company asking her to sign a non-disclosure agreement, but she refused. I have not heard from the cruise line since then.
The news comes after a Florida mother said her family was kicked out of Universal’s Epic Universe theme park in late December due to misconceptions about her autistic daughter.
Pirro said she decided to speak out to prevent similar incidents from happening to other families. “I’m not saying Sean is innocent, and I’m not saying he’s given a free pass because of his autism,” Pirro said. “He won’t, but he had other options than kicking us off the ship on Christmas Eve.”
Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. Please contact us at ndiller@usatoday.com.
