Nathalie Belizaire, 29, faces four counts of child neglect without great bodily harm, North Miami Beach police said. Her attorney has denied the allegations.
Police say the father of Belizaire's infant spotted a post on her WhatsApp story last Thursday that appeared to show a cruise ticket purchase. When he confronted her, Belizaire told him she planned to drop the kids off with their great-grandmother before leaving, according to police.
Investigators say that never happened. The children, including a toddler, were left home alone while Belizaire spent three days at sea.
The case raises hard questions about how they went unsupervised for that long and what, if anything, checked on them during the trip. Child neglect charges carry serious consequences in Florida. Police say the investigation traced back to the same social media post that first alerted the infant's father to the cruise.