Having Your Passport While in Port

Will we need to take our passports with us when we debark at each port? This is only our second cruise, and I can't remember what we did last time.

IMHO if you have one then take it with you.

Will we need to take our passports with us when we debark at each port? This is only our second cruise, and I can't remember what we did last time.

The cruise ship will advise you when you need to take additional identification in a port. Some ports you will only need your sea pass to get back on the ship. Others you might need your drivers license or your passport.

We used to always just take a photo copy of our passports with us. After having a problem in Rome, on an independent tour, passports will always be with us when we leave the ship. A photo copy wouldn't have helped us if we had been late to the ship.

As has been previously said a photo copy of the main information page of your passport is always worth having in your wallet, especially if cruising in Europe. Plus, it's good practice anyway in case you loose it. I have all my travel documents stored on a memory stick which I always take on my travels...you never know ;)

I allways have my passport with me I would highly suggest taking it with you. If god forbid you miss your ship your gonna need a way to get back home.

We carry our passports on our bodies wherever we go when traveling. We also have images of them uploaded to a secure website that we can access from anywhere in the world.

If you carry your passport with you and get stranded you can leave at your convenience. If you do carry your passport and it gets lost or stolen that is huge problem too. If you passport is lost or stolen before the cruise you are not getting on the ship until you get a replacement and if I remember correctly it was reported in a thread that a person reported to the cruise line their passport was stolen on a shore excursion and were not allowed to come back on board but maybe someone remembers more details about that.

For me it comes down to what horrible event is more likely to happen and I have chosen to leave my passport on the ship and carry a photo copy of it. I also register my trip with the US State Department Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP). By enrolling and entering your itinerary they will be better able to assist you if a problem arises. You can read more about this program through the link below. If you do register your trip these are the instructions I got back from them for entering a cruise vacation.

"You may enroll a cruise trip or other multi-stop boating voyage using the online system and entering each destination. Please note that only one form of contact information is required per destination-- for a cruise it may be most convenient to list your email address as the bit of contact information to be used and make a note in the Comments field regarding your specific cruise ship. Addresses are not required and do not need to be entered when enrolling cruise trips."

http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/registration/registration_4789.html

Shak

In the Caribbean, we do not take our passports ashore. We use our Driver's Licenses as ID, which you need in most ports to show to local port authority before they allow you into the secure area to board the ship.

In our opinion, the risk of having our passport stolen/lost, especially on beach or snorkling excursions, is much greater than our risk of missing the ship. We take the contact info for the ship's agent in the port (this is listed in the Compass), and we have our passport info uploaded so we can access it from any computer, so in the unlikely event that we miss the ship, we can expedite getting help.

If you carry your passport with you and get stranded you can leave at your convenience. If you do carry your passport and it gets lost or stolen that is huge problem too. If you passport is lost or stolen before the cruise you are not getting on the ship until you get a replacement and if I remember correctly it was reported in a thread that a person reported to the cruise line their passport was stolen on a shore excursion and were not allowed to come back on board but maybe someone remembers more details about that.

 

For me it comes down to what horrible event is more likely to happen and I have chosen to leave my passport on the ship and carry a photo copy of it. I also register my trip with the US State Department Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP). By enrolling and entering your itinerary they will be better able to assist you if a problem arises. You can read more about this program through the link below. If you do register your trip these are the instructions I got back from them for entering a cruise vacation.

 

"You may enroll a cruise trip or other multi-stop boating voyage using the online system and entering each destination. Please note that only one form of contact information is required per destination-- for a cruise it may be most convenient to list your email address as the bit of contact information to be used and make a note in the Comments field regarding your specific cruise ship. Addresses are not required and do not need to be entered when enrolling cruise trips."

 

 

http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/registration/registration_4789.html

 

Shak

I did not know about this, wow and I though I was a well rounded Simi World traveler

I have always been told to leave it on the ship and to keep my seapass card with me.

US passports sell for big bucks on the black market. So if you do take it ashore, make sure to secure it to your body and don't go waving it about lol

Will we need to take our passports with us when we debark at each port? This is only our second cruise, and I can't remember what we did last time.

Will you NEED to take it with you?, No. A passport is not required to get back on the ship although in most ports, some sort of photo ID is required. On the other hand, if you own a passport, I recommend taking it with you. IF, and I'll admit it's a big if, something should happen that causes you to miss the ship, having your passport with you will be the quickest and easiest way to catch back up to the ship or to make your way back home.

We just got off the 3/17 - 3/24 sailing of Serenade of the Seas with stops in Grenada, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Croix and St. Thomas. Not once were we asked for a photo ID to get back into the terminal area of the port. We were quite surprised by this.

I usually left mine on board for fear of losing it or it getting stolen because i was under the impression that if you missed the ship, they would check your cabin's safe and leave your Passport with the Port agent.

However, I read where someone on here asked a Captain or other officer in a Q&A if they done that and he said absolutely not because there was too much of a liability.

I will probably take mine ashore this time...........at least in St maarten anyway. I dont think its needed to fly back from St Thomas if you miss the ship? :confused:

we have been on 18 cruises in our life time and not once have we ever taken it when getting off the ship...yes we have taken copies of it and have taken that with us but never have we ever been asked to produce it to get back on the ship...just our seapass card and sometimes a photo id...and your driv license should take casre of that...if you take it with you and you loose it or god forbid have it stolen you have bigger problems to work on and then your trip has been destroyed...please explain why you would ever need to have it with you if the ship staff does not tell you to take it with you when getting off at a port of call...take a copy if you feel the need to have it with you... AND YES COMMON SENSE...NEVER EVER BE LATE IN GETTING BACK ON THE SHIP...if they tell you to be back on at 4:30 plan for 4:00...be smart and try to use good common sense...

We leave our passport book in the safe, have a photocopy of the information page of the passport book with us, we also carry our passport card while ashore, yes I know the passport card is not good for travel by air, however it is a good form of identification.

The below highlighted paragraph is from the U.S. State Department's website under the what to do in case of a lost passport abroad, even they reccomended carrying a photo copy of your passport info. page that would help in the event your passport book was lost/stolen.

Q:What Information Will I Need to Provide the Consular Officer?

a:You will be asked for certain information to assist in verifying your citizenship:

Personal Data:(including, but not limited to)

your name

date of birth

place of birth

passport number (if available)

date and place where your passport was issued

If you can provide the U.S. embassy or consulate with a photocopy of your passport identification page, that will make getting a new passport easier since your citizenship and identity information would be more readily available.

disregard the frown icon don't know how it got there!

When we cruised on the Brilliance of the Seas in 2009, it departed out of Barcelona for the Western Mediterranean.

The cruise ship TOOK our passports at the beginning of the cruise, and we did not get them back until the next-to-last day of the cruise. So, we had no way to take our passports ashore, even if we were so inclined.

But...we're not inclined. Too much of a chance of theft, or setting a bag down and walking away from it...we have found that a copy of our passport taken ashore gives us peace of mind.

Remember the excursion in Mexico where the bus was held up by banditos.

All passports were stolen.

On all of our cruises, we've taken our Seapasses and Driver's Licenses with us off the ship, leaving our Passports in the safe. We've taken copies of our Passports with us.

Taking a passport with you while you are ashore or not taking it will get you as many divided responses as what is acceptable attire in the MDR. Are you taking Paco's Sometime on Time Pub Crawl tour to a location that is far away from the port? Are you in some activity like swimming or scuba diving that more than likely you will have to leave your valuables with someone/someplace else or a shopping trip through a pickpocket's paradise? Your activities ashore can kind of dictate whether or not your passport should accompany you. More times than not people are separated from their passport because of loss or theft and not because they left it on the ship and they were late in returning and the ship has sailed.

In these times your passport is probably the most high value item you are carrying. If you need to carry it fine, however if it is not required I leave mine in the safe along with the diamond encrusted Rolex.

Will we need to take our passports with us when we debark at each port? This is only our second cruise, and I can't remember what we did last time.

On our cruise in February, 5 people were left in St Maarten because they didn't get back to the ship on time. To me, the possibilty of that is a really good reason to take your passport along when you get off the ship.:eek:

I am about ready to take my 40th cruise with RCCL, and since 1999 I have never left my passport anywhere. It ALWAYS goes with me.

I look at it this way: what good is it sitting in a safe? It's supposed to identify me when I'm traveling, so...................I take it and it identifies me. We all take our driver's license with us when we leave our homes on land, right? Then, we should always, always, have a picture ID of us ANYWHERE we go. A USdriver's license isn't worth spit in a foreign country unless you are going to rent a car, but if you need to get OUT of a foreign country, then you need that passport.

I also have an electronic copy on my Nook, scanned and saved to a pdf file. It's also in my saved email so I can get to it online.

Thanks for the info on the state department program, I will complete that before my Jewel TA in August.

How do you upload a passport to a memory stick?? I can scan the document, but that doesn't seem to be any better than just a photocopy.

I used to take my passport ashore, but now I am rethinking that, may just go with a photocopy and the state dept registration. I did buy an RFID blocking case for my passport (and has slots for credit cards). I hate to run around on tours with one of those pouches hanging around my neck:) I am also looking into one of the security backpacks, one of my friends had her purse stolen in Rome by a thief who went by on a moped, slashed the strap on her purse, then his buddy behind him on another moped scooped up the dropped purse. Guess I've been too trusting and complacent.

I leave the passport in the cabin's safe. What I take ashore with me is the passport number & date of issue and or a photo copy of the passport. In the unlikely event that I am unable to return to ship and have to remain on shore having this information will assist in getting a duplicate passport much quicker.

I just know how happy I would be if I were stranded in a port knowing that my passport was safe back in my room's safe -NOT. :D I'm not sure that I would trust that between the time it was known that I hadn't returned to the ship and the time the ship sailed, they will actually go to my room, retrieve my passport and give it to the port agent. That said, I often get off the ship with only my seapass and driver's license as I know that there are alternative procedures in place to help me verify my citizenship if it becomes necessary. Worrying about such bizaare situations as tourists being robbed of their passports is IMO foolish as it is far less likely to happen than the chances of missing the ship.

Thanks for the info on the state department program, I will complete that before my Jewel TA in August.

 

How do you upload a passport to a memory stick?? I can scan the document, but that doesn't seem to be any better than just a photocopy.

 

I used to take my passport ashore, but now I am rethinking that, may just go with a photocopy and the state dept registration. I did buy an RFID blocking case for my passport (and has slots for credit cards). I hate to run around on tours with one of those pouches hanging around my neck:) I am also looking into one of the security backpacks, one of my friends had her purse stolen in Rome by a thief who went by on a moped, slashed the strap on her purse, then his buddy behind him on another moped scooped up the dropped purse. Guess I've been too trusting and complacent.

I have always put our passports in a neck purse that is worn under my clothes, AND tucked into my waistband. If anyone cut the cord, the purse wouldn't drop out. I keep our cash and credit cards in this, too, and never carry a purse. We have a tote bag with us only.

When you scan any document it can be saved to any file type, mine being a pdf because my Nook reads that type, and also Adobe Reader can be downloaded from the internet for free. Once the document is scanned and saved, it can be moved to any portable storage device, like an external hard drive, a memory stick, or a portable reader like my Nook.

I'm not sure that I would trust that between the time it was known that I hadn't returned to the ship and the time the ship sailed, they will actually go to my room, retrieve my passport and give it to the port agent.

Neither would I. I dont know where that rumor (?) came from but according to something i read on here a few days ago, the question was asked to a Captain or other high ranking officer during a Q&A if they did that and he said absolutely not.