Passports/Excursions

[mompells]

When we leave the ship, should we bring our passports, or leave them in the safe on the ship?

[cathys75]

I went on a cruise with my mom, who left the passports locked up. We missed our excursion because she had to go back and get them. We were not allowed into the foreign country without the passports.

 

 

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[Truckersar]

Depends on the country the port is in

Do not need them in the Caribbean or Alaska cruises

We never needed one at port stops in the Azores, Canary Islands, Spain, France, or Italy

[Ashland]

This depends on where and what excursions you are doing...We always take our picture ID and SeaPass..and have only had to have our actual passports when we did an excursion in Alaska where we crossed over into Canada and when in St Petersburg Russia...Many feel it's safer to leave them in your cabin safe...but you have to know all the specifics of what you will be doing.

[Gayle V]

For the most Caribbean ports, you will not need your passport, just to leave the ship. BUT what will happen if you should miss the ship, and need to fly home.?

 

Whether to take the passport, when it's not absolutely needed, is a question that gets asked frequently. There doesn't seem to be a definitive answer. It seems to boil down to which gamble to you want to take?

 

Do you leave the passport safely in your cabin safe, and gamble that you won't have need of it on the island? Or do you take the passport with you, and gamble that you won't lose it or have it stolen from you? (At the beach, do you trust it to a water safe pouch on your person, or buried in the bottom of your tote bag on the sand?)

 

For what it's worth, hubby and I leave ours locked in the cabin safe. We take with us, our boarding card (of course), and our driver's licenses to serve as (the necessary at some ports) photo ID, AND we take a photo copy of our passports. Whether this is truely of any value, if we were to need to fly back to the US, I don't know. But, beyond being a reliable copy of our passport numbers, I doubt it.

[Clarea]

I've read that excursions that go to the British island of Tortola require a passport.

[Coralc]

I've read that excursions that go to the British island of Tortola require a passport.

 

Yes, if you are going there from St. Thomas for an excursion (dolphin swim) on Tortola....you need to have your passport.

[kahcarre]

My two cents (from a first-time cruiser in June... so take it with a grain of salt) but my husband and I have both passports & passport cards. I believe we will leave our passports in the safe and take our passport cards on excursions with us. Now, the Dept of State website does say that it is not valid for international travel by air, but at least we would have an official US-issued travel document.

[Mickeefan]

Instead of trying to remember which places we need it & which places we dont, we just have ours with us whenever we leave the ship. We, of course, also have our SeaPass cards and photo IDs.

[knittinggirl]

If you miss the ship, I think they get your passport out of the safe and leave it w/ the port authority. You should always take your cruise compass with you when you go ashore since it has the phone number to the local port authority.

[tidygirl]

We have cruised in the Caribbean, Mexican Riveria and Alaska have never taken our passport of though on our upcoming cruise thinking of taking copies of our passports with us. We try not to take anything of value off the ship (unless it can fit in a water box) so if we go snorkeling we don't have to worry about someone stealing our stuff off the beach. If they need my clothes, shoes or beach towel then I figure they need it worse than I do.

[kcmspatsy]

When we were in port in San Juan last month you were advised to have a government issued photo ID to be able to board the ship after you have been in port. We used our passports but a drivers license would work as well. And yes, they did check for that photo ID! It was posted in the Compass & announced as we came into port.