18 year old who doesn't have license - what documents would she need to board?

[sparks1093]

25 minutes ago, Mum2Mercury said:

I hear what you're saying, but a school ID doesn't feel like "enough"; that is, the security behind it isn't nearly so strict as the DMV /driver's licenses.  I was in charge of school pictures for years, and the person who makes the IDs is often the photographer.  Our school IDs were just a picture and a name -- no birth date, no address, etc.; again, this makes the school ID feel "lesser". 

Many of our students were insanely excited to have those school IDs -- mostly because it was their first photo ID card.  

Anyway, I'd be afraid of having a fuss about it at the terminal and wouldn't be willing to go with "just that".  

Regardless, why would public and private make any difference?  

 

To you it may not feel like enough but they are acceptable nonetheless. The people that carry these IDs are a low risk to the national security, which is why this type of ID is permissible for them. Some people fixate on the requirement that the ID needs to be issued by the government and a private school would seem to be excluded because of that. @Ferry_Watcher has cleared folks and may be able to discuss how often these IDs show up. 

[Hlitner]

When it comes to school ID, whether or not that is sufficient under the law/regulations (Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WCTI)) and the cruise line's own embarkation rules is not the issue.   The problem can happen at the port is if the folks who handle the actual check-in process say "this is not good enough."  You are then into an adversarial situation which may or may not work out.  Over the years we have witnessed more than a few folks turned away at embarkation (tears and loud voices were a good tip off).  The bottom line is that even if you are right (that student ID is sufficient) that does not mean much if the folks at the terminal say no.   I should add that an even more common problem is that the birth certificate document gets rejected for various reasons

 

Hank

[sparks1093]

31 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

When it comes to school ID, whether or not that is sufficient under the law/regulations (Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WCTI)) and the cruise line's own embarkation rules is not the issue.   The problem can happen at the port is if the folks who handle the actual check-in process say "this is not good enough."  You are then into an adversarial situation which may or may not work out.  Over the years we have witnessed more than a few folks turned away at embarkation (tears and loud voices were a good tip off).  The bottom line is that even if you are right (that student ID is sufficient) that does not mean much if the folks at the terminal say no.   I should add that an even more common problem is that the birth certificate document gets rejected for various reasons

 

Hank

If the cruise line says it is sufficient why in the world would the folks in the terminal say no? The terminal personnel do everything they can to get people onboard, if they are saying no it's for a valid reason (such as having an expired ID) and a supervisor has normally gotten involved. In any event I would personally rather show up with the student ID rather than nothing (well, if we could turn the clock back almost 50 years). 

[Hlitner]

12 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

If the cruise line says it is sufficient why in the world would the folks in the terminal say no? The terminal personnel do everything they can to get people onboard, if they are saying no it's for a valid reason (such as having an expired ID) and a supervisor has normally gotten involved. In any event I would personally rather show up with the student ID rather than nothing (well, if we could turn the clock back almost 50 years). 

My goodness, you are trying to apply logic (is your name really Spock) to the travel industry!  Mistakes are made, all too often, throughout the travel world including at embarkation.  Sometimes it can be quite humorous and other times it is very sad (such as when a person is incorrectly denied boarding).

 

I will go off topic and tell our recent travel hassle.  This past April/May we took a month long cruise from the USA to Monte Carlo.  When we disembarked at MC there was no immigration or customs.  We literally walked off the gangplank onto a long wharf with no officials.  From there we took a limo over to Nice where we spent a few days.  We than flew from Nice to Prague (via Amsterdam) where we had planned to spend a few weeks driving around the Czech Republic and Poland.  The trip went perfectly until we flew home.  We flew a commuter jet from Prague to Munich where we were to connect to a Lufthansa flight back to the States.  But in Munich we had to go through an official Passport Check and the German Immigration Officer noticed that we did not have an entry stamp for the EU (nobody did that at Monte Carlo or our other EU ports).  

 

The Official gave us a hard time and, at one point I thought we were going to be detained.  I explained our itinerary and he asked for proof!  Fortunately, I had all of our cruise info and airline boarding passes in my carry-on and tossed all the documents onto the counter.  As he worked through all the documents his collegue (who shared the booth) started to laugh at his partner.  I finally got annoyed enough to make the point that it was not our fault that immigration in Monte Carlo, France, Netherlands, and Czech Republic had no problem.  His collegue laughed harder and finally had some words with our reviewing officer.  Finally, after more than 10 minutes our Immigration Officer shrugged and told us to go!

 

The point of my story is that even if a traveler does everything technically correct it may not be enough!  In our case the only thing that saved us from missing our flight to the USA was that I just happened to have a lot of hard copy documents in my carry-on (most folks do not even have hard copies of anything these days).

 

Hank

[Ferry_Watcher]

54 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

To you it may not feel like enough but they are acceptable nonetheless. The people that carry these IDs are a low risk to the national security, which is why this type of ID is permissible for them. Some people fixate on the requirement that the ID needs to be issued by the government and a private school would seem to be excluded because of that. @Ferry_Watcher has cleared folks and may be able to discuss how often these IDs show up. 

 

Generally speaking, a school photo ID would be accepted at check-in for an eighteen yr old (18) as long as everything else was in order, i.e., birth certificate matched the photo ID name, the 18 yr old was traveling with family members, etc.

Check-in agents themselves do not deny a passenger.  There are times that we know that the passenger will be denied due to a visa issue, but usually a supervisor will break the news.  If a denial is going to happen, it goes to at least one supervisor, sometimes two, and the final arbiter could be the ship's documentation officer, who is often times behind the check-in counter working with the pier coordinators.

While I can only speak about what would happen in Seattle, it seems unlikely that an 18 yr old (who could be still in HS), and is traveling with a valid birth certificate, along with their family on a closed loop cruise would be denied boarding due to only having a school issued photo ID.

 

 

[Mum2Mercury]

2 hours ago, sparks1093 said:

Some people fixate on the requirement that the ID needs to be issued by the government and a private school would seem to be excluded because of that.

Ah, that makes sense now.  

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

...  The problem can happen at the port is if the folks who handle the actual check-in process say "this is not good enough."  You are then into an adversarial situation which may or may not work out ... 

Exactly what I'm thinking.  

1 hour ago, sparks1093 said:

If the cruise line says it is sufficient why in the world would the folks in the terminal say no? 

In a perfect and fair world, you'd be right -- but sometimes individual agents don't understand things as well as one might expect.  This isn't good, but it's life.  

 

For example, I had a very bad interaction with a guy at the DMV.  I was totally right, but he kept my daughter from getting her driver's license that day.  I was proven right -- but not that day and not by his immediate supervisor, who took his side without even paying attention.  

 

I don't want to do anything unusual (like having a school ID) when checking in at a cruise terminal.  I'm pretty sure a DMV ID card costs only $5-10.  The time involved in getting it would be more effort than the money.  

Edited December 12, 2022 by Mum2Mercury

[sparks1093]

59 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

My goodness, you are trying to apply logic (is your name really Spock) to the travel industry!  Mistakes are made, all too often, throughout the travel world including at embarkation.  Sometimes it can be quite humorous and other times it is very sad (such as when a person is incorrectly denied boarding).

 

I will go off topic and tell our recent travel hassle.  This past April/May we took a month long cruise from the USA to Monte Carlo.  When we disembarked at MC there was no immigration or customs.  We literally walked off the gangplank onto a long wharf with no officials.  From there we took a limo over to Nice where we spent a few days.  We than flew from Nice to Prague (via Amsterdam) where we had planned to spend a few weeks driving around the Czech Republic and Poland.  The trip went perfectly until we flew home.  We flew a commuter jet from Prague to Munich where we were to connect to a Lufthansa flight back to the States.  But in Munich we had to go through an official Passport Check and the German Immigration Officer noticed that we did not have an entry stamp for the EU (nobody did that at Monte Carlo or our other EU ports).  

 

The Official gave us a hard time and, at one point I thought we were going to be detained.  I explained our itinerary and he asked for proof!  Fortunately, I had all of our cruise info and airline boarding passes in my carry-on and tossed all the documents onto the counter.  As he worked through all the documents his collegue (who shared the booth) started to laugh at his partner.  I finally got annoyed enough to make the point that it was not our fault that immigration in Monte Carlo, France, Netherlands, and Czech Republic had no problem.  His collegue laughed harder and finally had some words with our reviewing officer.  Finally, after more than 10 minutes our Immigration Officer shrugged and told us to go!

 

The point of my story is that even if a traveler does everything technically correct it may not be enough!  In our case the only thing that saved us from missing our flight to the USA was that I just happened to have a lot of hard copy documents in my carry-on (most folks do not even have hard copies of anything these days).

 

Hank

No, not logic, but a knowledge of how things work. Yes, people can make mistakes but the folks processing IDs in the cruise terminal are pros and as a subsequent post confirms they aren't the ones who do the denying, it's a supervisor one or two levels above them.

 

When we entered the Netherlands the official looked at my wife's passport and said "you do know that you need a valid passport to enter this country, right?". My heart sunk and I wondered what he was talking about since the passport was less than 6 months old. He said that DW had not signed it and let us proceed. So yes, there are super-officious people out there but they are usually the ones that are carrying government credentials, not folks working at a cruise line check in terminal.

[sparks1093]

13 minutes ago, Mum2Mercury said:

Ah, that makes sense now.  

Exactly what I'm thinking.  

Because sometimes individual agents don't understand things as well as one might expect.  This isn't good, but it's life.  

For example, I had a very bad interaction with a guy at the DMV.  I was totally right, but he kept my daughter from getting her driver's license that day.  I was proven right -- but not that day and not by his immediate supervisor, who took his side without even paying attention.  

I don't want to do anything unusual (like having a school ID) when checking in at a cruise terminal.  

If you haven't read post #30 I would recommend it. I don't see anything unusual in a teenager using a school ID if that is all that they have.