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Help needed - Lost license while on cruise

disneybabe
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ZoeyVictoria

ZoeyVictoria

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One more place to look - Years ago, I thought I lost my DL while on a cruise. The next time I prepared to cruise, I was counting one-dollar bills in a bank envelope to see how many I had left, and my license slid out of the stack. Do you have a stack of cash somewhere?

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topnole

topnole

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1 hour ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

One more place to look - Years ago, I thought I lost my DL while on a cruise. The next time I prepared to cruise, I was counting one-dollar bills in a bank envelope to see how many I had left, and my license slid out of the stack. Do you have a stack of cash somewhere?

Also check your spouses wallet.  I sometimes put my wife’s license in my wallet for convenience.  

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Another_Critic

Another_Critic

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1 minute ago, tennislvr8 said:

Last summer when 8 of cruised out of Bayonne, 4 of us had a passport 4 had a DL. When disembarked the didn't do face recognition or check anything via customs. 

I'm going to assume that your last port was a US port and you did immigration there (or on the ship).

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kitkat343

kitkat343

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I forgot to bring my DL with me in Bermuda, and had left both my passport and DL in the ship safe.  I only had my seacard.  I picked up my 3 year old and stood behind my husband, who handed over his DL and all the seacards, and in the chaos of the five of us plus two grandmas checking through, they didn't realize I didn't have my DL.  So maybe carry a grandkid (if they're small enough and you can) and hopefully customs will just wave you through.  

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BND

BND

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6 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

I forgot to bring my DL with me in Bermuda, and had left both my passport and DL in the ship safe.  I only had my seacard.  I picked up my 3 year old and stood behind my husband, who handed over his DL and all the seacards, and in the chaos of the five of us plus two grandmas checking through, they didn't realize I didn't have my DL.  So maybe carry a grandkid (if they're small enough and you can) and hopefully customs will just wave you through.  

I've seen ports that want DL's with sepasses let people through with just a seapass.  A guy in front of us in April (can't remember which port but Caribbean) said he only had his seapass with him.  They told him he could go through but he needed to have his ID.

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jean87510 Great Review Rare

jean87510

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8 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

I forgot to bring my DL with me in Bermuda, and had left both my passport and DL in the ship safe.  I only had my seacard.  I picked up my 3 year old and stood behind my husband, who handed over his DL and all the seacards, and in the chaos of the five of us plus two grandmas checking through, they didn't realize I didn't have my DL.  So maybe carry a grandkid (if they're small enough and you can) and hopefully customs will just wave you through.  

you were lucky.  Back in 2018 my husband had my driver's license with him when he was getting gas for our scooter to return it.  They would not let me through.  I then remembered I had a copy of my DL on my phone and they let me through.  The phone DL worked in 2 ports in AK as well last year.  We always have passports as they are good to have and worth the extra expense.  Plus no anxiety or wondering.  And good for 10 years.  The expense is about $13 a year.  Good worry free investment.

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tennislvr8 Great Review Rare

tennislvr8

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10 hours ago, Another_Critic said:

I'm going to assume that your last port was a US port and you did immigration there (or on the ship).

Nope we started and ended in NJ. I thought it was strange. I even asked the lady directing us away from customs did we have to stop, she said nope. 

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reallyitsmema

reallyitsmema

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2 minutes ago, Another_Critic said:

But was your last port call before returning to NJ a US port?

 

They do Port Canaveral first to avoid having to do immigration in Florida.  One sailing had Miami as a port of call after the Bahamas and did immigration there and it was a nightmare.  People were in the terminal and outside in line for hours as they tried to clear the ship.  They have changed the order of ports that have a Miami stop now to be before the Bahamas to avoid immigration in Miami now.

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Another_Critic

Another_Critic

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2 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

They do Port Canaveral first to avoid having to do immigration in Florida.  One sailing had Miami as a port of call after the Bahamas and did immigration there and it was a nightmare.  People were in the terminal and outside in line for hours as they tried to clear the ship.  They have changed the order of ports that have a Miami stop now to be before the Bahamas to avoid immigration in Miami now.

We had to do immigration at PC (after Bahamas stop) on Grandeur in Nov 2019 and Feb 2020.  Long wait for people that wanted to return to the ship. 

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Mikew0805

Mikew0805

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2 hours ago, Lady Hudson said:

No - - my sister recently used facial recognition and she had boarded with a birth certificate.  This was at Bayonne.  Katherine 

Good to know. I have assumed incorrectly for quite some time. 

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BND

BND

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46 minutes ago, tennislvr8 said:

Nope we started and ended in NJ. I thought it was strange. I even asked the lady directing us away from customs did we have to stop, she said nope. 

That happens occasionally when they don't have enough CPB officers to work or they don't have facial recognition set up.  We've been waved through 2 or 3 times out of 35 cruises.  We were even waved through at Dulles one time returning from Nassau, but we were on a charter flight with my husband's company (intel community contractor).  So, everyone on the flight was known and no one could book it that weren't already booked to travel through the TA they used.  

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disneybabe

disneybabe

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*UPDATE*

I’m home!
License never found. Thanks for the suggestions on places to look.

Requested early luggage tags from guest services so we could get off earlier to start whatever process awaited us in the morning.

Happy to say it was a short easy process to get off the ship.  When they scanned my sea pass card we were instructed to wait for a ship’s officer.  We waited off to the side for about 10 minutes and were then escorted to the luggage area then to the customs checkpoint. The ship’s officer requested a custom’s agent to escort us to a side room.  The agent went through the family’s documents then questioned each child about their names and birthdates.  She was very pleasant.
We started leaving the ship at 7:50 and were in our car by 8:20

Smooth easy process!😀 

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not-enough-cruising

not-enough-cruising

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17 hours ago, topnole said:

This is a good back up plan unless your phone gets lost with your other stuff.  Years back the recommended approach was to email all of this to yourself so it could retrieved anywhere you could access your email.  Not sure if that is deemed too much of a security hazard now, but the point remains it is wise to have such back up stay accessible from anywhere and not just your own phone.  

I have all my personal documents loaded to a business cloud account 

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voyager70

voyager70

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54 minutes ago, disneybabe said:

*UPDATE*

I’m home!
License never found. Thanks for the suggestions on places to look.

Requested early luggage tags from guest services so we could get off earlier to start whatever process awaited us in the morning.

Happy to say it was a short easy process to get off the ship.  When they scanned my sea pass card we were instructed to wait for a ship’s officer.  We waited off to the side for about 10 minutes and were then escorted to the luggage area then to the customs checkpoint. The ship’s officer requested a custom’s agent to escort us to a side room.  The agent went through the family’s documents then questioned each child about their names and birthdates.  She was very pleasant.
We started leaving the ship at 7:50 and were in our car by 8:20

Smooth easy process!😀 


Thanks for the update. So happy all went smoothly for you.

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joeyancho

joeyancho

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1 hour ago, disneybabe said:

*UPDATE*

I’m home!
License never found. Thanks for the suggestions on places to look.

Requested early luggage tags from guest services so we could get off earlier to start whatever process awaited us in the morning.

Happy to say it was a short easy process to get off the ship.  When they scanned my sea pass card we were instructed to wait for a ship’s officer.  We waited off to the side for about 10 minutes and were then escorted to the luggage area then to the customs checkpoint. The ship’s officer requested a custom’s agent to escort us to a side room.  The agent went through the family’s documents then questioned each child about their names and birthdates.  She was very pleasant.
We started leaving the ship at 7:50 and were in our car by 8:20

Smooth easy process!😀 

Just a gentle suggestion that you get a passport for future travel.  It really is the best form of ID.   Glad everything was resolved easily.  

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