Question about Private Tour Guides Needing Passport Number

[lindaann]

We are going to be on the Royal Princess on their June 1st cruise. We have two stops in Egypt. We are planning on going on an overnight excursrion with DeCastro Tours. I have two concerns about this, giving my passport number and a 50% deposit. I think giving my passport number bothers me more. Does anyone know if this is an Egyptian government policy or just the guide's requirements?

 

For those of you have done this type of tour is there anything you would leave out if you had to do it again? Was there anything that you wanted to do and didn't get the opportunity? What did you see or do that really surprised you that you really enjoyed?

 

I'm sure I will have other questions. Thank you all for sharing and if you have any words of wisdom please let us know.

 

Linda

[Trece]

I don't know this for a fact but a lot of hotels in foreign countries require that guests register their passports so it could be that DeCastro needs this number to facilitate your hotel stay. I'm always uncomfortable providing this information too but we just used DeCastro a few weeks ago (not overnight however, and we did not have to provide our passport number) and they really are a class outfit so I don't think you will have anything to worry about. I would bring a number of color copies of your passport with you so perhaps you can avoid having to actually surrender your passport (which is unavoidable sometimes but makes me really nervous!).

 

We'll be anxious to hear what you think about Royal Princess as we are sailing her in the fall. We've been on several Renaissance/Oceania ships but love Princess best and we're curious to see what our favorite cruise line has done with our favorite ship. Have a great time! :D

[HeinBloed]

Hello,

 

when we booked a shore excursion tour with Memphistours we have been also asked to pay a deposit by credit card (another asked for Western Union transfer...) and when I see the guide I should have a copy of my credit card and passport ready.

 

I felt uncomfortable like you and so I did not take it with me to the tour because I thought: the 100 EUR deposit was alreay on my statement and the rest was given in cash.

 

They stopped at a copy shop and made a copy of Credit Card and Passport and we were told that it's for the bank record.

 

Some foreigners just book tours and then later they tell that the cards were lost. To avoid that the bank will cancel all bookings the copy of the passport and credit card will proof that the booking on your credit card was made with your authorisation.

 

That's what we were told!

 

Our cruise was in January: until now there was only the deposit booking on my credit card statement - no cent more... and as long as my name does not appear in a "reward"-poster of CIA/FBI etc. I trust them that they did not misused my passport copy...

 

Regards,

HeinBloed