Do you take passport off ship for excursions

[Rogillio]

Take a navigator with you. This has the number to the ship's agent in it if you are going to be delayed getting back to the ship. They can retrieve your passport from your room safe if they are not able to have the ship wait for you.

Now this is good advice! So you can keep your passport secured on the ship and not have to worry about them leaving with your passport. Good post!

 

[tvguy]

With all due respect, the 'safe' thing to do is leave them in the safe in your room. The blackmarket price of a US Passport can be as much as $30,000.

It is extremely unlikely you will need your original passport....especially if you are on a DCL excursion. The risk of losing or having it stolen is greater than the problems you might have if you missed the boat and didn't have it.

I respectfully disagree. A Passport is useless to you in a foreign country if it is on the ship. The U.S. State Department recommends carrying your passport with you in a foreign port, and leaving a color copy in your hotel or stateroom.

 

[jdb in AZ]

Thanks for the reminder to take a copy of the Navigator with the ship's contact number. My husband almost missed the ship in Puerto Vallarta. (A long story that's much funnier now than it was at the time. (Crisis + Time = Humor)

If you're on a Disney=sponsored shore excursion the ship promises not to leave without you. If you do a last-minute run to Wally World to stock up on Dr. Pepper, the ship's security isn't quite so patient.

If you DO miss the ship in Puerto Vallarta and have to fly to Cabo, would you be required to show a passport or would a U.S. driver's license be enuff of an I.D. I really don't want to find that out from personal experience.

 

[Disney Dreams]

We were actually told by several crew members on the Wonder NOT to take our passports in to port with us when we were in Nassau (which of course went contrary to everything we felt we should do). We had planned on leaving copies in our stateroom safe and taking the passports with us.

They explained that if we were to miss the ship, DCL has to get involved in our "situation" anyway and that they would retrieve our passports from our cabin safe (where we kept them) in the process of assisting us with getting either home or re-connected with the ship.

I don't know anything else to add except that it was told to us by several different crew members and we did as instructed. And yes, I ALWAYS keep my passport on me anytime I travel anywhere abroad if not on a cruise, so it was contrary to my instinctual behavior.

- Dreams

 

[KingRichard]

Take a navigator with you. This has the number to the ship's agent in it if you are going to be delayed getting back to the ship. They can retrieve your passport from your room safe if they are not able to have the ship wait for you.

Do they send it back to shore with a carrier pigeon?

 

[Rogillio]

I respectfully disagree. A Passport is useless to you in a foreign country if it is on the ship. The U.S. State Department recommends carrying your passport with you in a foreign port, and leaving a color copy in your hotel or stateroom.

Well everyone is entitled to their opinion...and everyone has different comfort levels when traveling abroad. I certainly see you point and in fact, when I was thinking about our cruise last summer, I took our passports with us on some occasions. When we went to Germany on our own I took the passports but did not take them to Norway or Swedan or Finland. In 2007 when we sailed the Med, I took them when we went to Rome on our own. I do not take them when on an excursion. I would also not take them in Caribbean ports or Mexico. When we were in London and did not have a safe in the room, I keep them on my person 24/7. Different circumstances = different answers.

So there you have it, like most things in life, you have to decide for yourself based on where you are, what you are doing etc. BTW, on our most recent trip to Honduras with HAL, we went on a snorkling excursion. Had we taken the passports with us, they'd of had to be left in an unsecured locker room while we were snorkling. No way would I recommend taking your passport in this case.

~Mike

 

[Rogillio]

Do they send it back to shore with a carrier pigeon?

I think they mean call the port BEFORE the ship leaves.

 

[Rogillio]

We were actually told by several crew members on the Wonder NOT to take our passports in to port with us when we were in Nassau (which of course went contrary to everything we felt we should do). We had planned on leaving copies in our stateroom safe and taking the passports with us.

They explained that if we were to miss the ship, DCL has to get involved in our "situation" anyway and that they would retrieve our passports from our cabin safe (where we kept them) in the process of assisting us with getting either home or re-connected with the ship.

I don't know anything else to add except that it was told to us by several different crew members and we did as instructed. And yes, I ALWAYS keep my passport on me anytime I travel anywhere abroad if not on a cruise, so it was contrary to my instinctual behavior.

- Dreams

Ah, good point! This makes sense. I can see where the cruise line is responsible with leaving the foreign port with the same number of people it came with. My guess is, even if you didn't call they may leave your passport with the port athority or immigration officials? But maybe not. If you did find your way on your own to the next port, it would suck to find out DCL left your passport at the previous port.

 

[PattiO]

I have another question regarding taking your passport on excursions. I will be cruising to the Mediterranean in June. This is my first trip to Europe and am very excited. I have been doing a lot of research. I have read that in order to use your credit card you will need your passport for identity or you will be denied. I have not seen any mention of this on the boards so I am just wondering is this correct?

 

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

I have another question regarding taking your passport on excursions. I will be cruising to the Mediterranean in June. This is my first trip to Europe and am very excited. I have been doing a lot of research. I have read that in order to use your credit card you will need your passport for identity or you will be denied. I have not seen any mention of this on the boards so I am just wondering is this correct?

I can't recall being asked for my passport for ID on our cruise last year when using my card, but why wouldn't they, they do it here with a driver's license, which isn't a legal form of ID over there for them. I'd have it, or pay cash.

 

[stargazertechie]

I carry mine ashore with me in a moneybelt.

 

[scrapbookmomma74]

In the past, I have left my passport safely locked in the safe in our room and carried my photo ID. Unfortunately, on the last Disney cruise that I took, when I presented my passport as ID when checking in at the port, they told me that since I was using that as my ID, and it has my unmarried last name on it (I got it only 3 years before I was married, so its good now for another 5 years), I would have to change my name on our room reservation and KTTW card. I WAS NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS!!! AND, since I had that name on the KTTW card, I would have to bring my passport on the shore excursions to present as my ID on the way back onto the boat.
This seriously ticked me off...in the past, I've used my passport and presented my photo ID with my married name and a copy of my marriage certificate, and there has been no problem with having my married name on the KTTW card (done 1 year before this incident).
So, what I have learned is to either change my name on my passport or use a birth certificate to check in so that my name can be correct. I don't like carrying my passport AT ALL!!!
Sorry for the rant!

 

[La2kw]

Foreign country=take my passport. That's always been my feeling. What if for some reason I miss the ship and need to fly? Someone gets hurt and we end up at the hospital? I get arrested? I know the chance of that is remote, but you never know. When I'm out of the country on a cruise or other type of trip, that passport is glued to me.

 

[MartDM]

For us, the whole point of having our passports on a cruise is to protect us should we have a medical emergency or other unexpected circumstance that finds us separated from the ship. Leaving the passport in the safe & carrying our driver's license or a photocopy of the passport while in port would do us absolutely no good if that happened.

Frankly, I'm not willing to bank my family's well being on my having the ability to contact the ship before it leaves port if we are having some sort of emergency while in that country, nor would I fully trust a member of the crew to properly retrieve our passports & get them to us.

The only true way to protect your family is to carry the actual document and use basic common sense & diligence to keep it protected while you are in port. It's not that hard!

The likelihood of an emergency occurring or a properly secured passport being stolen are both highly unlikely but I'd risk losing the passport before I'd risk my family being stranded in a foreign country without proper identification!

 

[La2kw]

For us, the whole point of having our passports on a cruise is to protect us should we have a medical emergency or other unexpected circumstance that finds us separated from the ship. Leaving the passport in the safe & carrying our driver's license or a photocopy of the passport while in port would do us absolutely no good if that happened.

Frankly, I'm not willing to bank my family's well being on my having the ability to contact the ship before it leaves port if we are having some sort of emergency while in that country, nor would I fully trust a member of the crew to properly retrieve our passports & get them to us.

The only true way to protect your family is to carry the actual document and use basic common sense & diligence to keep it protected while you are in port. It's not that hard!

The likelihood of an emergency occurring or a properly secured passport being stolen are both highly unlikely but I'd risk losing the passport before I'd risk my family being stranded in a foreign country without proper identification!

I agree and you said it much better than I did. I have never heard of visiting a foreign country without your passport on you. It surprises me that so many posts have suggested doing that. A foreign country is not the US, and the Disney bubble does not extend off that ship.

 

[Minniemiss]

I carry mine ashore with me in a moneybelt.

It's what we do as well!

 

[mommom5]

Go on line and google waterproof wallet, they make several sizes. Prices range $7.00 up, comes with a lanyard.

 

[chanibustie]

Don't know what the official American advice is, but the Canadian government says you can leave your passports on the ship and use your boarding card and photocopies when at port.
This damn site won't let me post the link because I'm a newbie, but it's the Dept of Foreign Affairs "advice for cruise travellers" website.

 

[Im_A_Princess]

Our Passports ALWAYS stay locked in the safe on board.
I think DCL told us that.
May have to rethink and make the color copies for safe and take Passports ashore.
But if you lose it or it gets stolen, how can you get back in the US?
In the ports it always seems like they (the country visiting) barely glances at license when going past them before get to ship check back in areas. Except when we were in Cartagena. We were ok but they were being jerks to a lot of DCLers.
We only take KTTWCs and Drivers Licenses ashore.
I don't wear any jewelry ashore either.