Taking passports to the beach?

[cinderella97]

We have a couple of beach excursions. I was wondering what you do with your passports at the beach? Do you take them with you or just copies? If you go in the water what do you do with them?
TIA!

 

[erionm]

Our passports stay in the room safe unless required by the country where the ship is docked. We only take a photo id (only needed for adults) and our room key.

 

[jcarwash]

We put the passports into the stateroom safe. I bring color copies of the passport photo pages on excursions, just in case.

 

[KashasMom]

I usually don't bring our passports but I bring a KYSS bag that I can lock on a chair or around a tree for the rest of my stuff.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We have a couple of beach excursions. I was wondering what you do with your passports at the beach? Do you take them with you or just copies? If you go in the water what do you do with them?
TIA!

Like others, unless the port requires that I have my passport while ashore, my passport stays on the ship. I use ship's card & driver's license to reboard the ship (both can get wet with no issue, so I keep those in my swimsuit while in the water).

 

[Hegemon]

How do we know whether a passport or simple photo-ID is needed?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

How do we know whether a passport or simple photo-ID is needed?

It's usually announced at the nightly show (evening prior to port call), and also in the Navigator - well, the old paper navigator.

That is, if a passport is required onshore, it'll be announced. You'll also need the ship's card to get back aboard. The default, if they don't require a passport is the ship's card & government-issued photo ID (driver's license or ID card works)

 

[cedricandsophie]

Never ever take them off ship. I have pictures on my phone.

 

[dcassetta]

It's usually announced at the nightly show (evening prior to port call), and also in the Navigator - well, the old paper navigator.

That is, if a passport is required onshore, it'll be announced. You'll also need the ship's card to get back aboard. The default, if they don't require a passport is the ship's card & government-issued photo ID (driver's license or ID card works)

Currently, if your excursion requires something besides a regular photo ID, you will get a message in the app. It will specify if you need to take your actual passport with you on your excursion.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

Currently, if your excursion requires something besides a regular photo ID, you will get a message in the app. It will specify if you need to take your actual passport with you on your excursion.

The only time we’ve needed our actual passports was when riding the White Pass Train on an Alaska cruise, as the train crossed from Canada back to the US (we did the bus up-train back tour). Otherwise, we leave passports in the room safe, but have PDFs on our phones.

 

[db0125]

I saw a lot of people with floating water proof lanyards that they put license, key card, and phone in while swimming which is a great idea. Meanwhile my passport was in my beach bag out of my sight the entire time thankfully it was at castaway and nothing happened but I guess I won’t make that mistake again. Never locked it in my room safe either I just whole heartedly trusted my room host he was great!

 

[tvguy]

I keep my Passport in a waterproof holder. I always take my Passport with me in a Foreign Port in case something happens where it is needed. Legal issue, missing the ship etc. The exception would be Castaway Cay as it is a place wholly controlled by Disney.

 

[Metalfan]

I keep my Passport in a waterproof holder. I always take my Passport with me in a Foreign Port in case something happens where it is needed. Legal issue, missing the ship etc. The exception would be Castaway Cay as it is a place wholly controlled by Disney.

This is what we thought you needed to do. Again, first time leaving the country lol. But just in case you are somewhere else we thought you should bring it just in case something happens.

 

[MomOTwins]

This is what we thought you needed to do. Again, first time leaving the country lol. But just in case you are somewhere else we thought you should bring it just in case something happens.

If you miss the ship (but don’t, just don’t—be back an hour before all aboard), DCL will retrieve your passport from the room safe and leave them with the ship’s agent.

Conversely, if your passport is stolen or lost while onshore, you will have a mountain of trouble to deal with to get home—it took us a month to get home when we were kids and mom’s bag with the passports was stolen when I was a kid. And every time we traveled internationally after than, we had to go through additional screening/verification which sometimes took hours because our identities were flagged in the system as people who had our passports stolen.

You can check on the DCL site if a passport is needed to go on the cruise. If not, then you do not need to take your passport onshore at any of the ports. If a passport is required for the cruise, some ports may require them ashore and others might not. You can mention the ports here and we can tell you.

 

[tvguy]

If you miss the ship (but don’t, just don’t—be back an hour before all aboard), DCL will retrieve your passport from the room safe and leave them with the ship’s agent.

Conversely, if your passport is stolen or lost while onshore, you will have a mountain of trouble to deal with to get home—it took us a month to get home when we were kids and mom’s bag with the passports was stolen when I was a kid. And every time we traveled internationally after than, we had to go through additional screening/verification which sometimes took hours because our identities were flagged in the system as people who had our passports stolen.

You can check on the DCL site if a passport is needed to go on the cruise. If not, then you do not need to take your passport onshore at any of the ports. If a passport is required for the cruise, some ports may require them ashore and others might not. You can mention the ports here and we can tell you.

First I have ever heard of them retrieving a Passport. Now, I do keep a photocopy of my Passport in the stateroom safe when I am in foreign port with my Passport with me in case it gets lost.

 

[YourEveryDayAdam]

I would leave my passports in the room safe, and take a photo copy of the photo page of your passport with you.

I take a photo ID, photo copy of passport photo page, a bit of cash, and a credit card. There's two real scenarios here:


If the whole thing is stolen:
it's a little inconvenient...you can get back to the ship and prove yourself to get back on...a little more hastle to get back on...but nothing too outrageous, but then your passport is safe for you to use to get back into the US, and get on a plane to get back home.
Then you probably would need to put an ID alert on your credit reports and get your photo ID replaced...but you've got your passport to use as photo ID until you can get that replaced.
All told, you're out maybe $50 for the ID replacement plus however much cash you had...all told, not too big of a deal.

If you miss the ship:
This is MUCH more inconvenient and expensive...don't do this. I repeat: Do. Not. Do. This. If you do miss the ship, then you'll have your photo ID, a credit card, some cash, and all of your passport info with you. It's everything you need to get yourself to a US consulate, get a replacement passport, get a hotel (if needed), and get a flight booked to catch up to the ship (hopefully) and/or at least get home.
The costs here will be great, and there are no guarantees that you will be able to or allowed to rejoin the ship. There are many laws/regulations about this and you may not be allowed to rejoin the ship at a later port.
If you can't rejoin the ship, you'll have to get yourself a flight home and arrangements with the cruise line to get your stuff from the ship.
The costs here can be pretty significant, but travel insurance will likely help depending on the reason(s) you missed the ship....but you should check your travel insurance as a lot of times they have exceptions for things that could be foreseeable, like traffic jams, and such.

 

[dcassetta]

The only time we’ve needed our actual passports was when riding the White Pass Train on an Alaska cruise, as the train crossed from Canada back to the US (we did the bus up-train back tour). Otherwise, we leave passports in the room safe, but have PDFs on our phones.

For some reason that I do not know, we were required to take our passports on the Glacier Explorer tour. I thought it was strange as we never touched land, just the Wonder and the excursion boat in Tracy Arm.

 

[MommyCMickey]

When we travel we make a copy of our passport to keep on our person inside this personal safe which is a life saver, and we leave the passport itself inside another personal safe in the room. It’s called SAFEGO PORTABLE LOCKBOX