Thanks for all of the tips on this thread.
I live in Australia so the check-in window opened mid afternoon our time. I was in a meeting at that time so started checking in about 30 minutes after the check-in window opened. I checked in using a laptop and besides being slow and having one of the kids photos rejected, it worked fine. Fortunately having read this thread I had backup photos on hand.
However...
Whilst the system is quite smart in picking up all the details from your passport image and pre-populating all of the fields for you, it isn’t smart enough to detect an issue and warn you. I hadn’t realised that my passport only had 4 months left on it and Disney require you to have 6 months validity. 2 weeks before departure I received an email from Disney that my wife and I both failed the check-in process and my heart sank.
I had to rush into the city (Sydney) to lodge an urgent passport application and pay an extra $200+ on top of the $400+ passport fee for the privilege. That wouldn’t have been necessary had the system warned me during the check-in process, as I would’ve had enough time to apply for a passport renewal through standard channels. Kudos to the Australian passport office for turning my passport application around in 24 hours.
My wife’s situation was somewhat perplexing... to begin with at least. The message in the email from Disney was that her passport was not issued in her country of citizenship. I had no idea what that meant. My wife has a British passport and it was issued there, plus the system automatically picked up and populated the citizenship from the passport.
I tried entering it again and then it asked for her Australian visa details. The problem with that was that it wanted an expiry date and my wife is on a permanent spousal visa, so it never expires. Also, she’d applied for Australian citizenship during the year, which she passed, but because Australia likes people to attend citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day (26th January), she won’t get her citizenship documents until a week after our cruise. My wife told the immigration people at her citizenship interview that she was travelling in January before Australia Day and they said it wouldn’t be a problem.
Anyhow, I called Disney about the permanent visa and after several holds to check with supervisors, the person suggested that I put an arbitrary date at the end of the cruise year (2024), load a copy of the permanent visa, and they’d make a note on the system for the checker. This didn’t seem quite right to me so I asked my with to call Australian immigration to clarify the situation. She was told that as she’d been in Australia for 4 years, which is required to get citizenship, she’d need to get a Resident Return Visa (RRV) to leave and re-enter Australia until she gets her citizenship officially and can apply for an Aussie passport. She could have left on her British passport but could not have returned without the RRV.
So, another $400+ and 10 minutes later we had an RRV and with my newly minted passport, we were able to complete the on-line check-in process. 2 days later (today) we received confirmation that we’re good to go. We’re so relieved, and $1000 poorer!
So something else to add to your check-in list... ensure that you have 6 months validity on your passports, and if you’re a permanent resident and not a citizen of the country you live in, check whether you need a visa to travel.
