Passport While Cruising
 

There's a discussion going on at Cruise Critic regarding passports while cruising, specifically whether to take them with you or leave them in the cabin when you go ashore.

An alarming number of people (to me, anyway) say they leave their passports on the ship when they go into port. This just seems like a bad idea to me, if only for the possibility of missing the ship and having to find our way home.

What do FT cruisers do? It's probably obvious from my post, but my wife and I carry ours with us every time we go into port.

Unless I know that I will need it for something (say clearing immigration to get on shore) I would leave it in the safe in my cabin if I had a safe. I would however always have a copy of the information page with me.

I felt the risk of having it lifted was way more of an issue then not having it.

But most times it's in the cabin.

And obviously, on the cruises where the ship holds your passports, it's not an option.

I also leave my passport in the safe and carry a photocopy of the picture/info page with me.

ditto! also put in luggage when traveling

It stays in my safe in my cabin. I haven't missed a ship yet and don't intend to.

I've kept mine on the ship in the safe.

I believe that non-US citizens actually get their passports taken away at check-in to be returned upon arrival.

The same as above. The passport stays in the safe in the cabin and I always carry a xerox of it with me.

Has anyone ever used a photocopy of their passport for anything? It sounds possible in theory, but how about in practice?

I keep it in the cabin - one less thing to worry about. I cruised with RCL a few weeks ago and all I needed to board again was a valid SeaPass.

I usually have a copy with me.

Yes, I've used it when purchasing things - especially for VAT forms.

For those who leave it in the cabin, what woudl you do if an emergency beyond your control arose and you missed the ship? Without a passport, you're stuck for a while waiting for a new temporary passport just to get home. If you have your passport, you can just hop the next flight to catch up with your cruise.

To me, the odds are higher that the passport would go missing if carried on my person more so than an emergency that caused me to miss the ship. If you are on a ship's excursion, the ship will wait for you if the excursion is late-this has happened to me quite a few times now. I would take with me the contact info for the ship's port agent (this info can be found in your daily newsletter); they can work miracles in getting back passports and things just in case.

One of the main reasons that we bring photocopies of our passport is just in case it is stolen or lost. It is much easier to replace it if you have a copy of your information.

Many times the ship keeps the passports. On cruises when they don't keep them, ours stays in the safe in our stateroom. Occasionally you hear of people that have had their backpack or purse stolen...that happened to someone on our cruise two weeks ago. It would be one less thing to deal with if your passport was tucked safely in your safe.

Bring it ashore, I'd prefer to have something that allows me to travel internationally if something beyond my control happens, just hold on to it really tight!

Yes, passport photocopies sometimes work for travelers checks in Europe.

I don't do ship's excursions. Further, I have read too many stories where the port agent says, "sorry, you're SOL".