Do you take your passport -

Why take a useless copy ashore ??

 

You can not fly with one .

JMO

In the event that the passport is lost or stolen, a photocopy of the original will speed up the process of getting a replacement.

Why take a useless copy ashore ??

 

You can not fly with one .

JMO

Why? An example; let's say one is in a foreign company i.e.; Bermuda and driving a moped. The driver is involved in a moped accident and a pedestrian is injured. The driver of the moped is found at fault for the accident, incarcerated and the U.S. Embassy is needed. A copy of the passport has the passport number, the person's picture, and the "hard copy" is in the safe onboard.

50% of something is better than 100% of nothing ! :)

JMHO

In the event that the passport is lost or stolen, a photocopy of the original will speed up the process of getting a replacement.

Excellent ! Posolutely, absitively !:D

Why? An example; let's say one is in a foreign company i.e.; Bermuda and driving a moped. The driver is involved in a moped accident and a pedestrian is injured. The driver of the moped is found at fault for the accident, incarcerated and the U.S. Embassy is needed. A copy of the passport has the passport number, the person's picture, and the "hard copy" is in the safe onboard.

50% of something is better than 100% of nothing ! :)

JMHO

First off I would not ride a moped in Bermuda .

Secondly a moped driver would need a drivers license with a pic on it .

Lastly I get a stamp in Bermie so I would have the real thing .

First off I would not ride a moped in Bermuda .

 

Secondly a moped driver would need a drivers license with a pic on it .

 

Lastly I get a stamp in Bermie so I would have the real thing .

You asked why and you were furnished with an examplar reply you may relate to but not alluding to you, personally. If you took it personally; :confused:. I was attempting to help the OP not hinder or ofuscate. I am not looking for an argument. I have no time and have more important things to do. Have a nice day!:)

I leave my passport in the safe unless its required on shore. I have had a passport copy accepted as ID...in Cairo no less. If you are arrested the last thing you want with you is your passport because you probably will never see it again. A copy will do fine in getting someone from consulate officer to come visit you but they don't do much(they will give you a list of lawyers who speak English). Passports are valuable worth more than cash to a pickpocket. The DOD wants you to leave your passport in the safe except when required for travel...

All ships used to keep ALL passports that were not from the US. They were returned the night before or the morning you were leaving. You could not take your passport off the ship if you wanted to as you didn't have it.

We have been on more than 100 cruises and our passports never leave our safe.

Nope. Paul Gauguin didn't take our passports and barely even looked at them when we boarded. We put them into the safe in our cabin and didn't take them out until the end of the cruise.

They took my passport when I cruised on the PG. Interesting that they change their tactics.

On our last Equinox cruise, a couple from our ship had their rental car stolen, and in it all their ID's, credit cards and money, and their passports. Boy, did they have a major problem when they got back to FLL. Stood behind them at Guest Services when they were trying to get help for going back home and the GS manager told them that they always tell passengers NOT to take passports off the ship unless the port requires it. On disembarkation day, we saw them getting off the ship with an officer---the first to leave the ship, and when we disembarked at around 9:30, they were both still sitting in a US Customs and Immigration room, looking very upset.

I think the split between the "leave it your safe" group and the "keep it with you when you go ashore" group is about 50/50. There are some very emphatic people on both sides, too. So these threads never seem to end well, although they are often very entertaining! I think the best idea is to do what makes you feel the most comfortable. (I am one who leaves her passport in the safe.)

I think the split between the "leave it your safe" group and the "keep it with you when you go ashore" group is about 50/50. There are some very emphatic people on both sides, too. So these threads never seem to end well, although they are often very entertaining! I think the best idea is to do what makes you feel the most comfortable. (I am one who leaves her passport in the safe.)

As stated before; we also leave our "hard" passports in the safe and take a photo copy ashore with our licenses.:)

I always carry it.

If the ship leaves me behind I am screwed otherwise.

I have though about carrying a photocopy though.

I think the split between the "leave it your safe" group and the "keep it with you when you go ashore" group is about 50/50. There are some very emphatic people on both sides, too. So these threads never seem to end well, although they are often very entertaining! I think the best idea is to do what makes you feel the most comfortable. (I am one who leaves her passport in the safe.)

Sorry, that should be the "leave it IN your safe" group. Clumsy fingers!

I always carry it.

 

If the ship leaves me behind I am screwed otherwise.

 

I have though about carrying a photocopy though.

And if it's stolen or lost while ashore, you're screwed.

So what are the odds of the passport being stolen/lost vs. missing the ship?

I'm guessing the odds are pretty even, but I'm feel the odds are better for a passport being stolen/lost so I leave ours in the safe.

As stated before; we also leave our "hard" passports in the safe and take a photo copy ashore with our licenses.:)

Same here. Our passports stay in our safe unless we are required by local law to have them on our person, or the infrequent occasion that the ship must gather them for customs purposes. I am quite satisfied following the advice of travel professionals and government officials on this topic. It seems the only people who advise taking it with you ashore are a few travelers who insist on doing it their way. I can't recall ever having a travel expert advising to take it. And the experts should know better than the occasional traveler what is best. And, I have never ever had a problem not having it on my person when sightseeing in virtually all of the 30+ countries I have spent time in.

I always carry it.

 

If the ship leaves me behind I am screwed otherwise.

 

I have though about carrying a photocopy though.

All cruise lines will search you safe for your passports if they must leave before you have arrived back to the ship. They know who is missing and will retrieve the appropriate passports if found - IF they are in your safe - and will hand them over to the port agent who will have them when you finally arrive. This has been well documented in dozens, if not hundreds, of previous threads. This is no longer a debatable topic.

You are right -- our passports go into the safe when we cruise the Caribbean, Alaska, Canada/New England, Hawaii, Mexico.

 

But if you are sailing the Med or Baltic or other exotic itineraries, you may be required to give your passports to the purser.

Question... when you get off at the port, do you need your passport to get back on the ship with your seapass, too? (first time cruiser here about to go to canada/new england!)

Question... when you get off at the port, do you need your passport to get back on the ship with your seapass, too? (first time cruiser here about to go to canada/new england!)

Definitely leave them in the ship in those ports. No reason at all to take them with you, unless you are from a country which requires a visa to visit the US or Canada.

Question... when you get off at the port, do you need your passport to get back on the ship with your seapass, too? (first time cruiser here about to go to canada/new england!)

No. The only thing you need to get back on the ship is your seapass card. You have already presented your passport when it was issued at check-in so there is no need to present it again. The only time you may need to take your passport ashore is if the local authorities require them to be with you, depending on local laws or your nationality, both of which is infrequent. The ship will notify you if you need them with you.

Think about it this way - if you leave your passport in your safe, you will always know where it is because it is in the possession of your room safe. If something happens ashore that requires you to have it, an accident, etc., a copy will suffice until you can arrange to have it retrieved from the ship.

If you lose it, get robbed, or get pick-pocketed, you no longer have possession of it nor any knowledge of where it is.

And passports go missing many more times than anyone can imagine Interpol maintains a database of over 40,000,000 passports!

Read this for an idea of the value a stolen passport can have on the black market: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=131622

I used to take my passport with me to ports on cruises but was broken of that habit on my last one. It was a World Voyage and Cunard collected and kept our passports for the majority of the trip. We kept them from Southampton until after Hawaii. Passports were then collected and kept for the duration except for a couple of ports with major security.

I do carry a copy of my passport with me simply for the details on it.

No, you just take your sign 'n sail card and driver's license. We have been on over 100 cruises since our 1st in 1985 and always leave our passports in our cabin safe.

In the event that the passport is lost or stolen, a photocopy of the original will speed up the process of getting a replacement.

Why? An example; let's say one is in a foreign company i.e.; Bermuda and driving a moped. The driver is involved in a moped accident and a pedestrian is injured. The driver of the moped is found at fault for the accident, incarcerated and the U.S. Embassy is needed. A copy of the passport has the passport number, the person's picture, and the "hard copy" is in the safe onboard.

50% of something is better than 100% of nothing ! :)

JMHO

The Consulate can find you in their system just as easily without your passport number.

And if it's stolen or lost while ashore, you're screwed.

 

So what are the odds of the passport being stolen/lost vs. missing the ship?

 

I'm guessing the odds are pretty even, but I'm feel the odds are better for a passport being stolen/lost so I leave ours in the safe.

It's impossible to find any statistics regarding stolen passports because it is considered to be a security issue. I would hazard a guess that most stolen passports are stolen because they are being kept with other valuables- in a camera bag, in a purse, in the same pocket as a wallet. A thief is not going to waste time asking if you have a passport, they are going to take the quickest things they can take- the purse, the camera bag, the wallet. If you carry your passport in a seperate location (such as a passport holder against your body or in a different pocket) then you've greatly reduced the chances of having it stolen.

Still and all, the same risk analysis needs to be performed in deciding to take a passport ashore as needs to be done in deciding to get one for a closed loop cruise- what is the risk of being left behind? What is the risk of having to fly out from the port with little or no notice? I would expect that for most people that the answer is very low, so leaving the passport securely on the ship is the preferable option. I would think that in the vast majority of cases there is ample time to notify the ship that you won't be getting back and asking them to retrieve your passports from your safe and turning them over to the port agent (which is what I would do rather than rely on the ship to just know that I wont' be making it back).

Question... when you get off at the port, do you need your passport to get back on the ship with your seapass, too? (first time cruiser here about to go to canada/new england!)

To get back on the ship, you need your Sea Pass and government issued photo ID (Such as a driver's license). On the Canada/New England itinerary, we needed to show the photo ID (in addition to the Sea Pass) to the local port authority before being permitted to approach the ship for boarding in Boston, New Brunswick, and Bar Harbor.

You should also bring a copy of the ship's newsletter. It has the contact information for the ship's agent in the port, in case you have a problem while ashore.

It's impossible to find any statistics regarding stolen passports because it is considered to be a security issue..

not impossible -difficult maybe. UK embassy's report how many incidents are reported to them...the number one incident is "lost" or stolen passports.

"The sheer volume of UK passports that have gone missing worldwide is concerning to some. The latest figures - released under the Freedom of Information Act to the BBC's World At One - show 160,050 passports were registered as either lost or stolen abroad between 2008 and the end of October 2013. "

also the numbers vary wildly

http://www.talktalk.co.uk/money/features/insurance-travel-passport-security.html

"In 2005 more than 286,000 British passports were reported lost or stolen, of which over 90,000 were reported missing during the summer months (June - August)."

How many people missed the ship during the same period is harder to find out.

Australia

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says some 38,000 passports were reported lost or stolen in the last financial year. While only a quarter of these go missing overseas, that’s still more than 9000 passports going missing annually.

US

During the period October 1, 2010 and September 30, 2011, the State Department reported 253,037 passports as lost and 60,984 as stolen. A recent article in the New York Times tells the plight of a business traveler who lost and found his passport over

see

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/31/business/act-promptly-when-replacing-a-stolen-or-lost-passport.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all

not impossible difficult. UK embassy's report how many incidents are reported to them...the number one incident is "lost" or stolen passports.

 

"The sheer volume of UK passports that have gone missing worldwide is concerning to some. The latest figures - released under the Freedom of Information Act to the BBC's World At One - show 160,050 passports were registered as either lost or stolen abroad between 2008 and the end of October 2013. "

 

How many people missed the ship during the same period is harder to find out.

 

Australia

 

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says some 38,000 passports were reported lost or stolen in the last financial year. While only a quarter of these go missing overseas, that’s still more than 9000 passports going missing annually.

Interesting numbers, but I wouldn't make a personal decision on what I'm going to do based on them. Now if you said "1,000 passports were lost or stolen from cruise ship passengers last year while visiting ports of call in the Caribbean out of 300,000 visitors" that might be a more telling statistic from which to base a decision.

Interesting numbers, but I wouldn't make a personal decision on what I'm going to do based on them. Now if you said "1,000 passports were lost or stolen from cruise ship passengers last year while visiting ports of call in the Caribbean out of 300,000 visitors" that might be a more telling statistic from which to base a decision.

I don't think there is any way to tell how many of those visitors carried their passports ashore, though. If it was all of them, that would be one thing, if it was 1,000 of them, that would be quite another!

And for me, there is no reason to think that cruise ship passengers would be more or less likely to have their passports stolen than any other type of tourist. So I'm pretty happy with the Home Office stats on travellers in general.