thegashlycrumb

On a Carnival cruise a few years back with my wife in mid-transition she needed to board in guy mode to match her documents/legal name and did the same in port in Bermuda.

On the ship she presented as her female self. I bought her stickers with her chosen name to put on her card. She introduced herself to the cabin steward and waiter with her chosen name.

We had no questions or problems even though she looked different from the pic attached to her card (although since she has striking long blue hair, it was very obviously a picture of the same person)

It would never occur to me that the line is for people who need to be escorted vs people who already know where their table is. If I see a line going into the dining room, I just assume it's for everyone and wait on the line, even if I know where I'm going (although I will tell the crew an escort isn't needed so they're available to help the next person). I'll have to see whether I want to change my behavior going forward. Most of my cruises have been on Carnival, though, where the line has sort of doubled up at the double doors to the dining room allowing crew to escort from both sides. It might be tough to move ahead of the line in that situation.

I do wonder if a lot of people on the line see people skipping the line, will they just go in and wander around looking for their tables, causing more confusion and delay?

I was on a Carnival cruise with my trans wife when she was still legally under her deadname (although she did have a female gender marker on her passport). At the time we booked it, she was early in her transition and wasn't sure how comfortable she'd be being out by the time the cruise came around. When cruise time approached, we contacted Carnival, not really expecting it to be too big a deal, but we were wrong.

Unfortunately, they required her to present as male upon embarkation so her cruise card and the associated picture showed her male presenting. This determination came from a supervisor after a call center employee wrongly told us it would be okay for her to board presenting female when her ID was male name and male presenting. We had requested this info in writing to have at the pier and that resulted in it going to the supervisor who provided us written documentation that unequivocally stated she would not be able to board unless she presented as a male and that the call center employee would be spoken to about her wrong information. When going ashore in port, she again reverted to male presentation to avoid any difficulties and/or unneeded stress getting on or off the ship.

Onboard, she presented female (and put a little sticker with her female name on her card), used the women's restrooms when it wasn't feasible to use the cabin or the unisex, and was never treated any differently than any other cruiser. I honestly don't recall if we gave her name to the cabin steward, but he saw her coming and going in both male and female presentation and was always friendly. We had set dining with the same waitstaff each night. She introduced herself with her female name the first night and that's what they used. Other staff had no need to ever address her by name. She didn't have any problems using her card on board the ship, but whenever possible we used my card to avoid any possible unpleasantness.

It wasn't an ideal situation and she certainly didn't enjoy herself as much as she would have without the added stress or being forced to present as male. It wasn't as difficult for her as it may have been for others further along in their transition or those with bad feelings associated with their deadname. It did prompt us not to go on any further cruises until her legal name change was complete.

We have since gone on a cruise on Celebrity with everything in her proper name. If anyone clocked her as trans, they didn't show it in anyway and it was a wonderful vacation.

In regard to the poster asking about getting a passport with the proper name, that would be the ideal scenario. Unfortunately the process for getting a name change differs from state to state and can be subject to a judge's discretion to grant. My wife's name change itself took 5 months, and then another few weeks for her updated passport to arrive.

Thank you everyone for your kind words and support. My wife presented herself as a male to board the ship and we had no problems getting on board. Once on board, though, she returned to her usual female presentation and we had no problems with anyone on the ship. All onboard purchases were made by me using my card to eliminate any possibility of anyone questioning her identity.

Unfortunately, this meant she also needed to present herself as a male to disembark the ship while we were at port.

Overall it was disappointing and did put a damper on things, but we didn't let it get us down too much.

I thought I would post an update here in case anyone was interested and if this helps anyone else.

In an initial call with Carnival, the representative told us there wouldn't be a problem. I thought I would contact them again to see if I could get something in writing just in case the check-in agent was uninformed. Upon contact them again and ultimately speaking with a supervisor, we were told in no uncertain terms that my wife absolutely MUST present herself as male in appearance at the port to match her identification documentation and that if she appears as a female, she will be denied boarding until she changes her appearance accordingly.

The supervisor stated that this is due to customs and border patrol requirements and not Carnival itself, though I can't find anything to verify this and nothing on the TSA website mentions anything of the sort for international travel.

Needless to say, this has put a significant damper on our enthusiasm for this trip, especially finding this out just days before our departure. I'm particularly disappointed to be hearing this from Carnival which has a diversity statement that among other things promotes its partnership with the Human Rights Campaign.

You may have already seen this, but there's some information about the accessibility of each ship on here:

https://www.carnival.com/about-carnival/special-needs.aspx

According to the port's website FAQs, 11:30, which I think is about the same time they start checking people in. They won't open parking until all passengers from the prior cruise have cleared out. You can however drop off luggage around 9 am.

Thanks for the responses!

I have been to Bermuda on a few prior cruises, but it's been a while and I don't remember the nitty gritty of the port processes, just the fun parts of the trips.

For the curious, the reason I'm asking is because my wife is a transgender woman and I want to be prepared in case she may be delayed or questioned about her (male) ID when getting off the ship. I know Bermuda is a conservative island. Getting back on the ship will be a different situation since Carnival will have already confirmed her ID at embarkation and her ship card will have her picture. I know the TSA policies on transgender travel, but it's a bit more complicated dealing with another country.

Question for recent Bermuda cruisers - did you have to show any ID to Bermuda authorities when you got off the ship or did you just need to show ID at the port to get back onto the ship?

Does anyone have any experience with a transgender person cruising whose appearance and presentation don't match their ID?

I'm cruising with my transgender wife (MtF) early November on Carnival. She has not yet been able to get her name and gender marker legally changed and is not optimistic about being able to get it done in the 10ish weeks before we cruise. (Worst case scenario would be to start the process and not finish it since she'll have to send out both her passport and her birth certificate for revisions)

I'm mostly concerned with embarkation, where while she's still recognizable as the man on her driver's license and passport, she will be clearly presenting as a woman. Assuming embarkation goes okay, she'll have a cruise card with a male name and a female picture, which may cause issues whenever getting on or off the ship in port. On board, we can avoid any concern about the male name on her card not matching her appearance by my using my card for expenses.

I'm going to call Carnival to discuss the situation with them, but I know sometimes personal experiences don't match a company's stated position.

The OP may have been referring to this post

I'm pretty curious myself.