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Passports on excursions


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Do you take your passports with you when you go on excursions? I have some friends that cruise a lot and they do. Wouldn't a copy of it suffice? Thanks!!

 

Copy cannot be used in place of the actual document. Its only use is to provide one with necessary information when making a police report or applying for a replacement.

 

Whether or not one should take a passport on an excursion depends on so many variables that there is no single reasonable answer.

 

Certainly one should take official photo id of some sort, along with one's sea pass card.

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The only times I've had to take my passport for an excursion were in Skagway, Alaska where we did the White Pass railway which entered into Canada, and St. Petersburg, Russia where everyone must go through immigration when leaving and returning to the ship. We were told of this beforehand. If it's not required, don't bring it.

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I take copies and my drivers license. I know others take their passports. The original is in the safe in my stateroom. I also keep copies at my house so family at home have them as well.

 

I am more concerned about someone stealing my things than an accident and I know both can happen. But, I prefer to keep the original on the ship.

 

 

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I take copies and my drivers license. I know others take their passports. The original is in the safe in my stateroom. I also keep copies at my house so family at home have them as well.

 

I am more concerned about someone stealing my things than an accident and I know both can happen. But, I prefer to keep the original on the ship.

 

 

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We do the same

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Do you take your passports with you when you go on excursions? I have some friends that cruise a lot and they do. Wouldn't a copy of it suffice? Thanks!!

 

It depends on where we are and where we are going. On one of our upcoming cruises, some of the excursions require a passport.

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The only times I've had to take my passport for an excursion were in Skagway, Alaska where we did the White Pass railway which entered into Canada, and St. Petersburg, Russia where everyone must go through immigration when leaving and returning to the ship. We were told of this beforehand. If it's not required, don't bring it.

This is exactly the two ports where we also were required to bring our passports off the ship...otherwise their kept locked in our onboard safe. We usually just take our SeaPass and driver's license into ports with us.

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Do you take your passports with you when you go on excursions? I have some friends that cruise a lot and they do. Wouldn't a copy of it suffice? Thanks!!

 

NEVER! We Leave our passports in the safe. We carry a copy of our passports and our licenses and that is it.

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We leave the booklets in the safe but carry the cards.

 

Same here, Passports in ship cabin safe; carry the US Passport cards off ship. All other documents are available on Google Drive thru smart phone (birth certificates, adoption papers, court decrees, guardianship, passports, etc.).

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I've never been on a cruise when I have needed a passport to visit the various ports, so I put my passport in the cabin safe as soon as I have access to my cabin. The odds of if getting damaged, lost, or stolen on an excursion trumps the odds of me ever having an emergency where I had to fly back and could not contact the ship so that they could get my passport.

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It depends where you are. Some countries require you to carry your original and not a copy.

 

Personally, I leave our passports in my bag when we go away. We go away frequently and have never lost or had our passports stolen.

 

 

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In the Caribbean, you don't need a passport AT ALL to go ashore. Leave it on the ship. Other countries may vary. IF, and that's a BIG IF, you should miss the ship, an officer will get all the stuff out of your safe and leave it with the port authority, so you can get home. Leave it on the ship. Take you DL ashore...its the same size as your seapass and easy to carry...and waterproof!

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In the Caribbean, you don't need a passport AT ALL to go ashore. Leave it on the ship. Other countries may vary. IF, and that's a BIG IF, you should miss the ship, an officer will get all the stuff out of your safe and leave it with the port authority, so you can get home. Leave it on the ship. Take you DL ashore...its the same size as your seapass and easy to carry...and waterproof!
As someone previously stated, there are exceptions to your statement e.g. St. Bart's.

 

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Passport card is a nice backup but an important difference between U.S. passport books and passport cards is that passport cards are not valid for international air travel; they're only acceptable for land and sea border crossings between the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean.

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If you don't bring your passports, make sure to have photo ID. I forgot to bring either on Nassau and only got in because my husband had his license (don't know if this is officially how they do it, but the lady let us back in "thanks to (your) husband") A copy of my passport did not suffice.

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Take a copy of Passport book on excursion, along with picture ID. Leave all original important items in your safe. Take your daily cruise compass. If you are left behind, the ship will leave your passport and safe contents with the Port Authority..Contact info for Port Authority is on the cruise compass.

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