national ID card instead of passport

[Aaleby]

I have booked Norwegian Escape, travelling from Rome 20th June. Been impossible to get a new passport in Norway for months because of production related problems. Have anyone successfully used the national ID card instead of a passport?

 

The NCL-homepage only states passport as a valid form for legitimation when entering the ship for the first time.

Edited June 5, 2022 by Aaleby

[1025cruise]

I think this is a case of you needing to contact NCL and get the answer direct from them. I'm no expert in the European travel rules with regards to EU/Schengen policies, but normally when going to multiple countries, you require a passport, not just a national ID.

[TrumpyNor]

I guess that you are meaning the EU national ID card that is available for all travels withing Schengen, and that is also available for Norwegian citizents? I can't see why that should not be accepted by NCL the same way they accept national US ID for cruises that visits US ports only. After all, it IS accepted when crossing all European borders within EU/Schengen.

Edited June 5, 2022 by TrumpyNor

[Aaleby]

27 minutes ago, TrumpyNor said:

I guess that you are meaning the EU national ID card that is available for all travels withing Schengen, and that is also available for Norwegian citizents? 

Correct. Royal Caribbean states the following: "EU Nationals may present a European ID Card." NCL only mentions a regular passport, which is kinda worrying. But totally agreed, hard to see why an EU ID Card shouldnt be accepted.

Edited June 5, 2022 by Aaleby

[ontheweb]

36 minutes ago, Aaleby said:

Correct. Royal Caribbean states the following: "EU Nationals may present a European ID Card." NCL only mentions a regular passport, which is kinda worrying. But totally agreed, hard to see why an EU ID Card shouldnt be accepted.

Unfortunately "should be" are famous last words. You had best get verification that is allowed from NCL, and preferably in writing.

[Turtles06]

55 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

Unfortunately "should be" are famous last words. You had best get verification that is allowed from NCL, and preferably in writing.

I agree.  You don’t want to find out at the pier that you don’t have what you need. 

[Aaleby]

Just now, Turtles06 said:

I agree.  You don’t want to find out at the pier that you don’t have what you need. 

Very true. Ive sent a mail, hopefully it will work out.

[TrumpyNor]

45 minutes ago, Aaleby said:

Very true. Ive sent a mail, hopefully it will work out.

You may also get some answers that can be helpful by submitting an digital questionaire to the EU commision about this subject:

https://ec.europa.eu/eu-rights/enquiry-complaint-form/home?languageCode=en&origin=yec_Travel

[njhorseman]

Even if travel with a national ID card is permissible under EU rules or the rules of other countries the cruise line has the right to set more stringent standards such as requiring a passport. This is very common practice for super premium and luxury cruise lines such as Oceania and Regent Seven Seas...both part of the NCLH family, which require all passengers on all itineraries to have a passport with a minimum of six months remaining validity regardless of whether lesser documentation meets the legal requirements for the cruise. 

While mass market lines such as NCL typically will accept the minimum legally required documentation there is nothing preventing NCL from requiring a passport and if that requirement is documented on the website you have to assume it will be enforced. Having a reply to the contrary from the EU doesn't override NCL's requirement.

Edited June 5, 2022 by njhorseman

[eurodolphin]

I am Belgian, I took a back to back cruise on the Dawn last month sailing from Trieste to Barcelona and back to Trieste, visiting European ports only. I traveled with my national ID card only and had no problems whatsoever at the pier check-in or on the ship.

Enjoy your cruise!

[NorthernJoey]

It should be just 100% fine as long as the ports visited are in Schengen states. And your ID is a real EU-ID, not EU drivers license which is used, at least in Finland on daily basis.

I have seen people thinking that EU drivers license is the same but it is not. Does have some same features but still not same.  For example it is legit ID in most European countries but not for crossing borders.

[eurodolphin]

On 6/5/2022 at 6:58 PM, Aaleby said:

Very true. Ive sent a mail, hopefully it will work out.

Did you get an official answer to your question from NCL?

[TrumpyNor]

Or even more important - did you get to go on your cruise? According to your initial post, you should normally be on board the Escape right now. 

[pdmlynek]

I know that for the original poster it is too late, but NCL does not really care about IDs, whether they are passports or identity cards.  

 

Interestingly, though, when asked about IDs (we had some problems with them as well), NCL told us that they don't really care; they just need the IDs so that they can run a background check on the passengers.  

 

[njhorseman]

13 minutes ago, pdmlynek said:

I know that for the original poster it is too late, but NCL does not really care about IDs, whether they are passports or identity cards.  

 

Interestingly, though, when asked about IDs (we had some problems with them as well), NCL told us that they don't really care; they just need the IDs so that they can run a background check on the passengers.  

 

I don't know who told you NCL doesn't care about your ID or passport, but that is absolutely wrong. They have to verify that every embarking passenger holds the types of ID or passport and in some cases visa required by every country on the ship's itinerary. 

[pdmlynek]

12 hours ago, njhorseman said:

I don't know who told you NCL doesn't care about your ID or passport, but that is absolutely wrong. They have to verify that every embarking passenger holds the types of ID or passport and in some cases visa required by every country on the ship's itinerary. 

 

My point is that they don't care if a person travels under a passport or a national ID card, as in the case of OP, or in our case where we had multiple sufficient travel documents to chose from.  As long as they have proper visa as needed, then any of the sufficiently valid documents are fine.  They do not prefer one sufficient document over another.

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, pdmlynek said:

 

My point is that they don't care if a person travels under a passport or a national ID card, as in the case of OP, or in our case where we had multiple sufficient travel documents to chose from.  As long as they have proper visa as needed, then any of the sufficiently valid documents are fine.  They do not prefer one sufficient document over another.

That is different from not caring. To be precise, I think you meant they don't care about what type of id as long as it meets requirements. Your original post seemed to imply they did not care at all as long as there was some type of id without mentioning it still had to meet certain standards.

[graphicguy]

14 hours ago, njhorseman said:

I don't know who told you NCL doesn't care about your ID or passport, but that is absolutely wrong. They have to verify that every embarking passenger holds the types of ID or passport and in some cases visa required by every country on the ship's itinerary. 

I concur.  NCL is pretty specific about the identification they will and won’t accept.

 

They outline it here….

 

https://www.ncl.com/freestyle-cruise/cruise-travel-documents

 

As far as background checks?  I don’t see them being able to do that, or willing to go through the expense and time it would take to do so.

 

If you’re flagged as having an arrest warrant, are on probation or parole, have a court order preventing you from travel, your passport will already be revoked or invalid.  That means, you either won’t have the documentation to embark, or your specific ID will flag you as having legal restrictions from travel.  Your Social Security number will also flag anyone who’s not allowed to travel because of criminal behavior.

 

While I’m retired now, my former company required background checks for anyone I wanted to hire.  We used an agency that did nothing but background checks.  It took the agency days to complete a background check and it wasn’t an insignificant charge to do so.  

 

 

Edited June 27, 2022 by graphicguy

[Aaleby]

On 6/26/2022 at 1:26 PM, eurodolphin said:

Did you get an official answer to your question from NCL?

I did:

Edited July 2, 2022 by Aaleby

[Aaleby]

On 6/26/2022 at 2:50 PM, TrumpyNor said:

Or even more important - did you get to go on your cruise? According to your initial post, you should normally be on board the Escape right now. 

Almost didnt make it; had to hijack a taxi infront of a large taxi queue in the center of Rome and came to the port one hour before departure (felt like being in a movie), but that was for completely different reasons;p

 

The cruise was amazing!

Edited July 2, 2022 by Aaleby

[ontheweb]

4 hours ago, Aaleby said:

Almost didnt make it; had to hijack a taxi infront of a large taxi queue in the center of Rome and came to the port one hour before departure (felt like being in a movie), but that was for completely different reasons;p

 

The cruise was amazing!

Now that you gave us the teaser about how you almost did not make it to the ship, how about the full story?

[Aaleby]

Just now, ontheweb said:

Now that you gave us the teaser about how you almost did not make it to the ship, how about the full story?

Full story would kinda be an hassle as my English aint exactly fluent, but Ill try somehow;  it involved arriving 1240 on the airport (departure time 5 pm), taking the wrong move (hindsight) and gambling to take the one and only train which would arrive on time (FCO->Rome Termini->Civitavecchia Port) instead of just jump in a taxi. 

 

Managed to catch the first train seconds before it left (or so I thought), got way too relaxed and suddenly realised that we should have been on Rome Termini 5 minutes earlier. Guess the train conductor, whom I asked whether the train went to termini, didnt really understand and uknowingly just said yes. As it clearly was the wrong route.

 

Should have arrived in Civitavecchia 3 PM, suddenly found ourself (me and my daughter) in a random place in Rome with no train to catch and a clock running far too fast. No taxi to be seen, lots of ppl waiting. Realised that I had one chance only; to hijack the first arriving taxi.

 

And it worked, luckily enough, even tho the taxi driver couldnt a single word of English. 1 1/2 hours later we walked into the departure hall and everything went smooth from there (spoked with NCL while sitting in the taxi and got the message that it was important to arrive no later then 4 pm. Succeeded with 1 minute to spare).

 

A few critically wrongs made by stress in the moment and an agent booking dangerously late tickets

Edited July 2, 2022 by Aaleby

[ontheweb]

On 7/2/2022 at 4:36 PM, Aaleby said:

Full story would kinda be an hassle as my English aint exactly fluent, but Ill try somehow;  it involved arriving 1240 on the airport (departure time 5 pm), taking the wrong move (hindsight) and gambling to take the one and only train which would arrive on time (FCO->Rome Termini->Civitavecchia Port) instead of just jump in a taxi. 

 

Managed to catch the first train seconds before it left (or so I thought), got way too relaxed and suddenly realised that we should have been on Rome Termini 5 minutes earlier. Guess the train conductor, whom I asked whether the train went to termini, didnt really understand and uknowingly just said yes. As it clearly was the wrong route.

 

Should have arrived in Civitavecchia 3 PM, suddenly found ourself (me and my daughter) in a random place in Rome with no train to catch and a clock running far too fast. No taxi to be seen, lots of ppl waiting. Realised that I had one chance only; to hijack the first arriving taxi.

 

And it worked, luckily enough, even tho the taxi driver couldnt a single word of English. 1 1/2 hours later we walked into the departure hall and everything went smooth from there (spoked with NCL while sitting in the taxi and got the message that it was important to arrive no later then 4 pm. Succeeded with 1 minute to spare).

 

A few critically wrongs made by stress in the moment and an agent booking dangerously late tickets

Whew, at least you made it. Now it makes a great story.

[eurodolphin]

On 7/2/2022 at 5:12 PM, Aaleby said:

I did:

Thank you! And glad you made it!