NCL Electronic Check-in Process Prep

[Erekosse]

What things should we have on hand or done in advance to make the electronic check-in process go smoother?

 

I have heard that we need pictures. What are the constraints for acceptability of the digital images? File size? Particular, facial features? No glasses?

 

TIA

[Ken the cruiser]

We just did our Jade check-in for our upcoming cruise out of Athens and the only upload requirement was a picture. Just make sure you're not wearing glasses and most of the picture is your face, and you should be fine. As far as picture size, ours were each around 630 kb.

[cruiseny4life]

For the photo, just take it with your browser. My husband likes to follow rules, so has attempted to use his green card photo (the original). NCL didn't like it. He had to take a photo using the built-in the app camera. 

 

I, on the other hand, like to follow rules, but see what I can get away with within the parameters of them. It took me about thirty minutes of taking silly pictures and uploading photos of me hiking, with my dogs, and in various other poses before one was accepted.

 

They re-took both of our photos during embarkation, so don't stress it. 

 

As for what you should do...if you don't want to waste your time (aka have a job where you're bored), then be like my husband. Otherwise, have fun and see what they'll accept! 

[pickle11]

Took my picture on my laptop when checking in this morning.   Took me three tries.  First time glasses(duh).  Second time to blurry.  Third time priceless.  Just follow the instructions.  Whole check-in process takes about five minutes.

Also have your passport number handy.  Why go back to the bedroom.

[shof515]

dont go crazy with the picture, they will retake a new one at the terminal

[ChiefMateJRK]

Frequent cruisers will just save a copy of the one that worked last time and upload that one for future cruises.

[DwayneG]

I'm going to do checkin for our whole computer-illiterate group.  Does anyone remember what specific questions I'll need answers for (in addition to pix)?  I know I need passport number, passport expiration, passport country, citizenship, credit card number, expiration and magic numberbirth date, e-mail, phone, contact name and phone,   Am I missing anything?  I don't want to have to wake any of them up in the middle of the night to fill in the blanks.

And yes, I know I'll have to watch the video as each guest...they'll watch later on themselves.

[dbrown84]

24 minutes ago, shof515 said:

dont go crazy with the picture, they will retake a new one at the terminal

exactly.  I just took one at the port.  never even bothered with the online upload

[EvanBedar]

I was asked to upload a profile photo, and a security photo to the NCL app.  Does that security photo serve as my check in photo?

 

[ChiefMateJRK]

1 hour ago, shof515 said:

dont go crazy with the picture, they will retake a new one at the terminal

They didn't take a new one for us at MCT in October.

[kelleherdl]

10 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

They didn't take a new one for us at MCT in October.

That is because the uploaded one likely was acceptable. Most are not. The check in agents are trained, or supposed to be, on what is an acceptable security photo. When in doubt, they are instructed to take a new one.

[shof515]

26 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

They didn't take a new one for us at MCT in October.

on my 2 cruises out of MCT this year, they had to retake one and the other one was fine.it seems it depends on the agent

[Sailing12Away]

2 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Frequent cruisers will just save a copy of the one that worked last time and upload that one for future cruises.

Look at you being all fancy and efficient. It's almost as if you've done this once or twice before... I'll turn you into my assistant travel coordinator one of these days. First task... herding cats, er 🐀's for a group journey because it's the one thing our friend wanted most of all.

[ChiefMateJRK]

2 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

Look at you being all fancy and efficient. It's almost as if you've done this once or twice before... I'll turn you into my assistant travel coordinator one of these days. First task... herding cats, er 🐀's for a group journey because it's the one thing our friend wanted most of all.

Yep.  My strategy is to cruise as often as possible.  Pure odds dictate that one of them will be an official 🐀 journey.  I just missed you and our great friend by a few weeks in October. 🥲

[BirdTravels]

8 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Frequent cruisers will just save a copy of the one that worked last time and upload that one for future cruises.

You would think so... But for us, both of our photos that worked for our August cruise did not work for our October cruise. I kept playing with different photos until it accepted one. And they retook both photos at the check-in in NYC. We'll see what happens when we check in for our December cruise. 

Edited November 12, 2022 by BirdTravels

[seemoreroyals]

We always use our passport photos.  Takes a few attempts but finally go through.  

[VegasChic]

I took a picture with my phone.  I noticed that my head was slightly tilted and NCL would not accept mine or my husbands.  Just look straight no tilt and try to do it in front of a window.  I had a picture of my daughter it would not accept it because her head was slightly tilted so I straightened the same picture and then it accepted it.  Such a pain!!

[NW Pacific]

Dwayne G:  think you have it covered, if the name and contact number is for "emergency contact". use daughters info in those spaces

[debenson0723]

Been on 6 cruises in 13 months, 6 different embarkation ports...used the same photo (with glasses on) with one retake at the port (Los Angeles). Last cruise it stated no glasses at 21 day check-in so had to take a new photo. No retake in Southampton. Can't wait to see what happens in February in LA again.

[dbrown84]

WOW.  I didn't realize it would be so much work to get a picture uploaded.  Glad I decided to skip online check-in on my last cruise.