Snorkeling with your passport???

[Marietta]

We are planning on doing our first independent excursions and are afraid of getting left behind without our passports. What do you do with your passport while snorkeling or cave tubing? Can we get between Roatan, Belize City, Santo Tomas and Cozumel without a passport in order to meet back up with the ship? They are pretty close together, but I'm not sure about crossing borders...

 

thanks for any info,

 

Chris

[masq]

If you are worried about not making it back to the ship, I would take them with you.....

It is EXTREMELY difficult to get anywhere in the places you mentioned without one....trust me on this... been there done that. :eek: The one thing you would have that people in our group did not have ... would be the ship card that identifies you as a cruise ship passenger.

 

On a happier note.... we always book our excursions outside of the ship and 'knock on wood' have never had a problem.

 

As far as where to put them while snorkeling or tubing?? Get a dry bag like divers use or quadruple zip lock bags. :D

[10X]

On our 13 cruises, so far, we have booked mostly all (90%+) independent excursions. We have never yet even been close to being late to catch the ship. The shoreside tour operators have been catering to cruise ships for years and know the importance of getting people back to the ship and watch their schedule accordingly. We have been on some excursions where the group wanted to spend more time here or there and the tour operator told us that it would be at the expense of going to another location in order to get us back on time.

 

We just leave our passports onboard and never worry about being late.

[Marietta]

Okay, 2 reply's and opposite 2 opinions... both make a lot of sense.

 

We are booked with some of the most popular CC independent tours in each port, and plan to rent from Avis (getting all the insurance they will give us) in Cozumel. I guess the guides would loose a lot of business if they started letting CC members miss their ships - they are a pretty vocal bunch you know. ;)

 

Masq - WOW!!! I cannot imagine working so hard just to get to a vacation! I would have just gone home after I missed the boat. We don't even have travel insurance. Never even concidered getting it. Always thought it was just an add on for the TA to make more money. We can afford to loose our cruise cost, we don't cruise unless it is a really good deal, but always ass u me the other problems (medflight) "would never happen to US." :rolleyes:

 

Gives me a lot to think about.

 

Thanks,

 

Chris

[masq]

Yeah, a lot of people have said that.... would have gone home instead of trying to make it to the ship. lol It was stressful at the time, but we have made life long friends from the situation and wouldn't change a thing. In fact our group is making plans for the 5 year reunion in Cancun for 2008. :D

 

Anyway, my DH has another suggestion. Leave your passports on the ship in the safe..... however, take a photo copy and your photo id along with your cruise ship ID. This may be enough to prove that you are a cruise ship pax should you need to cross a border. :D

I would add to take the emergancy phone number that they give at the port talks.

[jwmcq]

The last suggestion is what we did - took a photocopy of our passports and our actual drivers license, ship card and a credit card. Then we put them (and our non waterproof camera) in a ziplock inside of a snorkel drybag fanny pack. It was easy to cave tube with this around the waist. We also needed this once before to put the rental car keys in while snorkeling. Works great! The waterproof fanny packs are available at any of the dive shops online.

[Marietta]

I think we'll leave the passports on the ship and take copies alone with id, ship card, credit card... Does anyone know of any fanny packs that are good to snorkel with? I've done a lot of searching online but every one that I can find with a review has at least one really bad one where their stuff got ruined. Is the CC beach safe waterproof? Is it big enough for keys, and the other stuff? Is seams pretty reasonable if it is watertight to snorkel with...

 

Thanks,

 

Chris

[jwmcq]

http://www.divesports.com/mall/akona_bag_akb762.asp

 

This is the one that I have used successfully for several years. But I usually put my camera in a ziplock just for added safety. But this one has never leaked - knock on wood. :rolleyes:

[shepp]

Lewis & Clark make a nice little double-sealing waterproof neck pouch that's inexpensive and has worked well, at least for the few times I've used it. I doubt I'd entrust a passport to it without doublebagging, but for a photocopy, cash, and ship's card, it works nicely.

[dforeigner]

I used one like the in the picture here and my passport did not get wet. FYI: A photocopy of a passport will not allow you to board a plane to fly internationally.

 

Click on the picture to be linked to the store.

 

[Pilot70D]

We dive in almost every port and we have never booked our dive trips through the cruise lines. So far we have never come close to missing the departure time for any port on any cruise. We never take our passports ashore. They stay locked up in the safe in our cabin.

 

We each have a waterproof pouch designed to hold documents while diving or snorkeling. We each take a photocopy of our passport, one credit card, driver's license, cruise card and a small amount of cash (no more than $50 apiece). Just a quick tip - our cash is nine five dollar bills and five ones. It might be tough to get change for a twenty once you leave the ship. The cash is strictly for transportation, tips and any small purchase coincidental with the dive where credit cards may not work.

 

All of this stuff along with the money goes in our waterproof pouches. When diving we put the pouches in one of the pockets on our respective BCD's. Have never had any leakage in the pouches what so ever including dives as deep as 101-102 feet. The pouches do come with a neck strap but neither of us like having anything around the neck when diving.

 

If anyone wants more info on the pouches we use send me an email at pilot70d@yahoo.com and I'll dig out the make and model number. They weren't expensive and have worked well over a four year period.

 

Hope this is helpful. Enjoy that next cruise and everyone have a great day out there.