Experienced cruiser makes a DUMB mistake (how can you forget your passports??)

[BND]

Our passports are always in my laptop tote that goes on every trip with us.  If we're going somewhere we don't need our passports, I leave them on our coffee table in our family room until we get back when they immediately go back in the bag. I don't have to think, "now where did I put them"?   I have always said, if we have our passports, at least we can get on the ship.

 

A few years ago, we were in Baltimore and had entered through the suite entrance where they feed you in after they check your paperwork to the security line.  We were a couple of people back so we were waiting.  An older couple came in the regular line and she starts frantically looking through her bag and he was getting angry with her and she was in tears. We could only assume they didn't have their passports or bc's.  We didn't see how it played out as we went through security at that point and onto check in.  We didn't see them again and since GR is such a small ship, we usually see a lot of the same people. It doesn't mean they didn't get onboard, but they were both really upset last we saw them.

Edited December 22, 2022 by BND

[cruiselvr04]

Passports are kept in a special large zip wallet with set sail passes and everything else we need.  We don’t leave the driveway until I pull it out and show it to the DH.  It would be on me and I’d never hear the end of it so yep we check in the driveway.  Last cruise that was 3:45 a.m. but still checked.  
 

So glad this turned out okay for you.  I’d have been in tears.  

[monorail81]

2 hours ago, cruiselvr04 said:

Passports are kept in a special large zip wallet with set sail passes and everything else we need.  We don’t leave the driveway until I pull it out and show it to the DH.  It would be on me and I’d never hear the end of it so yep we check in the driveway.  Last cruise that was 3:45 a.m. but still checked.  
 

So glad this turned out okay for you.  I’d have been in tears.  

That’s exactly what I do!  And the eye roll that I get from him…….😂

[Merion_Mom]

I am just gobsmacked that they will accept a photograph of a birth certificate.

[swoopy2110]

Phew! Glad your story had a happy ending.

 

[BND]

39 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

I am just gobsmacked that they will accept a photograph of a birth certificate.

A scanned signature is accepted on documents for many things so why not a photo of a BC?  

Edited December 23, 2022 by BND

[soremekun]

It's great to read your mother reached the wonderful age of 95 years old..... and knows how to send a picture via text.  So awesome.

Edited December 23, 2022 by soremekun

[Ferry_Watcher]

@ajtaylor29, Thanks for sharing your story.  As someone who has checked-in cruise passengers, I can say that every cruise day we have passengers who arrive at the pier without their travel documents.  The folks who work that 'special desk' assisting folks like yourself are wonderful folks who really do want you to be successful in getting a copy of your birth certificate so you can get on the ship. 

So glad that it worked out for you.  Hopefully your story will have an impact, and save someone from forgetting their passport (or maybe knowing exactly where in the house a relative, friend or neighbor can easily find a birth certificate to save a vacation cruise)!

 

Thanks again for sharing your story.

[luv2sailAgain]

I feel your pain! I was  an idiot many years ago. This was even post 911.

 

DH and I were at the airport checking in for a flight to Cancun. My sister was watching our kids and this was my first time to ever leave them. Pull out my Passport to show to the airline counter agent. Expired! I am such a world travler - ha ha.  The agent sent me to "see that person sitting by the window?" The person by the window was just sitting on a regular airport seat. She looked at my passport and maybe something else. It was so long ago I don't even remember. She issued me an "affadavit." Off we went to Mexico. I was freaked out the whole trip worried that I would not be let back into the country. But all went well when we returned.

 

Every once in a while when I am not even traveling, I will freak out and tear into the files to be sure my passport is up to date.

 

You are not alone! I am usually so obsessive about travel documents and everything else in life. But not that time.

[firefightermediclasvegas]

Ajtaylor29 I feel your pain and embarrassment.  The first time we took my two sons several years ago on a cruise with us, I grab my daughter’s passport by mistake,  instead of my wife’s.  My 18 y/o daughter was not with us. The check-in person didn’t even notice I gave him my daughters passport and not my wife’s.  My wife noticed it when he handed it back to me.  We were escorted to the special counter as my son cried thinking we were not going to be allowed to get on the ship.  Thankfully, I got a hold of a friend who went to our house, retrieved her birth certificate and faxed it to us at the terminal.  I still feel like a Dumb A— for making that mistake.  I now triple check before we leave on home for any cruise.

[fac429]

I did something kinda similar recently... was disembarking, and somehow managed to leave my passport on a counter in my suite.  Didn't realize it until I was about to hit customs and went to pull it out of my bag.  I was unpacking my suitcase and looking through every item of clothing, etc. in the customs line (but somehow not drawing any suspicion, which I thought was strange).  I was all set to try to explain the situation to the customs rep, but they did the facial scan and sent me on my way.  Went home, immediately filed a "lost and found" request, and about a month later my passport showed up at my door.  (Why it took a month is another frustrating story- but suffice to say that you should never leave anything behind on the ship that you'll need in the near future.)  

 

I will say that if my wife had been on the cruise there's virtually no chance this would have happened... I'm usually pretty good at remembering this kind of thing, but she's way more obsessive about it.

[Katems75]

What is most surprising to me is that your 95 year old mother knows how to take a picture and send it to you on her phone!!!  My mother, in her eighties, doesn't even HAVE a cell phone, OR a computer, OR internet (so no Netflix or other streaming).  Huge kudos to your mom for being so techy!!

[shofer]

This happened to us in 2008.  We were focusing on the coming snowstorm and hubby assured me that they were on his dresser.  I remembered them on the plane.  Our great TA went to our house with a locksmith (friend), found the documents and FedEx'd them to our hotel.  A minor glitch when someone else wrote the wrong address of the hotel, but it did arrive after I left several messages with FedEx.  Never again.

 

[PhillyFan33579]

Glad everything worked out, but 17 cruises in 10 years is far from being an experienced cruiser. 

[Tiggerontheseas]

13 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Glad everything worked out, but 17 cruises in 10 years is far from being an experienced cruiser. 

 

Sure it is.  She was simply pointing out that they weren't newbie travellers.  Almost 2 cruises a year for a decade is quite a lot, IMO.

Edited December 23, 2022 by Tiggerontheseas

[Lane Hog]

14 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Glad everything worked out, but 17 cruises in 10 years is far from being an experienced cruiser. 

 

Hogwash.  3-5 cruises counts as experienced in my book, depending on the length...   17 cruises is probably more than a month at sea combined.  How much more do you really need?

[D4]

5 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

I am just gobsmacked that they will accept a photograph of a birth certificate.

Me too!  That is shocking!

[Mikew0805]

17 hours ago, ajtaylor29 said:

So, after 17 cruises over the last 10 years, including trips to Europe, i consider myself to be the most organized, streamlined packer in my family. I'm the one who gathers all the "important" documentation, while my husband frets over how many bathing suits he needs and does he really want to take a sport coat or just go casual?! I am always packed and waiting at the door while he finishes all his last minute checks (and of course i make fun of him for being so obsessive).

 

Our last cruise (December 3rd on Symphony out of Miami): same process as always. We flew to Miami the night before, stayed in a local Hyatt, then got up and called Uber to take us to the port. On the way, we had him stop for our usual supply run (wine and a few other misc essentials). Then, cruise port here we come!!!

At this point, i am excited as usual to be boarding a ship, and have not a care in the world.

 

We pull up and as i'm stepping out of the car and looking around at all the excited people about to start their vacation, a thought suddenly hits me: I DIDN'T PACK OUR PASSPORTS. I don't even know what to think, i'm just sort of shocked.....I tell my husband. he says "what does that mean???" I'm not sure. I know we have photos of passports in our phones. Surely we'll be able to work this out. Lets not panic. I've read nightmare stories before of people being denied boarding because they don't have proper paperwork, but we have photos. This will all be ok.

 

The porters take our luggage and we hurry inside. We're in a suite, so we go thru the suite entry (no lines) upstairs and the person greets us ready to check us in. I explain that i forgot our passports....she immediately takes us to a "special" desk (read: problem passengers) where the very nice employee explains to us that photos of passports are not acceptable. Only the originals will suffice. But, if you have a copy (why can THIS be a copy??) of your birth certificate, you're fine. Well, we don't have copies of our birth certificates. We have copies of our passports. We have our global entry cards. We have our vaccination cards. We have all sorts of proof that we're American citizens and we've sailed with RC about 10 times already. You guys KNOW who we are! Come on!!! In a very calm but firm manner she reiterates to me that without either our original passports OR a copy of a birth certificate we will not be able to board.

 

I remain calm (panicking will do me no good at this point). We call our neighbor friend and have her go to our house to look for our birth certificates. Of course, since i'm the organizer, i know exactly where they are in the file cabinet. All she has to do is take a photo and send it to me and off we'll go. So, she starts looking thru the files, and finds my husbands bc. Yea, there's one! She sends a photo of it, we show the RC employee, she approves it. Easy, one down. Now, she keeps going but can't find mine. I keep directing her to another folder, then another folder, then a lockbox, then a 3-ring binder - all the possible places that i know could contain my bc, but nothing. It is not there. 

 

At some point during this search, my husband suggests that we call my mother to see if maybe she has a copy of it. My 95 year old mother who lives in a retirement community and has purged most of her lifetime of "stuff" into a small apartment. I scoff at him, there's no way she'll have it. But, he calls her anyway. And of course, he confuses her with his panicky voice, and she's not sure WHY we need it but she promises to look around. They hang up and i have little faith that she will be any help at all. (spoiler alert - you can ALWAYS count on your mother). 🙂

 

We've now been sitting in this special (read: problem) area for almost 2 hours. I have sent my neighbor home. I am coming to grips with the fact that i am NOT going on a cruise today. I'm trying to convince my husband that he should board with our friends (our new to cruising friends that we brought on this cruise with us and THEY of course have their passports), and that I'll fly home, get our passports, then fly to St. Maarten in 3 days and join them there. They all say no way, we're not going without you. We'll just all go to Key West for a few days instead. I'm fighting back tears.

 

And then my phone rings. It's my mother. She says "I found it". She has a family photo album with all 3 of her "children's" bc's (we're all in our 60's....) She takes a photo, sends it to me, i show the employee, they accept it, here's your boarding pass and off you go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I am in shock, it's almost unbelievable but we're getting on the ship! I can't describe the feeling i had walking up that gangway and onto the Symphony. It's always a great feeling but this time - well, this time it was truly awesome!!!

 

From there on, we had a GREAT cruise! Everything was perfect. The food, the drinks (lots of those), the ports, the entertainment. 

 

The moral of this story is....well, i promise that i will NEVER forget passports again! I also will be ordering passport cards so we always have those in our wallets. And, never doubt your mother. She still is sort of confused about what exactly happened, but she understands that SHE SAVED THE DAY! 

 

This has a wonderful ending, and I'm so glad you got to go on your cruise. I already knew "you can always count on your Mom." I lost my Mom 8 years ago at age 56, and this story brought tears to my eyes, because I know my Mother would have saved the day for me as well.

[A&L_Ont]

40 minutes ago, Mikew0805 said:

This has a wonderful ending, and I'm so glad you got to go on your cruise. I already knew "you can always count on your Mom." I lost my Mom 8 years ago at age 56, and this story brought tears to my eyes, because I know my Mother would have saved the day for me as well.

I’m sorry to read this.  I bet your mom was an amazing woman.  It is bittersweet when these memories rise to the top.

[A&L_Ont]

@ajtaylor29 So happy that this worked out the way it did.  When you went onto your husband’s suggestion, I was waiting for him to say “check your wallet” and you found it there. I think we are all sending your mom big virtual hugs for coming through in the end. 

[jean87510]

19 hours ago, ajtaylor29 said:

So, after 17 cruises over the last 10 years, including trips to Europe, i consider myself to be the most organized, streamlined packer in my family. I'm the one who gathers all the "important" documentation, while my husband frets over how many bathing suits he needs and does he really want to take a sport coat or just go casual?! I am always packed and waiting at the door while he finishes all his last minute checks (and of course i make fun of him for being so obsessive).

 

Our last cruise (December 3rd on Symphony out of Miami): same process as always. We flew to Miami the night before, stayed in a local Hyatt, then got up and called Uber to take us to the port. On the way, we had him stop for our usual supply run (wine and a few other misc essentials). Then, cruise port here we come!!!

At this point, i am excited as usual to be boarding a ship, and have not a care in the world.

 

We pull up and as i'm stepping out of the car and looking around at all the excited people about to start their vacation, a thought suddenly hits me: I DIDN'T PACK OUR PASSPORTS. I don't even know what to think, i'm just sort of shocked.....I tell my husband. he says "what does that mean???" I'm not sure. I know we have photos of passports in our phones. Surely we'll be able to work this out. Lets not panic. I've read nightmare stories before of people being denied boarding because they don't have proper paperwork, but we have photos. This will all be ok.

 

The porters take our luggage and we hurry inside. We're in a suite, so we go thru the suite entry (no lines) upstairs and the person greets us ready to check us in. I explain that i forgot our passports....she immediately takes us to a "special" desk (read: problem passengers) where the very nice employee explains to us that photos of passports are not acceptable. Only the originals will suffice. But, if you have a copy (why can THIS be a copy??) of your birth certificate, you're fine. Well, we don't have copies of our birth certificates. We have copies of our passports. We have our global entry cards. We have our vaccination cards. We have all sorts of proof that we're American citizens and we've sailed with RC about 10 times already. You guys KNOW who we are! Come on!!! In a very calm but firm manner she reiterates to me that without either our original passports OR a copy of a birth certificate we will not be able to board.

 

I remain calm (panicking will do me no good at this point). We call our neighbor friend and have her go to our house to look for our birth certificates. Of course, since i'm the organizer, i know exactly where they are in the file cabinet. All she has to do is take a photo and send it to me and off we'll go. So, she starts looking thru the files, and finds my husbands bc. Yea, there's one! She sends a photo of it, we show the RC employee, she approves it. Easy, one down. Now, she keeps going but can't find mine. I keep directing her to another folder, then another folder, then a lockbox, then a 3-ring binder - all the possible places that i know could contain my bc, but nothing. It is not there. 

 

At some point during this search, my husband suggests that we call my mother to see if maybe she has a copy of it. My 95 year old mother who lives in a retirement community and has purged most of her lifetime of "stuff" into a small apartment. I scoff at him, there's no way she'll have it. But, he calls her anyway. And of course, he confuses her with his panicky voice, and she's not sure WHY we need it but she promises to look around. They hang up and i have little faith that she will be any help at all. (spoiler alert - you can ALWAYS count on your mother). 🙂

 

We've now been sitting in this special (read: problem) area for almost 2 hours. I have sent my neighbor home. I am coming to grips with the fact that i am NOT going on a cruise today. I'm trying to convince my husband that he should board with our friends (our new to cruising friends that we brought on this cruise with us and THEY of course have their passports), and that I'll fly home, get our passports, then fly to St. Maarten in 3 days and join them there. They all say no way, we're not going without you. We'll just all go to Key West for a few days instead. I'm fighting back tears.

 

And then my phone rings. It's my mother. She says "I found it". She has a family photo album with all 3 of her "children's" bc's (we're all in our 60's....) She takes a photo, sends it to me, i show the employee, they accept it, here's your boarding pass and off you go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I am in shock, it's almost unbelievable but we're getting on the ship! I can't describe the feeling i had walking up that gangway and onto the Symphony. It's always a great feeling but this time - well, this time it was truly awesome!!!

 

From there on, we had a GREAT cruise! Everything was perfect. The food, the drinks (lots of those), the ports, the entertainment. 

 

The moral of this story is....well, i promise that i will NEVER forget passports again! I also will be ordering passport cards so we always have those in our wallets. And, never doubt your mother. She still is sort of confused about what exactly happened, but she understands that SHE SAVED THE DAY! 

 

holy ####!!!!

[Foodluvr]

We normally drive in and stay at a hotel near the airport and then fly out the day before our cruise. We like the fact that we don't have to stress and get up super early in the morning for a first flight out in the morning. Although we live near the Atlanta airport, you never know with traffic how long it'll take to get you there and I just don't want to start off my vacation that way!

 

So we drove in to the airport on a Friday night after work and sat down at the bar to order a drink. I can't find my driver's license. I have my passport but not my license. I'm in a complete panic. I realized I had gone to the bank and didn't put it back in my wallet and it was sitting in my car in my garage. I know I could cruise without the license but I was afraid of not having it for other purposes. We drove an hour home, turned around and drove an hour back to the hotel and we were finally able to get a drink and I never used my license the entire week!

 

Fast forward next year, husband's getting on me about making sure I have my driver's license. I had had ankle surgery and was using a knee walker. We get to the hotel. We enjoy our evening and kind of laugh about the previous year's missing drivers license. Next morning it's about 5:00 a.m. we're at the park and ride waiting for the shuttle bus and I asked my husband where is my luggage? He didn't grab it. It's at home. I have only one change of clothes with me. My husband did not load my bag into the car the previous night even though it was sitting in the hallway. I didn't realize it because I couldn't carry anything. We rush home grab the bag rush back to the airport. Husband is so upset. Thankfully was the first flight out of the day and they were able to rebook us on the next flight because there was no way I was going to be able to get through security on knee walker in 20 minutes at Atlanta. Thankfully it was the first flight out in the morning and it gave us a chance to have them mimosa and breakfast before taking the next flight to Florida.

 

We are both experienced travelers. Things happen!  

 

I'm so glad Op was able to make their cruise!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[midwife1021]

I’m thinking a file of birth certificate photos stored on the laptop might be on my list for preparations next time. 

[barbeyg]

2 hours ago, Mikew0805 said:

This has a wonderful ending, and I'm so glad you got to go on your cruise. I already knew "you can always count on your Mom." I lost my Mom 8 years ago at age 56, and this story brought tears to my eyes, because I know my Mother would have saved the day for me as well.

 

1 hour ago, A&L_Ont said:

I’m sorry to read this.  I bet your mom was an amazing woman.  It is bittersweet when these memories rise to the top.

I agree with Andrew.  I bet your Mom was amazing. My mom passed when she was 36, but I remember how truly awesome she was. I know the holidays can sometimes be tough, but I hope the memories of such a wonderful mom bring moments of joy throughout for you. 🙂

[MeHeartCruising]

Similar story here to the OP.  I was cruising with 2 friends (Mark and Annette).  We all flew in to Miami together from Pennsylvania.   A 4th (Michelle) was flying in from the Florida Gulf Coast to meet us at the terminal.  She was a friend of one of the 2 in my group.  The other 2 of us hadn't met her yet.

 

We easily found each other outside the terminal and got all the introductions done and were all excited as we headed into the building.  As we're going up the escalator into the new terminal building I told everyone to have their passport handy, they were looking at them near the top of the escalator.  Michelle says, "I just brought an old passport. I couldn't find the new one this morning.  But don't worry, I gave Mark the passport number from the new one for online checkin."

 

My jaw dropped and I told her that I didn't think that was going to work.  She didn't understand why not.  Sure enough, they sent us over to the "special people" desk.  Like the OP, Michelle was lucky enough that her sister lived in her apartment building and was able to get into Michelle's apartment to look around for her birth certificate.  She sent a photo of the BC and sent it over to Michelle.  The whole process took us about an hour.  The 3 of us from Pennsylvania were not pleased.  We were going on that ship even if Michelle had to fly back home.  But once we got on board, we moved on and started the vacation.  

 

At the end of the cruise, Michelle was able to get back into the country, apparently using her BC picture from her phone.  She got off the ship before we did, so we don't know if there was any hassle.  The 3 of use decided we won't be sailing with her again.  Ha.

Edited December 23, 2022 by MeHeartCruising