Passport, maiden name/marriage certificate

[Dante79]

Hello all I’m new to this website, but I must say its quite nice.

I have a question regarding my wife’s passport and the fact that it has her maiden name on it and how it will effect our cruise.

My parents, my siblings, my wife and I will be cruising on the NCL Sprit at the beginning of August, where the ports of call will be Bermuda, Tortola and St Thomas.

My parents are the ones that booked the cruise for us all, and with out thinking they booked my wife under her now married name instead of her maiden name as it appears on her pass port.

Once the mistake was realized it was to late to change the booking information as our tickets had already been sent to us electronically. So we called NCL a few times and got different information each time. While the information was all positive, we are concerned about the different information.

The first time we called, we where told we wouldn’t even need pass ports because of all the hoopla going on with the pass port back log. But even if this where true, my wife does not have a birth certificate which I assume would be needed in the case of no pass port.

The second time we called, they said it would not be a problem at all as long as we present our marriage certificate along with the passport. Which we can easily do.

The third and final time we called, the gentlemen we talked to said that while it was to late to change the reservation over the phone, that we should change her reservation name when we got to ship for embarkation.

So I guess my question to you all, if you know, will my wife have any problems coming aboard and going ashore with her passport that has her median name on it even though the cruise booking was made with her married name. We are hoping that the third person we talked to was correct, but we will be brining the marriage certificate anyway.

Thanks for any info you can give me.

[cherylandtk]

Most cruiselines say the booking name for your wife MUST match her legal ID.

 

If she uses the passport (and without a BC it sounds like she has to), then you probably need to change the booking name. At this late date, there will probably be a $50 fee to do so. I suspect that is still the least costly way for you to resolve this.

 

If the cruiseline says she can use the passport plus a marriage certificate to show the name change, I would ask for this in writing up front. It's unusual, but possible. You just don't want to get to the pier and have someone else say "Oh No, we don't do that".

[Dante79]

Most cruiselines say the booking name for your wife MUST match her legal ID.

 

If she uses the passport (and without a BC it sounds like she has to), then you probably need to change the booking name. At this late date, there will probably be a $50 fee to do so. I suspect that is still the least costly way for you to resolve this.

 

If the cruiseline says she can use the passport plus a marriage certificate to show the name change, I would ask for this in writing up front. It's unusual, but possible. You just don't want to get to the pier and have someone else say "Oh No, we don't do that".

 

Thanks cherylandtk, because of your post I decided to call one more time. This time the lady I talked to confirmed that I would need to change the booking name. She also said they would most likely not accept the passport and the mirage certificate. Further she said they would not change it at the dock and that I had to call my travel agent now to do it. Which I have. So thanks again you saved my trip.

I wonder why they where giving me conflicting information the last time I called.

[kitty9]

You can ask the same question to 25 different phone people and get 25 different responses. It's the nature of the beast.

[Quilting_Cruiser]

Kitty9's right--different customer service reps will give you different answers!

 

On our first couple of cruises, I used my passport and a certified copy of our marriage certificate--this was on Carnival. My passport was in my maiden name and the bookings were in my married name. I never had a problem using my passport with my maiden name along with our marriage certificate--I asked one time when we were checking in what would have happened it I hadn't brought the marriage certificate with me, and the rep said I would have been denied boarding. After that, I always made sure I had our marriage certificate with me when we checked in.

 

Now, I have my passport renewed with my married name. When I got this one, they required my marriage certificate and included it with the other documents that were sent to the passport office. I've read other posts on Cruise Critic where women got their passports or had their passports changed to their married name without their marriage certificate--another example of getting different answers to the same question!

 

At least now that you've arranged to have the booking name changed, you won't have to stress over issues with boarding!

 

Have a wonderful cruise!

Jayne

[cherylandtk]

Dante, you are quite welcome and now go and have a relaxing trip.