Leave the passport on the ship???

[SargassoPirate]

What a dumb remark by our pirate-friend. There's way more chance of your passport being lost or stolen ashore, especially on the beach, than there is of you missing your ship. And if you do miss your ship, your SHIP'S ON-SHORE AGENTS are well-used to dealing with strays, with or without passports. Why not bell those experts next time you're ashore on a Caribbean cruise, and ask their opinion - that's what I did.

 

Some destinations require photo-ID and in my experience a photocopy passport has always been acceptable - your throwaway remark about trying to use photocopy money or credit cards is irrelevant, a photocopy of your passport has a use as photo-ID. Its also useful to keep a photocopy on board and/or in your pocket at those places where you are required to take your passport original ashore, and it goes astray. ..................John Bull

 

Thanks for your opinion about my dumb and throwaway remarks, copied below in bold:

 

Look at it this way - If leaving the original in the safe and carrying a photocopy of your passport on shore is such a good idea, why not leave the originals in the safe and carry photocopies of your money and credit cards ashore also? You'll get just as far with one as the other if the unthinkable happens and you get stranded, arrested, injured, whatever

 

 

For the rest of us unenlightened ones, one needs to ask if you are stranded somewhere in a foreign country, which would you rather have, a photocopy of your identification documents/passport or the real thing? How far do you think you'll get with a photocopy? If you are comfortable leaving the real passport behind and travelling with a copy, then that is what you should do. If you are only comfortable with the real thing, then you should keep it with you.

[John Bull]

The dumb bit is the throwaway remark that a photocopied passport is as useful as photocopied cash or credit cards. A copy passport establishes your ID, a copy dollar bill establishes that you once had a dollar and a copier.

 

Not having your (original) passport if you get stranded is no big deal in those Caribbean islands where cruise passengers aren’t required to carry them, as I said the ship’s on-shore agents can sort you out, with or without a passport.

 

The big deal is the theft or loss of the original ……and it often disappears along with a credit card. Just check the number of worried questioners on this website about safeguarding property on the beach.

 

Lose your passport ashore and hey presto, two days later there will be two Sargasso Pirates, you’ll be wondering how you managed to buy so many expensive items in Aruba over several days when you were only there for 10 hours, and explaining to US Immigration how you are trying to get back into America a week after you had already arrived back in America. Other ID-theft problems may recur months & years into the future.

 

Being stranded without a passport in Tortola or Barbados ain’t the same as in Cairo or Moscow –neither of us would want to enter Egypt or Russia without the original, but then we wouldn’t be allowed to anyway.

 

I agree it’s a matter of personal choice and opinion, mine is the same as ships’ agents and pursers and, it seems, most people in this thread.

 

John Bull

[fann1sh]

I had a mishap that stranded me briefly in Venice (land trip, not a cruise). I had my passport. I had no problem getting out of the jam. No passport, just a copy - completely different situation.

 

Because of that experience, I carry the passport - often in a leather pouch around my neck, or waterproof container, separate from my purse/wallet.

 

I understand what the other camp is saying, and this ping-pong game of "Who's right?" can be debated forever. I'm only posting to assure you, once you've actually had that sinking feeling of being stranded, it changes your perspective on the relative dangers of passport loss.

 

For U.S. citizens, I'm a "belt and suspenders" advocate: consider obtaining a passport card as well as a passport.