We have to take our passports as that is the only photo ID that my wife has. Also a photo copy is not valid. We always carry our passports off the ship as we are advise to by the ship personnel and several times we have been asked to produce it before been allow back into the dock area. So some people do not have a choice, but to carry there passports all the time.
So your wife cannot get a non-driver photo ID issued in Canada? I ask this because in the U.S. it is common to get a state-issued photo ID without being a licensed driver.
Granted a photo-copy of a passport is not official, but it is usually good enough to prove one's identity. I happen to know a woman who is a travel writer in NYC. Her passport was stolen in Europe but she had a photo copy of it and was able to use that to get a replacement passport within hours.
Originally posted by wooddon:
We have to take our passports as that is the only photo ID that my wife has. Also a photo copy is not valid.
We never take our passport off the ship unless required for that Country EG: Russia
The cruise lines usually hold Canadian passports. I carry a photo copy of our passport just for I.D. or in case ours gets lost.
You can use your health card as photo I.D. if you do not have the new card ...get one!
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Lyn
FORMER CRUISES:
Alexandr Pushkin, Carnival-Holiday, HAL-(old)Westerdam, Orient lines-Marco Polo, Royal Olympic-Olympic, NCL-Dream, Dawn-Princess, ACCL-Grande Caribe, Oceania-Insignia (3), Regatta(4) Marina (1) St Lawrence Cruise Lines-Canadian Empress
No we do not have a state issue photo card. Also the health is not a valid photo ID. We tried using this many times and they refuse it as photo ID in Ontario and other places in the US. Now in the US they ask for photo ID whenever you make a VISA purchase, so we must alway have our passport on us. We always travel on Princess and one of the port was the British Virgin Island. As we came off our tour and was going thru the port entry, the guard ask to see photo ID of everyone, so it was a good thing we had our passports. Yes a photo copy of a passport is a good idea if your orginal gets stolen to enable you to get a new one quick.
wooddon, you are right about having a photo ID at certain ports. Even St. Thomas asked for a photo ID and also to flash the ships card last year before allowing us into the pier area (I am guessing that if we did not have a ship's pass we would have been turned away as having no business on that pier). Most unfortunate that you are not able to get a non-driver photo ID. I would be very uncomfortable toting my passport around at any port it was not required of me.
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Laurie
RCCL Nordic Empress 1993
RCCL Nordic Prince 1994
RCCL Explorer 2003, 2005
RCCL Navigator, 2004, 2007
RCCL Mariner 2006
RCCL Liberty 2008
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My passport went through the washer and dryer (by accident) It eventually became unusable even though it still had over two years before expiry. It was not that easy to get a replacement, much harder than starting from scratch!. I now keep it very safe and would not consider taking it off the ship unless there was no other option. We can get government issued photo ID in British Columbia no problem at all. It is very common where we live as it is a retirement community, and a good number of seniors do not drive any more.
The pass two years whenever I make a purchase on my VISA card, they request to see photo ID. Also, we have been refuse lots of time that our health card is not valid ID. You can't use this at any bank for valid photo ID. Also, in May of this year we had a port stop in Victoria BC and we all had to go thru Canadian custom to get to our port tour and we needed our passports before been allow to our tour. So we see as a necessary item to alwats carry our passport just in case. We do not like to carry these all the time, but have no choice.
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