A Celebrity cruise passenger forgot her passport. FedEx made things even worse

As Sherry Warren and her husband prepared for their upcoming Celebrity cruise, she bought a colorful passport case. The little wallet was stylish and protective, with Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) blocking features. It would be the perfect way to carry their passports, Warren thought. 

And it surely would have – had she not forgotten the wallet with their passports when they left for the cruise. That oversight led the couple to arrive in Port Canaveral without any documents to board Celebrity Equinox.

Luckily for the Warrens, they had wisely scheduled a one-day buffer between their arrival in Florida and the cruise’s embarkation. But more confusion ensued when Warren paid FedEx a hefty fee to deliver the passports by overnight express. 

With the FedEx receipt guaranteeing a 10:30 am delivery of her passport wallet, Warren breathed a sigh of relief. Crisis averted.

Or so she thought. 

Here’s what happened when this Celebrity cruise passenger forgot her family’s passports — and then inexplicably FedEx did the same.

Taking a Celebrity cruise for a winter getaway

Last December, the Warrens invited their granddaughter to join them on their winter getaway. Even better, they allowed her to bring a friend. The group would cruise for 7 nights on Celebrity Equinox. 

The closed-loop cruise would embark from Port Canaveral, sail to Key West and the Bahamas, and then return to Florida. 

The family started excitedly planning all the things they intended to do during their vacation.

“The girls were looking forward to snorkeling and soaking up the sun,” Warren told me. “I just knew we were going to have a great time.”

During all the pre-cruise planning, Warren bought the Travelon RFID-blocking passport wallet from Amazon.

For those unfamiliar with this technology, as I was not when my mother gifted me a similar item for my birthday this year, RFID-blocking wallets and pocketbooks are meant to stop scammers from scanning the chips in your documents and credit cards. Whether or not the RFID-blocking technology works or is necessary is debatable according to security experts. My mom can tell you, I was quite skeptical when I first heard of this product. But nonetheless, an entire industry of these RFID-blocking travel items has sprung up. 

Of course, if you forget your passports at home in your cute RFID-blocking wallet, it won’t matter whether the technology works or not. You’re going to have a giant problem of a different kind. 

And on the day the Warrens pulled out of their driveway in North Carolina, that’s exactly what happened. Unfortunately, her passport mistake wouldn’t become clear until they arrived in Florida ready to embark on the cruise.

Celebrity cruise passenger crisis: “I forgot our passports!’

The Warrens were staying at their son’s home in Melbourne, Florida the night before the cruise. Warren says as soon as they arrived she noticed something was amiss. She could not locate her passport wallet.  Her spirits suddenly took a nosedive.

I immediately went into panic mode. We had no other documents to board the cruise. I called Celebrity and asked what we could do. I couldn’t believe I had forgotten the passports and didn’t want to let my granddaughter down.

Warren called her friend back home, who had a key to her house. She asked him to grab the passport wallet and take it over to FedEx. 

If her friend could get the package to FedEx in time, he could send it “Overnight, first delivery.” That would get the package to the Warrens by 10:30 a.m. the next morning – plenty of time before their 3:30 p.m. embarkation deadline for Celebrity Equinox. 

Her friend dashed across town and over to the Warrens’ home. He grabbed the passport wallet and headed to FedEx. There, he paid an exorbitant $157, and FedEx gave him a receipt that guaranteed delivery by 10:30 a.m. the next morning in Melbourne. 

Everyone in the group breathed a sigh of relief – especially Sherry. 

Fedex: “Sorry, your package was left behind.”

The next morning, Warren was up at the crack of dawn. She couldn’t sleep until she had their passports safely in hand. She had a cup of coffee and sat in wait. 

8 a.m came and went and Warren’s anxiety rose. But she sat patiently waiting. Then 9 a.m. passed and finally it was 10:30 a.m. with no sign of their passports.

I felt sick. I knew we couldn’t board the cruise without our passports. First, I called FedEx, but I also started making Plan B and C. I called Celebrity again and asked about options. I was relieved that a caring cruise consultant told me that if we couldn’t get our documents in time, we could transfer the cruise to another sailing. But that wasn’t what we wanted, so I kept working.

When Warren shared that bit of information with me I was skeptical that the cruise consultant had that type of authority to offer such a deal. In general, cruise passengers who are denied boarding because they don’t have the correct identification, do not receive a refund or future travel credit. 

Warren called FedEx, and she says an agent told her they had too many packages that day. As a result, her passports had been arbitrarily left behind. Her friend, who had brought the package to FedEx, says another representative told him fog had caused the delivery hiccup. 

But it really didn’t matter what caused the delay at that moment. The Warrens realized they were in danger of missing the embarkation of their cruise and they hoped to avoid that fate. 

“If we don’t get our birth certificates, we’ll miss our Celebrity cruise!”

Warren, being a savvy cruiser, wasn’t willing to give up. She knew there were other ways to be approved to board the ship. Because the cruise was closed-loop (beginning and ending in the same U.S. port), they didn’t necessarily need passports. 

“I knew if we could get a copy of our birth certificates, we could be approved to board the cruise,” Warren told me. 

For the second time in 24 hours, Warren asked the family friend to drive across town to their home. Now he was tasked with searching around and finding the couple’s birth certificates.

Meanwhile, in Florida, the clock was ticking. It was now 1 p.m. and the Warrens had no documentation to board their cruise. Around 2 p.m., Warren began to get a sinking feeling. She now believed they would likely not be cruising on Celebrity Equinox. 

But even so, the group made their way to the Celebrity boarding area in Port Canaveral. Porters asked to take their bags, but the Warrens declined.

“We knew there was a great chance that we sadly wouldn’t be taking the cruise,” Warren recalled. “So we kept our luggage with us.”

Here are your birth certificates and you can board your Celebrity cruise!

The Warrens’ friend located their birth certificates, scanned the documents, and created a PDF file, which he emailed to the couple. Just under the wire, Warren and her husband were approved to board the cruise. They soon crossed the threshold onto the ship, and this time the sigh of relief was warranted. 

“We had to walk with all of our luggage, including snorkeling gear, from check-in to our cabins,” Warren told me. “It was no easy task! We were so happy to be cleared to board the ship. So we weren’t complaining.”

But what Warren was complaining about was FedEx’s delivery failure. The package containing their passports arrived at its destination two days after Celebrity Equinox had sailed. When the family returned from the cruise they found the passport package waiting and she contacted the Consumer Rescue team. 

Why you should never ask a company for “pain and suffering compensation”

When Warren’s request for help landed on my desk, she was still shaken from her experience. She told me that the family had a wonderful cruise, but the events leading up to boarding had made it difficult to fully relax, at least initially. 

Although Warren admitted that the genesis of the situation was her mistake, she had come to believe that the responsibility for the problem had shifted to FedEx after she paid the overnight shipping fee. As a result, she was asking our team for something I knew instantly she wouldn’t be receiving.

I would like a refund of $157 PLUS something substantial for pain and suffering and distress as well as time spent on calls trying to determine if/when the passports would arrive in time. I also feel very obligated to reimburse for gas and time expended for the person who drove to my house twice and traveled to FedEx on Friday.

FYI: No company is going to issue “pain and suffering compensation” in response to a customer complaint. 

Those words are subjective with no concrete value. Not only that, but companies typically associate that phrase with legal proceedings. Consumers should not include that request in their complaints unless they want their letter to land straight in the business’s legal department, where it will stay to await the customer’s lawyer’s response. 

Related: 7 simple ways to fix your own consumer problem

I knew compensation for Warren’s distress wasn’t in the cards, and I let her know. However, the FedEx money-back guarantee for overnight delivery should have made a refund of the $157 automatic, since the passports didn’t arrive until two days after the cruise departed. 

It was time to ask FedEx what went wrong here and why it hadn’t already processed Warren’s refund. 

Good news: FedEx will refund the shipping fee and provide a goodwill gesture

After I reached out to FedEx on Warren’s behalf, the good news came quickly. FedEx agreed that it owed her a refund for the failed delivery promise, refunded her fees, and also went a bit further, providing a small goodwill gesture.

I received a FedEx standard overnight delivery envelope today. The note inside has today’s date on it.  So it seems they exceeded their own delivery promise on this one! It contained $100 in AmEx gift cards with the note stating it was a goodwill gesture.  So, thank you for intervening on my behalf.  I feel someone at FedEx listened and validated my concerns.  We will use these gift cards to take our friend out to dinner this weekend. Thanks again! Sherry Warren

One thing is for certain, the next time the family leaves for a cruise, she’ll be sure that cute little passport wallet goes along with them. 

Passports and other identification you can use as ID for your cruise

What is the most essential thing to do before you head off to the airport or cruise port? Make sure you have the documents you need to board the cruise and enter the countries on your itinerary. You’ll also want to ensure that those documents remain on your person at all times. It’s crucial that you never pack any of the identification you plan to use at the cruise port in your checked luggage.  

Do you need a valid passport for your cruise? 

Most (but not all) closed-loop cruises don’t require US citizens to have a passport. A closed-loop cruise is one that begins and ends at the same US cruise port. However, it’s critical that passengers carefully review their cruise contract to confirm whether any of the ports of call on the itinerary require a passport or visa. 

If you need a passport to board your cruise, it must be valid. Expired passports are not accepted, but surprisingly, travelers frequently show up at the cruise port with expired or nearly expired passports.

Note: Many cruise lines, including Celebrity Cruises, require your passport to have six months of validity beyond the date that you will return from your cruise. So when you’re getting close to that “6-months-to-expiration” date, it’s time to renew your passport.

Keep in mind that only a passport will allow you to fly internationally. So, even if you don’t need a passport to board your cruise, it is always the preferred travel document if the ship is sailing to international destinations.

Related: This is what happens if you miss your cruise without a passport

Using a passport card or Enhanced Driver’s License (EDL)

If a passport is not expressly required for your cruise, you’ll still need identification that proves both your citizenship and identity. Passport cards and Enhanced Driver’s Licenses (EDLs) confirm your identity and citizenship. If you have one of these forms of ID and your cruise doesn’t require a passport, you’ll just need your EDL or passport card to board. 

Note: There is immense confusion about what an EDL is, with many travelers confusing a Real ID driver’s license with an Enhanced Driver’s License. Confusing these two forms of ID can have devastating consequences at the cruise port. (See: We had our Real ID! Why couldn’t we board our Carnival cruise?)

Keep this in mind before you assume you have an Enhanced Driver’s License: EDLs are currently ONLY issued in five US states. 

• Washington
• New York
• Michigan
• Vermont
• Minnesota

If your driver’s license is not issued by one of those states, you do not have an EDL. And even if you do live in one of those states, your driver’s license may not be an EDL. Look carefully at your driver’s license to confirm if it is an EDL before you attempt to use it to board your cruise. The word Enhanced will appear at the top, and a US flag will be displayed on the card. 

A government-issued photo ID and a state-certified birth certificate

If you don’t have a passport, passport card, or an EDL, you’ll need two forms of identification to board your cruise. 

Your driver’s license or other government-issued photo ID proves your identity, and most cruise passengers use their birth certificates to prove their US citizenship.

It’s important to point out that some cruise lines require passengers to bring their original raised-seal birth certificates.

Strangely, Celebrity Cruises’ own FAQs warn customers that the cruise line doesn’t accept copies of birth certificates. So, it appears that some flexibility was extended to this thoroughly flustered couple at the port to allow them to board the cruise.

You should not rely on the same flexibility that was extended to this couple. Cruise lines deny passengers boarding every single day for wrong and incomplete documentation. Always read and understand your cruise line’s identification requirements and follow the rules to the T.

Note: As with all forms of ID, these documents must be current. If you bring an expired photo ID to board your cruise, you will be denied boarding. 

The bottom line

It is every cruise passenger’s responsibility to know and possess what they need to board their cruise. Making certain that you have the correct identification is a process that should begin weeks and even months before your cruise’s embarkation. But all your research and planning will be for nothing if you forget the necessary documents at home. 

Always make it a habit to do a visual check of your identification before leaving your driveway. The extra few minutes that step will take could save you hours of anxiety and worry later as you try to scramble to find ways to avoid missing your cruise. That’s a completely avoidable scenario that I’m sure we can all agree is a terrible way to start a vacation. (Michelle Couch-Friedman, Founder of Consumer Rescue)