What to bring to the terminal, what will be taken off you at the door, and the one document mistake that sends families home. Written by the people who work these docks every sailing day.
Do it all now, or one step a day — your checks are saved on this phone. Tap a step to open it.
Step 1 of 8
If you have one, bring it. It is the answer to every question at the door, and it is the only document that gets you home by air if you miss the ship or have to leave it in a foreign port.
No passport? On a closed-loop cruise — one that starts and ends at the same US port, which is nearly every sailing out of Galveston — a US citizen can normally board with a state-certified birth certificate plus a government photo ID. Some itineraries and some ports require a passport anyway. Check with your cruise line before you pack.
These are your most sensitive photos. Keep a passcode on your phone.
Step 2 of 8
This is the one that catches people, and it catches them at the door with the bags already on the belt. Not every piece of paper with a baby's name on it counts.
An original or certified copy issued by the state or county vital records office — the one on security paper with a raised or coloured seal. If it is flat printer paper with a copied seal, treat it as a problem and order a certified copy now rather than finding out at the terminal.
The name on your ID, your birth certificate and your booking must all agree. If you changed your name when you married, bring the marriage licence to bridge the two. A mismatch with nothing to explain it can mean denied boarding.
Travellers 16 and over need a government photo ID alongside the birth certificate. Since May 2025 a driver's licence used as ID at the terminal needs to be REAL ID compliant — the one with the star in the corner.
Under 16 usually needs only the original or a certified copy of the birth certificate, no photo ID. If a child is travelling without both parents, ask your cruise line what letter of consent they want. Do not leave that to the morning of.
Step 3 of 8
Pick your sailing at the top of the list and this step fills in with your line’s own rules — what the porter can take at the curb, what stays with you, and what is taken at the door.
Step 4 of 8
No guns. No ammunition. No illegal drugs.
Not in a checked bag, not in the car, not "just in case." A cruise terminal is a federal security environment and the ports you visit are foreign countries with their own laws — several of them punish drug possession far more harshly than home does. This is the difference between a holiday and an arrest.
Marijuana counts, including medical marijuana and CBD, even if it is legal where you live. Every major line prohibits it outright and the ship is not operating under your state's law.
Also never: fireworks, explosives, flares, and anything that is a weapon or is built to be used as one.
Step 5 of 8
Every line runs its bags through a scanner, and the items below get pulled out daily. Most of them are fire risks, which is why there is no arguing about it at sea.
Each line takes different things at the door. Pick your ship, line or terminal at the top of Before you sail and this step shows only your line’s list.
Step 6 of 8
Do this at home, while the bags are open and you are not standing in a queue.
Pick one and it becomes a coloured badge the porter can read in one second. You can change it any time.
Tick exactly what you need and your badge carries a green ASSIST mark with the list, so the porter or Guest Services person who meets you knows before you say a word. When you arrive, you can also send Guest Services to exactly where you are.
Request assistance when I arrive →Big bags only — the ones a porter takes. Carry-ons do not count. It shows on your badge so the porter sees in a second whether one cart is enough.
Put the tracker inside the bag, not clipped to the outside where it can be torn off in a chute or on a belt. Check it is switched on and has battery before you sail, and again before you get off — a tracker that died on day three tells you nothing on day seven. It is the difference between knowing your bag is still in the terminal and hoping somebody finds it.
One photo of each bag before it leaves the house. Thirty seconds. If a bag goes missing, "navy blue roller, about this big" is a conversation that goes nowhere — a photo ends it.
Name and stateroom number on each one before it leaves your hands at the curb. A bag with nothing on it has nowhere to go, and it is the hardest kind to find.
Step 7 of 8
Tap to tick. This is only on your phone.
Step 8 of 8
Hand your bags to a porter at the terminal, and they go straight to the ship. Keep your documents, medication, and anything valuable with you — checked bags can take several hours to reach your stateroom, and they are not easily accessible in between.
Make sure every bag has at least one luggage tag with your stateroom number on it before it leaves your hands.
It is not common, but it happens: checked bags get crushed in a chute, caught on a belt, and once in a while one goes off the side and into the water, never to be seen again. Passports, medication, cash, keys, the one thing you would be sick about losing — if you cannot live without it for whatever reason, it goes on the ship in your own hands, not in a checked bag.
Prohibited-item lists and document rules change, and they differ by line, ship and itinerary. Everything here is a reminder to go and check, not a substitute for your cruise line's own current list or for US Customs and Border Protection. When they disagree with this page, they are right and this page is wrong.