I was digging around on the DISboards and the consensus seems to be:
JPG file is best – I’ve seen reports that PDF was not accepted
The files do not need to be perfectly cropped, lit, or even free of fingers / impediments. You can crop the photos when you upload each file. Just make sure there is no glare obscuring the key information.
You only need the main page of your Passport, not the signature page or other pages
Also as a reminder in case anyone else is reading this, your headshots may NOT be the same as the photos in your passport. More info on the headshots:
It has to be taken from the shoulders up, with you looking directly at the camera. You can use your own webcam, but there isn’t a place within the check-in process to snap a photo.
Make sure you use a color photo, no filters, and only you in the photo. Also, you can’t be wearing hats or sunglasses, or even regular glasses if they hide your eyes in any way. Think driver’s license type of photo, but don’t use your government-issued photo ID picture.
Also I found this great summary of what to have ready:
Preparation:
have downloaded to your device 1) a clean headshot of each person (straight on, no eyeglasses, hats or hair accessories, shoulders included, cannot be the same as passport photo), low resolution and 2) Photo of passport ID page. Must be JPEG file!
a document with each passenger’s birthdate, address, cell phone, email address, passport number, passport expiration, safe word for kids club, emergency contact name, emergency contact phone number, credit card information
Flight information for all legs – date, airline, airport from, airport to, confirmation number/record locator number, flight number, time departure, time arrival
For speed:
Upload photo and if it says it doesn’t meet the criteria, click SAVE and move on. Deal with it after you get your PAT.
For Onboard account, select Cash to get through it quickly
For Travel Plans, select Driving to get through it quickly. I just used home address for the return.
Finish each stateroom then go back and fix photo, add credit card, add flight information.
I can check in Sunday night at midnight. I didn’t even know I could do this to save time. The last two cruise, I’ve filled all that out exactly and it takes forever. Good to know that I can go back and make the changes.
This is all great advice! I had all my stuff saved and jpegs and compressed to help with the competing bandwidth to save even more seconds. With two rooms you need any extra you can get!
Also, with the kids club stuff, you don’t need to add that in to get port arrival. But being in 2 rooms you and your wife are likely booked in the two separate rooms and so you’ll be required to state if you want yo authorize each other to take the kids not in your stateroom off the ship. It’s another thing you can just say no, move ahead to PAT and come back later and properly authorize each other to take all your own kids off the ship.
That’s true–and your photo will be kicked back later if it’s the same one (ask me how I know. . .). Fortunately, these kinds of mistakes are not fatal to the check-in process. As long as you submit a photo in that moment, it will allow you to go through to get your PAT.
It occurred to me that you could just upload a random JPG as a placeholder and then circle back later if you really just wanted to get to the PAT screen ASAP. (But I probably won’t do that. )
Ok the rubber is hitting the road here. My check in day is 9/13 which I believe is midnight Tuesday night, is that correct? (WHY is midnight a time for people to need to do anything??)
I’m debating doing this…
Can you confirm for me that we need the passport photo separate from the copy of the passport? Are you all using actual scans of the passports or just a camera picture of the passport?
Ok thanks. Did you just take a picture of your passport for the photo or do I need new ones taken? I have no idea where the extra copies are anymore. For midnight I seriously might upload a picture of my cat for everything and just get the PAT.
Because they are finally doing something at an advantageous time for us on the west coast. (My 3am ADR bookings would like a word. )
Based on the responses I assume when you say “passport photo” you are talking about the headshots of your party. They can’t be the actual photos in your passport. You also need a JPG file of your Passport ID page (which I assume is what you meant by “copy of the passport”).
Also just a note the JPGs need to be relatively small file sizes. Not 4 MB. If you send them to yourself in WhatsApp or text message they should get compressed.
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