A cruise ship ID card is a plastic card the size of a

credit card A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the card issuer to pay them for the amounts plus the o ...

that serves several functions for passengers on a

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as ...

. Cruise ship ID cards are scanned at the entrances to the ship and at various points throughout the ship, either via

magnetic strip The term digital card can refer to a physical item, such as a memory card on a camera, or, increasingly since 2017, to the digital content hosted as a virtual card or cloud card, as a digital virtual representation of a physical card. They share ...

, RFID readers or

bar code A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly referred to as linear or o ...

in order to identify the passenger, allow entry to and exit off the ship, allow entry into certain areas of the ship, including the passenger's cabin, bill purchases to the passenger, and various other functions.

Information printed on card

The information printed on the ship card may include: * Name of cruise company * Name of ship * Dates of voyage * Name of passenger * Dining assignment *

Muster station A muster drill, sometimes referred to as a lifeboat drill or a boat drill, is an exercise that is conducted by the crew of a ship prior to embarking on a voyage. A muster drill prepares passengers for safe evacuation, in the event of an emergen ...

It is now rare for a picture of the passenger to be displayed on the card, but it is frequently scanned in the presence of a computer that will display a picture of the passenger on the screen.

Functions

Functions of a ship card may include: * Access to ship (boarding and disembarkation at ports) - required by security at many ports to enter port, and required to exit ship * Cabin door key * Onboard charge account - since most cruise lines use a cashless system on board, the card is used to make purchases on the ship that are billed to the passenger at the end of the voyage * Basic passenger information

References

Authentication methods International travel documents Identity documents Payment systems {{Tourism-stub