The Unofficial “Third Form of ID” You Might Need on Your Next Cruise

Doesn’t it seem like cruise packing lists are getting a little out of hand? It seems like all these “cruise experts” just keep jamming random items into these lists as an excuse for you to click on their Amazon affiliate links.

But this “third form of ID” isn’t something you can pick up online, and it’s also something that can save someone’s life out at sea.

More savvy cruisers are packing their blood donor cards after hearing about life-saving stories from fellow travelers.

When you pack for a cruise vacation, you know you need either a valid passport, or a combination of a government-issued driver’s license and birth certificate (for a closed-loop cruise from the U.S.).

While a blood donor card won’t be necessary to get on the ship, it might help someone else get off the ship with their life.

Veteran cruisers are starting to realize that keeping a physical or digital copy of this card on hand can make the difference between life and death for a fellow passenger or crew member.

Without your blood donor card (either physical or digital) the ship will not be able to use your blood in an emergency.

Carnival’s Heald Thanks Blood Donors

Just this morning, Carnival Cruise Line’s Brand Ambassador John Heald thanked the passengers of an unnamed Carnival ship for stepping up to the plate.

He said dozens showed up outside the ship’s medical center after a call went out for a certain blood type to help a fellow passenger’s medical condition.

In his candid “three-minute video” Heald also reminded land-based blood donors to bring their card with them.

Other Cases Where Blood Donors Were Needed

This wasn’t an isolated incident either. The reality of cruising is that medical emergencies happen just like they do on land.

When you have 2,000 to 7,000 passengers on any given ship, with travelers sailing all over the world, some kind of medical situation is bound to pop up.

For example, a middle-of-the-night emergency broadcast woke sleeping guests on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas last year. The ship asked for donors for a critically ill crew member.

In another case a traveler on Cruise Critic shared how an Enchanted Princess sailing had to turn away dozens of willing volunteers because they lacked physical proof of their blood type.

And yes, cruise ships have to have proof of your blood type. They can’t just take your word for it and risk harming the patient.

In another case detailed by Hematopolitics, a P&O Cruises medical team had to coordinate four direct transfusions right in the ship’s medical center to save a passenger who was actively bleeding out.

In each of these cases, cruise passengers stepped up, showed their blood donor card, and gave up some of their vacation time to save a fellow guest.

The “Walking Blood Bank”

Most people assume a humongous cruise ship has a refrigerator packed with blood bags. They don’t.

Blood has a very short shelf life (red cells spoil in 42 days, and platelets last just five). Keeping a fresh supply of every blood type onboard for thousands of travelers is just logistically impossible.

Instead, they rely on a process called a Walking Blood Bank.

If a passenger suffers a life-threatening situation at sea in which they need a blood infusion, they can’t wait for a helicopter rescue. The captain makes a ship-wide announcement about what exact blood type is needed, and the passenger cabin doors become the supply line.

Why They’ll Turn You Away

Besides being turned away for not having your blood donor card with you, there are also a few other situations in which you will not be a candidate to donate blood.

Shipboard medical centers are equipped for emergencies, but they aren’t full-scale testing laboratories. They do not have the time to type and screen dozens of volunteers during a crisis.

Your donor card is your pre-screening passport. It proves your blood type is verified and that you have passed rigorous screenings with an organization like the Red Cross.

If you do volunteer, there are a few other factors at play:

• The 24-Hour Dry Spell: You must be completely alcohol-free. Ship doctors require zero alcohol in your system for at least 24 hours before donating. Alcohol thins your blood and causes dehydration, which can make your blood pressure drop during the draw. Doctors also cannot risk transfusing blood containing active alcohol into a critically ill patient. Finding a volunteer who hasn’t had a drink in 24 hours on a ship full of beverage packages is a pretty big challenge, as you can imagine.
• A History of Pregnancy: Medical teams often turn away female volunteers who have ever been pregnant. This prevents something called Transfusion-Related Acute Lung Injury (TRALI) in the recipient. It’s a severe reaction triggered by antibodies sometimes found in the blood of anyone who has been pregnant.
• Active Medications: Because a ship cannot run complex lab tests, taking certain everyday medications will trigger an immediate rejection. If you are on blood thinners, take specific acne medications, or fail their rapid health questionnaire, you are instantly disqualified.

Don’t worry about being charged for your good deed, either. While some passengers have reported seeing an automated medical fee show up on their onboard account after donating, this is just a computer error.

Passengers are never billed for emergency donations, and Guest Services will quickly reverse the charge.

How Often Are Blood Transfusions Needed?

Between 2009 and 2017, Royal Caribbean reported that their doctors performed transfusions on 58 patients at sea. Medical staff estimated that 40 of those passengers would not have survived the transit to a land-based hospital without those immediate, shipboard donations.

So, another shoutout to all the card-carrying blood donors cruising the world.

The odds of hearing a middle-of-the-night call for your blood type are still pretty low. But if it happens, and you are able, you don’t want to be sidelined.

You don’t even need to pack the physical plastic card. Before you head to the port, log into your Red Cross or local donor app, take a quick screenshot of your digital donor card, and save it to your phone’s favorites.

It takes five seconds, costs nothing, and is the only “packing list” item that could actually save a life.