White hillside buildings and blue-domed church overlooking the sea in Greece, with a cruise ship in the distance.
  • On Sep 18, 2026
    Kaycee from CA Asked Please note that experiences, policies, pricing and other offerings are subject to change and may have changed since the date of this answer.

    What do I put for surname and given name?

    Hello, KayCee,

    Welcome to planDisney. I'm guessing you and I are in agreement that we want everything about our Disney Cruise Line vacation planning to be practically perfect in every way. Of course, when it comes to matters of compliance with laws and regulations related to international travel, the highest levels of perfection seem especially critical.

    When you first book a Disney cruise reservation, you will indicate the names of each Guest staying in every stateroom you reserve. About 30-40 days before your cruise embarks, you may begin your online check-in. During online check-in, you will upload images of your current, valid travel documents. In these steps, each Guest's name must match the name found on their government-issued travel documents. Put each Guest's family name or surname into the last name field and their first name into the given name or first name field. For new online account creation and initial reservation bookings, it's typical to put only the very first name of a Guest. In cases of double names, such as Little John or Long John Silver, it is usually fine to include multiple "first" names with spaces.

    Make sure names and spellings match between online forms and physical documents. There is room for some flexibility. For example, when my family was checking in online for a Disney cruise last year, we uploaded images of a birth certificate and a current driver’s license for one of our children and filled in the main parts of the information from the documents. Specifically, we entered our family name in the surname field for everyone. But for this child with the birth certificate and driver’s license, we entered only their very first name online without their middle name. We found that was sufficient to verify a match for their name between the reservation information and the official travel documents. Other members of our family used passports. We happened to enter both first and middle names in the "Given Name (First Name)" field for the rest of us. Since the names on the forms matched the names on the documents well enough, the forms and document images were accepted.

    Tip: When a surname has changed, such as with a marriage, the Guest surname on reservations should match that Guest's surname as indicated by their current government-issued identification.

    One of our family members has a compound first name much like yours, including a capital letter in the middle of their name. For their check-in form, we simply filled in the first name just as it is on their travel documents and moved on. It was perfectly fine to keep their first name intact and place it in the "Given Name (First Name)" field of the online check-in form.

    KayCee, it's simply supercalifragilisticexpialidocious that you are making sure all of your I's are dotted and T's are crossed. If there's anything else we can help with here at planDisney, please stop by again soon.

    Have a great cruise, KayCee!
    ~Tony

thumbnail image for Tony

Meet the Panelist: Tony, Utah

Coming to you from the Beehive State, I’m a Disney-loving dad and husband, buzzing with excitement to share advice and tips for making your Disneyland Resort vacation as magical as possible! I’m excited to help you discover the storytelling magic of the “Happiest Place on Earth!” Learn More About Tony

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