❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Every Passport Pals download includes two things:

• A ready-to-print PDF — open it, hit print, done. No editing required.
• A Canva link — if you want to personalise the journal with your child's name, change colours, or tweak anything, the Canva template lets you do exactly that. Free Canva account required.

Most families just print the PDF straight away. The Canva option is there if you want to make it extra special — totally up to you!

Inside your download email you'll find a Canva template link. Click it and it will open a copy of the journal design directly in your Canva account (free to use).

From there you can:

• Add your child's name to the cover
• Change fonts, colours, or layout to your liking
• Add photos or stickers
• Download your customised version as a PDF and print

First, check your spam or junk folder — our emails occasionally land there, especially if it's your first time hearing from us.

If it's not there after a few minutes, email us at info@thepassportpal.com with the email address you used and we'll resend it right away.

The journal is designed for standard 8.5" x 11" (US Letter) paper. Here are our top tips:

• At home: Print double-sided if your printer supports it to save paper. Use "fit to page" in your print settings if anything looks cut off.
• At Staples or FedEx Office: Upload your PDF, choose colour printing on standard paper. Usually costs $0.25–$0.50 per page.
• Paper weight: 24lb paper feels much nicer than standard 20lb if you want a premium feel.
• Binding: A simple spiral bind at Staples makes it feel like a real journal — kids love it!

This is almost always a printer settings issue rather than the file itself. Try these fixes:

• Set print quality to Best or High instead of Normal or Draft
• Make sure you're printing in colour, not greyscale
• Check your ink or toner levels — low ink causes washed-out colours
• If printing at home isn't giving great results, Staples colour prints are consistently vibrant

The free journal is a fully complete, genuinely useful journal — not a watered-down teaser. It includes:

• Cover page with trip details
• Embarkation day pages
• Daily ship activity and memory prompts
• Packing list
• Cruise bucket list
• General "day at sea" and "day at port" pages
• End-of-trip reflection pages

The free journal is a great start and many families use it as-is — especially for younger kids or shorter cruises.

Port Packs are worth it if your child is excited about specific ports, if you're visiting popular destinations like CocoCay, Nassau, or Cozumel, or if you want journal prompts that are actually about your child's real day — not just generic "what did you do?" lines.

At $3.99 per port, most families add 2–3 packs and are done. It's less than a souvenir and lasts forever.

Each pack is delivered as its own PDF. To combine them into one print-ready document, you have a few easy options:

• Free option — PDF24 or Smallpdf: Go to pdf24.org or smallpdf.com, use the "Merge PDF" tool, drag in your files in order, and download the combined PDF. Free and takes about 60 seconds.
• Mac users: Open all PDFs in Preview, drag the pages into one document using the sidebar, then export as a single PDF.
• Canva option: If you're customising in Canva, you can open all your templates and arrange the pages together before downloading as one file.

You can print each PDF separately and just stack them in order — totally fine! Or merge them first using the steps above and print everything in one go. Either way works great.

If you're taking it to Staples to bind, merging everything into one PDF first makes the process much smoother.

We accept all major credit and debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover) as well as Apple Pay and Google Pay where available. All payments are processed securely — we never store your card details.

Yes. All payments are handled by our secure third-party payment processor. Your card details are encrypted and never stored on our servers. The entire checkout process uses HTTPS encryption.

Because our products are instant digital downloads, all sales are final. However, if there's a technical issue with your file — corrupted download, delivery failure, or a file that doesn't match the description — we will absolutely make it right. Just email us at info@thepassportpal.com.

You can read our full Refund Policy here.

Passport Pals is designed to be the sweet spot for kids aged 5 to 12, with most of the prompts working especially well for ages 7–11. The writing prompts are simple enough for early writers but engaging enough that older kids won't find them babyish.

• Ages 5–7: May need a little parental help with writing, but love the drawing pages, scavenger hunts, and circle/tick activities
• Ages 8–11: The sweet spot — old enough to write independently, young enough to genuinely love the prompts
• Ages 12+: Older kids who enjoy journaling will still get a lot from it, especially the port-specific pages

This is exactly who we designed it for! Most of the prompts aren't open-ended "write a paragraph" questions. They're things like:

• Circle one: Thrill Seeker | Beach Bum | Both!
• Rate your slide: 🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊
• Check off what you spotted on the scavenger hunt
• Draw your favourite moment

Kids who "hate writing" consistently fill these pages because they're doing things, not writing essays. The specificity of the prompts is what makes the difference.