Another Passport Question

We are sailing on Anthem May 6th and our passports expire July 2nd, 2017. I was under the impression your passport had to have 6 months prior to your travel date.

However, we just sailed on the Anthem Mar 5th and no one said anything about the date. Maybe we were lucky.

If we renew our passports tomorrow and expedite them and they don't arrive by May 5th, (sorry long sentence) Can we use our birth certificates & a drivers license?

Any thoughts or suggestions?

You can use certified copies of your birth certificates and a goverment issed photo ID if the cruise starts and ends in the same US port.

Also, there is no 6 mo expiration requirement for closed end cruises out of US ports.

I recently expedited our passport renewal.

Sent priority mail on Wed 3/8

Received by passport agency Fri 3/10

We received our renewed passports via priority mail on Saturday 3/18.

I was very surprised at how fast we received them since the web site advises 2-3 weeks.

Renewal was 110. - expedite fee was an additional 60. per passport and an additional charge to have all returned via priority. Worth every penny for peace of mind. :)

Sorry - this doesn't really address your question. But if you decided to expedite - I just wanted to share my experience :)

As Bob stated you don't need 6 months validity sailing from US ports. I would just wait until you get back to renew them. BTW I just renewed my own passport (regular not expedited) and got my new one in less than three weeks. Turnaround time now is pretty fast for non-expedited renewal.

You can use certified copies of your birth certificates and a goverment issed photo ID if the cruise starts and ends in the same US port.

 

Also, there is no 6 mo expiration requirement for closed end cruises out of US ports.

Bob we are doing the Anthem 5 night which goes from NJ to Bermuda and back, then staying on for the May 11th cruise which goes to St Maarten, Labadee, San Juan and Bermuda, then back to NJ. So what you are saying is we are OK with our birth certificates period. Even though a port may require the 6 mo expiration requirement. Some one pointed out that she thought Haiti may be a problem.

Something else I had not considered. If we had to fly home from the cruise unexpectedly, would the airline accept our passports?

Bob we are doing the Anthem 5 night which goes from NJ to Bermuda and back, then staying on for the May 11th cruise which goes to St Maarten, Labadee, San Juan and Bermuda, then back to NJ. So what you are saying is we are OK with our birth certificates period. Even though a port may require the 6 mo expiration requirement. Some one pointed out that she thought Haiti may be a problem.

 

Something else I had not considered. If we had to fly home from the cruise unexpectedly, would the airline accept our passports?

There is no 6 month rule for flying home to the US. The 6 month rule generally is imposed by foreign countries when you are flying there. I know of no countries in the Caribbean or Bermuda that require the 6 month rule for cruise ship passengers.

There is no 6 month rule for flying home to the US. The 6 month rule generally is imposed by foreign countries when you are flying there. I know of no countries in the Caribbean or Bermuda that require the 6 month rule for cruise ship passengers.

Thanks again Bob, I appreciate your help.

Family members had expedited passports done a few weeks ago and it took a little over a week.

I just renewed mine and it took less than 3 weeks to get it back just by the regular renewal process. It did state it could take up to 6 weeks though.

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Same time lune for my DH this month. Now I just sent mine out on Monday and the check cleared today so should have it back in the next 2 weeks. That was regular nit expedited.

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I second waiting until after the cruise to renew.

Joanne - we just sent our passports out for Chinese Visa's . They were back

in 9 days and that was not expedited.

We applied for DD's renewal passport in Mid February and got hers back in about 3 weeks. And there was a Federal holiday in there. Very quick and we did not expedite either.

We found our birth certs, so we are going to wait till after the cruise.