bryanilee

If anyone is curious, I was allowed to board the cruise, no problem. They actually took more time with my wife's passport (with two years left) for some reason, but overall it was pretty smooth getting on board.

HOWEVER, I would not recommend anyone else doing that - as I mentioned earlier, if I had read that somewhat obscure line about requiring 6 months earlier, I would have done the expedited renewal. And now that I'm back I guess I'll start working on finally renewing the passport.

The cruise was pretty good. Random advice for no one in particular - if there's a huge puzzle in the "Explorations Cafe" and you're playing with it, be sure to wash your hands after. I got some sort of cold at the end of the cruise - don't know if it's related to the puzzle, but who knows how many hands were touching those pieces! :p

Ok, I called a slightly different Holland America line, and got a different agent. This person told me that it should be no problem - the passport only has to be valid for the duration of the travel (for this specific cruise and a US citizen with a US passport).

So I'm going to just chance it and hope they let me on board. If they don't and this turns into my own personal "Amazing Race", I'll post again and you can all tell "told you so..." :p:p

(Note I am NOT recommending that anyone else do it this way - if I had noticed this three weeks ago I would have definitely tried to get the expedited passport).

Thank you everyone!

Following some of the advice here, I called a Holland America number, and the agent told me that she couldn't say yes or no, but that it was not a Holland America policy (it's up to the countries). Suggested calling a consulate.

So should I trust that agent? :-) Because I'm pretty sure Canada doesn't have that requirement. I'm tempted to try calling Holland America again and see if I get a different agent and a different answer...

Hi, I'm traveling on a Holland America cruise that starts from Boston in a few days and ends in Montreal. My passport expires almost 5 months after the cruise - will they allow me to board? I am a US citizen with a US passport.

I've seen similar threads on cruisecritic, but I'm seeing something that I didn't see mentioned in these other threads.

When I first went through their check-in process, I saw they said they "highly recommend" a passport that expires at least six months after the end of the cruise, and thought that it was just a recommendation "just in case".

Just yesterday I took a closer look at the boarding pass and read this section, after where they say "highly recommends": "For U.S. and Canadian Citizens

Travel by Land or Sea:

Travel document requirements vary based on cruise itinerary and

whether international flights are required. For voyages that are

scheduled to end outside the U.S., a passport that is valid for six

months beyond the completion date of your travel is required"

The confusing thing is after visiting a bunch of websites, it doesn't look like Canada actually has this requirement. And on top of this, during the check-in process they asked for my passport information including expiration date, and apparently it went through ok - wouldn't they have rejected the check-in at that point if it was actually required? They did give me a boarding pass.

If it were a few weeks before the cruise, I would probably just try to expedite it, but at this point just a few days before, the headache of trying to get the passport before the cruise is not too much better than the headache of taking the chance of not being allowed to board and having to expedite in Boston, and then catch the cruise potentially at the next stop in Bar Harbor...

(And pet peeve - why would they say "highly recommends" if it's actually required)?

Thank you for any information on this you can provide!