Carnival Cruise to Nassau/Key West. Do we really need passports?

[JazzLizard]

My partner, my sister and I are all first time cruisers. We are cruising on Carnival Fascination in April and will be leaving out of Jacksonville, Fl with ports of call in Key West, FL and Nassau, Bahamas. I have heard that Caribbean countries do not require a passport for cruisers but I want to make the best decision. Should be just take our DLs and birth certificates or should be go ahead and purchase passports? Thanks for the input!

[Sauer-kraut]

No, you do not need your passports. This is a CLOSED LOOP CRUISE which means it ends and starts in the U.S.A.

 

Now the other part. Make sure all your birth certificates are the 'new' kind, issued by the state or county you were born in. The new format will list both parents names and have either a special watermark, raised seal or other security stamp on it.

 

The hospital copy from the vital statistics office when I was born is no longer valid and I went and got the 'new' kind a couple of years ago.

 

Have a great time!!!

[JazzLizard]

Thanks! I actually just ordered a copy of my birth certificate. I will be sure to check it when it arrives to make sure that it is the correct format! :)

[Oakster]

It's not the Bahamas you have to worry about - it's the US upon your return. If the cruise documents you were given by Carnival do not specify a passport requirement, don't worry about it. If they do - you'll need it.

[paul929207]

As stated, you do not need a passport for this cruise assuming you are a US citizen.

 

However, should an emergency occur and you have to fly home from another country, you will need to go to an embassy and get a passport before you could fly. This could take several days and you would be responsible for the costs incurred (hotel, meals, transportation, etc.)

[Kamloops50]

The big thing is if you have to be medivaced or have to fly home for an emergency a BC won't work you'll need a passport.

[njhorseman]

With the only non-US port being Nassau, the chance that anyone would have to fly home from outside the US is virtually nil, so it's a reasonable risk to use BCs and drivers licenses rather than paying for passports.

[njhorseman]

It's not the Bahamas you have to worry about - it's the US upon your return. If the cruise documents you were given by Carnival do not specify a passport requirement, don't worry about it. If they do - you'll need it.

 

Well, you're wrong. Any country you're visiting, as well as the US or any other country upon your return, has the right to require passports...or even visas. Of course in this case, the Bahamas does not for cruise ship passengers who are US citizens, but they have every right to do so if they wish.

[Keith1010]

Passport not required.

 

Keith

[Krazy Kruizers]

As a passport is not needed for that particular cruise, I would still get one.

Emergency medical evacuations are one reason.

And once you have taken that first cruise, you will want to cruise again -- and you just may need that passport for that cruise.

[dorisis]

It's not the Bahamas you have to worry about - it's the US upon your return. If the cruise documents you were given by Carnival do not specify a passport requirement, don't worry about it. If they do - you'll need it.

 

Do get a passport. In case of any emergency it is the best and sometimes only document that will be accepted. The Bahamas are a FOREIGN port and if you needed to fly home for any reason you COULD be denied entry without a passport.

 

~Doris~

[Happy ks]

Although you can get by without a passport for this type of cruise (closed loop), you will probably want to cruise again in the future.

 

The biggest benefit to a passport is that you are not stuck just going on closed loop cruises. Another huge benefit is that if there is an emergency, you can fly home with far less hassle. If you get stuck in another country, you will then have to get a passport to return to the US, a far more expensive proposition.

 

It's just so much simpler to have a passport than having to haul along several documents (BC/marriage license to bridge documents etc...). We've had ours now for 11 years (renewed once) and our now grown children are also on their second passports. I don't know if it makes the check in easier since I haven't had to travel with other documents in 11 years, but I'd worry that our BC's weren't the right ones and we'd be denied boarding.

 

My husbands legal birth certificate, accepted by the passport agency, probably would not be accepted at port. It does have a raised state seal, but it is a mimeograph of the original, something many port agents probably have never seen before. My daughters first birth certificate, obtained through the county, was titled as an "abstract copy of birth" and was not accepted as a legal document for passport purposes. It's possible it could not have been used to board a ship...we had to obtain another birth certificate for her to obtain a passport. The county used these "abstracts" for a short period of time, before they deemed them too easy to duplicate and counterfeit.