passports or not??

[lisasay123]

Hello.

Traveling in/out of Port Canaveral, so don't officially need a passport. Some people say to get one just in case of emergency/if something happens, it will be much easier to get back home. But, people also say they don't take their passports with them on excursions. So, what's the point?

 

In my younger days, I wouldn't have even considered it, living on the edge and all. Now with a family of five, I'm thinking better be careful. But will I be taking my passports in my beach bag, and leaving them sit while I go snorkel? So, if I don't take it with, does it serve a purpose? Getting passports has a considerable cost and time factor for five people.

 

Thoughts? Thanks.:)

[mo4040]

Having passports makes clearing customs much easier. Also, you don't need to lug around birth certificates and so forth. Yeah, it's not cheap, but, what is these days?

[PattyG12]

You don't "NEED" them ... but I can't imagine ever leaving the country without one. If you are left ... the ship will get your passports out of your safe. I take mine when we leave the ship. If you have to fly home, you will need them.

[setsail]

There is a ton of info about this on CC. It's your call.

 

RCI also spells out on their website what is needed

[xxHadleyxx]

We always carry the ship's agents number with us in port. If we had an emergency while off the ship we could call that and ask them to get our passports out of the safe and leave them at the pier before sailing without us.

 

If we had a medical emergency while on the ship that required either air lifting one of us off to a nearby hospital, or docking and removing us by ambulance, we could take the passports with us to use when going home after recovering.

 

If the ship had mechanical problems and had to disembark everyone at a foreign port we could carry the passports off with us to use for flying home.

 

If we were contacted about a serious illness or death in the family while onboard we could use our passports to fly home from the next port.

 

They can easily be used in an emergency without us taking them off with us while on a normal port day.

[shippmates]

You do not need a passport to cruise, but you can not fly from a foreign port without one. We as US citizens can not even go to Canada without a passport. It is a large added expense when you need to purchase passports but adult passports are good for 10 years and children up to age 16 are good for 5 years.

[Coralc]

Hello.

Traveling in/out of Port Canaveral, so don't officially need a passport. Some people say to get one just in case of emergency/if something happens, it will be much easier to get back home. But, people also say they don't take their passports with them on excursions. So, what's the point?

 

In my younger days, I wouldn't have even considered it, living on the edge and all. Now with a family of five, I'm thinking better be careful. But will I be taking my passports in my beach bag, and leaving them sit while I go snorkel? So, if I don't take it with, does it serve a purpose? Getting passports has a considerable cost and time factor for five people.

 

Thoughts? Thanks.:)

 

If you aren't planning any future overseas travel with your family of 5 in the future...then I probably wouldn't bother to get them. The booklets are however, more convenient than all those birth certificates to keep track of.

 

But they are expensive, and the kid's passports are only good for 5 years. There are always what ifs. I'm not a parent, but if I was I would probably wait until we had a European trip planned, or the kids turn 18. I don't know that I would buy them for children to take closed loop, US cruises.

[Clarea]

You do not need a passport to cruise, but you can not fly from a foreign port without one. We as US citizens can not even go to Canada without a passport. It is a large added expense when you need to purchase passports but adult passports are good for 10 years and children up to age 16 are good for 5 years.

This is true only for US citizens on cruise that departs from and returns to the same US port.