Six Month Passport Validity

[MightyMike]

My son's passport expires five months after our cruise. 

 

If i renew before the cruise, he will only be 15 so I will only be able to get him another 5-year passport. If I wait and renew after the cruise, he will be 16 and I can get him a full 10-year passport. So I would like to wait if I can.

 

Will Royal Caribbean object if his passport expires in five months? None of the countries we are visiting (Haiti, Jamaica and Mexico) require six-month validity. Could Royal Caribbean demand six-month validity even though the visited countries do not?

[Clarea]

Closed end US based Caribbean cruises do not require passports, unless they are visiting Cuba.  No problem with less than 6 months, again, except for Cuba.

[sparks1093]

For Royal it is only a recommendation although some cruise lines do actually require it.

[MichiganMan4]

Above posters are correct, but wanted to share a recent experience for those who might contemplate traveling without a passport. 

 

Symphony was scheduled to depart Miami the afternoon of 4/20.  Severe thunderstorms from Ohio to Florida cancelled numerous flights inbound to South Florida the prior day.  With it being Easter weekend, many people couldn’t get rescheduled flights until after the shipped departed.  

 

If you had a passport, you could fly to the first port (Coxen Hole / Roatan) and join the cruise for the remaining 5 nights.  If you didn’t have a passport, you couldn’t join as you couldn’t have flown.   Not sure if the 6 month rule would have factored in/applied here or not.  

 

Reason #6,234 as to why to cruise with a only Passport Book (not card).

[fdthird]

Good luck flying into Roatan!

[Septemberbride07]

44 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

For Royal it is only a recommendation although some cruise lines do actually require it.

This was our experience. On our March Liberty cruise, our passports were set to expire in April. At check in, we were asked if we realized our passports were about to expire. We said yes and that was that. We were on the ship about 10 minutes later!

[Clarea]

7 minutes ago, fdthird said:

Good luck flying into Roatan!

 

I took a second look at the first post and did not see any reference to flying to Roatan.

[hapster85]

Definitely wait until after the cruise and renew him with a 10 year passport.

[Joseph2017China]

All countries set a requirement for how long a passport must be valid to enter.  The range is anywhere from being valid for time of stay, to 6 months.  So the cruise line, travel agents, airlines and everyone in the travel business will tell you that is should be 6 months because that is the safe thing to say. 

 

On a closed loop cruise, as a USA citizen, coming back home, it needs to be valid up to the day you arrive.  Except for Cuba, Caribbean islands do not see, or ask for a passport.  RCCL sails internationally around the world, so it is going to say 6 months to be safe.

 

It's always up to the passenger to be in compliance.

[MichiganMan4]

13 minutes ago, fdthird said:

Good luck flying into Roatan!

 

Roatan (RTB) is actually serviced by Delta,  United and American as well as a few other non-US airlines.  People we met on the trip actually flew Avianca via El Salvador (hey, it worked!)

[Ourusualbeach]

18 minutes ago, fdthird said:

Good luck flying into Roatan!

There were people on our March cruise on Symphony that missed their flight and arrived in Roatan. 

[fdthird]

19 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

I took a second look at the first post and did not see any reference to flying to Roatan.

Not the OP but one of the following comments. 

[fdthird]

10 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

There were people on our March cruise on Symphony that missed their flight and arrived in Roatan. 

Well, good for them.  A last minute ticket to Coxen hole is over $1000!  

 

 

[Ourusualbeach]

7 minutes ago, fdthird said:

Well, good for them.  A last minute ticket to Coxen hole is over $1000!  

 

 

Just a guess but I would suspect that the6 had a lot more than that invested in the cruise.  Also depending on the reason for the missed flight insurance may have covered it.  

[SRF]

On 5/3/2019 at 3:49 PM, Host Clarea said:

 

I took a second look at the first post and did not see any reference to flying to Roatan.

 

Because the poster was relating a DIFFERENT time and place.

[SRF]

On 5/3/2019 at 3:57 PM, Joseph2017China said:

So the cruise line, travel agents, airlines and everyone in the travel business will tell you that is should be 6 months because that is the safe thing to say. 

 

I disagree.  I find the airlines know exactly what is needed for each destination.

 

I have flown to a number of places with less than 6 months remaining, that did not require it.

 

I did have an agent question one time, because the 6 month time came up about 2 days before I was scheduled to depart that country.  However, it was one where I needed a visa, and they had issued the visa with an expiration date after the 6 month date.  They decided that the visa trumped the rule.  And no, I did not have any issues when I arrived.

 

 

[CRUISEFAN0001]

One has to question whether or not avoiding the rule based on the 6-month standard is worth jeopardizing a trip, not to mention the costs (often added costs).  Since rules on passports have been known to change over time...the smart move is to just renew the darn thing and eliminate any issues.

[kernow]

Assuming that the OP is a US citizen and this does not apply but on the UK site it states that passports have to be valid for 6 months after travel. 

We are on Indy out of Southampton in a couple of weeks and someone on our cruise suddenly realised that her children's passports didn't have 6 months left. She called UK office and was told they would not be allowed to board. She had to make an emergency appointment with the passport office this week to get new passports.

[Iamcruzin]

On 5/3/2019 at 3:10 PM, MichiganMan4 said:

Above posters are correct, but wanted to share a recent experience for those who might contemplate traveling without a passport. 

 

Symphony was scheduled to depart Miami the afternoon of 4/20.  Severe thunderstorms from Ohio to Florida cancelled numerous flights inbound to South Florida the prior day.  With it being Easter weekend, many people couldn’t get rescheduled flights until after the shipped departed.  

 

If you had a passport, you could fly to the first port (Coxen Hole / Roatan) and join the cruise for the remaining 5 nights.  If you didn’t have a passport, you couldn’t join as you couldn’t have flown.   Not sure if the 6 month rule would have factored in/applied here or not.  

 

Reason #6,234 as to why to cruise with a only Passport Book (not card).

This is more of a reason to have travel in insurance.

[brillohead]

If your son is a US Citizen, just wait until after the cruise.  You'll be fine.

[Charles4515]

On 5/3/2019 at 4:14 PM, fdthird said:

Well, good for them.  A last minute ticket to Coxen hole is over $1000!  

 

 

 

That is why I buy insurance that would cover that....

[Charles4515]

4 hours ago, CRUISEFAN0001 said:

One has to question whether or not avoiding the rule based on the 6-month standard is worth jeopardizing a trip, not to mention the costs (often added costs).  Since rules on passports have been known to change over time...the smart move is to just renew the darn thing and eliminate any issues.

 

It is not a rule.

[S.A.M.J.R.]

On 5/3/2019 at 3:10 PM, MichiganMan4 said:

Reason #6,234 as to why to cruise with a only Passport Book (not card).

I can up with four...

 

1) Emergency flight (or drive) home (can cover medical, missed ship, or other emergency).

2) Missed embarkation (at original port or intermediate) and traveling to the next port.

3) Peace of mind.  

 

I'd like to hear some of the other 6231. 

[sparks1093]

6 hours ago, CRUISEFAN0001 said:

One has to question whether or not avoiding the rule based on the 6-month standard is worth jeopardizing a trip, not to mention the costs (often added costs).  Since rules on passports have been known to change over time...the smart move is to just renew the darn thing and eliminate any issues.

One need only be aware of the rule for the type of travel they are taking or possibly planning to take. Since very few countries do require 6 month validity (remaining at the end of the trip, not the beginning) and even fewer require it of cruise ship passengers within the WHTI area renewing early just in case is often just a waste. Not much of a waste, but still a waste. Personally I will let my travel plans dictate when I renew my passport, so if we aren't traveling for a year after it expires it will be renewed a few months before the trip. I am not in the situation where I have to have a fully valid passport handy at all times (I do recognize that there are some people that do need that).

[CRUISEFAN0001]

1 hour ago, Charles4515 said:

 

It is not a rule.

In some places it is...more important...the are new passport rules forthcoming in the not to distant future in more countries.