Sister that I'm cruising with in three months just now told me her passport is expired

[sparks1093]

4 hours ago, icft said:

I guess it is a question of what is considered a BIG problem. Get stuck on Roatan and see if you consider it a small problem or a big problem. You have to get to the embassy in Tegucigalpa about 170 miles away. Luckily there are one or two flights a day from Roatan to Tegucigalpa for $250 - $300 per person. Then when you get to Tegucigalpa you have to get to the embassy. They require appointments, but you can probably sweet talk them past that in an emergency. Then you need to know the rules of the embassy. For example you can't take cell phones or other electronic devices, bags or luggage or purses and other things they have prohibited and no storage is provided to drop those things at the door. Go with a prohibited item and you are sent away. So with needing a place to store things and just plain time considerations you are on the hook for a hotel in addition to cab fairs.

 

With a passport you avoid all that and can fly from Roatan to Miami on American Airlines for about $250. And for some reason flights from Tegucigalpa to Miami begin at $700 (probably difference in airport gate fees charged by the airports).

 

So in addition to the language problems involved, your cost of not having a passport is $250 per person to get to Tegucigalpa plus hotel and cab costs plus whatever the passport costs plus an additional $450 per person to get to Miami.

 

Financially it is not minor but not a deal breaker; but my time is worth something and I would rather avoid the stress and just hop a flight from the airport a couple of miles from the dock in Roatan. To me the expense and time of getting a passport is the better deal. A problem doesn't have to be the end of the world for me to want to avoid it if it is easy to avoid.

 

Of course a passport does you no good if you don't take it with you when you leave the ship. So most folks with a passport who miss the ship will be going through all the hassle anyway😁

 

 

If your passport is in your cabin safe the conventional wisdom (and experience of many) is that the cruise line would leave your passport with a port agent. As for needing to go to the embassy that may not be necessary, depending upon the circumstances, since the passport requirement may be waived for emergencies and for humanitarian reason. There is of course a difference between missing the ship (largely in the passenger's control), having an emergency that requires one to leave the ship, and having something happen back home that would require one to end a cruise early to return home. If money is no object then yes, having a passport can be a wise decision for many, but the fact remains that millions of people in normal times cruise just fine without them on closed loop cruised. 

[ontheweb]

4 hours ago, sparks1093 said:

but the fact remains that millions of people in normal times cruise just fine without them on closed loop cruised. 

That is not true for all closed loop cruises. We have had closed loop cruises that started in Barcelona, Rome, and London (actually Dover). As US citizens we definitely needed passports.

[ProgRockCruiser]

33 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

That is not true for all closed loop cruises. We have had closed loop cruises that started in Barcelona, Rome, and London (actually Dover). As US citizens we definitely needed passports.

The obvious implication was for closed-loop cruises departing a US port.

 

As a US citizen, you can't get to a European port from the US without a passport (US presumably), and of course you are visiting other countries there, so that seems rather obvious.

 

And the agreements cruise lines have with the Caribbean ports to no require passports is very unique.  You can't fly there without a passport.  But because the ports know you pretty well have to leave when the ship does, they have relaxed the requirement in that case only.

[lazydayz]

Op, any update?  Our granddaughter applied in July for a NEW passport and had it in hand 17 days later.  She paid the rush fee as she is applying for a position with the airlines.  

[Knights on the Beach]

We just renewed our passports, did not expedite and it took just under six weeks. We mailed the apps and old passports in at the end of June and got the new ones earlier this month.

[sparks1093]

3 hours ago, ontheweb said:

That is not true for all closed loop cruises. We have had closed loop cruises that started in Barcelona, Rome, and London (actually Dover). As US citizens we definitely needed passports.

I am using "closed loop cruise" as defined by DHS, which is a cruise that leaves and returns to the same US port traveling to areas within the WHTI, but I suspect that you knew that.

[ontheweb]

57 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

I am using "closed loop cruise" as defined by DHS, which is a cruise that leaves and returns to the same US port traveling to areas within the WHTI, but I suspect that you knew that.

Yes, I knew that. But, I did want to clarify that there were cruises that started and ended at the same port that did require passports.

[sparks1093]

1 hour ago, ontheweb said:

Yes, I knew that. But, I did want to clarify that there were cruises that started and ended at the same port that did require passports.

Which is good to keep in mind. Sometimes in these debates we need to be mindful of the terms that we use. I just realized that my previous post may have come across the wrong way and I apologize for that.

[Duanerice1]

On 6/24/2022 at 2:43 PM, NuggetTheChicken said:

Thank you all for the answers, everyone! Sadly I don't think I can rely on passports being done quickly like you all said as there's a delay on passports right now, but I'm sure we'll be fine if we do expedited.

There really isn't a delay.  We got ours back recently in 4 weeks.  Just send it in and you will he it back.  Now if she waits another 3 weeks to send it in......

[CruizinSusan70]

7 hours ago, cruisemom2 said:

We just renewed our passports, did not expedite and it took just under six weeks. We mailed the apps and old passports in at the end of June and got the new ones earlier this month.

 

3 hours ago, Duanerice1 said:

There really isn't a delay.  We got ours back recently in 4 weeks.  Just send it in and you will he it back.  Now if she waits another 3 weeks to send it in......

My DH just renewed his passport.  The govt received the application on July 15 and he received the new one exactly 1 month later on August 15.  No expedited service paid.

[ontheweb]

17 hours ago, sparks1093 said:

Which is good to keep in mind. Sometimes in these debates we need to be mindful of the terms that we use. I just realized that my previous post may have come across the wrong way and I apologize for that.

No real need to apologize.

 

And I left out one other port we did a round trip from and needed a passport, Copenhagen.

[nascartim]

At the start of August they were trying out a pilot program to renew your passport online. I think they were limiting it to the first 25,000. Anyway, I qualified as I happen to be there at the right time. I filled mine out on Aug 4th, and they told me 8-11 weeks. Then I get an email yesterday that said my passport is being shipped. Sweet, that's about a 2 week turnaround time.

[ultrafighter]

1 hour ago, nascartim said:

At the start of August they were trying out a pilot program to renew your passport online. I think they were limiting it to the first 25,000. Anyway, I qualified as I happen to be there at the right time. I filled mine out on Aug 4th, and they told me 8-11 weeks. Then I get an email yesterday that said my passport is being shipped. Sweet, that's about a 2 week turnaround time.

We won't need to renew for a good while, but it sure would be nice if this is rolled out for real by then.  I'm glad to read good experiences like yours!

[CruizinSusan70]

8 hours ago, ultrafighter said:

We won't need to renew for a good while, but it sure would be nice if this is rolled out for real by then.  I'm glad to read good experiences like yours!

The program is indeed true.  My DH had signed up for it months ago, but the stipulation was that you had to submit a digital picture of yourself.  It could not be a picture of a picture taken by your cell.  And no place such as AAA, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Staples, etc did digital, only hard copy pictures.  Ended up giving up and doing it the old fashioned way.

[sparks1093]

8 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

The program is indeed true.  My DH had signed up for it months ago, but the stipulation was that you had to submit a digital picture of yourself.  It could not be a picture of a picture taken by your cell.  And no place such as AAA, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Staples, etc did digital, only hard copy pictures.  Ended up giving up and doing it the old fashioned way.

Hopefully that would change if the system changed. It would be a shame to have such a wonderful thing derailed because a citizen couldn't obtain the necessary photo. What about a picture taken with the cell of the person, would that be allowed I wonder? Anyway, I hope by the time I have to renew in 3 years this will be an option.

[nascartim]

I was able to use a picture from my phone(my coworker took a couple of photos of me). It had to be converted to jpeg. I actually had no idea what I was doing. They had a photo editing thing that I used. I just had to crop my photo just right, and then it went green, as it would pass inspection. It ended up being easier than I thought, or else I just got lucky.

[Qchell]

I saw where someone said that a photocopy of the BC would be sufficient.  I would caution against that.  I have seen where folks said they had no issues using a photocopy and others that weren't able to cruise because they did not have the original.  If you don't get the passport back in time, I would make sure you have an actual state issued BC.  If you don't know if hers is, you can always request a new one directly from her state of birth.  I had to get a new one from FL a number of years ago and I think it cost about $15 and took about two weeks to get.  

 

[ProgRockCruiser]

1 minute ago, Qchell said:

I saw where someone said that a photocopy of the BC would be sufficient.  I would caution against that.  I have seen where folks said they had no issues using a photocopy and others that weren't able to cruise because they did not have the original.  If you don't get the passport back in time, I would make sure you have an actual state issued BC.  If you don't know if hers is, you can always request a new one directly from her state of birth.  I had to get a new one from FL a number of years ago and I think it cost about $15 and took about two weeks to get.  

 

Carnival's website explicitly states a photocopy is acceptable:

 

Birth Certificate Information

The following are acceptable:

• An original or copy of a birth certificate issued by a government agency (state/county/city) or the Department of Health and Vital Statistics
• A clear, legible copy (photocopy) of a birth certificate that was originally issued by a government agency (state/county/city) or the Department of Health and Vital Statistics. The copy does not need to be notarized or certified.