Passport

[donaldsc]

This is not directed just at the OP but to travelers in general.  I love it when people post questions about legal documents or required travel documents.  None of us on CC are immigration lawyers so any answers we give them should be taken with a grain of salt.  The questioner should go onto a government site to get the answer from the source.  As many in this thread have sair - just get a passport.

 

DON

[njhorseman]

1 hour ago, K32682 said:

 

I'm less concerned about what my own government says about my passport and more concerned about the reality of the country in which I am travelling.  A crumpled photocopy of my passport might satisfy a local official but having the real item with you should you need it is a better option.  The photocopy goes into the safe. The passport stays with me. 

Since the reality of the country in which you are traveling is overwhelmingly that you are likely not required to carry your passport on your person, then you should rarely be carrying your passport with you.

[njhorseman]

1 hour ago, K32682 said:

 

Except in this thread the OP is leaving the United States and is wondering whether to get a passport when the answer is obvious. 

Yes...it's obviously not required.

[njhorseman]

5 minutes ago, donaldsc said:

This is not directed just at the OP but to travelers in general.  I love it when people post questions about legal documents or required travel documents.  None of us on CC are immigration lawyers so any answers we give them should be taken with a grain of salt.  The questioner should go onto a government site to get the answer from the source.  As many in this thread have sair - just get a passport.

 

DON

If the "government site" had accurate information I would agree, but it often isn't accurate for cruise passengers , who frequently fall under unique rules.  In the case at hand the Department of State's website is an absolute disaster, full of inaccuracies and omissions .   

The cruise lines understand this and that is why they're a valuable resource for such information, and no...you don't have to be an immigration lawyer to read and accurately interpret the rules. Posts such as yours are an absolute insult to anyone who has professional experience in this area .                                     

[wcook]

Literally millions of people cruise without a passport or leave their passport in a safe when walking around a foreign country. These people aren’t idiots. They’ve looked at the pros and cons and made a decision. 
 

I know people mean well, ok most of you mean well. But calling people names for making a different choice than you would make isn’t helpful. 

[sparks1093]

42 minutes ago, donaldsc said:

This is not directed just at the OP but to travelers in general.  I love it when people post questions about legal documents or required travel documents.  None of us on CC are immigration lawyers so any answers we give them should be taken with a grain of salt.  The questioner should go onto a government site to get the answer from the source.  As many in this thread have sair - just get a passport.

 

DON

One doesn't need to be an immigration lawyer to answer a question about travel documents because people who are traveling aren't immigrants. When we first started cruising passports would have run around $850. For a 4 day cruise. That cost $1800. I did the research and DW and I decided that since passports weren't required we were ok with using the alternative. We both knew that we wanted to travel internationally by air one day but we didn't at that time know when that would be. Turned out to be 2015, so that is when we got our passports. People have different travel patterns and there are different legitimate choices available for some of that travel. 

[donaldsc]

10 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

One doesn't need to be an immigration lawyer to answer a question about travel documents because people who are traveling aren't immigrants. When we first started cruising passports would have run around $850. For a 4 day cruise. That cost $1800. I did the research and DW and I decided that since passports weren't required we were ok with using the alternative. We both knew that we wanted to travel internationally by air one day but we didn't at that time know when that would be. Turned out to be 2015, so that is when we got our passports. People have different travel patterns and there are different legitimate choices available for some of that travel. 

 

I did not really mean to have an lawyer.  My thought was that many of us including probably me have given advice on CC that we thought was right but was not right.  Some travel document questions are simple and easy to answer.  Some are not simple but we think that they are and we may end up giving bad advice.

 

DON

[sparks1093]

14 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

I did not really mean to have an lawyer.  My thought was that many of us including probably me have given advice on CC that we thought was right but was not right.  Some travel document questions are simple and easy to answer.  Some are not simple but we think that they are and we may end up giving bad advice.

 

DON

It all depends on what you mean by giving advice. Answering a simple question, such as does a US citizen on a closed loop cruise require a passport, isn't giving advice and most of us who respond to that question have learned to answer the question with enough information to cover most of the bases. As @njhorseman points out the government websites are inadequate in a number of ways and the cruise line websites can be little better. When someone asks "may I cruise on a closed loop cruise without a passport" there are potentially two questions being asked- 1) is it licit for me to cruise on a closed loop cruise without a passport and 2) is it prudent for me to cruise on a closed loop cruise without a passport. Many posters jump right to number 2 and that leads to giving advice since whether or not it is prudent is very much determined by facts none of us know OR is driven by a posters' own opinion (i.e. "I would never leave my country without a passport and you shouldn't either"). When it comes down to it people have a choice when it comes to what travel documentation to use in certain situations and it is not up to us to make that choice for them, because what they chose doesn't affect us.

[K32682]

18 hours ago, njhorseman said:

Since the reality of the country in which you are traveling is overwhelmingly that you are likely not required to carry your passport on your person, then you should rarely be carrying your passport with you.

 

It depends on the country. Having visited several I have required my passport to book into a hotel, exchange money, rent a vehicle, gamble at a casino, visit a game preserve, complete a VAT exemption form, pass through a road side police check and confirm at a Guardia Civil roadblock in Spain that I was not an ETA terrorist.  Our American friend had a much tougher time in Spain because he wasn't carrying his passport and the Guardia were unimpressed with his Colorado drivers license. 

 

Unlike another poster I do not consider those who don't carry their passports in foreign countries to be "idiots" but believe they are inadequately prepared if their plans go awry and overly dependent on the kindness of strangers.  

 

 

[sparks1093]

2 minutes ago, K32682 said:

 

It depends on the country. Having visited several I have required my passport to book into a hotel, exchange money, rent a vehicle, gamble at a casino, visit a game preserve, complete a VAT exemption form, pass through a road side police check and confirm at a Guardia Civil roadblock in Spain that I was not an ETA terrorist.  Our American friend had a much tougher time in Spain because he wasn't carrying his passport and the Guardia were unimpressed with his Colorado drivers license. 

 

Unlike another poster I do not consider those who don't carry their passports in foreign countries to be "idiots" but believe they are inadequately prepared if their plans go awry and overly dependent on the kindness of strangers.  

 

 

I am more likely to carry my passport when I am visiting a country that requires me to have a passport, such as on our trips to Europe. When I'm on a closed looped cruise I choose to leave the passport in the safe for a number of reasons, including the fact that my passport is not necessary for me to be where I am. Something might go awry, sure, but that's largely within my control and the odds are very small. I traveled extensively (including Europe) without a passport before we got our passports in 2015 (much of it with the US Navy) so I tend not to hold passports in the same regard as others.

[njhorseman]

31 minutes ago, K32682 said:

 

It depends on the country. Having visited several I have required my passport to book into a hotel, exchange money, rent a vehicle, gamble at a casino, visit a game preserve, complete a VAT exemption form, pass through a road side police check and confirm at a Guardia Civil roadblock in Spain that I was not an ETA terrorist.  Our American friend had a much tougher time in Spain because he wasn't carrying his passport and the Guardia were unimpressed with his Colorado drivers license. 

 

Unlike another poster I do not consider those who don't carry their passports in foreign countries to be "idiots" but believe they are inadequately prepared if their plans go awry and overly dependent on the kindness of strangers.  

 

 

I said that it was likely you won't have to carry your passport. "Likely you won't have to" doesn't mean you might never need it.

In any event none of this of relevance to the question posed by the OP, who simply asked if they needed to have a passport to take their particular cruise, and the answer to that question is still a resounding "no" .

Edited February 15, 2023 by njhorseman