Passport Blank Pages (Again)

[papaflamingo]

Just got an email from Regent about enough blank passport pages for our cruise.  We go on Oct. from Athens to Rome via Greek Isles, Israel, Egypt, Turkey and Italy.  Next Feb we are doing Hong Kong to Tokyo with stops in Shanghai, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan.  Our flights to start each cruise will be to Athens and Hong King then ending in Rome and Tokyo.  I have 12 blank pages.  I'm guessing this will be plenty, my wife thinks not.  So, anyone been to these countries on a cruise lately that can verify how many blank pages are really needed?

 

Thanks

[Pcardad]

Most stops won't bother to stamp - that sounds like more than enough. Israel never stamps  - they don't want to cause you troubles with other countries. If in doubt -get a 2nd passport...they are cheap insurance.

[Mudhen]

While we're in passport mode, I've got another question.

In the past there has always been a request to have your passport valid for 6 months past the end of your trip. Is this still in effect? 

We've got a cruise on the Grandeur in mid April and my passport expires in mid August. Do I need to renew it now? Have upcoming cruises in Sept. and Feb, '24. I'd need to do it now, if I must renew.

Thanks in advance

[Lonedaddy]

The new passports off a large book with 50 pages at no extra cost so request it with the new one.  Just a box to check.

[Lonedaddy]

2 minutes ago, Mudhen said:

While we're in passport mode, I've got another question.

In the past there has always been a request to have your passport valid for 6 months past the end of your trip. Is this still in effect? 

We've got a cruise on the Grandeur in mid April and my passport expires in mid August. Do I need to renew it now? Have upcoming cruises in Sept. and Feb, '24. I'd need to do it now, if I must renew.

Thanks in advance

Could do it after sept cruise.  Might have to expedite it.  We have a home in Belize so we send our PP to the embassy and it gets renewed in about 3 weeks.  Not so fast in the states though.

[papaflamingo]

33 minutes ago, Mudhen said:

While we're in passport mode, I've got another question.

In the past there has always been a request to have your passport valid for 6 months past the end of your trip. Is this still in effect? 

We've got a cruise on the Grandeur in mid April and my passport expires in mid August. Do I need to renew it now? Have upcoming cruises in Sept. and Feb, '24. I'd need to do it now, if I must renew.

Thanks in advance

Yes for many countries the passport does need to be valid for six months.  So you would be wise to renew  it.

[Pcardad]

56 minutes ago, Mudhen said:

While we're in passport mode, I've got another question.

In the past there has always been a request to have your passport valid for 6 months past the end of your trip. Is this still in effect? 

We've got a cruise on the Grandeur in mid April and my passport expires in mid August. Do I need to renew it now? Have upcoming cruises in Sept. and Feb, '24. I'd need to do it now, if I must renew.

Thanks in advance

Yes - get a 2nd passport.

[pingpong1]

1 hour ago, Mudhen said:

While we're in passport mode, I've got another question.

In the past there has always been a request to have your passport valid for 6 months past the end of your trip. Is this still in effect? 

We've got a cruise on the Grandeur in mid April and my passport expires in mid August. Do I need to renew it now? Have upcoming cruises in Sept. and Feb, '24. I'd need to do it now, if I must renew.

Thanks in advance

Hi Linda - Our own most recent Regent experience (Mariner Panama Canal Dec '21) was that Regent's online pre-check-in page would not even let Mary pre-check for the cruise, because it "saw" that her passport would have less than 6 months left on it when we would be getting off the cruise in San Francisco.  It didn't make any "sense" to me, as we would be disembarking in our own home country with a "still valid " U.S. passport (2 months to spare)...but that's the way RSSC has their online check-in site "programmed".  So, at the last moment, we had to get a new "expedited passport" issued (with a lot of last-minute stress, and with the help of our congresswoman's office getting involved).  And at this same time, the U.S. was "just waking up" from the Covid lock-down and passport office being under-staffed.  Mary's new passport arrived with just 3 days to spare before we were to embark in Miami.  Not a pleasant start to a cruise (which wound up not being all that pleasant, anyway)!  Since you still have time to get your passport renewed now before the cruise, my advice based our own experience with Regent, would be for you to go ahead and do the renewal now.  Best Regards.

[Mudhen]

Thanks everyone!

Will begin the renewal now!

[RELS]

7 hours ago, papaflamingo said:

So, anyone been to these countries on a cruise lately that can verify how many blank pages are really needed?

 

The U.S. state department has that information. For example, for Greece the information is on this page:

travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Greece.html/

 

[suthedit]

Insufficient blank passport pages has become a big issue on the current Mariner World Cruise.

 

Even though all passengers met Regent's requirements for blank pages at the beginning of the cruise in Miami, it turns out that 24 people (according to one person who is affected) did not have at this point the 6 blank pages South Africa requires.  It seems that some of the countries we've visited have used more than expected (Vietnam has been mentioned but I don't know if that's the case).

 

South Africa won't clear the ship--we are due to arrive in a few days--unless everyone on board can be cleared, even if they're not disembarking.  So------

 

Yesterday the 24 people disembarked in Mahe, Seychelles, to fly to Doha, Qatar, to get their extra pages, all at Regent expense btw.  They are missing Madagascar, Comoros, and Mozambique.  

 

So my advice--always have more pages than Regent specifies.

[papaflamingo]

56 minutes ago, suthedit said:

Insufficient blank passport pages has become a big issue on the current Mariner World Cruise.

 

Even though all passengers met Regent's requirements for blank pages at the beginning of the cruise in Miami, it turns out that 24 people (according to one person who is affected) did not have at this point the 6 blank pages South Africa requires.  It seems that some of the countries we've visited have used more than expected (Vietnam has been mentioned but I don't know if that's the case).

 

South Africa won't clear the ship--we are due to arrive in a few days--unless everyone on board can be cleared, even if they're not disembarking.  So------

 

Yesterday the 24 people disembarked in Mahe, Seychelles, to fly to Doha, Qatar, to get their extra pages, all at Regent expense btw.  They are missing Madagascar, Comoros, and Mozambique.  

 

So my advice--always have more pages than Regent specifies.

WOW!  Thanks for the info!

[flossie009]

1 hour ago, papaflamingo said:

it turns out that 24 people (according to one person who is affected) did not have at this point the 6 blank pages South Africa requires. 

That is enlightening.

According to UK Government advice, reflected in Regent(UK) advice, South Africa only requires 2 consecutive blank pages in your passport, and 6 months validity, on arrival in the country.

Edited April 26, 2023 by flossie009

[Gilly]

@suthedit my word!   Now I can understand why there is an issue with blank pages!

 

Why on earth does South Africa need six blank pages?  (I know, they don't have to explain...if they say that's what's needed, what choice do we have but to comply? Or....)  We have had issues with our passports filling up rather too quickly ourselves, mostly because some customs official blithely stamps the middle of a blank page instead of being economical and finding a space to neatly apply it!  Visas for India and Russia (amongst others) take a whole page for their enormous sticker or stamp and there was somewhere that needed an Arabic translation, which also took a whole page.  We now find our passports filling up rather swiftly  with entry/exit stamps from European countries, which didn't happen in recent years.  Here in the UK we don't have the option of having additional pages inserted, so it means a new passport when the old one is full.  Definitely something to consider in these circumstances, I think!

 

Thanks for the update and first hand information.  Much appreciated.

Edited April 26, 2023 by Gilly

[sabrefan]

Depending how close you will be in these countries to a U.S. Consulate or Embassy you could have more pages added. Especially given how much time it is taking the State Dept. to get passports processed. Years ago, when I was working I traveled a lot between Hong Kong and mainland China and had more pages added at the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong. The consulate used to be located in Central area of Hong Kong back then.

[cwn]

US no longer adds pages to passports. You have to get a new passport.

 

In 2018 when we did a five month land and cruise trip around the world, South Africa require four consecutive blank pages. Our passport was good for another two  yeas and we had plenty of pages but only one set of 4 together. At a suggestion from someone on CC I paper clipped the 4 We needed for SA together with a note. But I also don’t trust things to work when really needed, so we got an extra passport good for two years. Worth the peace of mind for a big trip.

 

On the 2018 Navigator WC we also needed consecutive pages for SA, don’t remember the number. But I do know they didn’t use all of them either time.

Agree with Gilly, wish countries would be a little more careful with stamping….. yea right, that isn’t going to happen!

What I really can’t understand is for a big costly trip(world cruise)you would go with the bare minimum, just setting yourself up for a problem. The cost of a new passport is a drop in the bucket in the cost of a WC. Travel is an adventure and they are having one!

 

[1982CruzStart]

Well, in Canada you can't get a 2nd passport. When you renew your passport, the old one is marked so it can not be used. You can keep it as a momento but it can't be used so if any of the people with the problem now or in the future are not US citizens they might not have the luxury of carrying 2 useable passports.   We were told we could carry our old passport with our new one if we had foregin visas that were still good. The passport wasn't any good but the visas were still valid. 

[PaulaJK]

We have always had to submit our passport along w the application for the new passport. Could someone please clarify what this ‘second passport’ is. 

[BBWC]

14 hours ago, cwn said:

At a suggestion from someone on CC I paper clipped the 4 We needed for SA together with a note

That is exactly what Regent did. Unfortunately, the Indian officials didn’t care, removed the clip, and placed a stamp right in the middle if the page.

Also, to clarify, South Africa requires 4 consecutive pages, but some people are on a land trip that includes Vic Falls and therefore require 6 pages.

[BBWC]

2 hours ago, PaulaJK said:

We have always had to submit our passport along w the application for the new passport. Could someone please clarify what this ‘second passport’ is. 

You can get a second passport under certain specific circumstances. Note that passport is only valid for 4 years.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/have-passport/second-passport-book.html

[mj_holiday]

Last year before our trip starting in Cape Town, I was counting passport pages. We needed 3 sets of 2 pages facing each other. Someone shared an experience during a land vacation where they had gone in and out of South Africa enough to fill their passport and they were stopped at the border , so I quickly got an expedited passport for DH.   In the end, South Africa didn’t stamp as often as we were told and we have plenty of pages for our future trips.  
But I wouldn’t want to risk it. 
When getting new passport, you can choose from two different number of pages. 
The pages at the back of the passport that do not have “visa “ on the top do not count. 

[Lonedaddy]

It will be nice when these countries catch up to the digital age and you don't need all the stamps.

[papaflamingo]

18 hours ago, Lonedaddy said:

It will be nice when these countries catch up to the digital age and you don't need all the stamps.

Very true!  In fact, it'll be nice to go to the Passport Card and be able to easily carry it in your wallet and all visas are digital.

[pappy1022]

The blank page requirement has me wondering how many blank pages I need for a Regent British Isle cruise. We fly from the US to Copenhagen via Heathrow, so I assume 2 stamps for that and return to the US direct from London. We will be visiting ports is Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and the UK. Will each of those countries require a stamp for each port stop?

[mj_holiday]

This link is US state department and list requirements to enter different countries and how many blank pages they request.

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages.html