Passport help needed!

[Lisamac669]

Hi Everyone, 

I would really like to book a European cruise with NCL in September for my birthday. My passport only has 5 months on it and after checking the gov.uk website all of the countries I will be travelling to (Spain, France, Portugal, Italy and back to Spain) allow my passport. My question is will I have a problem with the cruise line? Before I spend a lot of money.......

Many Thanks in advance

Lisa 

[1025cruise]

Is that 5 months from now, or from when you want to cruise?

 

Personally, I probably wouldn’t risk it.

[julig22]

That's a really tough one, I would contact NCL guest services by email and get an answer, in writing. They say it's needed but it's much easier for them to just say 6 months for everyone, regardless of your nationality and the places you will be visiting. Hard to say if that's a hard and fast rule.

 

One problem is that the employees at the port do not work for NCL and their interpretation of the rules can vary.  And that's assuming you get beyond the on-line check-in - where you have to put in your documents expiration dates.  At that point you can't get a refund if they deny your documentation.

 

Good luck.

[newbie63]

Also, do you need to fly internationally to get to the ship? If so, you also need to check with the airline and the country that you're flying into: the six month requirement often applies to non-cruise travel too.

[hawkeyetlse]

Normally for a UK citizen, your passport only has to be valid for 3 months beyond your stay in the Schengen Area. This is the rule that they will apply when you check in for the cruise, not the conservative, oversimplified six-month rule of thumb that they have on the website.

 

Depending on exactly what you mean by "5 months" and "September" etc. it sounds like you are cutting it close, but you might be OK. Also if you have one of those UK passports with extra months on it (beyond the standard 10-year validity) then your passport may already be considered expired and you will not be able to cruise with it or do many other kinds of travel.

[LauraAnneC]

1 hour ago, hawkeyetlse said:

Normally for a UK citizen, your passport only has to be valid for 3 months beyond your stay in the Schengen Area. This is the rule that they will apply when you check in for the cruise, not the conservative, oversimplified six-month rule of thumb that they have on the website.

 

Depending on exactly what you mean by "5 months" and "September" etc. it sounds like you are cutting it close, but you might be OK. Also if you have one of those UK passports with extra months on it (beyond the standard 10-year validity) then your passport may already be considered expired and you will not be able to cruise with it or do many other kinds of travel.

Is that ‘normally’ pre or post Brexit?  That would be very important to know as they are talking about introducing visa requirements for British people to enter Europe. I’m not sure when that’s due to come in. I don’t think I would risk not renewing my passport. 

[Lisamac669]

Hi Laura, 

The post I copied earlier was from an updated visa website. I also checked gov.Com and they all said the same… that I could. The cruise is for 06/09 to 12/09 and my passport runs out 25/01/24 

[Lisamac669]

This is what I have found - flying into Lisbon is fine with my passport