another passport question

[mmp13]

We are cruising with HAL on oct 20. MY husband's Passport will expre in feb 2008, 4 months after our cruise. The website says passport must be valic for 6 months post cruise but if he applies to renew it the odds are very good he will not have his original passport prior to sailing. Will how accept his current passport as it is legally valid?

[MHS4]

HAL's Web site says:"We strongly recommend carrying a passport valid for six months beyond the duration of your travel." RECOMMEND, not "require". As the result of a prior Passport Post here, I stressed out about this at the end of last week since mine expires 5 months & 8 days after the cruise lands / ends at FLL. My TA checked with HAL & emailed me back -- my passport is fine.

 

By the way, just above that HAL sends you to the official Passport site which for the Carribean goes on about the extension, etc. & the islands cooperating (like they want to throw away US $$?).

 

If you are not doing the Baltic Region or Orient, etc., check with your TA & don't be concerned.

[mmp13]

thank you for your quick response mhs4. I actually got an email from HAL saying that I would not be able to complete the on line check in for my husband as the site will not recognise his passport since it expires prior to the 6 month thing. they said his passport is fine but he will have to fill in the check in papers when they come with his passport.

[Infrequentcruisers]

Glad to see you have your anxiety about the passports relieved. We also ran into this question, we are sailing on the ms Zuiderdam out of Vancouver on Sept 29. The replies I received when I first posted the inquiry, as our passports expire less than six months after our cruise ends, were mixed. After contacting my TA to let her know about my concern with HAL's six month passport rule, she contacted HAL as well as several airlines, including Air Canada, and the U.S. Customs Service and said that we should not have a problem. I then called HAL myself and got the nod that as long as any of the countries we visited on the cruise (Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia) only required a valid passport we were OK; but said that we would not be able to use the advance boarding registration.

Anywhoooooo, still not completely reassured, I called HAL again this morning using the telephone number from the pre-registration site and received the same assurance that this was just HAL's policy and that it was to help to prevent thier clients from having problems when visiting foriegn countries.

I am glad you posted as this makes me feel even better about HAL's six month rule.

Thanks,

Infrequentcruisers

[mmp13]

Hi Infrequent cruisers.

 

Even better news. After being told we would not be able to use on line registration, I went to the site and had no problem registering my husband's passport and getting his signature boarding pass printed. Checked the US passport site there is no 6 month restriction in the Carribean so I am relieved. It seems that a lot of the eastern european countries have that restriction. No more worries:)

[Infrequentcruisers]

Peg,

Thanks for the heads up, will try to preregister too.

Infrequentcruisers

[MHS4]

That's all great -- does wonders for the stress level. Thanks for confirming what my TA said. I had filled out the Immigration stuff but hadn't gone any further & the HAL site certainly didn't red-flag the passport expire date -- although it did spit out the -'s in the phone #'s.

 

Actually as of 3 hrs ago I was ready to cancel the whole thing -- Delta was having me change planes in Atlanta with a 1/2 between arrival & departure. Like, no way. But that got resolved, it's actually just a "stop" for me, i stay on the same plane.

 

Having your affirmations makes me much more positive about deciding to keep it a go -- a decision I need to make for final payment tomorrow.

 

Thanks.