The cruise ship website is often the first (and only stop) for many US citizens, but since the majority of US citizens sail solely from the US and predominantly on closed loop cruises this limited research serves them adequately (especially since most of them only cruise once every year or two). I do make sure when we are traveling to research the type of travel we are doing and where we are going (including what countries we may be passing through). As has been stated, though, many government websites overlook cruise passengers and don't include information for them on their website for visitors, which is when sites like Cruise Critic come in handy. Our first cruise was a cruise to nowhere and I searched for information on what documentation was required. The information was not on any government site, nor was it on the cruise line's site. I finally got the answer (just a valid photo ID) from a cruise forum that I used to belong to (I had found CC and signed up, but was intimidated by how "busy" the site is. Now I am used to it.)