WHAT IF...or why you DO need a passport

[ocntscha]

Tom, why the sarcasm, aren't you the one who wanted to know about Belize and Roatan on just BC/ID and specifically asked not to be lectured on getting a passport?

I wasn't being sarcastic.

[cherylandtk]

:o. OK, my apologies, I thought you were. Thanks for clearing it up.

[lroche_nf]

What a nightmare! I'm glad they were able to get off the ship early and get back to the US. Even though they were able to get back with an emergency passport there would have been less worry I'm sure if they had one. I was on vacation last year when my cat ran off. My neighbors told me after she'd been gone for 4 days (2 days before I was coming home) and even then I tried to get home early but the cost was too much. I can only imagine something happened to my mother! I would move heaven and earth to get home.

[Cruise, J.D.]

36 hours huh? Hmm, somehow I think this "why you DO need a passport" thread is going to often be linked to as evidence you don't.

 

LOL. True.

[The4Cruisers]

I wouldn't persuade someone NOT to get one, but I hope this example stops the blatant misinformation that people post saying that you "cannot" get home without one!

[highbridge5]

Isn't is always a matter of how much your time is worth?

 

It seems the trade-off is between the cost of the passport times however many people are travelling and how willing and able you are to endure the stress and inconvenience of not knowing how long it will take you to get home in the rare chance of an emergency. Also, the time and stress on those who are waiting back home for you.

 

Cruise ship destinations are not like the airport movie where Tom Hanks was stranded in between the arrival gate and customs for months. With the proper ID, a diplomatic office, enough time, and enough phone calls, you can get back to the U.S. from all of the places that cruise ships go. How long it takes and how much inconvenience is involved varies

greatly.

 

How many people cruise every year vs. how many have to fly home from a foreign country prior to the end of the cruise? The odds must be microscopic that you will be one of those people. Yet it happens as evidenced by this thread.

 

A passport is going to be $200 when you are all said and done. It is good for 10 years.

 

If you travel out of the country once a year on a closed end cruise, $20 a year is minimal amount to count into the cost of each cruise.

 

But for one cruise for a family of 5, $1000 is a considerable chunk of change to insure against the inconvenience from a situation that is incredibly, very unlikely.

[kbmeow]

I wouldn't persuade someone NOT to get one, but I hope this example stops the blatant misinformation that people post saying that you "cannot" get home without one!

 

If you read what was said, they got temp passports so it is 100% true that you need a passport to get home.

[cherylandtk]

If you read what was said, they got temp passports so it is 100% true that you need a passport to get home.

Make that 99.9%. There are also Travel Authorization letters, very rare, but still issued if the individual case warrants it. This case did not, mostly because the temporary passport could be issued just as quickly as the Travel Authorization would have taken.