Passports???

[reallyitsmema]

The countries are: Barbados, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique, St. Barts, St. Martin, and Trinidad and Tobago. As previously mentioned, I researched whether my kids needed passports not all cruise lines and all cruise line policies.

 

Currently, Royal Caribbean is the only cruise line going to Haiti, Labadee to be exact, and it is to a private compound with no access outside of the private area. Many closed loop cruises go there and no one is confined to the ship if they are traveling on a birth certificate. Ships go into Saint Maarten, not St Martin as far as I am aware of and then you just go over to Marigot or where ever you want. The other countries you have mentioned are also served by mass market ships doing closed loop cruises so no passport needed and no one is confined to the ship.

 

Have you ever cruised to the Caribbean on a mass market cruise ship or are you talking about something else? It would be a logistical nightmare for a ship carrying 4,000 to have to confine some to the ship and allow others off.

[mikesteg]

Sorry, we were away for the weekend and I managed to never open the laptop. :D

 

I will concede that it's irrelevant to the original poster's question about a closed loop cruise.

 

Sure, but what would CC be without winding threads that wind up way off topic? :)

 

 

Except that all children under 16 can travel without a passport whereas only adults who are in the mililitary, have a trusted travelers card, or live in one of 4 states that issue an EDL can cross without a passport. This is not exactly the same as "needing photo ID"

 

True, but I'm really only defending my statement that the passport requirement is the same for a given scenario regardless of age. I did not say that the adult(s) would not require additional documentation. Admittedly, I didn't know that EDLs were only issued in 4 states. I would think that any state with a land border with Canada or Mexico would issue EDLs.

 

 

"Entry to the US by land or sea: Regardless of your final destination in Mexico, all U.S. citizens age 16 or over must present either a U.S. passport book or card to re-enter the U.S. by land or sea. Minors under the age of 16 may enter the U.S. via the land border with a certified birth certificate, consular report of birth abroad, citizenship certificate, or naturalization certificate."

 

Which does show an exception for those under 16.

 

I disagree. ;) While it is a bit of subterfuge on the part of the Dept of State, the passport card is not a passport. It is essentially an enhanced photo ID. Note that this is by land or sea: you cannot fly internationally on a passport card. (You may be able to fly domestically, substituting the PP card for a DL as simple photo ID.)

[mikesteg]

Don't forget that both parents must go with minors in person to apply for a passport.

 

Yes. There is a form to allow one parent to be absent' date=' but it needs to be certified so doesn't necessarily save much effort. Of course it depends if you have a notary nearby and how good/bad your passport office it. We had a terrible time trying to get the kids first passports using USPS as the agent in Texas but it took about 5 minutes at the county seat here in Georgia.

 

 

The countries are: Barbados, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique, St. Barts, St. Martin, and Trinidad and Tobago. As previously mentioned, I researched whether my kids needed passports not all cruise lines and all cruise line policies.

 

We were in St. Maarten last month. Obviously we have passports, but there was nothing indicated that certain pax couldn't go ashore, nobody being held back at security etc.

[rockdoctor]

Several posters have said that just because you don't need a Passport doesn't mean having one isn't handy. Case in point, travelling on the White Pass and Yukon Route into Canada from Skagway is a Passport required excursion. Canadian Customs expects to see them. Go figure.

[reallyitsmema]

Several posters have said that just because you don't need a Passport doesn't mean having one isn't handy. Case in point, travelling on the White Pass and Yukon Route into Canada from Skagway is a Passport required excursion. Canadian Customs expects to see them. Go figure.

 

Any excursion that requires a passport always lists in the details that a passport is needed. They don't just spring that information on you.

[gluecksbaer]

I disagree. ;) While it is a bit of subterfuge on the part of the Dept of State, the passport card is not a passport. It is essentially an enhanced photo ID. Note that this is by land or sea: you cannot fly internationally on a passport card. (You may be able to fly domestically, substituting the PP card for a DL as simple photo ID.)

 

I wish away for the weekend was my reason for being away from a computer. I hope wherever you went was for pleasure and you had a great time.

 

I was considering the card equivalent to the passport, but you have a valid argument that they are not. In that respect you are correct that when a regular passport is required, it is required for everyone.

Also, there are 5 states with EDLs. Sorry for the typo.

I live in a border state without an EDL. I don't live close enough to the border to pay that much attention to the issue, but my understanding from media reports and such is that the big issue is that EDLs are expensive to produce (or at least expensive for the initial equipment--I'm not sure if there's a huge ongoing expense). So, particularly in this economy, you have to have a significant amount of the state population that's willing to pay big bucks per card and/or willing to cut something else from the state budget to pay for them. (There are also some people worried about the RFID chips not being properly secure, but the main issue is money.)

 

As for the Carribean nations I mentioned, I saw that list repeatedly when researching the need for passports. We aren't planning on going to any of those countries, but I checked before I posted and could not find any exception for cruise ship passengers in any of their entry requirements. (Whereas, for example, Mexico's "in transit" requirements were listed so that I ran across them accidentally looking at the apparently conflicting information from the embassy page.) For that reason I believed the list to be accurate. Apparently it is not and apologize to anyone reading this thread for sharing out dated or inaccurate information. (Although, as a note, San Maarten was never on any list, only St. Martin and usually that distinction was noted in the list.)

And, as I previously stated, I meant primarily to note that it's important to be aware of not just US re-entry laws but the entry requirements of countries one plans to visit. Again, I didn't mean "if" to imply a likely scenario. But it would be more upsetting to be refused boarding without required documentation for just one port, so it's still a good thing to double-check if traveling to a foreign country without a passport.