Table Of Content
- On These Cruises, You Don’t Need a Passport
- Why Suggest a Passport If You Don’t NEED It?
- Another closed-loop cruise option is Royal Caribbean.
- You’re our first priority.Every time.
- You Should Always Check with Your Cruise Line
- Carnival Cruises is another popular cruise line that offers closed-loop sailings.
Cruising to Alaska is one of the easiest ways to experience all the state offers. You'll have opportunities to see glaciers and wildlife; stroll the streets of charming coastal towns; eat your fill of local crab legs and salmon; and enjoy nature on a kayak, zip line or hike. This destination proves that you don’t have to leave the U.S. to find a paradise that feels worlds away. A Hawaiian cruise is an ideal choice for those seeking a unique blend of adventure, relaxation, and cultural immersion. Plus, a stop in Victoria, British Columbia, adds an international flair to your journey, offering a mix of historical and modern attractions, from castles to trolley rides and lush gardens.
On These Cruises, You Don’t Need a Passport
Belize and Honduras, which are sometimes included on these itineraries, also waive their passport requirements for cruise ship passengers. You would still need to adhere to the documentation requirements for your cruise. A passport is an eligible form of identification, but it’s not the only one.
Why Suggest a Passport If You Don’t NEED It?
With a little planning, you can have a wonderful cruise vacation without a passport. If you are a U.S. citizen and your cruise embarks or disembarks in a foreign country, including Canada, you will always need your passport for the cruise (in some cases a passport card will suffice). You'll also need a passport for a cruise that begins and ends in different U.S. ports. The answer to all of these questions for U.S. citizens is no -- as long as you’re taking a closed-loop cruise.
Another closed-loop cruise option is Royal Caribbean.
Virgin Islands, and other Caribbean islands, provided you’re on closed-loop cruises, meaning your journey starts and ends at the same U.S. port. The same thing could happen if you accidentally don’t make it back to your ship in time for departure, following a day out at one of the itinerary’s destinations. While normally, you could meet back up with the ship on the next island over, if you had a passport, again, if you don’t, you can’t. Additionally, if you choose to go the passport card route, you’ll find it quite limiting. If you have any future plans of traveling internationally, paying the extra cost for a passport book is worth your time. Otherwise, as you can see from the list above, most popular Caribbean destinations are fair game.
Which cruise ports require a passport?
If you're interested in cruising to Alaska without a passport, look for itineraries that begin (and end) in Seattle, San Francisco or southern California ports, such as Los Angeles or Long Beach, California. The most common length for these closed-loop Alaska cruises operated by the major cruise lines is seven nights. Cruises early or late in the season might be only four or five nights, and trips departing from LA are usually 14 nights.
If cruising from California, with most sailings 14 nights or longer, your choices expand to such lines as Holland America, Celebrity, Viking Cruises, and Seabourn. No, in most cases, you will not need to go through customs every time you leave a cruise ship. Otherwise, on closed-loop itineraries that travel to Canada, you only need to present a government ID and birth certificate (or a passport card). The best time to book a cruise without a passport is during the shoulder season (April-May and September-October).
You’re our first priority.Every time.
A stop in the charming fishing village of Halifax, Nova Scotia offers beautiful gardens, more delicious seafood and double-decker bus tours. After you pull into port in the Big Apple, make sure to see a Broadway show, visit the Empire State Building and take a stroll through Central Park. If you are wary about taking advantage of this benefit (perhaps some people in your party have a passport and others don’t), consider a cruise to U.S. island territories instead. Traveling by plane or ship to these island paradise destinations is considered a domestic trip.
You should bring a photo ID and your cabin keycard with you as they will be checked to make sure you are supposed to be on the ship when you return. No, but it wouldn’t hurt to bring a copy of it with you, just in case (leave the original in the cabin safe). When you get off the ship in port, you don’t need your birth certificate to enter or leave. Not all terminals have the technology yet, but many are switching over to automated passport screening. In the old way of doing things, you leave the ship and then have to wait in line for a Customs & Border Patrol agent to check your documents before letting you into the country. While it’s not definite, it’s been seen that on some cruises, passengers that are positive for COVID have had to debark the ship.
However, just because you can go on a cruise without a passport does not mean you should. During the current pandemic, we would argue that it's more important than ever to cruise with a passport. These sailings are somewhat uncommon; however, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) created the concept of closed-loop sailings from U.S. homeports, and these cruises also do not require a passport.
Other lines sailing to Bermuda on closed-loop itineraries include the foodie-focused upscale brand Oceania Cruises, also from New York. That is cheaper than a passport book, can get you on the ship but are valid for entering the USA by land and sea only. Hawaii’s dramatic landscapes, from its black sand beaches to lush rainforests and cascading waterfalls, are just the beginning. Attend a traditional luau, visit historic sites like Pearl Harbor, or just relax on the sun-soaked beaches of Maui. And with departure ports like San Francisco, San Diego, and Long Beach, your tropical getaway is closer than you think. This is also the one example of where you can take a cruise without a passport and without adhering to the closed-loop itinerary rule.
They may be able to issue you a temporary ID that you can use to disembark the ship and return to the United States. The cost for a first-time passport holder is $165, plus the photo fee; the steep fee alone is why many Americans choose to go without one. The good news is that an adult passport is valid for 10 years – and you can travel to most places in the world with just a passport and no visa. You can't cruise just anywhere on a closed-loop sailing, but the choices are more interesting than you might expect.
On Grand Turk, enjoy swimming with stingrays, riding horses along the coast, or touring the island by ATV. If you’re trying to fly to an international cruise port without a passport, you won’t get past airline check-in. For any other cruise, a driver’s license would not be sufficient documentation, and you would run into trouble at the airport or cruise port. Norwegian Cruise Line offers a seven-day cruise from Seattle aboard Norwegian Bliss with stops in Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, Glacier Bay, and Victoria before returning to Seattle.
10 tasks to start doing now to be ahead of everyone else for your cruise next year - Cruise Blog
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Posted: Tue, 19 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Here are eight destinations that you can cruise to without a passport (and don’t forget to renew your passport so you’ll always be ready to travel). Some cruise lines also offer one-way cruises in both directions between Canada and New England. These itineraries, like Alaska cruises, might be possible without a passport book.
It's also less cumbersome than carrying the required documents and papers with you wherever you go. Even if you're on a closed-loop sailing, certain islands in the Caribbean – Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Barts, Barbados and others -- require a passport for entry. It's your responsibility (not your cruise line's) to learn the requirements of each of the destinations you're visiting before you go.
These trips often begin and end in the same port within the United States, termed as ‘closed-loop’ cruises. For example, if something happens on your cruise and you need to fly back, the passport card does no good. It’s only valid for land and sea entries from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda. (Foreign-flagged lines are not allowed to sail between U.S. ports without visiting another country under the Jones Act.) You can do a week on the ship from Honolulu and visit five Hawaiian Islands. Virgin Voyages’ ships are limited to age 18 and up and bring you to Virgin’s classy Beach Club at Bimini. For a fancy small ship, check out sailings on the 298-passenger Evrima, the first yacht from the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, sailing to the Bahamas from Fort Lauderdale.
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