Recent Cruisers without Passport

[calismic]

Due to a situation beyond my control, I am unable to obtain my passport in time for my cruise March 14th. I have been assured by Disney that I will be able to board with an original state issued birth certificate and a drivers license. However, I keep seeing all these mentions of "Enhanced Drivers License." The state of PA does not issue these, is a standard drivers license sufficient? I keep having nightmares of being denied boarding. Help ease my mind please. Thanks =)

 

[maggs1035]

Due to a situation beyond my control, I am unable to obtain my passport in time for my cruise March 14th. I have been assured by Disney that I will be able to board with an original state issued birth certificate and a drivers license. However, I keep seeing all these mentions of "Enhanced Drivers License." The state of PA does not issue these, is a standard drivers license sufficient? I keep having nightmares of being denied boarding. Help ease my mind please. Thanks =)

Yes a regular drivers license works fine! I live in New York and have an enhanced drivers license but I am still bringing my birth certificate. Enhanced licenses are given to people who live in states that border another country, in our case it's Canada.

 

[Dave Dizney]

We used our old birth certificates with the raised seal (check your state for what is an "official" seal) and the non-enhanced state drivers licenses (MO) three weeks ago and they worked fine. I spent many days fearing this decision, but it worked perfectly.

 

[anniemck]

travel.state.gov with a closed loop cruise original birth certificate and photo id is acceptable. 17 cruises under my belt, no passport here. Getting one this year only because there is a possibility of a one way cruise in my future. Depending on where you are, there are 17 passport offices around the country that will issue passport same day. I believe one is in Philly.

 

[LoveDisneyx4]

Due to a situation beyond my control, I am unable to obtain my passport in time for my cruise March 14th. I have been assured by Disney that I will be able to board with an original state issued birth certificate and a drivers license. However, I keep seeing all these mentions of "Enhanced Drivers License." The state of PA does not issue these, is a standard drivers license sufficient? I keep having nightmares of being denied boarding. Help ease my mind please. Thanks =)

We just applied for our passports this past Saturday (19 January) at the local post office and asked about getting it expedited and they said that there was no need to do so. We are only cruising one week before you on 9 March--you still have time to get a passport if you want to get one--especially if you want to do the expedited service (and extra fee of about $50/passport I think). But as long as you don't have a medical emergency or miss your ship--you're probably fine with just the birth certificate and driver's license.

 

[Max02215]

You'll be fine. Just off the Wonder yesterday. Out of 14 of us, only 4 had passports. The rest of the adults used a license (non enhanced) and a birth certificate with a raised seal. No worries

 

[FrogMBA]

You will be fine, it is a closed loop cruise. Disney knows what they are doing.
However if you still have fear I ordered my passport on Oct 31 and It arrived on November 16th. So they are not taking as long as the website or others are scaring you with



Enjoy your cruise and relax.

 

[disneyfanatic83]

What kind of identification is required for kids? Just a birth certificate? My kids will be 3 and 1 if that makes a difference.

 

[fluffsmom]

We purchased card passports for myself and the kids. However, they didn't need them. But...., one lady that I spoke to while doing laundry was denied a snorkeling trip because it was on a different island.

 

[macfinn]

Dw and I cruised last year on rccl with raised seal birth certs and regular drivers lisc---got on board ship and got thru customs with out issue at end of cruise....this was not our first cruise travelling this way....don't sweat it!

 

[calismic]

I was wondering where this post went! Sorry it was posted in trip reports, no idea how that happened! An update though, we found out that the state is returning Passports in 2 weeks for normal applications so I'm good to go! Thanks for all the responses though. =)

 

[TheGroffs]

Does anyone know if a govt ID will work in the place of a DL with a birth certificate?

 

[neg58]

Does anyone know if a govt ID will work in the place of a DL with a birth certificate?

The ID is supposed to have an expiration date on it, and most government ID's issued to workers do not. HOWEVER, I've used mine at TSA just because it was hanging around my neck and easier to pull out than my license and the TSA worker didn't care (shocker, right?). Mine just has my photo, name and agency on it, no other info.

So the answer is it shouldn't work, but it might.

Nancy

 

[JackieO]

We are just off the Magic 6 nights to the Grand Cayman and Cozumel. There were 6 of us, 4 adults 2 kids (17 and 8) I was the only one with a passport (I had gotten it for a trip a couple of years ago) There was NO difference in our boarding or at customs coming back. They all had their birth certificates with the raised seal and the adults had their drivers licenses (normal license). Don't worry, everything will be fine. The only possible problem could arise if you had a need to fly back into the US for some reason. You can not fly in without a passport. You can come by ship, walk, or drive in with a birth certificate. We knew that risk and decided to cross that bridge if we came to it as it was highly unlikely! Enjoy your cruise (we did!!!!!!!!!!!)

 

[LoveDisneyx4]

We just applied for our passports this past Saturday (19 January) at the local post office and asked about getting it expedited and they said that there was no need to do so. We are only cruising one week before you on 9 March--you still have time to get a passport if you want to get one--especially if you want to do the expedited service (and extra fee of about $50/passport I think). But as long as you don't have a medical emergency or miss your ship--you're probably fine with just the birth certificate and driver's license.

We received our passports yesterday (Feb 2nd)--just 2 weeks from when we applied! Now I'll be waiting to see when we receive our birth certificates back--haven't yet.

 

[LoveDisneyx4]

I was wondering where this post went! Sorry it was posted in trip reports, no idea how that happened! An update though, we found out that the state is returning Passports in 2 weeks for normal applications so I'm good to go! Thanks for all the responses though. =)

Awesome!! Good to hear! It only took us 2 weeks from when we applied, too (in Texas). We applied on a Saturday & received them all in the mail 2 Saturday's later!! Pretty quick!!