Here's why you need a passport.

[insureman]

The recent problems with the Carnival Triumph highlights the need to travel with a passport.

HOUSTON (AP) — The operators of a cruise vessel stranded in the Gulf of Mexico after a weekend engine fire say the craft has drifted so far north of its original position that they will tow the ship to Mobile, Ala., instead of their original plan for Progreso, Mexico.

Carnival Cruise Lines President and CEO Gerry Cahill says in a statement Monday evening that strong currents lead the vessel, the Carnival Triumph, to drift about 90 miles north of its original position off the Yucatan Peninsula, where it was located when the fire erupted Sunday in the engine room. No one was injured and the fire was extinguished.

Cahill's statement says the ship should arrive in Mobile on Thursday and that it will allow for less complicated re-entry for passengers without passports.

 

[lbgraves]

Found this on one of CC's threads as a possible response to this situation:

22 CFR 532 (Code of Federal Regulations) allows by subsections (9) and (10) for the Dept of State to waive the PP requirement in certain situations, one of them being an emergency as covered by Executive Order 13323.

Shows there are plans in place when things happen.

 

[insureman]

Found this on one of CC's threads as a possible response to this situation:



Shows there are plans in place when things happen.

It would be much easier with a passport.

 

[Rogillio]

Cahill's statement says the ship should arrive in Mobile on Thursday and that it will allow for less complicated re-entry for passengers without passports.

This seems to contradict your subject line. This seems to support the idea that you don't need a passport. The odds of this happing are very remote...and if it does happen, there are provisions for it.


OTOH, I personally love my passport and would never leave the United States without it!

 

[insureman]

This seems to contradict your subject line. This seems to support the idea that you don't need a passport. The odds of this happing are very remote...and if it does happen, there are provisions for it.


OTOH, I personally love my passport and would never leave the United States without it!

If the ship didn't drift so far north from where they originally went dead in the water it would have been a different outcome. Of course the odds are low that this scenario would happen again but I would be more concerned as a family if one of us became ill and had to fly back to the US and didn't have a passport. I feel the the same about my passport

 

[mom2jcg]

What I take from this and other scenarios is that they are stressful enough in and of themselves without adding the stress of trying to acquire a passport in case of an emergency in a foreign country. I wouldn't travel without mine for sure!