Ladyjune we are on Oct 26 Fantasy western 7 night. Grand cayman, Costa Maya, Cozumel, Castaway cay. Do you NOT need a passport for these ports? Will a BC be enough. I agree that if a passport is a waste then a passport card may be a waste as well BUT the card still gets you entry via land and sea just no air travel.
So since so many are using the "what if" logic, I figured at least with a passport card I can still enter via modes of land and sea transpotation. Yes if I needed to come home, air travel would be MUCH better but at least with card it is still a passport for entering and leaving countries in the WHTI. My state does not offer enhanced drivers license.
Check out WHTI. Western Hemisphere Travel Initiave, just found it. Explains alot about what is needed, what will get you in and out and I was wrong. They do use "closed loop cruise". It means you left and returned to the same port on the same ship so a BC & Id are fine, you only need a passport to enter other countries in ports of call.
No, you don't need a passport to get off the ship in any of the ports you've listed. You don't need to have your BC on you, either, you just "check out" from the ship with your KTTW card and check back on when you go back to the ship, the ship provides the port country with a manifest identifying your citizenship. That's if you're a US citizen - there may be different requirements if you're a citizen of another country.
There's another thread on here about a topic that comes up all the time - trip insurance. Yes, I get trip insurance. Yes, I have a passport. It's a one-time expense, and it's good for 10 years for adults, and you can use it for all domestic air travel, it's easier than prying the driver's license out of my wallet. In a way, a passport is a form of trip insurance.
In the event that you needed to be evacuated from your cruise due to health reasons, you have to fly, and would need a passport. Same if, god forbid, something terrible happened to a non-traveling family member at home and you urgently needed to get back. Look, it's extremely rare, yes, but people get injured, get gravely ill, get into car accidents, and die every day. It could happen to you or a traveling companion, and it could happen to someone you love who isn't traveling with you. Yes, there are provisions for you to get an emergency passport from the nearest US consulate, but that's a hassle neither you nor your family/traveling companions should have to deal with when facing a true emergency situation.
As mentioned numerous times above, a passport card is of no use to you in truly emergency situations where you'd need to fly to get home. You can't get home from Grand Cayman without flying, unless you're going to complete your cruise first. You're not really going to rent a car in Cozumel to drive back to the US, even if you were capable of doing so (and for what it's worth, it's a PITA to rent cars and have the property insurance coverage in foreign countries).
The passport card is an expense there's no reason to incur. Either just use BCs, or get a real passport. The passport card is simply of no utility to you in any situation that might confront you while traveling. If it's a closed-loop cruise, BC will be fine. If you need to get home in an emergency, only a passport book will do. The passport card only makes sense if you live near a border and regularly cross, and just want something easy to stick in your wallet.