Worse than Seasick! Sick to the Stomach and Heartbroken!

Four Swampers

Picture is Disney Wonder at Cabo San Lucas
Joined
Feb 7, 2012
Want to know what will make you feel far worse than seasickness? Discovering the night before your cruise that your passport is expired and you can't go!

Hasn't happened to me, yet, but the boards are full of stories of people who discovered their passport was expired or missing. Or locked in a safe deposit box at the bank, and they could not get it because the vault is time locked: it can't be opened even if the president of the bank is your best friend.

For everyone who is new here: go check your identification documents now! If using a passport, make sure it is where you think it is and that it is not expired. If using a birth certificate (bc) and driver's license (dl), make sure they are where you think they are and that your driver's license will not expire before the cruise.

For everyone going to EUROPE: make sure your passport is where you think it is, and make sure it does not expire until six months after the date of entry to Europe. When you fly into a country, including most of Europe and most of the world, that country wants your passport to be valid for six months from your entry. That six month cushion helps the foreign country: if you get ill or your plans change and you end up staying several months, it will still be easy for you to go home, because you will have a valid passport. They don't want to be stuck dealing with you and an invalid passport, so they make it easy on themselves and require it to be valid for six months. I believe we do the same thing in the USA when foreigners visit us.

This is not a task for tomorrow, nor the next day. Check your documents today. I checked mine this morning. To make sure that I'm not asking too much, I'll go check them again right now . . .

. . . I'm back. Took two and a half minutes. All four passports in place, all valid until 2020. Sentry brand fire resistant safe locked back up.

To those of you who have seen me post this a dozen times, my apologies for putting you through it again. For those of you who are new to the boards or new to European cruising, I hope this is useful.

See you in Copenhagen!
 
HA! Every two days or so my husband will look over at me and say, "Is my passport still good?" I give him a hard time about it but he's absolutely right! Last thing we need after spending all of this time and money is something small to derail our grand tour of Europe. Would be a sad, sad day.

(About to do ANOTHER check to make sure we're all set for our cruise!)
 
i've seen this posted time and time again and each time i roll my eyes, who would be that unorganized that they would let this happen.
however, i am a person who received a phone call at my bank to help a person get into their safety deposit box at another branch that was closed for the weekend. your right, that time lock just will not open, its not an abracadabra situation. there is nothing that can be done. sorry but your going to miss your ship/plane.

so, your absolutely right. this does happen and if it takes a gentle reminder to avoid this so be it. if it saves just one person from this happening then i thank you for the post.
 
Want to know what will make you feel far worse than seasickness? Discovering the night before your cruise that your passport is expired and you can't go!
Well thats just stupid. Why would a person not check their passports before? They check the night before? hahahaha. wow!
 


I had friends this past fall who were supposed to go to Ecuador for their honeymoon. They got all the way to the airport and it wasn't until they were told at check in they couldn't board that they realized his passport was expired!! That is so mind boggling!
 
This kind of happened to me last january, got to the airport to check in for a flight to mexico for my best friends wedding (i was the MOH) and realized i only had the passport card and not the book. We had to cancel the flight (luckily i had precooked us the earliest flight) and rebooked for the 5pm flight. I had to go to downtown dallas (we live here so that was lucky) to the passport office and with my airline ticket, i was able to get an emergency passport in less than 45 minutes. I actually now only do emergency passport renewal in person w/ travel within 2 weeks. It's better than sending off your birth certificate in the mail and "hoping" it doesn't get lost. Plus it's WAY faster. BUT that's for those of us who live near a passport office that will do that.

I do recommend always leaving the day before. luckily we were flying down 3 days before the wedding lol.
 
We have recently gotten passports for my two younger children; my younger daughter two years ago and my son a couple of months ago. Both were traveling to Spain with school. We sent away their original passports from our early cruises and their birth certificates and had very little turnaround time in getting the renewals, and a day or two later we got back the original passport and the BC. No worries. On the other hand, I got each kid two copies of their BC when they were born because I'm paranoid about losing them. When they move out I'll give them one and keep one in case they need it later and lose it.
Daisyx3
 


For everyone going to EUROPE: make sure your passport is where you think it is, and make sure it does not expire until six months after the date of entry to Europe. When you fly into a country, including most of Europe and most of the world, that country wants your passport to be valid for six months from your entry. That six month cushion helps the foreign country: if you get ill or your plans change and you end up staying several months, it will still be easy for you to go home, because you will have a valid passport. They don't want to be stuck dealing with you and an invalid passport, so they make it easy on themselves and require it to be valid for six months. I believe we do the same thing in the USA when foreigners visit us.

See you in Copenhagen!

On a recent trip to Europe, a couple in front of me had passports that expired in a month and they were denied entry because of the 6 month rule. Their only option was to return home on the next available flight.

Before my last trip, I noticed my passport would expire a few days short of 6 months so went ahead and renewed. Passport control officers may have allowed it, but I didn't want to risk it.
 
I found out mine was expired 8 days ago & spent all day on the phone with the British Consulate & DCL. I have a green card that expires THIS July & thought I got my passport at the same time which is why I didn't check. Unfortunately it expired last July so I was in a massive panic. I am able to use my green card but cannot miss the boat at any POCs. Waiting to board now!
 
Where was this thread a few night ago so I could show my sister that I wasn't crazy lol! Our trip isn't till December but I've been having nightmares about our friends not having their papers together for this trip and missing the boat. I told them disney doesn't care how many tears you cry they won't let you on without proper paperwork. On my 1st DCL trip with my family I collected everyones passports, ID's heck even their debit cards I was that paranoid. Had all of that packed into my carry on bag for 2 weeks before we left.
 
This kind of happened to me last january, got to the airport to check in for a flight to mexico for my best friends wedding (i was the MOH) and realized i only had the passport card and not the book. We had to cancel the flight (luckily i had precooked us the earliest flight) and rebooked for the 5pm flight. I had to go to downtown dallas (we live here so that was lucky) to the passport office and with my airline ticket, i was able to get an emergency passport in less than 45 minutes. I actually now only do emergency passport renewal in person w/ travel within 2 weeks. It's better than sending off your birth certificate in the mail and "hoping" it doesn't get lost. Plus it's WAY faster. BUT that's for those of us who live near a passport office that will do that.

I do recommend always leaving the day before. luckily we were flying down 3 days before the wedding lol.

Unless you've got the time, & like or don't mind going to the office & getting the emergency card, for a second passport, or whatever # passport, you don't send your birth certificate. For a passport renewal you only send in new pics, the application & the old passport. Then you don't have to worry about it for 10 years. Just an idea :)
 
Unless you've got the time, & like or don't mind going to the office & getting the emergency card, for a second passport, or whatever # passport, you don't send your birth certificate. For a passport renewal you only send in new pics, the application & the old passport. Then you don't have to worry about it for 10 years. Just an idea :)
My daughter got hers stolen so we have to go get a new one and that requires BC.

ETA: Another reason why i LOVE living in Dallas. Convenience of just running to get a passport in 30-45 min when needed or if in an emergency. lol.
 
I've always been really paranoid about mine expiring... in many cases each country has rules about how far before expiration it is too, so even if its technically good they may still deny you if there isn't enough time before it expires. France for instance requires at least 6 months leeway! Three is more common and I hope to never find out why some say they only 'recommend' a longer time and need less... who gets the short end of that stick if they decide to enforce the longer time? :( If I'm within a year I just do it now so I don't have to worry about it.
 
Good reminder!

I had to get a new passport because mine expired within 6months.
Also plan pleanty of time when applying for a new/renewed passport!

Also, beware of any visa requirements (most common for non-us holders)
 
Thanks for this timely post ... just checked and looks like we are good to go for January 2016 cruise but with DH's passport expiring January 2017 we will definitely need to start the process plenty in advance for our January 2017 cruise that I'm sure we will take.
 
Well thats just stupid. Why would a person not check their passports before? They check the night before? hahahaha. wow!
It happened to someone I know. They were heading for the airport when they realized one of their passport had expired.
 
Also a reminder for all the European cruisers out there who are going on a European itinerary: Check with DCL what kind of documentation they require and don't just assume that your identity card will be enough because all the countries you are going to accept the identity card. There was a thread last year about this. DCL might be stricter than the countries you are visiting - most likely because they don't want to have a huge file to figure out whose identity card is good for entry to which country.

I usually travel with my passport even if it is not required, just to have it as a back up, so I did not bother to check with DCL. But this might be a potential problem!
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!














Top