Any experiences of not having a passport for the Bahamas and needing one?

[Donna M]

I know the advice is to have a passport, but does anyone have a story of not having the passport and then running into trouble, or not when in the Bahamas, especially thinking medical issues.

 

[gottalovepluto]

What are you fishing for here? Reassurance it will all be ok? Pointless. Look up the legal process for yourself of what happens if you get left behind in the Bahamas without a passport and bring the necessary documentation along if you opt for this route.

 

[Genie+]

Technically you can use your birth certificate and state issue ID/license since it will be a ‘closed loop’ cruise, meaning it leaves and returns to the same US port. That’s enough to get on and off the ship.

I haven’t traveled DCL but had this same scenario on a spur of the moment cruise my sisters booked out of Tampa that stopped in Cozumel. I was mid-process of getting a new passport for a different trip to replace my years expired passport and unlikely to come in time.

I ended up bringing 2 official copies of my birth certificate along with ID, leaving one hidden in my room as backup since it couldn’t hurt if the other got damaged/lost.

Everything worked out fine and zero issues for me getting off and on. But I think you also need to be willing to take the chance of worst case scenarios. I wanted to visit Cozumel though it wasn’t detrimental to me personally, so if they said no, OK. If I needed medical attention causing me to miss the boat, would’ve sucked big time even with passport lol. Without was another level of pain, and I still accepted the risk because if push came to shove I had the time and resources to correct without my life/job falling apart. Worth weighing all these worst case scenarios though.