Passport debate, please help

[MrsD78]

First time Disney cruise, although frequent DIS board lurker, and my husband and I are currently having a debate. We are doing a 7 night eastern carribean cruise in December 2018, he insists that our kids will need passports, however I disagree since we are closed loop out of Port Canaveral.....so who is right?

PS. Thanks for all the trip planning help so far

 

[hcox31]

Coming from Canada and as I always need one to leave the country I don't really get this debate to be honest. To me if you're going to a foreign country, you need one. What happens if you get injured or sick?

I know Disney says a closed loop doesn't need them somewhere on their website, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. Kind of like always purchasing travel insurance. You do it just in case.

 

[Dug720]

Technically you do not have to have a passport for a closed-loop cruise.

HOWEVER, many people do recommend them in case something happens and you miss the ship or have to be medically evacuated in a foreign port. Having a passport certainly makes things easier in what would be a stressful situation. Not that one can't be gotten emergency-wise through the embassy - but do you really want to be dealing with that in a stressful time?

Personally I vote for getting them. Not only for peace of mind, but it also opens the world for future travel opportunities.

 

[Cackyschmackers]

It's a closed loop, but it's not as if you aren't visiting and in close proximity to several other countries. Anything can happen from having an emergency medical situation where you'd need to fly home from a different country or the ship itself having mechanical issues and having to dock early and disembatk in a foreign country. In my knowledge this has not happened to DCL but has on other cruise lines. The medical evac however has happened to two separate friends of mine (one an accident and the other caused by previously unknown medication side effects) so the risk is real.

 

[SteveMP]

I don't want to be "that family" you see on the news causing some "international scandal" just cause I tried to save $80. Whats that, $15 per year?

 

[adisneyaunt]

Required, perhaps not. The Smart easy thing to do, yes!

And for a cruise... u should really consider insurance..insure my trip dot com, u can get an idea of cost and it's cheap for peace of mind! ( and no I have no relation to them but having bought from them more than one, and needed that insurance once, was very helpful and saved us $$$ we would have lost otherwise. )
Safe travels!

 

[Shanti]

First time Disney cruise, although frequent DIS board lurker, and my husband and I are currently having a debate. We are doing a 7 night eastern carribean cruise in December 2018, he insists that our kids will need passports, however I disagree since we are closed loop out of Port Canaveral.....so who is right?

PS. Thanks for all the trip planning help so far

The most protective thing you could do for your children if they were seriously injured on a 3rd world Caribbean island would be to quickly evacuate them to the U.S. for medical care. You can't do that quickly without them having passports.

And if you or your spouse had a medical emergency, you wouldn't be able to quickly go, bringing the kids with you.

 

[squirk]

You don't need the passports, but you want the passports. Just get 'em.

 

[AMusicLifeForMe]

We always take passports on any cruise that we have ever taken. It is always a great thing to have when you are out of the country. I would not risk not having a passport while on a cruise.

 

[cmwade77]

I have to backup what everyone else is saying on here, it is much better and easier to have them and not need them than to end up having something happen and need them and not have them. You can get them in an emergency, but they are very expensive that way and trip insurance would only pay for the person who got sick to get one, so say one of you had to be evacuated, they would not pay for your children to get passports. At least that seems to be the way the ones we have purchased are in the fine print, although one would pay for one additional person to get one. Most of them would pay for costs for your entire family to return to the U.S. if you all had passports though.

 

[GPaLarry]

After 8 cruises to almost all points of the DCL compass, we would never travel without our passports. They are like your spare tire on your car...always there in case you need it. Most times DCL does not require a passport to board its ships, just a KTTW card. However, we have been on at least two cruises where there were medical emergencies at non-American ports. Hope those folks took their passports ashore.

 

[bumbershoot]

If passports are needed for a cruise, everyone would need them. If you teonhave passports but the kids don't and an emergency arises, the kids will have to get them at greater expense than currently.

You don't need the passports, but you want the passports. Just get 'em.

Best answer. Let's just use that from now on.

 

[n2mm]

We all have passports and wouldn't cruise without them. On a cruise, you need them if an emergency comes up and you have to fly home. Our last 3 cruises, we had issues like this for other passengers. 2 cruises we had to stop at nearby islands and evacuate families for medical emergencies. Our last cruise in february we left a family behind in Nassau. They didn't make it back to the ship and we left them (a group of 8 passengers). I agree with another poster, I don't want to be that family either.

 

[Chrislovesdisney]

We debated the same thing but went for the passports for our dd's for the reasons mentioned above (DH and I already have passports).

 

[MinnesotaMouseketeers]

Passports are not needed on a closed loop cruise, but we still purchased one for our son when he was seven and renewed it when it expired.
The reason we did was because; we knew there would be a very good chance of us traveling outside the USA again to make it worth the money. And it was!
But I think if we believed it would be a one and done vacation leaving the USA, we would not have spent the additional money on a passport.
As others have posted however, if for some reason you need to cut short your trip (hopefully that doesn't happen) and fly home early; having a passport makes it easier to travel back into the country. It all depends on how comfortable/confident you are if you decide to skip passports.

 

[gary in florida]

Passports are good for many ID purposes -this way you don't need to "lose" "tear" or otherwise, do damage to a birth certificate, it's easy to get a passport but not to easy to get a legal birth certificate replaced.

 

[darnheather]

I'll tell you what I told someone in my FE group. If your husband has to be life flighted back to the states you will be stuck on some island while awaiting passports for the kids. If you are ok with that then take the risk. I would never travel without passports.

 

[mmouse37]

Another one who would never travel without out passports for the whole family....including our two 2 year old grandkids. I treated my two granddaughters to their first passports when they were only 1 year old and we were all going on the Eastern Caribbean on the Fantasy last August. I want them to have a love a travel and be prepared!!! I hope they always have a passport.

MJ

 

[PrincessShmoo]

First time Disney cruise, although frequent DIS board lurker, and my husband and I are currently having a debate. We are doing a 7 night eastern carribean cruise in December 2018, he insists that our kids will need passports, however I disagree since we are closed loop out of Port Canaveral.....so who is right?

PS. Thanks for all the trip planning help so far

Depends on your/your kids citizenship.

For US citizens on a closed loop cruise from a US port the minimum requirement is a birth certificate, plus (for those 16 and over) a government issued photo ID.

Technically, you're right. But I'm with your husband - get passports. It solves many problems (such as how to fly back home from a foreign port, if necessary).

 

[mousehockey37]

If you live in a state in the US that doesn't have the REAL ID stuff yet, just get the passports. If you don't get a REAL ID (that's what it's actually called), you'll be required to have a passport to fly domestically starting I think sometime next year.