passport - need to be valid for 6 months????

[glindamood]

I heard a rumour this week about passports needing to be vaid for at least 6 moths after your cruise sail date.
Does anyone know any info on this.

We are booked to sail on the double dip the first week of January 2011, and our passports do not expire until May of 2011.

I would hate for this to be true and be turned away...but at teh same time I wouldn't want to have to renew it now, and lose almost 8 months of time that was paid for on the current passport.

Can anyone help?

I seem to remember that DCL required that the passport be valid for 6 months after the last day of travel....

We are on the Wonder PC cruise and my passport would have expired May 2011. While I was booking the trip (09/23/09) I was told that I would need a new passport as it is a requirement that they be current for six months AFTER you disembark. So I renewed mine before the fees went up this summer. If I did do that for nothing then it makes me angry but I would rather be safe than sorry. Odd that the DCL reps do not have their story straight.

 

[Soccermom-Cheri]

Different countries have different time requirements. A friend's DD was going to Central America on a missions trip. She was denied boarding at the US airport because her passport expired in 6 months and the country she was going to had an 8 month rule.

Lesson: double check your vacation destination's requirements and don't rely on a TA or CM's word.

 

[ga9497]

Different countries have different time requirements. A friend's DD was going to Central America on a missions trip. She was denied boarding at the US airport because her passport expired in 6 months and the country she was going to had an 8 month rule.

Lesson: double check your vacation destination's requirements and don't rely on a TA or CM's word.

Glad you posted this - As mentioned a few times on the responses above there are DIFFERENT rules for different destinations. So even though different people are getting different answers it may all be correct DEPENDING on their particular cruise and destination

 

[ga9497]

We are on the Wonder PC cruise and my passport would have expired May 2011. While I was booking the trip (09/23/09) I was told that I would need a new passport as it is a requirement that they be current for six months AFTER you disembark. So I renewed mine before the fees went up this summer. If I did do that for nothing then it makes me angry but I would rather be safe than sorry. Odd that the DCL reps do not have their story straight.

They may actually have their story straight each person saying that it is different is not posting where they are going. For the Panama Canal cruise it was a 6 month rule as that is what some of the ports visited required. You have to remember that it is the countries visited that make up the rules on passport requirements not DCL.

I always make sure my passport has at least more than 6 months until expiration. If I am traveling Internationally to somewhere I have never been I found out what the passport requirements for that country are

 

[anna08]

We encountered no problems on our 3 day cruise this spring and our passports expired just under 6 months from the return date.

 

[Joan1]

We encountered no problems on our 3 day cruise this spring and our passports expired just under 6 months from the return date.

As another poster mentioned above it depends on your DESTINATION.
For the Bahamas it doesn't have to have the 6 months rule on the passport. Each person cruising has to ask or look up the passport requirements for the country they are visiting.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

I personally do not understand this 6mo rule. It confounds me. What's the point of an expiration date if countries and/or cruiselines mandate it still have 6mo till expiration date or else renew already? WHY? do they expect you may be delayed or held in a country up to 6mo? What in the world is the reason for needing 6mo left? It totally negates the expiration date, IMO and I don't understand it at all. sigh

 

[tvguy]

I personally do not understand this 6mo rule. It confounds me. What's the point of an expiration date if countries and/or cruiselines mandate it still have 6mo till expiration date or else renew already? WHY? do they expect you may be delayed or held in a country up to 6mo? What in the world is the reason for needing 6mo left? It totally negates the expiration date, IMO and I don't understand it at all. sigh

Here's the deal. Having a Passport in many countries allows you into that country for up to 6 months without having to go through the visa process.
So the Passport has to be valid for at least 6 months past your entry date.

Some countries a Passport only allows you to be there for up to 3 months without a visa, so those countries only require your Passport to be valid for up to three months after your entry date.

Hope that helps. Not sure a lot of cruise ship passengers jump ship though.

 

[tvguy]

We encountered no problems on our 3 day cruise this spring and our passports expired just under 6 months from the return date.

Because Passports were not required. This is only an issue on cruises (or flights, or driving or walking) where Passports are required.

 

[lakehead92]

As another poster mentioned above it depends on your DESTINATION.
For the Bahamas it doesn't have to have the 6 months rule on the passport. Each person cruising has to ask or look up the passport requirements for the country they are visiting.

I did tell the DCL REP where we were going, and where we were from.
For Med and Trans Atlanntic its 6 months...she said no such stipulation for the Bahamas yet.

But when I looked up the Bahamian Consulate for the Canadian Government it did have the 6 month rule.

 

[NJ.Ohana]

Thanks for all the info. We just booked and did not even consider the passports for our kids yet.

 

[ga9497]

I did tell the DCL REP where we were going, and where we were from.
For Med and Trans Atlanntic its 6 months...she said no such stipulation for the Bahamas yet.

But when I looked up the Bahamian Consulate for the Canadian Government it did have the 6 month rule.

Probably because you live in Canada. Here in the U.S. the requirements for visiting the Bahamas are different

 

[n0pa]

Our passports expired 1 month after we cruised. Nothing was ever said to us about the expiration date. When we went through customs, I handed the officer the pile of passports we had, he just waived us through, didn't even look at them.

I did double check before we went and they said the 6 month buffer was only necessary if doing a Med cruise.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Here's the deal. Having a Passport in many countries allows you into that country for up to 6 months without having to go through the visa process.
So the Passport has to be valid for at least 6 months past your entry date.

Some countries a Passport only allows you to be there for up to 3 months without a visa, so those countries only require your Passport to be valid for up to three months after your entry date.

Hope that helps. Not sure a lot of cruise ship passengers jump ship though.

Well that makes sense if TRAVELLING there- not if getting off at the port for a day on a cruise. If travelling you may end up staying longer than planned, surely if you missed your cruise ship you wouldn't then decide to hang around for 3-6mo. So therefore it still seems unnecessary to me.
(to require that much time when cruising and your ship is stopping at that port for a day)

Our passports expired 1 month after we cruised. Nothing was ever said to us about the expiration date. When we went through customs, I handed the officer the pile of passports we had, he just waived us through, didn't even look at them.

I did double check before we went and they said the 6 month buffer was only necessary if doing a Med cruise.

They never look at ours. They look at our customs form for a nanosecond and wave us thru- even though I have all 5 passports open and ready for them. Never.
They've already checked passports thru the ship though, right? IDK why they don't ever look at the passports when going thru customs.

 

[jilljill]

Our passports expired 1 month after we cruised. Nothing was ever said to us about the expiration date. When we went through customs, I handed the officer the pile of passports we had, he just waived us through, didn't even look at them.

I did double check before we went and they said the 6 month buffer was only necessary if doing a Med cruise.

But the OP is from Canada and it looks like Canada has different rules for going to the Bahamas as has been previously posted.

 

[cathicool]

our family is booked for an alaskan cruise next august (2011). my kids passports expire in nov, 2011.

am i going to have to renew their passports before august?

we are americans and the cruise is a closed loop, but from canada (vancouver), not the US.

 

[jilljill]

Well that makes sense if TRAVELLING there- not if getting off at the port for a day on a cruise. If travelling you may end up staying longer than planned, surely if you missed your cruise ship you wouldn't then decide to hang around for 3-6mo. So therefore it still seems unnecessary to me.
(to require that much time when cruising and your ship is stopping at that port for a day)


They never look at ours. They look at our customs form for a nanosecond and wave us thru- even though I have all 5 passports open and ready for them. Never.
They've already checked passports thru the ship though, right? IDK why they don't ever look at the passports when going thru customs.

Other's countries rules don't have to make sense to us and there's no need for us to question if they are necessary or not, we should all just look up the rules for the countries we are visiting and abide by them.

The reason that custom' at PC doesn't look at your passport when you return back from a closed loop cruise is because a passport is not necessary for US citizens.

 

[jilljill]

our family is booked for an alaskan cruise next august (2011). my kids passports expire in nov, 2011.

am i going to have to renew their passports before august?

we are americans and the cruise is a closed loop, but from canada (vancouver), not the US.

You will need to look up the rules for traveling into Canada. This is not considered a closed loop cruise, since that rule if for cruises sailing in/out of US port.

 

[tvguy]

Well that makes sense if TRAVELLING there- not if getting off at the port for a day on a cruise. If travelling you may end up staying longer than planned, surely if you missed your cruise ship you wouldn't then decide to hang around for 3-6mo. So therefore it still seems unnecessary to me.
(to require that much time when cruising and your ship is stopping at that port for a day)


They never look at ours. They look at our customs form for a nanosecond and wave us thru- even though I have all 5 passports open and ready for them. Never.
They've already checked passports thru the ship though, right? IDK why they don't ever look at the passports when going thru customs.

Well, it is a pretty widely accepted policy around the world, but you are correct, rules often don't make sense.
For example, ADA requires braille on all signs, but on the UMPIRES dressing room at Dodger Stadium??

 

[itutorfortravel]

I just got off the phone with aa DCL agent to ask this question.

My DH's and my passports expire less than 3 months after our upcoming cruise and I wasn't sure what I would need to do. We are going on a Southern Caribbean cruise, and she said it was not a problem at all, that you only needed the 6 month buffer if you were traveling to Europe.

So now I wonder if I should just forget about renewing till we get back. A little part of me is always going to worry about it if I don't go ahead and renew, but on the other hand, I would rather not spend the extra money on expedited passports right now if I don't have to.