Passports - do you 'risk' it?

[mickeyfan0805]

We're booked on a 3-day cruise for January. DW and I have Passport cards, which means we have what we would 'need' to visit Nassau on the cruise and it would cost us nearly $500 to get passports for the family. We are concerned about the issue of not being able to fly home if there is some form of emergency, but $500 is a pretty expensive insurance policy for a 3-day cruise.

What do you do?

 

[Ofinn]

We always go with just birth certificates. We have only done 4 night cruises. If we ever do a longer cruise I would probably get passports.

 

[Carrie in AZ]

No, I would never risk it, but that's just how we roll. There are MANY who will travel without a passport. It is expensive, this I know because we just got ours, but I absolutely love the peace of mind. Knowing we could fly to where we need to go in the event of an emergency or a change of course is what *I* need to be at peace for my family.

If you think you will cruise again, then obtaining passports is a good investment.

 

[Maddysdaddy]

Personally, I wouldn't fathom not having a passport - you just never know when you are going to need it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't US passports valid for 10 years (I'm Canadian, so mine is only valid for 5) - if so, then you might want to look at it as being a $50/year insurance policy for your entire family (aka one tank of gas for your car or a couple of large pizzas).

 

[darkwing818]

Personally, I wouldn't fathom not having a passport - you just never know when you are going to need it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't US passports valid for 10 years (I'm Canadian, so mine is only valid for 5) - if so, then you might want to look at it as being a $50/year insurance policy for your entire family (aka one tank of gas for your car or a couple of large pizzas).

Another vote for passports.

 

[Liltx]

Adults are 10 years but children are only 5 and they have to have at least 6 months remaining to be used in many countries so that brings it down to 4 1/2 minus the time between it being processed and your first trip. So really expensive for children. Still, we have them and because we always have valid passports we can book last minute deal which save TONS over planning ahead. So in the end worth it for emergencies and money wise.

 

[tweis]

It's entirely up to you. All you need to get on the ship is a BC. I'm sure more people use a BC than a passport because so many people think they are expensive and that they wont ever need them again.

We got passports for our family of four before our first cruise. We were not willing to take the risk. For a little bit we thought DH wasn't going to be able to get his passport because of a BC issue but it wouldn't have been as big of a deal for just one of us to have to get an emergency passport if needed.

Since getting our passports, we have cruised twice and have a third one booked. We thought we would only be cruising the one time.

 

[lanejudy]

Since we already have Passport Cards, we cruise with those; we have not upgraded to full Passports. I have been fine with that risk.

That said, I would never get the Passport Cards just for cruising because, as noted, it won't do you any good for emergency situations which is where the Passport actually comes into play.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[jrabbit]

another vote for passports.

Once you start traveling "internationally", it's hard to stop.

Once you have your passports, opportunities that arise are no longer immediately dismissed. You have options.

Finally, I prefer to fly domestically with my passport - I seem to have less hassles

No, now really my final point - It's the top level ID - only need this one piece of ID.

 

[ultimate_ed]

My wife and I already had passports from our travels both personal and for work before we had kids.

I plan to make a number of trips with the kids over the coming years now that they are getting old enough for it to be worth while. So, for me, getting them passports that I'll be using with them for the next five years was an easy call.

Also, passports for minors aren't as expensive as adult ones.

Now, if this is your first ever cruise and you're not sure it is something you will want to do again, then it could make more sense to just use birth certificates this time.

Still, I have to echo jrabbit - now that we have them, even when we fly domestically, I bring them with us as our photo ID. At least in my experience, there's less hassle and questions from TSA when everyone has a passport to go with their boarding pass.

 

[SuperDry]

There's another "insurance" aspect of having a passport that has nothing to do with cruising: a backup form of ID in case you lose your drivers license. This happened to me twice: once when I had my wallet stolen, and a second time when I moved between states and the new state confiscated my old DL, and issued me a temporary paper drivers license and sent me the permanent one in the mail a month later. In both cases, I had a temporary paper DL so I was legal to drive, but could not do anything that required a photo ID. A birth certificate is not a substitute for a photo ID, as it only establishes that the named person is a citizen, and not that the person possessing it is the named person (that's why you need a DL plus birth certificate for cruising if you're an adult).

But if you have a passport in your drawer at home, then you have a second form of universally-accepted photo ID. You can board airplanes, rent cars, check into hotels, and do banking all without a hassle while you wait for you replacement DL. In one of my cases above, the event happened 1 week before a long-planned trip to Hawaii. Had I not had a passport, it would have been more difficult to board the airplane, and impossible to rent a car once there.

 

[rowlands57]

I think given the short duration and being "local" to the U.S. you would be fine without passports. I would not venture much farther away or for longer durations without them though.

 

[mrsfuzzmo]

[
But if you have a passport in your drawer at home, then you have a second form of universally-accepted photo ID. You can board airplanes, rent cars, check into hotels, and do banking all without a hassle while you wait for you replacement DL. In one of my cases above, the event happened 1 week before a long-planned trip to Hawaii. Had I not had a passport, it would have been more difficult to board the airplane, and impossible to rent a car once there.[/QUOTE]

My neice who had lost her DL two weeks prior to our trip to NYC decided to just get a new DL, but little did she know that now in our state you receive a paper "legal" DL until you get your DL card in about 10 days. You cannot fly with that paper document. Luckily, she had a passport.

We use our passports to fly domestically all the time. Just seems easier for everyone at the airport. Cruising as well. We don't travel without them. Yes, everyone knows your don't have to legally have one for many cruises, but it sure makes traveling easier for us.

 

[cruisinwithmaandpa]

We have passports but only took an original birth certificate for our grandon. We had no problems whatsoever.

 

[STLEdge]

Another vote for passports. $500 is not an insignificant amount of money, but if you use them more than on just this cruise, you are spreading out the cost over more trips. I don't see it as solely an insurance policy for the cruise. Others have mentioned other ways in which passports come in handy. They are also proof of citizenship and residence.

And if this is your first cruise, people on these boards will tell you it's more probable than not that it won't be your last...

 

[bumbershoot]

We have passports.

$80 plus $25 for a minor, divided by 5 years...not so expensive.



I would rather pay it up front and have the passports rather than pay massive expediting fees while sitting in some passport/consulate office while the emergency causing me to need that expedited passport is happening, whether the emergency is someone from my party being desperately sick or injured, or someone at home is, etc etc.

 

[scrapshappen]

We just did the passport thing. And yes, it was expensive. But I think it will be worth it in the long run. First, just the piece of mind of knowing we could fly home from our cruise if some emergency came up. And second, we've already talked about a couple of trips in the next few years that we will need it for so I don't look at it as an added expense to this vacation but as a long term thing.

Just another little food for thought: several years ago, a former colleague of mine called me up and asked if I could go to Greece with her to do some consulting work on the Olympics at the last minute (less than a week's notice). One of the logistics that kept me going was that I didn't have a passport.

Also, your children will thank you when they just have to renew a passport instead of apply for a one for the first time later.

 

[princesskayla]

We have traveled on three cruises without a passport(2 were 7 days and one was 5 days). We just make sure we are back on the ship an hour before it is posted to be back on. It is very expensive for my family to get passports and we are getting them one by one when we have extra money.

 

[scrapshappen]

We have passports.

$80 plus $25 for a minor, divided by 5 years...not so expensive.

That would be a bargain. But the current rate is $135 for adults and $105 for kids. (Including a $25 processing fee for each).

http://travel.state.gov/passport/fees/fees_837.html

 

[amomma23]

We're having this discussion, too. For our family it will be $585. I'm having a hard time justifying that for a 4-night Bahamian cruise. Luckily we have over a year, so we are considering just getting them one-at-a-time over the next several months, but yikes!