Traveling without Passport??

[lovbeinmom]

Thanks everyone for you advice! I think that I am going to go ahead and get the passports. Like many of you have said, better safe then sorry!! I am going to get one at a time over the next few months. We are going to need them within the next 18 months to visit my sister in Japan anyway.

This is why I LOVE the DIS....for all the good advise!! Thanks again!!

You do not *need* a passport. Is it a good idea to go to the Bahamas without one? Not in my opinion.

If everything goes perfectly on your trip, you will never use your passport and (given that you are asking the question) will probably end up feeling that you wasted the money.

HOWEVER...
If someone in your group gets ill and needs to have medical assistance - therefore not returning via the ship - you will need a passport.

If you miss the ship some how, some way (I know - it won't happen to YOU ), you will need a passport.

There are LOTS of people on these boards who have posted countless times that you do not need a passport on the short cruises that just go to the Bahamas. I completely disagree. A passport gives you freedom and flexibility should the "what if" in life happens to hit while you are on your cruise vacation.


You aren't spending the money for you and your family to have passports for a 3 night cruise. You are paying it for your family members to have passports for 10 years. It is NEVER a bad thing to have a passport. You never know what opportunities may drop your way in life. Not having a passport could mean not being able to take advantage of them. Having one means you can "get up and go" in a moment's notice should the chance come your way - and in the case of cruising to the Bahamas, it means having a safety net for the "what if" that life can sometimes serve up unexpectedly.

Get the passports and add it into "life costs," not "trip expenses" if it makes you feel better about it.

- Dreams

 

[dawne98]

I have one but my DD's don't.....I am not sure if I am going to get them one we live in Miami FL and I just don't see the need to get them as of now....maybe by next year in May we'll all need them but if things are as it is today then no

 

[mainegal]

I knew I did not NEED a passport, but I felt "safer" using one.

I already had a passport because we live in Maine and vacation in Quebec and New Brunswick, Canada.

As we got near the cruise terminal, I pulled out my passport, looked at the photo and had the usual "yuck, I look awful in that photo" thought. YIKES! The photo was over twenty years old, it was my EXPIRED passport!

Thank goodness I did not NEED a passport for the four night cruise!

 

[TLSnell1981]

OP, I think, you made a wise decision. We also use our passport when we fly in the States. It's much easier pulling out a passport, over a DL or BC.

 

[over50visits]

It's kind of like trip insurance. Costs money, but if needed well worth the expense. We have never missed a flight, missed a port, gotten sick, etc. etc. So in about a dozen cruises never have needed insurance or needed a passport (except on an Alaska cruise ending in Vancouver). But...you have to consider your risk aversion, and your ability to pay if something does happen. Kind of like collision insurance.