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Guests who do not bring required documents may be denied boarding. I have been cruising since 2004 and have sailed on dozens of cruises all over the world. As the creator of this website, I want to help families plan fun cruises free of stress and filled with adventure! So, now that you know the benefits and risks of traveling without a passport, the following information will address any lingering questions you might still have. If you have a limited time, you can fly to Honolulu and embark on a 7–10-night cruise on Norwegian’s Pride of America cruise liner. With its spectacular tropical beaches, delicious food, and abundance of cultural excursions to ancient Mayan ruins, our southern neighbor, Mexico, is an ideal family cruise destination.
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For example, the Caribbean island of Martinique requires that all cruise passengers have a valid passport to go ashore. WHTI passport cards are convenient and affordable because you don’t have to travel with your birth certificate and ID. Cruising with a passport will usually be the best option, if you have one. Perhaps there is no time to get a new or renewed passport (or perhaps you forgot to bring them at all!).
Travel document requirements for sailings from Australian homeports
It turns out there are quite a few options for where you can cruise without a passport. Book a closed-loop cruise, and you can cruise to the Caribbean, Bahamas, and Mexico, to name a few. Of course, we always recommend confirming any travel plans and documents required with your chosen cruise line.
Card Type
However, despite this, you don’t actually need a passport to go on every cruise. No, that doesn’t mean you’ll be stuck on New England small ship sailings or taking a river cruise down the Mississippi. You can take a wonderfully warm, tropical Caribbean cruise away from the States without the hassle of acquiring or renewing a passport. In general, you are not required to bring your passport with you when you go ashore for the day, either for a tour or to explore on your own.
Some cruisers take a middle-of-the-road approach, and bring a photocopy of their passport ashore (or have a photo of it on their phone), but leave the actual book on the ship. This way, if something does go wrong, it’s easier to prove your identity and citizenship. If you’re traveling internationally, a passport might not be the only document you need. Certain destinations, such as China and Russia, may require visas for arrival into the country by air or independent exploration ashore. If you are wary about taking advantage of this benefit (perhaps some people in your party have a passport and others don’t), consider a cruise to U.S. island territories instead.
What are the best cruises without a passport?
Most even offer two or three day stays to enjoy this beautiful location. You can use this time to explore Kings Wharf and other popular stops like St. George’s and Hamilton. Several cruise lines normally have ships making stops in the region. As the only ship sailing in Hawaii year-round, NCL’s Pride of America is an easy choice.
Popular homeports:
Even if you're on a closed-loop sailing, certain islands in the Caribbean – Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Barts, Barbados and others -- require a passport for entry. It's your responsibility (not your cruise line's) to learn the requirements of each of the destinations you're visiting before you go. If an emergency arises, only an official passport will allow you to fly home quickly from a foreign port. If you end up stranded in another country because of unforeseen circumstances, you do still have options, but it will take more time and effort to get home with only a birth certificate and photo ID. The long-cruise options consist of 14- to 18-night round-trip sailings from San Diego, LA (Long Beach and San Pedro) and San Francisco. You won't need a passport for these closed-loop sailings, but you do need to be prepared for multiple days at sea as you cross the Pacific from California to Hawaii.
Travel document requirements for sailings from Seward, Alaska
A number of East Coast and Gulf Coast homeports offer round-trip Bahamas cruises. They include Baltimore, Bayonne (Cape Liberty), Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Galveston, Jacksonville, New York (Manhattan), Miami, Norfolk and Orlando (Port Canaveral). You can't cruise just anywhere on a closed-loop sailing, but the choices are more interesting than you might expect. Below, we've compiled a list of seven places to visit without a passport, from scenic Alaska to the beachy Caribbean. If you’ve given it some thought and plan to use your passport for an upcoming cruise, don’t just assume your trip will be all smooth sailing from here. Or, what if you’re in an accident or there’s an emergency at home?
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Cruises
Wrapped presentsWrapped presents always run the risk of being flagged by security. These wrapped gifts can trigger suspicion or require additional screening, leading to delays and potential damage to your wrapped items. Additionally, if security officials cannot identify the contents of a wrapped gift, they may need to unwrap it entirely.2.
If you are sailing out of one U.S. homeport and disembarking at the end of your voyage in a different one, you also need a passport for your cruise. For example, a Panama Canal cruise that leaves from Miami and ends in Los Angeles will require a passport. There's excellent shopping, dining and water sports activities in many ports like Nassau and Freeport.
For small-ship fans, other options include sailings that do not leave Alaska, such as those of UnCruise Adventures, Lindblad Expeditions, and Alaska Native–owned Alaskan Dream Cruises. If you don’t have a passport, you will also run into problems should you miss boarding your ship at the correct time and need to fly home or to the next port of call. This point should be top-of-mind especially because of COVID-19 and any other medical emergency that would require the trip to be altered or a medical evacuation. You’ll also be glad you have a passport if you encounter other unforeseen circumstances such as a family emergency or a sailing cut short due to bad weather or technical issues. If you’re itching for an adventure but don’t want to dig out your passport or deal with all the paperwork, no-passport cruises are your ticket to paradise.
Passport-free cruises to Bermuda include ample five- to 10-night sailings from the East Coast ports of Baltimore, Bayonne, Boston and Manhattan. Occasional itineraries also pop up throughout the Bermuda season departing from Norfolk, Virginia; Charleston; and the Florida ports of Miami, Port Canaveral (near Orlando) and Jacksonville. This means that Alaska cruises are one instance when the passport card would be a handy alternative to traveling with both an ID card and a birth certificate. Before we go further, let's clarify that when we talk about cruising without a passport, we're referring to pricey passport books that some travelers do not wish to purchase.
Florida’s ports of Miami, Port Everglades (in Fort Lauderdale), and Port Canaveral (about an hour east of Orlando) offer the majority of closed-loop cruises to the Bahamas. Popular ports of call include Boston, MA; Bar Harbor, ME; Portland, ME; Halifax, Nova Scotia; and St. John, New Brunswick. A Bermuda cruise might be the perfect choice for those living in the Northeastern United States as there will be no flying involved. Most Bermuda cruises leave from New York or Cape Liberty, New Jersey. A few also depart from Boston, MA, Baltimore, MD, and occasionally some southern ports like Florida.
You won’t run into any passport requirements on tried-and-true routes from U.S. ports such as those that visit Puerto Rico and the U.S. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John—which are all part of the United States. You can also fly in to embark on cruises from these destinations.
Holly Riddle is a freelance travel, food, and lifestyle journalist who also dabbles in ghostwriting and fiction. Her work appears in publications ranging from Global Traveler to Golf Magazine, Mashed to Forbes, and Bloomberg. When she’s not writing, you can find her exploring the mountains near her home in the Adirondacks. Her favorite travel destinations include Chicago and New Orleans. Let’s remember that just because you can do something doesn’t always mean that you should. For some travelers, trying to cruise without a passport just isn’t worth it.
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