ifihadaboat

Loved your review! Thanks for taking the time to do it. We are having cool and rainy weather in Galveston - about 63 degrees tonight (much warmer than earlier this week) with 80% rain/thunderstorms expected. Bundle up! Safe travels home.

The extra copy of the Set Sail pass would be handy for the check-in agent, but it is not necessary. The agent can look up the guest and check him in without it.

Making sure that we have the right documentation falls squarely in our own laps as passengers. As it is now if you show up with incorrect documentation they can deny boarding without giving you a refund. If they took a more active role in making certain passengers had the right documentation then they probably wouldn't be able to do that.

So true. You hate seeing a passenger denied, but it does happen. I have seen some cruise lines offer a re-booking at a later date, but I do not know how that worked out for the passenger(s) involved.

marshhawk asked why a passport would be necessary if a ship left from a US port, visited only US ports and returned to a US port and I pointed out that for cruise out of Long Beach there is a foreign port of call involved.

 

If you are saying that you would take your passport on the NCL Pride of America, which indeed only sails to and from US ports with no foreign ports of call that is of course your perogative, but most wouldn't even think about taking their passport or obtaining one for that itinerary.

There are very few times when a cruise itinerary does not include a foreign stop (many of the private islands that a cruise line owns are not US territories. It doesn't work to ask, "how about if I don't get off the ship in that port?" either. US Customs requires all passengers to have proof of citizenship and identification upon return to the US. They have no way of knowing if you got off the ship or not. Passport cards are less expensive and very convenient if you cruise a lot but they won't get you on an international flight. Visit http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english.html for information.

Never mind. Found it on Carnival's FAQ. Only those who are 16 years and older are required to have a photo ID with their birth certificates. Phew! Had me worried there for a bit since our cruise is in less than two months and I thought I had everything in order. But it's good to know for other parents out there. Kids 15 and under do not need a government issued ID with their birth certificate. But those 16 and up MUST have one.

 

 

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Good work! It would be so much clearer if Cruise Lines would print that information in large bright letters, but their focus is more about selling the trip than making certain that you are properly documented. May I re-iterate that the BC should be an official government-issued one (no footprints!)

All of the above is correct. For those traveling on a birth certificate, let me emphasize that an official birth certificate does not have footprints on it. If that's the only one you have ever had, contact the county records office in the county where you were born and get an official, government issued BC. And then have a photo ID, too. A passport contains both (proof of citizenship and photo) but if traveling on BC, you must have the second ID with photo.