warning to those without a passport

[DonnaK]

It has been posted here many times that a "bridging" document is HIGHLY recommended and usually asked for if your last name is different than the one on your BC. It simply varies from agent to agent if you will be asked for it or not.

 

I dont think the agent was having a bad day. She was just doing her job. :)

 

I wholeheartedly agree. There are certain posters on this site who irresponsibly insist that the bridging document (marriage license) is not necessary, and that it's never asked for. Well, I was asked for it (and luckily I had it).

 

If you are traveling without a passport, which is still OK for US citizens on closed looped cruises with a US embarkation/disembarkation port, make sure you bring the bridging document if the name on your BC does not match the name on your DL.

[DonnaK]

Where does it say that?

 

 

It says that the name on your documentation must match the name on your reservation.

[ryano]

I wholeheartedly agree. There are certain posters on this site who irresponsibly insist that the bridging document (marriage license) is not necessary, and that it's never asked for. Well, I was asked for it (and luckily I had it).

 

If you are traveling without a passport, which is still OK for US citizens on closed looped cruises with a US embarkation/disembarkation port, make sure you bring the bridging document if the name on your BC does not match the name on your DL.

 

The only reason I found out was because of CC! On my last cruise, I got to reading about the bridging document being asked for at boarding and this was about 6 weeks before my cruise. I immediately started freaking out about it. :eek:

 

My mother was going on the cruise with me and she was going to use her BC and drivers license to board with. Well knowing good and well that her last name wasnt the same on her BC as it was the reservation I started to worry! I asked her to start finding her "paper trail" back to her maiden name! :p

 

Being that her and my dad divorced when I was young, she had remarried to my step father who passed away and is now remarried again, we decided it was much easier to just get her a passport. She went and applied and in 26 days later she received it in the mail. :)

 

I have seen quiet a few posts around here where married women who are boarding using their BC and DL being asked for a bridge document. They might get away with not needing it 9 times out of 10 but why take a chance?

[wolfganghowell]

Some people must just look for things to bicker about. I will never understand the resistance to getting a passport. I've actually had people in my line of work LOSE job opportunities because they didn't have a valid passport and could not leave the country within a quick time frame.

 

Fact - after 9/11, security was tightened and certain things on documentation were strengthened. I got my passport before I got married. Silly me, we were taking a cruise for our honeymoon and I felt it would be prudent to have a passport while traveling internationally - closed loop or no closed loop. No problems with passport as ID. A year or so later, when coming back on board in Key West, I was stopped at the pier because my Set Sail card had my married name, my passport had my maiden name. This was a guard doing his job and he didn't mince words. I could have been forbidden to reboard. It hadn't crossed my mind. I offered to have the husband go to our room and get my drivers license which had my full name (first maiden married). I got my passport updated with the name change - which basically consisted of sending it off where they type on a back page: Name changed to ___ ___ with a seal. Every single time I used that passport for the next 8 and a half years, I had a problem with checking in at the pier. NO ONE seems to understand that's what they do on a name change. Every single time they had to find a supervisor to stare at the book in puzzlement. Boy, was I happy when I got my new passport in 2009. :) I now have my drivers license and passport with my complete name.

 

Bottom line, in addition to jumping on the "get a passport" band wagon, be very specific as to how your name is listed.

[cruisinfanatic]

It says that the name on your documentation must match the name on your reservation.

Right, that's your license. Married ladies usually will have a BC with the wrong last name. Happens every day. No one misses their cruise because they don't have a marriage license in their pocket regardless if they were asked for it or not.

As I said before. If people were missing their cruise because of this, there would be posts all over the place.

[cruisinfanatic]

The only reason I found out was because of CC! On my last cruise, I got to reading about the bridging document being asked for at boarding and this was about 6 weeks before my cruise. I immediately started freaking out about it. :eek:

 

My mother was going on the cruise with me and she was going to use her BC and drivers license to board with. Well knowing good and well that her last name wasnt the same on her BC as it was the reservation I started to worry! I asked her to start finding her "paper trail" back to her maiden name! :p

 

Being that her and my dad divorced when I was young, she had remarried to my step father who passed away and is now remarried again, we decided it was much easier to just get her a passport. She went and applied and in 26 days later she received it in the mail. :)

 

I have seen quiet a few posts around here where married women who are boarding using their BC and DL being asked for a bridge document. They might get away with not needing it 9 times out of 10 but why take a chance?

How was she able to get a passport with a license and a BC with the wrong last name on it?

[wcook]

Why should someone not get a passport? There just is no good reason you can give me. :rolleyes:

Passports will cost a family hundreds of dollars. For many families, they provide no benefit. Not spending hundreds of dollars on something that isn't necessary is a pretty good reason for many.

[ryano]

How was she able to get a passport with a license and a BC with the wrong last name on it?

 

She provided her BC, DL and two passport photos at the Passport Agency and filled out an appliction. She listed her "previous" names on the Passport application and someway, somehow with all this wonderful modern technology, I guess the US Government was able to tie it all together and send her a Passport in 26 days. :)

 

The US Government does not require a bridging document to get a Passport. In fact, I have only heard of Royal Caribbean requiring it and again, that varies from agent to agent at check in evidently.

[TahoeBob]

There just is no good reason you can give me. :rolleyes:

A good reason is that I don't feel like giving the

government money I don't have to.

 

The fact that you might not like my reason does not negate the fact that it is a good reason.

[maxxedout2]

I remember flying into Miami and Minnie Mouse was handing out cups of

Florida orange juice to arriving vacationers.

 

That was a long time ago .... now Homeland Security has a problem with

'everything'.... so a large mouse with open fluid containers would make

headlines and maybe the 6 o'clock national news.

 

Anyway, I don't get it. Why fight it, get the Passport and enjoy the cruise.

[broberts]

Where does it say that?

 

Use the Search tool with the words "marriage license birth certificate". You'll note that discussions relating to bridging documents go back at least to 2007.

 

While most people don't have a problem, the OP did everyone a service by reminding people that the potential exists to be denied boarding, (at least get hassled about boarding), if names on all identification documents do not agree with the name on the booking.

[BruceMuzz]

That requirement is nowhere to be found in RCL's guidelines. If it was clearly a requirement, that check in person could not have given you a "pass".

Find the BC on the street, LOL?

Gee what are the odds that the first name and birthdate match exactly.

 

I can go into any Kinkos store and produce a marriage license, birth certificate, or driving license (with any names or dates you like) that looks more official than the real ones, in about 10 minutes time.

 

If you want to help slow down illegal immigration and terrorist attempts, you should get a passport.

[oliviaonthe beach]

Thanks to the OP's informative thread and Ariz Cruz Chic, I think you have said all that needs to be said. Leaving American territory, boarding a cruise ship, disembarking at a port that is foreign soil and not owning a passport is quite a gamble! You just never know what might happen. I suspect that a lot of the same people recommending against passports for cruising also do not buy travel insurance.

[whitshel]

If you're just going to cruise you can get a passport card, about half the price of passport and is a valid document for "the closed loop cruises" to the Caribbean and Mexico. My family and I havealways used our BC and DL but I still broke down and got the passport cards just to be safe. I really didnt want to shell out $400 for 4 passport when I new we would never fly internationally, but $200 bucks I could live with.

 

Now I just want to use them......:(

[jcl410]

Jaime -

 

 

When you reentered the US, did the CBP examine your DL and BC? Did they ask why the names were different?

 

Just curious, I have MY passport, and recommend them to every one.

 

 

Aloha,

 

John

[MandMcruisers]

Not trying to pick a fight with any body but look a it this way. A passport is good for 10 years. 365 days per year times 10 years divided by 110.00 USD equals .33 cents per day. For me that is a easy choice to be able to go anywhere I need at a moments notice. JMHO

[waterbug123]

If you're just going to cruise you can get a passport card, about half the price of passport and is a valid document for "the closed loop cruises" to the Caribbean and Mexico. My family and I havealways used our BC and DL but I still broke down and got the passport cards just to be safe. I really didnt want to shell out $400 for 4 passport when I new we would never fly internationally, but $200 bucks I could live with.

 

Just to be safe? How is a passport card any safer on a Caribbean cruise than a BC and DL? You spent $200 that you didn't need to spend.

[jamieng]

Jaime -

 

 

When you reentered the US, did the CBP examine your DL and BC? Did they ask why the names were different?

 

Just curious, I have MY passport, and recommend them to every one.

 

 

Aloha,

 

John

 

 

No, I approached with our family and handed him our customs form. He asked if we were all US citizens. I said yes, and he replied "go ahead then." He didn't look at either our BC's or DL's.

[broberts]

Just to be safe? How is a passport card any safer on a Caribbean cruise than a BC and DL? You spent $200 that you didn't need to spend.

 

It's one document vs two. Which to me is safer. But I do wonder about what the foreign countries being visited think about a passport card. As far as I know the card was primarily intended for land based travel between the US and Canada or Mexico.

[CruiseyWoman]

She was only doing her job!:eek:

 

 

I agree. She was only doing her job. And I would like for her to "continue" doing her job well.

[whitshel]

Just to be safe? How is a passport card any safer on a Caribbean cruise than a BC and DL? You spent $200 that you didn't need to spend.

 

You know I have spent way more than $200 that i didnt need too, but I think this was a half way descent investment. And yes it is a pain in the buttocks to carry 4 bc, 2 Dl, 1 marrage lisence, 2 student id's and a noterized letter from the real dad. Ohh wait, I am the real dad, guess I dont need that one!:D

[robtulipe]

Not trying to pick a fight with any body but look a it this way. A passport is good for 10 years. 365 days per year times 10 years divided by 110.00 USD equals .33 cents per day. For me that is a easy choice to be able to go anywhere I need at a moments notice. JMHO

 

$110 divided by 3650 days is just over 3 cents per day. Sorry, the mathematician in me immediately said the 0.33 cents was wrong.

I agree it's better to have a passport but it isn't always necessary to have one especially if an American is doing only occasional closed looped cruises from US ports.

[waterbug123]

You know I have spent way more than $200 that i didnt need too, but I think this was a half way descent investment. And yes it is a pain in the buttocks to carry 4 bc, 2 Dl, 1 marrage lisence, 2 student id's and a noterized letter from the real dad. Ohh wait, I am the real dad, guess I dont need that one!:D

 

To each his own. Personally I think $200 is a lot to spend for the sole purpose of reducing the number of documents you carry on a cruise for your family from 9 to 4. For a Caribbean cruise, it serves no other real purpose, as it can't be used to board a plane in a foreign port if something happens mid cruise.

[wcook]

I can go into any Kinkos store and produce a marriage license, birth certificate, or driving license (with any names or dates you like) that looks more official than the real ones, in about 10 minutes time.

Actually, you can't. For one thing, drivers licences have many security features that can't be copied in a Kinkos.

 

If you want to help slow down illegal immigration and terrorist attempts, you should get a passport.

There are many good reasons to get a passport. However, slowing down illegal immigration isn't one of them. Nor is slowing down terrorist attempts. Whether or not readers of this forum get a passport has zero impact on those.

 

And before somebody makes the claim, getting a passport won't cure cancer, won't grow hair, nor allow you to eat all the food you want and still lose weight.

[Bound4Bermuda]

Four out of my five family members already had passports, so we decided to get one for my toddler just to ease our worries. I understand that getting passports for an entire family is a big expense. Thankfully, ours all expire in different years, so it's not a big deal to just renew one passport at a time, lol.