1 reason why you need a passport on a Caribbean cruise

[cruisestitch]

Lots of people come to Cruise Critic asking if they should get a passport for their Caribbean cruise, when the itinerary doesn't require one. Most of the replies urge them to get the passport. Here's an interesting part of the storm-cancellation story going on in Puerto Rico right now. As already reported on another thread, Royal left port early, stranding some passengers. The same thing happened to a Carnival ship, but read on:

 

"Carnival provided hotel rooms for two nights to all the guests left behind, and offered to fly them to the next port, Barbados, on Wednesday. About half of the passengers took them up on the offer.

 

Most of the others didn't have a passport and couldn't continue because the next port was in a foreign country. Although cruise lines urge passengers to bring passports, they are not required for sailing from Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory."

[shipshape sam]

Lots of people come to Cruise Critic asking if they should get a passport for their Caribbean cruise, when the itinerary doesn't require one. Most of the replies urge them to get the passport. Here's an interesting part of the storm-cancellation story going on in Puerto Rico right now. As already reported on another thread, Royal left port early, stranding some passengers. The same thing happened to a Carnival ship, but read on:

 

"Carnival provided hotel rooms for two nights to all the guests left behind, and offered to fly them to the next port, Barbados, on Wednesday. About half of the passengers took them up on the offer.

 

Most of the others didn't have a passport and couldn't continue because the next port was in a foreign country. Although cruise lines urge passengers to bring passports, they are not required for sailing from Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory."

 

Excellent point! :)

[tserface]

You gotta give Carnival credit for compassion. We were on a Mexico cruise with RCCL a couple of years ago and got redirected to San Francisco instead. We got $200 OBC which was nice, but the Carnival passengers on a similar itinerary got a discount on the cruise they were on and on a future cruise. That doesn't make me want to cruise Carnival, but like I said, you gotta give them credit for caring about their customers and going the extra.

 

Tom

 

 

"Carnival provided hotel rooms for two nights to all the guests left behind, and offered to fly them to the next port, Barbados, on Wednesday. About half of the passengers took them up on the offer.

 

Most of the others didn't have a passport and couldn't continue because the next port was in a foreign country. Although cruise lines urge passengers to bring passports, they are not required for sailing from Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory."

[Lsimon]

,,,"Carnival provided hotel rooms for two nights to all the guests left behind, and offered to fly them to the next port, Barbados, on Wednesday. About half of the passengers took them up on the offer....

 

It Looks like Carnival was much more generous than RCCL (Celebrity's sister company) who provided hotel and airfare only for the 15 stranded passengers who purchased their airfare through the cruiseline. The 130 others where left on their own and had to cover their hotel and airfare on their own.

http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/post/2011/08/stranded-passengers-san-juan-royal-caribbean-hurricane-irene/416548/1