Visa LA to Mexico??

[Tanijean]

I'm spending 10 days at Disneyland and have booked a 3 day Carnival cruise departing LA with 1 stop in Mexico. I already have the visa from ESTA but I can't seem to find any info if I need anything to enter Mexico.

 

Does anyone know anything about this? Thank you :)

[icat2000]

I'm spending 10 days at Disneyland and have booked a 3 day Carnival cruise departing LA with 1 stop in Mexico. I already have the visa from ESTA but I can't seem to find any info if I need anything to enter Mexico.

 

Does anyone know anything about this? Thank you :)

 

What passport are you on?

[Tanijean]

Australian

[ozscot01]

We travelled from LA to Mexico last December on Australian passports. No visas were required for our 7 day trip at that point.

[RosieCanberra]

I have entered Mexico twice by land and once by cruise ship, all I have needed is my passport. No visa is required.

 

I always check Smart Traveller website for any country I am visiting, lots of great information on there.

 

Have a great trip.

Cheers

Rosie

[Tanijean]

Thank you! The Carnival website is no help at all and I would hate to get there and be told I didn't have the right documents!

[MicCanberra]

As mentioned, Smartraveller has lots of information and links to the appropriate websites for travel.:D

[Tanijean]

I just messaged Smartraveller to ask them and got a reply about entering by land or air even though I specifically said cruise ship. So I've messaged back and will wait for a reply.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, on port days, when getting off the ship (any ship, any port) you swipe your cruise card on the way out and off you go. There's isn't usually any sort of immigration to be done is there? It's been a while since I've cruised but I don't remember doing anything like that.

[MicCanberra]

I just messaged Smartraveller to ask them and got a reply about entering by land or air even though I specifically said cruise ship. So I've messaged back and will wait for a reply.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, on port days, when getting off the ship (any ship, any port) you swipe your cruise card on the way out and off you go. There's isn't usually any sort of immigration to be done is there? It's been a while since I've cruised but I don't remember doing anything like that.

 

That really depends on the country as to what sort of immigration process there is, if any. Sometimes it is done on board before you get there or off in the morning, sometimes it is done at the dock and sometimes not at all.

[lilly4350]

We did a Mexican cruise a few years ago. No need for visas. Which port are you visiting? It will be like cruises to most other places - scan your card off and on the ship.

Enjoy

[lyndarra]

I just messaged Smartraveller to ask them and got a reply about entering by land or air even though I specifically said cruise ship. So I've messaged back and will wait for a reply.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, on port days, when getting off the ship (any ship, any port) you swipe your cruise card on the way out and off you go. There's isn't usually any sort of immigration to be done is there? It's been a while since I've cruised but I don't remember doing anything like that.

 

We did similar earlier this year. Flew from Oz to LA to Mexico City. No Visa required for Mexico. Later we flew to Ft Lauderdale from Cancun to board our Celebrity cruise through Panama canal. No passport required as there were no immigration checks when leaving the ship in any of the central American countries including Mexico. However it is advisable to have your passport with you as it is sometimes checked by authorities before boarding to confirm I/D. Customs sometimes do a bag search also.

[lyndarra]

Thank you! The Carnival website is no help at all and I would hate to get there and be told I didn't have the right documents!

Our experience is that the cruise companies don't advise on Visas. It's up to you and your TA, if you used one, and I've seen TA's get it wrong.

[MicCanberra]

We did similar earlier this year. Flew from Oz to LA to Mexico City. No Visa required for Mexico. Later we flew to Ft Lauderdale from Cancun to board our Celebrity cruise through Panama canal. No passport required as there were no immigration checks when leaving the ship in any of the central American countries including Mexico. However it is advisable to have your passport with you as it is sometimes checked by authorities before boarding to confirm I/D. Customs sometimes do a bag search also.

 

We had similar experiences with the Central American countries.:D

[Tanijean]

I got another response from Smarttraveller:

 

There will be immigration officers at the port, and you need to make sure that they stamp your passport. There have been problems with travellers entering Mexico without getting a stamp. It makes departure difficult. ST

 

Anyone else had this?

 

The port is Ensanada.

[MicCanberra]

We have only left from Ensenada - checked in at the San Diego cruise terminal, drove down to Mexico, went through customs at the border, boarded the ship and left. Cannot remember if passport was stamped but it was checked.

[wotaripper]

We went on I suspect the same cruise in 2012 from LA to Catalina and Ensenada.Immigration officials where onboard before we docked in Mexico we passed a small room as we disembarked where they where checking and stamping passports which had been collected onboard the previous day and where returned to us that morning we then just walked off the ship to our shore excursion.We did not require any visas.

[Tanijean]

We went on I suspect the same cruise in 2012 from LA to Catalina and Ensenada.Immigration officials where onboard before we docked in Mexico we passed a small room as we disembarked where they where checking and stamping passports which had been collected onboard the previous day and where returned to us that morning we then just walked off the ship to our shore excursion.We did not require any visas.

 

Thank you so much. We are doing the 3 day cruise, without Catalina.

 

What shore excursion did you do in Ensenada? I'm still tossing up what to do there.

[wotaripper]

Thank you so much. We are doing the 3 day cruise, without Catalina.

 

What shore excursion did you do in Ensenada? I'm still tossing up what to do there.

We did the blow hole excursion ,they took us to what was originally a casino which was interesting then drove us to the blow hole which was interesting but the blows where not very big the day we where there.You walk through a big market to get there prices are not very cheap told by the bus driver to bargain which we did bought two ponchos for our granddaughters only to get back on the bus to find we had been ripped off and only given one.Make sure you have cash to buy anything at the market as I wouldn't risk using a credit card.Some other passengers we spoke to went on the beach horse riding excursion and where very disappointed.

[Billy and Charlie's Mum]

Ensenada is the port the cruise ships use to comply with the Jones Act. Not really much there and be careful (mexico can be pretty scary at times) but having said that we have been to Mexico 3 times and just love the place.

 

You don't need a visa, just your ESTA visa and you can go to all the Caribbean countries and Mexico etc.