Passport question

[Dmary0315]

I will be on the Epic on 2/02/2023. My passport will expire at the end of July 2023. I didn’t realize until today that you need to have at least six months at the time of travel left before your passport expires. Before I drive  3 hours to get an expedited passport because of this I wondered if Puerto Rico would be an exception to the rule. 
Anyone have an info that they can share? I”ll be calling about it tomorrow but would sleep better knowing I may  not have to jump through the hoops. 
Stressed out!

[cruiserbear55]

14 minutes ago, Dmary0315 said:

I will be on the Epic on 2/02/2023. My passport will expire at the end of July 2023. I didn’t realize until today that you need to have at least six months at the time of travel left before your passport expires. Before I drive  3 hours to get an expedited passport because of this I wondered if Puerto Rico would be an exception to the rule. 
Anyone have an info that they can share? I”ll be calling about it tomorrow but would sleep better knowing I may  not have to jump through the hoops. 
Stressed out!

 

    No passport needed to travel to Puerto Rico or the US Virgin Islands. However, the Real ID act is supposed to be implemented in May of this year. If you don"t have a Real ID license, you would need a passport.

[njhorseman]

12 minutes ago, Dmary0315 said:

I will be on the Epic on 2/02/2023. My passport will expire at the end of July 2023. I didn’t realize until today that you need to have at least six months at the time of travel left before your passport expires. Before I drive  3 hours to get an expedited passport because of this I wondered if Puerto Rico would be an exception to the rule. 
Anyone have an info that they can share? I”ll be calling about it tomorrow but would sleep better knowing I may  not have to jump through the hoops. 
Stressed out!

You may want to check your cruise date as there is no Epic cruise departing 2/2/23, but in any event as a (presumably) US citizen you don't even need a passport for your closed loop Caribbean cruise embarking and disembarking in San Juan You can take the cruise with just a drivers license and official birth certificate if you needed to. You can use your passport because this type of cruise doesn't call on any countries that require 6 months remaining validity. As long as your passport won't expire before the end of the cruise...and yours won't, you're good to go.

[Charles4515]

9 minutes ago, cruiserbear55 said:

 

    No passport needed to travel to Puerto Rico or the US Virgin Islands. However, the Real ID act is supposed to be implemented in May of this year. If you don"t have a Real ID license, you would need a passport.

 

Real ID has nothing to do with cruises but FYI the Real ID deadline has been extended to May 07. 2025. 

Edited January 13, 2023 by Charles4515

[njhorseman]

2 minutes ago, cruiserbear55 said:

 

    No passport needed to travel to Puerto Rico or the US Virgin Islands. However, the Real ID act is supposed to be implemented in May of this year. If you don"t have a Real ID license, you would need a passport.

You're wrong on  a few counts.

First the REAL ID license requirement is for airline flights and entry to certain federal government facilities,. It doesn't apply to cruises.

Second, the REAL ID requirement was postponed once again, this time until May 7, 2025.

Third even if REAL ID hadn't been postponed and even if it applied to cruises (which it doesn't), the OP's cruise is in February 2023, months before the previous May 2023 effective date.

 

[Dmary0315]

Thank you so much! We arrive on 2/02, sail 2/5, spending a few days in San Juan beforehand. I can sleep tonight! You made my day.

So if the cruise originates in Puerto Rico and ends in Puerto Rico I have no worries about other countries that the ship takes us?

Edited January 13, 2023 by Dmary0315

[njhorseman]

Just now, Charles4515 said:

 

The Real ID deadline has been extended to May 07. 2025. 

And the REAL ID requirement doesn't apply to cruises anyway.

[Charles4515]

2 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

And the REAL ID requirement doesn't apply to cruises anyway.

They may have been thinking OP needed a Real ID to fly to San Juan for the cruise. 

[njhorseman]

1 minute ago, Charles4515 said:

They may have been thinking OP needed a Real ID to fly to San Juan for the cruise. 

Perhaps...but what made no sense at all is that even if REAL ID hadn't been postponed from the May 2023 date it still wouldn't have been in effect yet because the OP is cruising in February.

[BirdTravels]

33 minutes ago, Dmary0315 said:

I will be on the Epic on 2/02/2023. My passport will expire at the end of July 2023. I didn’t realize until today that you need to have at least six months at the time of travel left before your passport expires. Before I drive  3 hours to get an expedited passport because of this I wondered if Puerto Rico would be an exception to the rule. 
Anyone have an info that they can share? I”ll be calling about it tomorrow but would sleep better knowing I may  not have to jump through the hoops. 
Stressed out!

There is no 6 month requirement for US closed loop cruises. Only cruises originating outside the US. 

[Dmary0315]

Thank you everyone. I am so relieved! Love this forum.

[dexddd]

7 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

They may have been thinking OP needed a Real ID to fly to San Juan for the cruise. 

Please expand.  We did a 2016 cruise out of San Juan to NYC and while we had passports, when we checked in at AA with DL AA said they'd only accept passport.  Never heard of that.

[Charles4515]

16 minutes ago, dexddd said:

Please expand.  We did a 2016 cruise out of San Juan to NYC and while we had passports, when we checked in at AA with DL AA said they'd only accept passport.  Never heard of that.

US citizens can use a drivers license as ID to fly to Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is a US territory. 

[spenecer]

2 hours ago, dexddd said:

Please expand.  We did a 2016 cruise out of San Juan to NYC and while we had passports, when we checked in at AA with DL AA said they'd only accept passport.  Never heard of that.

REAL ID is now very complex as the deadlines for full compliance by all US states has been extended multiple times.  At one point around 2015, REAL ID or a passport was required to fly for all residents of REAL ID compliant states with exceptions made for non-REAL ID compliant states (Idaho, Illinois, New York, etc) who were working toward compliance and no exceptions for non-REAL ID complaint states who were refusing to comply (Maine, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, etc).  Then the feds and the states worked out their issues and the deadlines for compliance was extended to 2023, but because of COVID, states have been slow to flip people from state ID/driver's license to driver's license+RealID so the deadline has been extended again in 2025.  I work in a federal facility and there were years where we couldn't allow people to step onto the campus if they didn't have a RealID, a passport or a birth certificate from some states, but we could accept a driver's license from other states.  It was a pain.

[Charles4515]

3 minutes ago, spenecer said:

 At one point around 2015, REAL ID or a passport was required to fly 

Wrong. REAL ID has never been required to fly. 

[BirdTravels]

Just now, Charles4515 said:

Wrong. REAL ID has never been required to fly. 

Really??? The post said that 2015 was the original target date for the REAL ID requirement. Because some states couldn't get their act together and a pandemic, that has been extended multiple times. 

[spenecer]

3 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

Wrong. REAL ID has never been required to fly. 

Tell that to TSA.  I tried to fly to San Francisco in February 2020 and I did not have a REAL ID (because IL would have issued me one on my next DL renewal).  Got my driver's license rejected and had to show a passport.

[dbrown84]

31 minutes ago, spenecer said:

Tell that to TSA.  I tried to fly to San Francisco in February 2020 and I did not have a REAL ID (because IL would have issued me one on my next DL renewal).  Got my driver's license rejected and had to show a passport.

good thing you had your passport.  They were wrong to reject your license though.

[wesorbeth]

My May cruise is my first on NCL, am I okay with a passport card on a closed loop?

[Charles4515]

5 minutes ago, wesorbeth said:

My May cruise is my first on NCL, am I okay with a passport card on a closed loop?

You are okay with a passport card for ID for the cruise but if you have an emergency on the cruise you won’t be able to fly back with it. You will have to get a temporary or emergency passport. A passport is recommended. 

[gingersvp]

I have TSAPrecheck (requires fingerprinting) and a Florida REAL driver's license. Apparently there was a batch of Florida licenses with a bad bar code so it never scans at the airport. I have been instructed to always fly with a passport. I recently took a trip and forgot it. Got out of Florida just fine, as security is accustomed to the issue. Had trouble on my next leg (Nashville), but they finally let me through. Spent the weekend in Houston, anxiously wondering if I would make it home. Houston just visually inspects and doesn't scan. It's a crapshoot. 

[Escaping2016]

We have a similar situation.  My son's passport expires in April 2023.  We are traveling in March.  He does have a real ID as well so I am not concerned about the getting to Puerto Rico but will he be able to get off and back on the ship on the various islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, St Kitts & St Lucia I believe)?

[dbrown84]

Just now, Escaping2016 said:

We have a similar situation.  My son's passport expires in April 2023.  We are traveling in March.  He does have a real ID as well so I am not concerned about the getting to Puerto Rico but will he be able to get off and back on the ship on the various islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, St Kitts & St Lucia I believe)?

yes, he'll have no problem.  I've cruised 8 times, all without a passport.  no problems at all.  Remember, a passport is not required for closed loop cruises.  They are recommended, in case you need to get back home via another mode, but they are not required 

[njhorseman]

1 minute ago, Escaping2016 said:

We have a similar situation.  My son's passport expires in April 2023.  We are traveling in March.  He does have a real ID as well so I am not concerned about the getting to Puerto Rico but will he be able to get off and back on the ship on the various islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, St Kitts & St Lucia I believe)?

As already stated in this thread you don't need 6 months remaining validity on a passport for a closed loop cruise from a US port. The passport only has to be valid through disembarkation day.

 

Also as already stated REAL ID won't be required for domestic air travel until May, 2025 so an ordinary drivers license is just as good.

 

If you don't have proper documentation you won't even be allowed to board the ship, so no...you can't just cruise and then not disembark in ports, but this isn't an issue  because your son's passport is perfectly valid for your cruise and alternatively he could always cruise using his birth certificate and drivers license if he didn't even have a passport.

 

[The Traveling Man]

@Charles4515You may be right, I may have missed your point.  Also, I may not have stated my point very clearly.  Several people posting on this thread seemed to be saying that a driver license with Real ID was required to fly.  That is not an accurate statement.  Although a driver license which does not qualify for Real ID status may be rejected by TSA, either now or at some future date, there are other alternatives besides Real ID.  In the case to which I responded, the passenger stated that his non-Real ID license was not accepted, but that he was able to fly because he had a passport.  Ipso facto, Real ID was not required to fly, as a passport was acceptable.  When flying, either foreign or domestic, I always present my passport first, rather than my driver license.  For this reason, I have no personal experience with what form of driver license is acceptable to TSA and have not kept up with the rules regarding Real ID.  Whether any form of driver license is acceptable, or whether only those with Real ID are acceptable, the fact remains that Real ID is not the only means of identification acceptable to TSA.  Even if a person has no other form of photo ID other than a passport, that passport alone is sufficient to fly.  I'm sorry if this post is overly long or pedantic, but I wanted to be sure to state my position clearly.