Reply to Do we need a passport for Southern Caribbean cruise, starts/ends in FL or PR?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is from my experience.  I've been on 4 Caribbean cruises and have checked into this.

You are not required to have a passport for a closed loop cruise (one that originates and returns to a US port).  Neither the US state department, nor the cruise line require this.  That said, you would be well advised to bring your passport.  Although most destinations in the Caribbean will allow you to deboard and reboard your ship with your cruise pass and photo ID, they are not required to do so and the security conditions can and have changed on a daily basis.  Just like the US state department, various foreign island nations have security statuses that can change.  If there is a heightened security situation, they can change the requirements.  At virtually all of the cruise ports, when you debark there is a security checkpoint somewhere on the pier.  The local security rarely stops you from leaving the port or "international" area.  But if the security status is higher on that particular island and that particular day, you might need your passport to return to the secure International area.  In 4 cruises, and about 14 ports of call, I've seen this happen twice.  In both cases, we had an announcement from the captain the morning of our arrival that passports would be needed to return to the ship for any on-shore excursions.

Additionally, if you or your family has a medical emergency and need to deboard the ship and discontinue your cruise, you will need your passport.  I've seen two incidents (one an accident and one a severe illness) where the families had to leave the ship mid-cruise in order to catch a flight home for medical attention.  If you deboard the cruise outside the US, you will need your passport to return to the US even for medical attention.  While most of the time our passports stay in the cabin safe, I would never travel outside the US, including on a closed-loop cruise, without my passport.  [/quote]

Since it was asked, I was on a Western Caribbean cruise (Ft Lauderdale, Key West, Costa Maya, Grand Cayman, Ft Lauderdale), Southern Caribbean cruise (San Juan, St Thomas, Dominica, Barbados, St Lucia, Antigua, San Juan), Western Caribbean (Galveston, Progresso, Cozumel, Galveston), and Western (Tampa, Roatan, Belize, Cozumel, Costa Maya, Tampa).  I have definitely had a need for my passport while on a cruise.  As I said, twice, we were alerted by the captain that we would need our passports to reboard the ship.  Had we not had our passports, we might have lost money for shore excursions that we would not have been able to take.  I tend to book our shore excursions privately based on recommendations I get on the cruisecritic.com boards.  I usually get better deals (either a more comprehensive package, lower price or both) by booking privately than going through the Excursion desk.  [/quote]

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