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Like many of the tropical cruise regions, there are plenty of beach breaks, island tours, food tastings, and nature excursions to experience in the Mexican Riviera. Plus, there are exclusive offerings like whale watching, cultural shows like Rhythms of the Night, and some unique landscapes that you can’t find in the Caribbean. For those living on the West Coast, the Mexican Riviera might be the perfect destination to which to cruise without a passport. Scrambling for a temporary passport can create mounds of paperwork and plenty of headaches, and the time it takes to process is never guaranteed.
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Of course, if you are traveling internationally, U.S. citizens will need a passport. A passport is required for all international flights and for any cruise that embarks or disembarks in a foreign country. If an emergency arises, only an official passport will allow you to fly home quickly from a foreign port. If you end up stranded in another country because of unforeseen circumstances, you do still have options, but it will take more time and effort to get home with only a birth certificate and photo ID.
Why Suggest a Passport If You Don’t NEED It?
You can't cruise just anywhere on a closed-loop sailing, but the choices are more interesting than you might expect. Below, we've compiled a list of seven places to visit without a passport, from scenic Alaska to the beachy Caribbean. If you’ve given it some thought and plan to use your passport for an upcoming cruise, don’t just assume your trip will be all smooth sailing from here.
Cruises
If you want to visit Mexico's eastern shores, you can find three- to 15-night cruises to Costa Maya, Cozumel and Progreso. Sailings depart Florida from Miami, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and Port Canaveral; you can also find itineraries from New Orleans, Galveston and Mobile, Alabama. Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory, lying 643 miles off the coast of North Carolina. Hop on a cruise ship for a direct route to the island's famous beaches and golf courses.
White sand, palm trees and some of the most beautiful water you’ve ever seen are all calling your name. Because the Bahamas are so close to Florida, it’s a relatively quick and easy trip to make — and thankfully most major cruise lines departing from the U.S. make stops there. For a one-week small ship experience, book UnCruise Adventures, from Moloka‘i to the Big Island, stopping on the island of Lāna‘i and Maui. If cruising from California, with most sailings 14 nights or longer, your choices expand to such lines as Holland America, Celebrity, Viking Cruises, and Seabourn. (Foreign-flagged lines are not allowed to sail between U.S. ports without visiting another country under the Jones Act.) You can do a week on the ship from Honolulu and visit five Hawaiian Islands. Virgin Voyages’ ships are limited to age 18 and up and bring you to Virgin’s classy Beach Club at Bimini.
Cruise To Mexico
Royal Caribbean’s seven-night Southern Caribbean Holiday cruise embarks in San Juan and visits Barbados, Trinidad, Tobago, St. Vincent, and St. Maarten. Our local cuisine is another great reason to cruise to Canada and New England. Portland is home to the one and only Maine Lobster, but the waters off these coasts are home to other seafood delights as well. You can enjoy a rich and creamy cup of New England clam chowder or some Rhode Island style calamari. There are also plenty of sweet treats including maple syrup, whoopie pies, and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream from nearby Vermont.
A woman forgot her passport for her honeymoon. Here is how a Delta flight attendant saved the day - WSB Atlanta
A woman forgot her passport for her honeymoon. Here is how a Delta flight attendant saved the day.
Posted: Fri, 14 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Beware of 20-plus-night cruises that are round-trip sailings from the West Coast and would seem to fit the bill for closed-loop cruises that don't require passports. Most of these cruises don't work because they also include stops in French Polynesia, which is outside of the WHTI agreement. Passports are required for the islands in the South Pacific, which means they're required for the entire cruise.
Required Documents in Leau of No Passport
Cruisers can even travel as far south as Mexico and the ABC (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao) islands of the southern Caribbean, a stone's throw from South America which rarely see tropical storms. There are, however, a couple of islands that do require passports, including the French islands of the Lesser Antilles, such as Guadeloupe and Martinique. With itineraries leaving from the East Coast from ports such as Boston, Baltimore and Bayonne, it is a convenient cruise option. Additionally, a number of itineraries include a night on the island, which gives passengers even more time to explore all that the island has to offer.
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Spend a day soaking up history in Boston, Massachusetts, and tour the Charles River aboard an amphibious duck vehicle. Experience lighthouses, lobster bakes and craggy sea cliffs in Portland, Maine, and enjoy a trip to Saint John, a beautiful city on the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick, Canada. A stop in the charming fishing village of Halifax, Nova Scotia offers beautiful gardens, more delicious seafood and double-decker bus tours. After you pull into port in the Big Apple, make sure to see a Broadway show, visit the Empire State Building and take a stroll through Central Park.
A stop in Victoria, British Columbia offers a whole new set of adventures. Visit castles, take a ride on a horse-drawn trolley, stroll through beautiful Butchart Gardens or get your fill of shopping and dining downtown. When you arrive back in Seattle or San Francisco, take time to explore those cities for even more vacation fun. The Big Island‘s landscape is very diverse with volcanoes, mountainous terrain, beaches, rainforests, and everything in between. One of our favorite excursions was a helicopter ride over the island.
This means U.S. passengers don't need a passport for this closed-loop sailing. As we've shown, you have plenty of options for where to cruise without a passport, and many travelers do so without incident. However, anything from engine trouble on your cruise ship to bad weather or an accident in port might necessitate a flight home from a foreign country. This would put you in an awkward position if you didn't have a passport. Mexico's Caribbean and Pacific coasts are both accessible to cruisers who do not hold passports.
The cruises must be “closed-loop,” meaning they begin and end at the same U.S. port. A one-way cruise that boards in a U.S. port and disembarks in a different U.S. port does not qualify. While you may leave and enter the United States on a closed-loop cruise with the required identification and proof of citizenship, you should be aware that some countries on your itinerary may require a passport. (Your cruise line should provide that information when you book your trip.) It’s still a good idea to bring your passport on a cruise if it’s up to date, but if it’s not, we’ve got you covered. Here are eight destinations that you can cruise to without a passport (and don’t forget to renew your passport so you’ll always be ready to travel).
The same thing could happen if you accidentally don’t make it back to your ship in time for departure, following a day out at one of the itinerary’s destinations. While normally, you could meet back up with the ship on the next island over, if you had a passport, again, if you don’t, you can’t. Otherwise, as you can see from the list above, most popular Caribbean destinations are fair game. Just ensure that you have the requisite documents in place of your passport, including a government-issued photo ID and an original or copy of your birth certificate.
These voyages sail round trip from U.S. ports to destinations in North America such as the Caribbean, Bahamas, Bermuda, Mexico, Central America, Alaska and Hawaii. They depart from such home ports as Miami, Seattle, Los Angeles, Galveston, Texas and New York City. You may be surprised to learn that U.S. citizens don't need a passport to sail on "closed-loop" cruises with lines like Celebrity Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises and others. Norwegian will take you from Los Angeles to a variety of ports that will offer you a combination of adventure and relaxation that you could not get anywhere else.
Therefore, cruises to Bermuda generally occur from April to October. Still, that is almost half of the year to find some vacation time to enjoy all that Bermuda has to offer. The answer to all of these questions for U.S. citizens is no -- as long as you’re taking a closed-loop cruise. Closed-loop cruises travel to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda but start and end at the same U.S. homeport. However, there are some caveats you'll need to know about ID requirements. While Mexico is one of our closest neighbors, it offers incredible cultural experiences that are vastly different from anything you’ll find stateside.
You cannot leave Miami, visit a few Caribbean islands, go through the Panama Canal and Mexico, and then hop off the ship in California. While, yes, you would have started and ended your journey in the United States, that’s still not good enough. For any other cruise, a driver’s license would not be sufficient documentation, and you would run into trouble at the airport or cruise port. If you are sailing out of one U.S. homeport and disembarking at the end of your voyage in a different one, you also need a passport for your cruise.
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