what to bring & use to check in for cruise

[Bakerette]

My DM & I are on a 3-night cruise to the Bahamas on a carnival cruise ship in February & we will be visiting Nassau, but our passports expire precisely 6 months to the day we will be in Nassau. So what I'm asking, is can my DM & i use our passports when Re-entering the US on disembarkation day, or should we bring our birth certificates & government/State-issued photo IDs & my college ID since my driver's permit has expired over 4 years ago?

FYI, my DM & I don't have enough time to renew our passports between today and when cruise check-in opens, which is 2 weeks before our Carnival Cruise on embarkation day.

[OCSC Mike]

Your passports don’t actually have to be good for an extra 6 months to visit the Bahamas. It’s only required by a few select countries most cruises don’t visit & more of a recommendation for the rest. You’ll be perfectly fine with your current passports in the Bahamas & returning to the US.

[Bakerette]

9 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

Your passports don’t actually have to be good for an extra 6 months to visit the Bahamas. It’s only required by a few select countries most cruises don’t visit & more of a recommendation for the rest. You’ll be perfectly fine with your current passports in the Bahamas & returning to the US.

Does that me we use our passports up until to the day the day that they expire? Also does that mean we can use our passports after they expire for cruises to that Bahamas from the us and back?

[ChessE4]

Use your passports for your cruise, but renew at some point upon return. When you renew, you'll send in the old passport, so you can't use it. You need to allow 2 to 3 months and only travel with other documents, if at all. It's nice to have an official state ID of some sort that isn't expired, perhaps for voting. (Our state requires ID.)

[OCSC Mike]

2 hours ago, Bakerette said:

Does that me we use our passports up until to the day the day that they expire? Also does that mean we can use our passports after they expire for cruises to that Bahamas from the us and back?

Yes, for most purposes they are valid until they actually expire.

No, once they expire they are useless. You can cruise to the Bahamas and back to the same US port with just an official birth certificate and DL but I highly recommend renewing your passport for multiple reasons.

[Atlantix2000]

4 hours ago, Bakerette said:

Does that me we use our passports up until to the day the day that they expire? Also does that mean we can use our passports after they expire for cruises to that Bahamas from the us and back?

Think of it like having one and only one credit card.  You can use that credit card up until the day it expires.  After that, it's a piece of plastic that says "I used to have this credit card".  Can you bring that credit card (with no cash) on a trip when it expires the day after you return?  Yes.  However, what if you were delayed coming home for a week for some reason?  Oops, you have no credit card to pay your expenses for that week.  Your credit card company usually sends you a new card a few months before the old one expires so you don't end up in this situation.
How does this relate to passports?  It's exactly the same process except YOU have to ask for the new passport.  The government doesn't just send one to you.

[Bakerette]

20 hours ago, ChessE4 said:

But renew at some point upon return.

My DM & I would renew our passports after we return, but I know we won't have the money to renew our passports. I have even considered renewing a passport card, but we won't have the money to renew our passport cards. We have also realized that we don't have to have passports since my we always do closed-loop cruises from US ports so that we can use our photo IDs & birth certificates.

[CanHardlyWait]

3 hours ago, Bakerette said:

My DM & I would renew our passports after we return, but I know we won't have the money to renew our passports. I have even considered renewing a passport card, but we won't have the money to renew our passport cards. We have also realized that we don't have to have passports since my we always do closed-loop cruises from US ports so that we can use our photo IDs & birth certificates.

So many things can go wrong forcing you to have to fly home. Not having a passport makes that complicated and expensive. Nobody on this site does cruise on a dime with limited income like I do, so I understand $100 bucks for passport is big deal. But if you can squeeze out the bucks to cruise, seriously consider squeezing out the passport money. Trust me. Getting home half way during a trip for personal reasons, emergencies, etc is a massive hassle and expense without a passport. And traveling with one makes everything easier. You save on upgrading your driver's license to the more expensive real I.D. version in order to fly in near future. With passport the old kind driver's license is good enough, because you use your passport to get through security. 

[Bakerette]

@CanHardlyWait We spend lots of money at home every month on all our bills & other living expenses, which means we have almost no money left at the end of each month, so we can't even afford a passport book for each of us or even afford a passport card for each of us. When my DM & I book cruises, we have to book them between 18 months & 2years before the sailing date so that we have a long time to look for sales with price drops on the cruises and cruise planners and to buy stuff on the cruise planner and to pay off the cruises that we booked many months in advance of when we would want to cruise. 

[ckruetze]

On 12/16/2023 at 10:39 AM, OCSC Mike said:

Your passports don’t actually have to be good for an extra 6 months to visit the Bahamas. It’s only required by a few select countries most cruises don’t visit & more of a recommendation for the rest. You’ll be perfectly fine with your current passports in the Bahamas & returning to the US.

The "It's only required by a few select countries most cruises don't visit part" is questionable. There is this big country south of Canada, north of Mexico that requires a 6 month valid passport - at least for people from Europe. I think a lot of Caribbean cruises start in that country.

[OCSC Mike]

12 minutes ago, ckruetze said:

The "It's only required by a few select countries most cruises don't visit part" is questionable. There is this big country south of Canada, north of Mexico that requires a 6 month valid passport - at least for people from Europe. I think a lot of Caribbean cruises start in that country.

Sorry, I was speaking for American residents. Thanks for the Euro info.