An "original copy"? Our document problem will definitely start here 😅

Just renewed my passport for another 10 years. Canadian citizens can walk into the USA with their passport no visa needed.

#1, in order to make sure you board within the time frame, it doesn't take a genius to work out delays happen, so arriving at the port at least 24 hours beforehand, and staying in a hotel is a smart idea.

All of this just makes cruising look like a draconian pain in the ass.

I forgot to get travel insurance when booking my cruise, am I able to add it later? I'm on a budget and won't be able to pay it until probably 5 months prior.

Sounds like an instant lawsuit in the USA.

Pretty much the same rules for getting on an international flight.

Very helpful! Thank You!

People also don’t listen to travel agents advice. I used to be a TA. I’d tell clients all the time that they need to fly in the night before. But the ones that didn’t, would have cancelled/flight delays would call me and demand I “fix it”. Well, I couldn’t. But it was my fault

This is how I stop pick-pockets, but in the last 9 years I have been to about 40 countries, and never worried about them cause I take what I need in cash and wrap a rubber band around the cash and keep it on my front pocket. never got pick pockete, and kept coins on me, cause most people will pass that on by.

yes mate, when you behave like a stupid tourist you become a victim of crime! traveling on cruise ships is probably the dumbest tourist behavior.

We are US Citizens and will be cruising with Cunard in the Mediterranean July 2024 and when we attempted to apply for ETIAS the website said not needed till 2025. Yet you said that it is needed for 2024. May we know where you got that information.

Do not cruise !

My husband is likely months away from needing at-home dialysis and I was planning on taking him on a Disney cruise before that (he loves all things Disney). However, it sounds like it would be best not to even consider a cruise just in case the treatment needs to begin sooner or if his symptoms were to worsen just prior to the trip. 😕 Maybe in a year's time when he settles in to the nightly treatments we can reconsider if the line accepts it.

Easier to illegally enter the US than taking a cruise. Maybe the US needs to learn from the cruise lines.

Seems safer to just not go on cruises.

Wow nice to know to avoid Princess at all costs. If a company won’t take responsibility for their employee’s negligence, that’s a hard no for me. All cruise fare, air travel, and wasted vacation time should have been 100 percent paid by the cruise line for the passengers who were lied to.

QUESTION: I am having difficulty getting my passport so if I would have to use my birth certificate and drivers license, what else might I need because my name on my birth certificate and license definitely do not match due to getting married.

That same name is a good one. I don't use my middle name, however it's on my official documents, as such I was able to change the booking name, via my TA, to include my middle name, thankfully there was no charge for doing this.

Sea-ward??? That is Seward (Soo-ward), Alaska: named after William Henry Seward, Lincoln's Secretary of State.

Seems the cruize lines would have a conflict of interest to make up reasons to deny boarding, if they get to keep the fare.

If the flight is delayed then it should be a pass unless the cruise liner is telling me I take charge of the plane

Women’s birth certificates cannot match their passport if they are using their married name.

Some of this isn't necessarily true. My ex took my daughter on a cruise to Mexico on Princess. She doesn't have her mother's last name AND she took my daughter without my permission or even knowledge that she was going out of the country. BTW my ex KNEW this was required, because she had done the same cruise a year before and I gave her the notarized permission form to take her. So the cruise lines seem selective in enforcing this. As far as Princess for the statement that they made. It shows no responsibility for their own people. When a passenger is calling your company to get CLEAR instructions on what is required and the cruise line tells them wrong, then they turn around and say its the passengers fault? Most passengers won't know what authorities to call and even if they do, like the coast guard or even DHS, they won't give you much in the way of information. as they will tell you to call the cruise lines for their individual requirements. I've called and asked. In over 40 years of travel to places all over this country and Europe and Asia, I've NEVER purchased travel insurance. Biggest scam in the travel industry and LOTS of free money for them. If you have medical insurance, make sure that you have coverage while out of the country or at the very least a reimbursement for expenses. Also, many credit cards and other clubs have emergency coverage built in if you use them to book the cruise.

Princess and HAL are the best. Don't know what you are talking about.

Wow very useful information! Thank you!

I do several cruises a year on Princess. You can still get pizza without the Princess+ although there are several specialty venues that are an additional charge. The food in the buffets have greatly improved. The dining rooms not so much. I’ve been on other cruise lines but I’ve had good times with Princess.

I do several cruises a year on Princess. You can still get pizza without the Princess+ although there are several specialty venues that are an additional charge. The food in the buffets have greatly improved. The dining rooms not so much. I’ve been on other cruise lines but I’ve had good times with Princess.

What I find somewhat disturbing here is not the existence of all these boarding requirements, but rather the cruise lines' practice of refusing refunds in virtually all cases to passengers who are denied boarding. And there's no guarantee that the expensive travel insurance that cruisers are being coerced into purchasing will cover such problems ("It was your own dumb fault that the ship wouldn't take you, so your claim is denied."). Gary, you seldom seem to offer a critical perspective on customer-unfriendly travel industry practices. Alerting your viewers to potential risks is great, but I would appreciate occasional big-picture editorializing from you as well, considering your immense experience. Sometimes the deficiencies in the treatment of cruisers go beyond mediocre food and noisy cabins.

good info, luckily I have already got both Canada and USA ESTA requirements for upcoming Alaska cruise. Discovered this about 2 months ago.

Always fly in or travel to the port a day ahead of time.

Yo, cruise lines, I'm taking responsibility for my mistakes. I won't make the mistake of wanting to board your stinking tubs. Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.

Interesting, since America allows all these effing illegals to just walk on in without anything to confirm who they are or where they are from. They then get a 5 star hotel, food, transportation, schooling, etc…It is maddening. All I can say is FJB!

Thanks for all this information. Wow, really pays to do your research! Interesting that cruises require all that identification, yet there are people in the USA who think that ID should not be required to vote in elections 😒.

Worthwhile information as always. But Seward is not pronounced (See-ward) but (Soo-ward) with the accent on the first syllable.

Went on a Viking river cruise last year and conditions around Covid were clear: you would be disembarked, with assistance from Viking to find a hotel ('we won't just dump you on the side of the Danube'). Soooo many people were sick and nobody was disembarked. My companion and I spent a lot of time avoiding being near anyone else. I wish Viking had followed through with their published conditions.

Very informative, Gary! Let me share the traumatic experience of my wife and I when we were denied boarding for a Norwegian Alaska cruise departing and returning to Seattle. We are an elderly, technologically challenged couple in our late seventies and had travelled up from Central America the night before and spend the morning buying an extra suitcase and filling it with all the recommended gear. We arrived punctually at the dock, deposited our suitcases and spent the next hour in lines and document checking desks. At the final desk we were informed that we were being denied boarding: my wife lacked the Canadian visa. My answer was that we did not intend to disembark in either of the two Canadian ports at the end of the cruise, Victoria or Vancouver. ‘Those are Canadian ports and you need a visa’, was the official’s reply. ‘In that case we’ll disembark in Ketchikan and fly back to Seattle. ‘That’s not allowed: Jones’ Law!’, he retorted. In vain did I plead that we had booked the cruise directly with Norwegian and that they should have made us aware of this omission. On the contrary, they had continued to bombard us with offers of upgrades, special packages and excursions! And who the hell wasJones???? These pleas fell on deaf ears. After a while we were escorted past the massive exit doors, handed our numerous and heavy suitcases and dumped on the street! There we were: an elderly foreign couple surrounded by homeless folks (perhaps previous would-be-passengers denied boarding by NCL), no hotel reservation, no working telephone, no idea of where we were, AND NOT A SINGLE GESTURE OF ASSISTANCE FROM Norwegian Cruise Lines. We never received a refund or an apology from NCL. However they still continue to flood my e-mail account with advertisements of new and fantastic adventures. Of course I’m in no danger of being enticed: once bitten twice shy! However these messages are a constant reminder to me to cajole my arts-related children into producing a video about our terrible experience and the senior-citizen-phobic practices of NCL.

It not worth the effort

I know my husband and I love dressing up. We are in our early 30s and it's uncommon for our age friends to have dressy events. It's nice to dress up on the cruise. But one time on an Alaskan cruise, my mom's luggage was lost by the airport. We had to do a mad dash to Walmart in Vancouver to buy anything that fit. Needless to say, she did not have dressy clothes, and it was not her fault. She was so anxious she wouldn't be able to go into the formal dining spaces, and I'm so thankful they didn't police her dress code. It made me rethink the dress policy a bit! Just because someone else in the room is less dressy, it shouldn't impact your experience.

Inconceivable to me to not have a valid passport not near expiration.

I miss the old days when things were not so complicated. Instead of enjoying a vacation it has become a chore.

Thank you for the video.

This is why I only travel in my own country!!😊

Gary, that couple who were denied boarding for an Alaska cruise because they did not have an eTA for Canada should not have been denied boarding as they did NOT need one. Overseas visitors to Canada who arrive by plane MUST have an eTA but those who arrive by ship, car or bus do NOT need one. I know this to be true, as a year ago we arrived in Canada after a Viking cruise from Hong Kong to Japan, Alaska and ending in Vamcouver and we and all other foreigners did NOT need an eTA.

Thanks for the info. I've never been on a cruise, so maybe don't understand the joys of shuffleboard, but I think I'll stick with planes...

Thanks. You have such great tips. Last time I renewed my UK passport early as it as almost full. This was in September 2014 and they gave me until June 2025. After watching your video, I figure I had better renew my passport, BTW why so UK citizens need s vias for Canada? We took the Alaska cruise last summer and I did not have a Canadian Visa! I have been to Canada a number of times and never had a visa.

We sailed our first Princess cruise on Regal. It was a great ship. The food was fantastic. No complaints with the food. Rooms were nice, no complaints. We're booked on the Sun Princess in 2026

ETIAS (European Travel Information and Authorisation System) is not a visa. ETIAS will start in first half of 2025. You cannot apply on official site of European Union at this point; you will find all detailed information there. ETIAS travel authorisation is an entry requirement for visa-exempt nationals travelling. It is linked to a traveller's passport. Hope, this information is useful (l'm European citizen).

Honestly some of this is common sense. Some of these people need to stay home. Who travels without travel insurance and visas, also passport with at least 6 months on said passport.

Sorry, but this is a big problem that the cruise lines could mostly mitigate, but there is NO incentive to do so. If you can be denied boarding for any reason, the ship can sail away and keep all your money. Based upon your examples, even if you contact the cruise line to clarify requirements, all advice they give you is useless because if you follow it and are still denied boarding, the ship will sail away and again keep all of your money. Based upon your examples, the cruise lines are prefer to keep your money even if errors by their employees are involved, This practice needs to be addressed by new maritime law and applied to all cruise lines. The cruise lines should provide questionnaires and get images of their required documents from you BEFORE you board and approve them. The approval should include an approval number which authorizes you to sail BEFORE you ever reach the port. Should you reach the port and provide the same documentation as in the images and you are denied boarding, the carrier must immediately refund 150%. For some reason they will go through your paperwork and status (pregnancy, etc.) with a fine tooth comb at the port during boarding, but can't be bothered making sure everything is ok before hand. I cannot rationalize the argument that if the cruise line gives you erroneous advice and you are eventually denied boarding, it is your fault, and the cruise line keeps all your money. Also, if you want to travel, be a big boy and get a passport, quit trying to travel on a birth certificate.