Nope! Not yet. Thanks for the defense, it's appreciated, since we did absolutely everything we could and followed the government's guidelines as you kindly pointed out.
It absolutely is a dumb move to cruise without a passport - who knows if you have to dock someplace due to weather that wasn't originally on the itinerary? We get it. We aren't trying to flaunt the rules but we're past the point of cancellation / refund and we have jumped through all the hoops the government gave us to clear since we paid for expedited service and shipping that was supposed to deliver our passports within 3-5 weeks. The information on the state department website says that if you have travel within 14 days to call and make an agency appointment but after you hold for over two hours to speak to a human and make that appointment, they tell you that the website information is incorrect and they won't let you book an appointment until it's FIVE days from travel. Well, that means that the earliest I can call for an appointment is this Friday, the 3rd of March for travel that is going to occur (initial flight to Miami) on Friday the 10th of March. And, one of the agents said when I called them on February 24 that the earliest Chicago (our closest agency office) was booking was Friday, March 10. The day we are to board the plane at the crack of dawn from Indianapolis.
Thankfully the advice above by FFMilesJunkie, neverendingcruising, Fogcityca13 and you, cantgetin, seems to be our saving grace and for that we are incredibly appreciative!!! We've been in touch with Virgin, they're giving us consideration since we can prove this fault doesn't lie with us and we're taking birth certificates, our marriage license, their correspondence accepting of our situation, our expired passports, and our state issued IDs.
*sigh* 😝