I was told by a TA that when cruising with a port in Canada, you need a passport. Regardless, I'd prefer to have my passport, it's always best to have it (not that I'm a pier runner, but still).
So as of today, and very early in the morning on May 20, my passport application is marked approved! Those of you wondering about timelines...I will post the actual date I receive my passport when it arrives (I did pay for priority shipping). I checked late last night and it was still marked "in process". I checked before 7am (mountain time) this morning and it was approved. I will be very happy to have it and now I'm set for our January cruise and Ireland next spring!
I was at an info meeting last night for our Ireland trip (my daughter's marching band is competing in Ireland next year) and that TA said that regular passport processing times right now are running 3-4 weeks, because they are caught up and it's faster than the expedited times right now.