Do It Now - Don't Procrastinate - Do You Want to Board That Ship?

[sail7seas]

After reading once again about a panicked hopeful cruiser who cannot find their birth certificate and have an expired passport, I chose to post this message on several forums.

 

After posting it elsewhere, someone suggested check the expiration date on your passport and that, of course, is good advice.

 

 

 

 

 

Time and again, month after month, year after year, I read of a panicked hopeful cruiser who discovers days before their cruise, they can't find their passport and/or birth certificate. The stress and disappointment is so severe on them.

 

Promise yourself you will physically put your hands on your travel documents this week, you will make notes to yourself in places you will absolutely find where your passport and birth certificate are SAFELY stored. A month before your travel, confirm you can find them.

 

Stop this craziness about panicked search for passports. No reason anyone should put themselves in that position.

 

I feel sorry for them in a way but sometimes not. We read the intensity some people put into choosing their shore excursions, what the wine menu offers, and sometimes incredible minutiae but they don't give a thought to locating their travel documents.

 

Let's get our priorities straight. You aren't getting on the ship without your papers.

 

 

[Rudyard]

Good advice. Many people seem to let something so simple get past them until it's too late. I put our passports and cruise docs in my carryon last night. I'm paranoid about forgetting them.

[delta13]

Passports are the FIRST thing I pack!

[klct39lg]

I noticed in the Carnival FAQs there is a phone number to call to obtain a passport quickly, and to mention you're sailing on Carnival to get a discount.

[GalCruzer]

I pulled out my passport today, because I was trying to register for our upcoming cruise. Because then I started thinking does it have my old address on it, since we moved about a year ago, then I saw they don't have your home address on them...:rolleyes:

 

At least I know I have it and that it is not expired or anything.:)

[sparks1093]

It is important to know exactly where your documents are and that they are the right ones (for instance if you are using a birth certificate it is one that is issued by a government entity and not by the hospital).

[kelkel2]

It's so true. I'm 400+ days out of my cruise but you better believe I have found my passports and I have checked the dates on them. It's the first thing I do after I book a cruise. Because without those I don't cruise...

Of all the things we worry about packing those are the most important thing!

[Chip and Dale]

ALSO make sure that there is time left before expiry of the passport according to the rules of the country that you are visiting. Some require 6 months:)

Dee

[portocaller]

Good advice. I'm checking tonight and I don't sail until July.

 

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[sunnygirlrn]

I have a family member who lives in Texas and has been trying to obtain his passport, but has hit a HUGE roadblock! He was adopted when he was 10 (now 75) and he was an orphan living in an orphanage in NY until then. It was a closed adoption, has NO CLUE who his parents might have been & hence has no real birth certificate, only a "birth record". According to the powers that be, he has to have an actual.birth certificate with a parent's name, as well as for his application for the b.c. His birth record has a raised seal (slightly), but they tell him that he needs to go to NY and go to court to have the records unsealed...

Anyone know of anything similar?

[Krazy Kruizers]

I have a family member who lives in Texas and has been trying to obtain his passport, but has hit a HUGE roadblock! He was adopted when he was 10 (now 75) and he was an orphan living in an orphanage in NY until then. It was a closed adoption, has NO CLUE who his parents might have been & hence has no real birth certificate, only a "birth record". According to the powers that be, he has to have an actual.birth certificate with a parent's name, as well as for his application for the b.c. His birth record has a raised seal (slightly), but they tell him that he needs to go to NY and go to court to have the records unsealed...

Anyone know of anything similar?

 

 

Sounds like you need to talk to an attorney.

[Krazy Kruizers]

ALSO make sure that there is time left before expiry of the passport according to the rules of the country that you are visiting. Some require 6 months:)

Dee

 

 

That is very true for some countries.

We always watch our dates -- send in for renewal as soon as we see that we are approaching that time limit.

[sparks1093]

I have a family member who lives in Texas and has been trying to obtain his passport, but has hit a HUGE roadblock! He was adopted when he was 10 (now 75) and he was an orphan living in an orphanage in NY until then. It was a closed adoption, has NO CLUE who his parents might have been & hence has no real birth certificate, only a "birth record". According to the powers that be, he has to have an actual.birth certificate with a parent's name, as well as for his application for the b.c. His birth record has a raised seal (slightly), but they tell him that he needs to go to NY and go to court to have the records unsealed...

Anyone know of anything similar?

 

I have yet to understand how having the parents' names on the birth certificate makes the process more secure.

[I_heart_vaca]

I am an OCD packer -- well actually I am a little OCD about a lot of things -- so I have an area of my guest room that I use to gather my vacation items for packing. First thing on the list is Passport, well that and sunscreen! I check just about every week to make sure I have what I need. My next trip is in 3 weeks and I have everything lined up. Waiting till the last minute would never occur to me, just the amount of stress LEADING up to the days before, let alone ONE day before, would kill most of my vacation happy buzz!

Edited October 12, 2014 by I_heart_vaca

[6rugrats]

I have a family member who lives in Texas and has been trying to obtain his passport, but has hit a HUGE roadblock! He was adopted when he was 10 (now 75) and he was an orphan living in an orphanage in NY until then. It was a closed adoption, has NO CLUE who his parents might have been & hence has no real birth certificate, only a "birth record". According to the powers that be, he has to have an actual.birth certificate with a parent's name, as well as for his application for the b.c. His birth record has a raised seal (slightly), but they tell him that he needs to go to NY and go to court to have the records unsealed...

Anyone know of anything similar?

He still should have been issued a birth certificate; back then they usually issued a new one with the adoptive parent's names. But if he can't get one, he doesn't need a BC to get a passport. Other documents will be accepted and these are detailed on the Dept. of State's webpage here:

 

http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/passports/information/secondary-evidence.html

Edited October 12, 2014 by 6rugrats

[Arizonagirl14]

I do something similar. We have one of the fabric 12x12 cube storage containers. Everything we need to pack is staged in our guest room and all the small stuff goes into the basket. The passports are placed in a double ziplock bag and placed In the cube along with are travel size containers, our travel book with our boarding passes, excursion reservations, plane reservations etc. it makes it so much easier to pack, especially if going during a busy holiday time. Makes the final packing so much easier.

 

 

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[YB Nrml]

I check our passports every month. Just need to know they're still where I put them and not find ourselves scrambling at the last minute. As long as we have our passports, picture ID, credit card and Rx meds we are getting on the ship. Everything else can be bought during a cruise.

[Steviewonder1]

Both of our Passports are in my wife's LV Passport Carrier and both are good thru 2018. Sometime in 2017 we will get them renewed unless we run out of open stamp places. We already have 18 and counting...

[ifihadaboat]

All of the above is correct. For those traveling on a birth certificate, let me emphasize that an official birth certificate does not have footprints on it. If that's the only one you have ever had, contact the county records office in the county where you were born and get an official, government issued BC. And then have a photo ID, too. A passport contains both (proof of citizenship and photo) but if traveling on BC, you must have the second ID with photo.

[BlueRiband]

I have a family member who lives in Texas and has been trying to obtain his passport, but has hit a HUGE roadblock! He was adopted when he was 10 (now 75) and he was an orphan living in an orphanage in NY until then. It was a closed adoption, has NO CLUE who his parents might have been & hence has no real birth certificate, only a "birth record". According to the powers that be, he has to have an actual.birth certificate with a parent's name, as well as for his application for the b.c. His birth record has a raised seal (slightly), but they tell him that he needs to go to NY and go to court to have the records unsealed...

Anyone know of anything similar?

 

I agree with KrazyCruiser - you need a lawyer to help resolve this. The situation is so unusual that it may take months while this gets passed from one bureaucrat who doesn't know how to handle it to the next bureaucrat who doesn't know how to handle it. Whatever you pay the lawyer may well be worth the time and trouble compared to using the do it yourself route.

[Folk Singer]

After reading once again about a panicked hopeful cruiser who cannot find their birth certificate and have an expired passport, I chose to post this message on several forums.

 

After posting it elsewhere, someone suggested check the expiration date on your passport and that, of course, is good advice.

 

 

 

To True. I might wait till tomorrow to do this.:eek::eek:

[shellseroni]

All of the above is correct. For those traveling on a birth certificate, let me emphasize that an official birth certificate does not have footprints on it. If that's the only one you have ever had, contact the county records office in the county where you were born and get an official, government issued BC. And then have a photo ID, too. A passport contains both (proof of citizenship and photo) but if traveling on BC, you must have the second ID with photo.

 

 

May seem obvious to some, but I honestly don't know. We are doing a Hawaii cruise out of Long Beach. We are both using passports. Our three year old daughter is coming with us, but we are using her birth certificate. Since she's only three, we don't have a government ID for her. Do you know if minors also have to have ID to travel on a birth certificate?

 

 

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[shellseroni]

May seem obvious to some, but I honestly don't know. We are doing a Hawaii cruise out of Long Beach. We are both using passports. Our three year old daughter is coming with us, but we are using her birth certificate. Since she's only three, we don't have a government ID for her. Do you know if minors also have to have ID to travel on a birth certificate?

 

 

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Never mind. Found it on Carnival's FAQ. Only those who are 16 years and older are required to have a photo ID with their birth certificates. Phew! Had me worried there for a bit since our cruise is in less than two months and I thought I had everything in order. But it's good to know for other parents out there. Kids 15 and under do not need a government issued ID with their birth certificate. But those 16 and up MUST have one.

 

 

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[Algebralovr]

May seem obvious to some, but I honestly don't know. We are doing a Hawaii cruise out of Long Beach. We are both using passports. Our three year old daughter is coming with us, but we are using her birth certificate. Since she's only three, we don't have a government ID for her. Do you know if minors also have to have ID to travel on a birth certificate?

 

 

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Considering where you are going, I wouldn't other with the passport for the three year old either. That said, if you go anywhere else, I would get the passport. It has come in very handy for my own children to have them.

[marshhawk]

When we were young we lived in France for a few years. Both my brother and I were photographed with our mom and were posted on her passport. Maybe this changed? But if you are going to Hawaii, which is the United States and are leaving and returning to the US, why would you need a passport to begin with?