Nancy, I was now wondering about the passport issue now, will they extend it now onto 2007 I know there was talk of extending the deadline for american travelers, I think now with all that is going on it will be a bottleneck to get all the paperwork and every thing done I know one of the major places passports are issue from was New Orleans, we are in Nj and it took almost 6 weeks for us to recieve ours when we applied, I have other family members who are going to need pasports by jan for our cruise and then we need a few more family members needing them for a cruise in april 2006, have you heard anything at all on a extention into 2007 ps thanks for your last e mail I feel better now tat I did not cross the line an do no wrong, maybe you can post the whole story for the board thanks again Fran
I'm not an expert, but I read the other day that passports for Mexico & Canada may be extended to sometim in 2007, but Caribbean is definetly Jan 2006.
The U.S. State Department has lifted the deadline restrictions for U.S. passport travel in the Western Hemisphere. No new dates have been announced. Earlier this year, the U.S. State Department proposed new rules requiring a valid passport in order to travel within the Western Hemisphere. Phase one was to take effect December 31st, 2005, regarding travel to and from the Caribbean, Bermuda, Central and South America. Upon further review, the State Department has lifted this deadline, along with the 2006 and 2007 deadlines for Mexico and Canada air, sea and land border crossings. According to the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, the U.S. will require by January 1st, 2008, travelers to and from the Caribbean, Bermuda, Panama, Mexico and Canada to have a passport or other secure, accepted document to enter or re-enter the United States. Other than that, no new deadlines have been proposed. The Administration is proposing a timeline for implementation which will be published in the Federal Register in the near future.
thank you raoul, saved us 200.00 for this cruise and 400.00 for our next one this gives us a least a year to get the passports for the rest of our family in order, we really did not have the time or extra monies to get these things together, fran
I know it is a lot of money- I just had to re-new passports for three kids (they expired within three months AFTER travel) and get new ones for two more (one kid din't go but was on his way to Mexico, anyway). I thought they were necessary because NCL was so strict about ID when I cruised in April. They wouldn't take a passport that was within three months of expiration.
The thing is that I think it is money very well spent. The delay in getting the passports (you can always add SIXTY BUCKS onto the price to expedite, but...) means that you can never leave to another country on the spur of the moment (or even within a few months). It is also the easiest form of ID available. My kids have been to Italy and France with their schools, and that was one less thing to worry about ahead of time.
I live on the Canadian border, and since 9/11 our plan has been to high tail it over the border if anything major goes down again. Again, passports are necessary in times of high alert. Nothing worse than sitting in your car with a bunch of crumpled birth certificates and bus passes with four year old pictures on them while German Shepards search your trunk.
So, if I were you I would take care of it at some point. If you have toddlers it is kind of stupid unless you are definitely going somewhere- my then-five year old went to Scotland with a passport two years ago with a photo taken when he was 5 months old, which is really silly. Otherwise, it is a good thing to do.
By January 1st, 2008, all U.S. citizens are required to have passports for travel within the Western Hemisphere, per the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and the 2004 Intelligence Reform Bill. To implement the law, the Departments of State and Homeland Security proposed a phase-in program referred to as the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI). As announced in April 2005, the WHTI program originally recommended three different deadlines for U.S. citizens to obtain a passport, depending on the region they were traveling to within the Western Hemisphere. The government has now modified their original timeline to the following requirements for U.S. citizens: As of December 31st, 2006 a Passport or other accepted document will be required for all air or sea travel within the Western Hemisphere. As of December 31st, 2007 a Passport or other accepted document will be required for all U.S. land border crossings.
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