Worse than Seasick! Sick to the Stomach and Heartbroken!

[vinotinto]

This is a thread for carefree souls who never worry about a thing. Yes, they are the ones that forget to pack passports or get them renewed, but at least they are not worry-warts. I'm super OCD, and I'm constantly checking that all the passports are where I left them, that they still are valid, etc. I've had multiple anxiety nightmares where we couldn't get to the vacation because there was something missing in our docs.

 

[Becky925]

I work for our local county government in an accounting office. Two days a week we answer the main switchboard calls as well. One of those press 0 to talk to a real person type things. Well today my office via switchboard gets a call from a man asking if there is any way we can have his birth certificate faxed to him, he's at a port waiting to get on a cruise ship, doesn't have it, and is being denied boarding unless someone can fax him a copy. We transferred him to the Prothonotary's office which issues passports in our county, but unfortunately they don't carry the birth certificates. I believe only five offices of vital statistics in PA have them, and as far as I could research none would fax a copy of the certificate. The call came in a little before noon, and while I'll never know for sure if someone could help him, I'm thinking that this poor man missed his cruise.

 

[bumbershoot]

May I also add for those who do travel on business...make sure if your passport is still valid that you actually have pages available. My husband travels a lot to Europe and he's actually run out of spots to stamp PRIOR to the expiration date. He was warned once that this would be an issue if he ever ran out. Thought I'd share.

You can have pages added (though you have to send it away and pay for that) or when you get a new passport request that it has extra pages. NYIQ I'm sure you know that but it's for others.

I think it took all of 30 minutes of effort on their part for each kid, plus waiting for the birth certificates. Again, not a big deal

OK, whew.

So yeah. 4-night closed loop Bahamian on a scanned/printed birth certificate. Yikes!

From cpb.gov:

"I'm taking a "Closed Loop" cruise, do I need a passport?"

"U.S. Citizens on closed-loop cruises will be able to enter or depart the country on the cruise with proof of citizenship, such as an original or copy of his or her birth certificate (issued by the Vital Records Department in the state where he or she was born) and, if 16 or older, a government issued photo ID."

It does NOT state that the copy needs to be a *certified* copy, so it's no surprise to me, going from the official wording, that the scanned/printed BC was accepted.