Birth Certificate still OK?

[princessh]

My husband went today to get info about obtaining passports. He was advised that the price will be going up soon. He said that for the four of us the cost is $310.00 before the increase. When we bookedour cruise, the cruise line told us that we could use our state issued Birth Cert with a raised seal. However the person he talked to about getting the passport said she thought that many of the cruise lines were not going to allow that birth cert. anymore. Does anyone kmow if this is true? If we do really need to obtain passports, then I want to get them before the price goes up. Thanks in advance!

Heather

 

[littlemuffin]

I received our documents for our 3/26 cruise and it said a photo id and raised seal birth certificate were fine. This week I've been reading about the marriage license for women whos names aren't the same on the BC and DL, but I don't know about that.

Hope it works out.
Kathy

 

[SchultzFamily]

I received a letter from DCL yesterday that "strongly encouraged" passports. But I spoke with my TA last night and he said birth certificates with the raised seal were still ok. He did encourage me to go for the passports though.

 

[CamColt]

We got our letter yesterday too. Ive never seen a need for the passports before and really felt they were a waste of money, but we have been looking into it over the past couple weeks and think we are going to bit the bullet and get them. With the price going up next week, we want to get them now in case they do become necessary later. So we are running out tomorrow morning, getting our pictures done at AAA, then going to the PO to order them. I do feel your pain though. $310.00 is a lot of money on top of everything else.

 

[jmcdonnell04]

My DW and I have our passports but reading these boards, I first
learned about the $ 12 per passport increase on March 8th and
the strong inclination that the US government will make it mandatory
to have passports for travel in the next year so I took our DD (5)
for her passport today. The USPS agent was very nice and concurred
with the above statements. I still need to take DD(9) to get her
passport on Monday during her school lunchtime since the office
will only process from 9-3 M-F. The passport will make travelling
easier and we will be able to go to Disneyland Paris if the opportunity
presents itself. Our Magic cruise is not until Sepember so I would
not worry if your cruise is coming up in the next 1-3 months and
you do not have passports.

 

[Miss Jasmine]

I believe we are going to see Cruise Line regulation change in the near future that will require passports for travel rather than just State ID and birth certificate.

 

[princessh]

Thanks for all the info, our cruise is in Sept. I think we better go ahead and get them just to be on the safe side!

Heather

 

[Rence]

It isn't really the cruise lines that require BC or Passport, it is the countries involved. The countries supply the requirements to the cruise lines and the cruise lines follow them.

For example, if St. Marten decided to require passports, then passports would be required for all passengers on ships docking in St. Marten (even if they don’t intend to get off of the ship).

Some Caribbean nations have tried to require passports in the past, but the cruise lines were always able to argue that it would reduce the number of passengers willing to sail on cruises to their country if passports were required. More and more nations want to require passports and the change will inevitably coming, the question is when.

The US is also involved and the change is in the works there. Effective Jan 1st, 2008 all US citizens will be required to show a passport upon reentering the country. So far all intents and purposes, on 1/1/08 passports will be required for all passengers on all cruises.

 

[tvguy]

Passports are always best. They are physically more durable that birth certificates. My kids have had Passports since they were 2 years old, they are 14 and 18 now. I keep the birth certificates locked up in the safe deposit box, and use the Passports for every time I need to show proof of birth or identity for them....school....little league.....soccer......travel.
And as I have discovered, you NEVER know when your kids are going to end up on some school trip overseas. My son spent 2 weeks last summer in Spain and France on a school trip, already having the Passport meant all I had to do was find the money to pay for the trip!!!

 

[kg66]

We did the Feb3-6 Wonder, and for those of you who remember, I was also panicked re: the whole Passport thing. So let me pass on what I learned. Yes, the state or in our case, province issued BC is sufficient for where we went on the 3 day, which is the Bahamas. Adults must accompany their BC with gov't issued photo ID(driver's license, etc). Children under 18 are fine with their state/province issued BC, not the hospital issued one though. As for the marriage license for women, to show their new name, they did not ask for it. I did copy it and bring it with me, but wasn't asked for it! I agree that the passport will make it easier,and we are also going to bite the bullet for this before our next trip, so we never worry about this again! Hope this helps! Kathy

 

[hopelea]

I know I didn't need mine yet, but I just put my renewal for my passport in the mail today. I know that the BC worked okay, but with so many posts about this issue, I was starting to see the reason why I should have an updated passport! I never really thought about the fact that my BC doesn't match my license, since I have been married for 14 years! That makes sense to have something with your married name on it!

Well, thanks for all the words of wisdom once again!!!!

Hope