Here is an article from my local paper about the new passport rule. We are booked on a June '06 double dip at CC Cruise. I guess the CC days will make us get a passport for all four of us.
http://www.al.com/search/index.ssf?/base/business/1114939182190560.xml?mobileregister?bnews
Officials fret over new passport rule
Passport to be required for all air, sea travel to Canada and Mexico by Dec. 31, 2006
Sunday, May 01, 2005
By ANDREA JAMES
Business Reporter, Mobile Register
A new rule requiring a passport for travel to Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean has the cruise industry and travel agents fretting over the effect it will have on trips like those that leave every week from Mobile.
The current plan would have the new rules, which were announced in April by the Department of Home land Security, rolled out in stages. A passport requirement for travel to the Caribbean and Central and South America would take effect by Dec. 31.
The second stage, which affects passengers sailing on Carnival Cruise Lines' Holiday from Mobile, requires a passport for all air and sea travel to Canada and Mexico by Dec. 31, 2006. Currently, Holiday passengers can use an original birth certificate and photo identification, or naturalization papers.
"We are doing everything we can to try to change the deadlines," said Lyndsay Rossman, a spokeswoman for International Council of Cruise Lines, an Arlington, Va.-based lobby ing and regulatory body for the cruise industry. "A lot of our cruise passengers have already booked 2006 cruises to the Caribbean. It's a little too tight to make that be the exact deadline."
Homeland Security will open the proposed timetable to public comment in a few months, according to Christiana Halsey, spokeswoman for the department's Customs and Border Protection bureau. All changes mandated by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 must be in place by Jan. 1, 2008.
Cruise industry officials worry about the government's ability to handle a glut of passport applications. Only 60 million Americans, or 23 percent, have passports, according to the State Department.
The cost of the passport could also affect travel bookings, according to Ann Housh, a travel consultant for Adventure Travel, which recently moved its office from Mobile to Pensacola.
"It could really impact some of this cruise business that goes out of Mobile," Housh said. "It doesn't cost you anything to have a birth certificate, but it does cost a lot for a passport, especially for a family of four."
A U.S. passport application costs $97 for someone over 16 and $82 for children. Adult passports last 10 years; children's are good for five years.
Cruise industry officials also say that the staggered deadline gives cruises that sail to Mexico, like the Holiday's, an unfair advantage over cruises that sail to the Caribbean.
"While we clearly understand that the government has a legitimate need to enhance security at our borders, we have concerns about the timing of this," said Tim Gallagher, vice president of public relations for Carnival. The company's Web site urges passengers to get a passport now, to avoid delays.
The Post Office in Mobile is preparing for an increase in passport applications, according to spokeswoman Fonda Gantt.
"I don't think the word is really out yet," Gantt said. "A lot of people take cruises and a lot of people go into Canada and Mexico and they never bothered to have a passport. And at some point they are going to have to."
To apply, people should bring a certified birth certificate, state-approved identification and a checkbook or cash. A passport application can take up to two months, though for additional fees the process can be expedited.
Halsey said a unified document, like a passport, makes it easier for customs and border patrol officers to monitor the 1.1 million travelers who cross the nation's 317 points of entry -- airports, sea ports and land border -- per day.
"The whole goal of the initiative is to streamline the amount and types of documents that people can present for entry into the United States, to help us better secure the country but also allow us to quickly process people," she said.
Mobile resident Henry Gardner, 76, is an avid cruisegoer who has already sailed out of Mobile. He wasn't aware of the rule change and said last week that he may even have lost his passport.
"I know I had one in '98," said Gardner. "I went on a cruise on the Carnival Destiny and we went down in the Caribbean Islands and I had one then, but I haven't seen it since. It's got to be here somewhere."
He will apply for a new passport if he has to, he said, because he understands the need for tighter security.
"I feel comfortable with that because we ain't living in the old days no more," Gardner said.
http://www.al.com/search/index.ssf?/base/business/1114939182190560.xml?mobileregister?bnews
Officials fret over new passport rule
Passport to be required for all air, sea travel to Canada and Mexico by Dec. 31, 2006
Sunday, May 01, 2005
By ANDREA JAMES
Business Reporter, Mobile Register
A new rule requiring a passport for travel to Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean has the cruise industry and travel agents fretting over the effect it will have on trips like those that leave every week from Mobile.
The current plan would have the new rules, which were announced in April by the Department of Home land Security, rolled out in stages. A passport requirement for travel to the Caribbean and Central and South America would take effect by Dec. 31.
The second stage, which affects passengers sailing on Carnival Cruise Lines' Holiday from Mobile, requires a passport for all air and sea travel to Canada and Mexico by Dec. 31, 2006. Currently, Holiday passengers can use an original birth certificate and photo identification, or naturalization papers.
"We are doing everything we can to try to change the deadlines," said Lyndsay Rossman, a spokeswoman for International Council of Cruise Lines, an Arlington, Va.-based lobby ing and regulatory body for the cruise industry. "A lot of our cruise passengers have already booked 2006 cruises to the Caribbean. It's a little too tight to make that be the exact deadline."
Homeland Security will open the proposed timetable to public comment in a few months, according to Christiana Halsey, spokeswoman for the department's Customs and Border Protection bureau. All changes mandated by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 must be in place by Jan. 1, 2008.
Cruise industry officials worry about the government's ability to handle a glut of passport applications. Only 60 million Americans, or 23 percent, have passports, according to the State Department.
The cost of the passport could also affect travel bookings, according to Ann Housh, a travel consultant for Adventure Travel, which recently moved its office from Mobile to Pensacola.
"It could really impact some of this cruise business that goes out of Mobile," Housh said. "It doesn't cost you anything to have a birth certificate, but it does cost a lot for a passport, especially for a family of four."
A U.S. passport application costs $97 for someone over 16 and $82 for children. Adult passports last 10 years; children's are good for five years.
Cruise industry officials also say that the staggered deadline gives cruises that sail to Mexico, like the Holiday's, an unfair advantage over cruises that sail to the Caribbean.
"While we clearly understand that the government has a legitimate need to enhance security at our borders, we have concerns about the timing of this," said Tim Gallagher, vice president of public relations for Carnival. The company's Web site urges passengers to get a passport now, to avoid delays.
The Post Office in Mobile is preparing for an increase in passport applications, according to spokeswoman Fonda Gantt.
"I don't think the word is really out yet," Gantt said. "A lot of people take cruises and a lot of people go into Canada and Mexico and they never bothered to have a passport. And at some point they are going to have to."
To apply, people should bring a certified birth certificate, state-approved identification and a checkbook or cash. A passport application can take up to two months, though for additional fees the process can be expedited.
Halsey said a unified document, like a passport, makes it easier for customs and border patrol officers to monitor the 1.1 million travelers who cross the nation's 317 points of entry -- airports, sea ports and land border -- per day.
"The whole goal of the initiative is to streamline the amount and types of documents that people can present for entry into the United States, to help us better secure the country but also allow us to quickly process people," she said.
Mobile resident Henry Gardner, 76, is an avid cruisegoer who has already sailed out of Mobile. He wasn't aware of the rule change and said last week that he may even have lost his passport.
"I know I had one in '98," said Gardner. "I went on a cruise on the Carnival Destiny and we went down in the Caribbean Islands and I had one then, but I haven't seen it since. It's got to be here somewhere."
He will apply for a new passport if he has to, he said, because he understands the need for tighter security.
"I feel comfortable with that because we ain't living in the old days no more," Gardner said.
(I would much rather spend that $500 on the cruise--I'm sure Disney would prefer I did, too!)
) we won't have to have passports.
