Passports for Castaway Cay??

[jenniy]

Adult passports - 10 years. Child passport - 5 years. That's US passports.

Thank you! Trying to decide whether or not to get them,

 

[Msmit002]

For closed-loop cruises originating at a US port, passports are not yet required.

So, here's a question for you... did you purchase travel insurance for your vacation? If yes, get the passports. If no, then don't. How you answer this question will tell you what amount of risk you are willing to accept.

Until our government dictates otherwise, everyone has to make that decision themselves. But I will say this... I didn't expect to suffer a pulmonary embolism last year on my vacation. I was 39, non-smoker, no risk factors. Crap happens. Period. Even to people who plan well.

 

[TheRatPack]

There are 6 of us.....so I'm on the fence about getting them for our 2014 cruise as well. I may get them in batches......DH/Me, 2 Daughters and then get our 2 sons done. That way I don't pay for them all at once.

Do you need your Social Security card at all to obtain a Passport? We have certified birth certificates for our children, but the youngest 3 are adopted and their original SS cards do NOT match their birth certificates. I have been procrastinating in getting those changed....guess I need to get on the ball before they are grown LOL.

 

[TheRatPack]

For closed-loop cruises originating at a US port, passports are not yet required.

So, here's a question for you... did you purchase travel insurance for your vacation? If yes, get the passports. If no, then don't. How you answer this question will tell you what amount of risk you are willing to accept.

Until our government dictates otherwise, everyone has to make that decision themselves. But I will say this... I didn't expect to suffer a pulmonary embolism last year on my vacation. I was 39, non-smoker, no risk factors. Crap happens. Period. Even to people who plan well.

We have trip insurance, how does that factor in? Just curious as this is our first cruise

 

[Justacruiser]

I hope you waste $400 and get the Passports. They last 10 years. By the way, book another cruise while you are on board and consider the 10% discount and the OBC a payback for the $400.

Get the passports if you don't have emergency funds available to pay for flights, hospitalization, other things like hotels, food and other transportation and yes, emergency passports.

Hopefully it will be a waste of money.

 

[bumbershoot]

There are 6 of us.....so I'm on the fence about getting them for our 2014 cruise as well. I may get them in batches......DH/Me, 2 Daughters and then get our 2 sons done. That way I don't pay for them all at once.

Do you need your Social Security card at all to obtain a Passport? We have certified birth certificates for our children, but the youngest 3 are adopted and their original SS cards do NOT match their birth certificates. I have been procrastinating in getting those changed....guess I need to get on the ball before they are grown LOL.

Buying in batches is nice. Check out the ages of the kids, so that you can get as close to perfect timing as possible. For instance, if one child gets a passport at 1, they'll get another at 6, then another at 11, and then 5 years later they are 16 and that is perfect timing b/c then they get the adult passport which is good for 10 years.

If you have a 3 year old, though, the first is at 3, next at 8, next at 13, and I'm not actually sure if a child's passport can be good beyond 16. So they might have to just get the adult passport while the child passport still has time left on it. That's not perfect timing. So work out the batches so you're not causing imperfect timing.

We just have one (sniffle) and managed to fall into perfect timing.


The passport website is actually quite nice and has lots of info. First timers look here.

Primary Evidence of U.S. Citizenship (One of the following):

Previously issued, undamaged U.S. Passport
Certified birth certificate issued by the city, county or state*
check box Consular Report of Birth Abroad or Certification of Birth
Naturalization Certificate
Certificate of Citizenship

Primary Identification (One of the following):

check box Previously issued, undamaged U.S. passport
check box Naturalization Certificate
check box Valid Driver's License
check box Current Government ID (city, state or federal)
check box Current Military ID (military and dependents)

No SS cards needed. But the application, form DS-11, does require the SS *number*.


Take some nice, quiet time to really look at the website. They have a LOT of info, and they have all sorts of "but what if THIS is my situation" contingencies covered. This isn't relevant for you I believe, but they have a whole flowchart of various situations where you can't have both parents there in person to get the kiddies their first passport. It's a good site. And when I've called for more info, they have been extremely pleasant and helpful.

We have trip insurance, how does that factor in? Just curious as this is our first cruise

They said "How you answer this question will tell you what amount of risk you are willing to accept.", and I think that's the explanation. If you're nervous about something going wrong and buy the insurance because of the nervousness, then you worry enough about something going wrong that you want to be prepared with passports.

I personally would rather pay now for the passports instead of budget the money anyway, plus extra, to get them expedited if something happens. DH had to expedite his passport because his had expired and he needed a new one "yesterday:* for a job that required travel, and it was NOT a pretty price. And that's just for one. With the joy of a new job behind it, not "will we be OK?" as the background emotion.

And, of course, we always have the "win a round-the-world trip" in our minds. Gotta be ready for that possibility!



*not actually yesterday...this was back in '09, LOL. which feels like yesterday, but is not. and then let's not talk about when he put his year-old passport through the wash , thereby destroying it, causing ANOTHER to have to be expedited.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

We will be getting passports. We want to go to Niagara Falls in the near future and I have heard all of the good "stuff" is on the Canadian side

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[TheRatPack]

Buying in batches is nice. Check out the ages of the kids, so that you can get as close to perfect timing as possible. For instance, if one child gets a passport at 1, they'll get another at 6, then another at 11, and then 5 years later they are 16 and that is perfect timing b/c then they get the adult passport which is good for 10 years.

If you have a 3 year old, though, the first is at 3, next at 8, next at 13, and I'm not actually sure if a child's passport can be good beyond 16. So they might have to just get the adult passport while the child passport still has time left on it. That's not perfect timing. So work out the batches so you're not causing imperfect timing.

Well we will have one 18 year old so hers will be good for 10 years. The other three will be 10, 11 and 12 so no way to really stagger those for the appropriate age ....wait, is it 16 that they get an adult one? I wish I could wait to get my youngest his to make it to 16 but he won't be 11 until December 2014 and we're sailing October 2014 so that wouldn't work LOL.

 

[crisi]

For us, passports are a necessity since we are a family of four with two members who are U.S. Citizens without U.S. Birth Certificates. Unless we are willing to take my son's hard and expensive to replace certificate of naturalization or my husbands even harder and a bigger pain to replace U.S. Consular Report of Birth Abroad out of the safe deposit box and risk them on a trip, we have passports.

 

[neg58]

There are 6 of us.....so I'm on the fence about getting them for our 2014 cruise as well. I may get them in batches......DH/Me, 2 Daughters and then get our 2 sons done. That way I don't pay for them all at once.

Do you need your Social Security card at all to obtain a Passport? We have certified birth certificates for our children, but the youngest 3 are adopted and their original SS cards do NOT match their birth certificates. I have been procrastinating in getting those changed....guess I need to get on the ball before they are grown LOL.

If you have birth certificates, adoption paperwork and citizenship papers (if a foreign adoption) it is easy to change the SS paperwork (numbers will stay the same unless you need for them to change). In fact, you should change them or your taxes may not be processed (SSN and name have to match).

If your children get older and their names and cards don't match, they will have no end of trouble. They can't apply for financial aid for college, they may have trouble getting a driver's license, etc.

I have an adopted child. I've done the 'name doesn't match number' on my taxes (it was just a number entry error, but they didn't let it go through) and lots of my friends have had IRS problems and license problems and college problems because although they went to the SSA and changed the status to 'citizen', it did not get entered in the SSA computer and all their financial aid stuff was rejected for college.

Nancy (and yes, you are supposed to provide the SSN when you get a passport)

 

[seashellmama]

Children's passports have a five year expiration, but they do NOT stop at age 16- as far as I know, a child's passport is exactly the same as an adult one that was obtained five years earlier. So a 15 year old who gets a passport will get one that is good for five years, when she's 20 years old.

 

[Msmit002]

We have trip insurance, how does that factor in? Just curious as this is our first cruise

I'll reiterate. How you answer that question usually dictates the acceptable amount of risk you are willing to take. Plenty of people won't even consider "wasting" money on a passport. Many people also won't bother "wasting" money on trip insurance either. Each decision results in purchasing 'insurance' against a perceived 'catastrophe'. Usually the two decision paths go hand in hand since if you have a catastrophe away from your home country, both a passport and insurance usually mitigates the impact.