To those who have wondered about birth cert vs. passport

[hydster]

I just found this on another message board I go to and thought it might be something for all of us to think about!! This poor woman is someone I feel very badly for but it might be worth it for all of us to think about this since we never know if/when we may be in her same situation! Anyway here is what she wrote on a Carnival Cruise Line message board....


For those of you who sailed on June 8th Pride....the reason the ship stopped leaving Belize was to let myself & my husband Pete off for a medical emergency. Sadly, Pete passed away in Belize 2 days later.
Host Terry, who was sailing with us, suggested i post to the board the hard lessons I learned.
ONE: get a passport! we only had the drivers license & birth certificate when we were tendered ashore & then became illigal aliens in central america. I had to get visitors permits from the government.
TWO: carry a Real Credit Card: Visa or Mastercard.
Discover does not give cash advances outside the U.S. and after standing in line ONE hr at the bank in Belize, i found out that my Visa, which was my debit card, could not be used for a cash advance even though i had more than enough $ in the bank. Because it goes through Visa International they would need permission from my bank to give the advance.
THREE:buy travel insurance. Usually I do not do that but the past 2 trips I did & I will be glad if I can recoup some of my cruise $ & expenses.
THE good news for those of you travelling Carnival: the medical staff & purser's office we very efficient & helpful in getting me packed & down to the tender. The nurse tendered in with us to the port & was very calming.
Carnivals agents in Belize, Eurocaribe shipping, gave me two angels, Natalie & Neil, to help with anything I needed help with. initially it was just with immigration photos & permits, finding a hotel, etc,
which turned into taking me to the U.S. embassy, the bank, western union ,the funeral home, & the airlines to arrange tickets home after Pete passed.
Since we had a Delta flt out of FL to Chicago, I had to buy new tickets since only AMerican & Continental fly to Belize. THe guest relations dept in Fl will arrange for me to get reimbursed for the unused tickets.
Carnival sent a condolances card. i have been in touch with them several times & they have been very nice.
I hope NO ONE has to go through this situation while on vacation but heed my warnings just in case.
You never know! Since returning I have talked to a nurse who had a friend who was a nurse on a cruise ship & said medical emrgencies happen quite a bit & that somehow being at sea seems to bring forth latent conditions...esp in men because they don't heed their bodies warnings or go to Drs as often as they should.

Anyway I just thought it might be something worth thinking about!

Heidi

 

[teacher3410]

What a sad, sad story. Unfortunately, it is too late for us to get passports since we are sailing July 21. I just pray nothing like that happens to us or anyone else. I can't imagine having to deal with the death of a spouse while on vacation. I hope she is doing okay now. Thanks for letting us know.

Pam

 

[mmouse37]

Sorry to hear such a sad story. We always carry our Passports. I find them much easier to take than the BC.

MJ

 

[disneyholic family]

what a sad story....
we always carry our passports....
and we always buy the top of the line travel health insurance that includes a medivac flight home (a plane and doctor to take you back home for hospitalization).....i don't even want to be stuck in the US if i need to be hospitalized....i want to be home with my family....

but despite all the precautions in the world, things happen....
a dear friend of ours had a heart attack and died on the top of mount kilimanjaro, leaving his 17 year daughter all by herself in africa......the kindness of strangers got her back home....her father's body followed 2 weeks later (the red tape involved with something like that can be shocking in third world countries)....

anyway.....my wishes to us all that we all have safe and peaceful vacations....

 

[ducklite]

Originally posted by teacher3410
What a sad, sad story. Unfortunately, it is too late for us to get passports since we are sailing July 21. I just pray nothing like that happens to us or anyone else. I can't imagine having to deal with the death of a spouse while on vacation. I hope she is doing okay now. Thanks for letting us know.

Pam

Actually it's probably NOT to late. Processing time seems to be about two weeks lately. You can often go during non-business hours to a local passport agency such as a library to take care fo the paperwork. I carry my passport, even when traveling domestically, as it is by far the best proof of identity.

Anne

 

[peg2001]

Thank you for sharing this tragic story. I have been waffling on whether to get passports for my family before our cruise as it will be about $200 for the 4 of us. $200 that we would sure enjoy spending on stuff more exciting than passports.

Now I am more convinced than ever that we really are better off with the passports.

Peg

 

[JimB.]

Pam -

If you can, go apply for passports immediately. It took about 3 weeks for us to get ours (of course, that was prior to 9/11, so that may have an effect).

But you still may get them in time.

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

In response to the sad tale described at the top of this thread, a DISer emailed me to ask about a web site I mentioned some time ago.

MedJet is a fine medical evacuation service based in the Southeastern U.S. They have a fleet of ambulance jets that they fly all over the world.

And they sell a subscription service (insurance) that entitles members to their services from anywhere in the world. I haven't signed up for this service yet, but I may do so. It is endorsed by several travel writers whose opinions I respect.

www.medjetassistance.com

 

[randytenn]

I would NOT order a passport so close to cruising time. We just ordered ours for our September cruise, and the post office attached our original birth certificates to the passport application and sent them to the state department.

So, if it, for some reason, took longer to get the passport, you would also be without your original birth certificate.

It's making me nervous right now, and I have a couple of months before we go.

 

[disneyholic family]

interesting link Dave....
they say travel health insurance doesn't cover flying you regardless of medical necesity....that may be true in the US, i don't know...
but the coverage we have does.....but then again, we live in a place where the health coverage in general is better than in america so i guess it stands to reason that the travel health insurance would also be more complete...

by the way, i think i know the founder of that company.....
i have to ask my husband but i think we know him (or rather knew him........in DC)....the person i'm thinking of founded a medivac company and his name was Jeff....but i can't recall his last name...(this was about a billion years ago, so maybe it was a different company)...