Va4fam Posted March 30, 2023 Report Share Posted March 30, 2023 We got back from Mexico in February. Sent renewal forms and passports to State Department same week. Expedited. Should have received them by now. But don't have them and most likely won't in time for our trip. Our Odyssey sailing from Fort Lauderdale is a week away, and we are without passports. We have birth certificates with raised seals, driver's licenses, and a marriage certificate to show my wife's name change from 30 years ago. What else do we need to show RCI at check in to be allowed to board? Anxious we might be turned away. Could use some suggestions or even reassurance everything will be ok. EasyTarget83 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoomSlayer Posted March 30, 2023 Report Share Posted March 30, 2023 Sounds like you have what you need as long as your driver's licenses are not expired. Good luck and have fun on your trip! Do get the phone number for the US embassy/consulate for wherever you are going though. They will be your lifeline in an emergency if for some reason you cannot return with the ship. SemperMom and Va4fam 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonOasis Posted March 30, 2023 Report Share Posted March 30, 2023 I appreciate you bringing this up because we just sent out a memo to our flight attendants warning them that we are now seeing increasing wait times for passport renewals. Right now on average we are seeing a wait time of 8 to 9 weeks for normal processing. (Doesn't make for happy flight attendants when they have 40+ years are use to flying only international trips and now have to fly domestic trips for at least 2 months.) However for people with cruises especially European cruises this coming summer please check your passports now. If you think your passport is expiring or know it is expiring and you have a cruise especially European cruise the time to renew your passport is now. Even if you choose expedited processing your are probably looking at 4 to 5 weeks. The airline I work for didn't give us a reason why we are seeing this increase in wait times after seeing wait time decrease dramatically over the past year but here we are at 8 to 9 weeks for normal processing for passport renewal. Happy Cruisers, rjweber3, DoomSlayer and 1 other 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FireFishII Posted March 30, 2023 Report Share Posted March 30, 2023 You could try reaching out to your US congressional representative and/or senator. They can submit an urgent inquiry on your behalf. Have you checked the status of your passport by going here: https://passportstatus.state.gov/ Finally, I read that it is taking ~7 weeks for expedited requests. It sounds like to me that your passports were submitted 7 weeks ago. You should be fine with the documents you listed above. EasyTarget83 and SemperMom 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXcruiser33 Posted March 30, 2023 Report Share Posted March 30, 2023 I can speak from experience on this subject as on a recent cruise (Symphony out of Miami) i somehow FORGOT our passports?!? I still shake my head at that but i did. 20 cruises under my belt but brain farts can and do happen to us all i guess?!? Didn't realize it until we were literally stepping out of the Uber car in front of the terminal. Of course, i panicked but thought surely we'd get on since we had copies of passports in our phones, plus global entry cards, plus valid drivers licenses. Nope was the firm answer. You either have to have the ORIGINAL passport OR a copy of your official birth certificate. Well.....we didn't have copies of our birth certificates....but thankfully were able to contact someone near home who went in to our house, located our bc's, took photos of them and sent those to us. And RC accepted those so onboard we went! I think you'll be fine, just be sure you have those birth certificates! FireFishII, Va4fam, DoomSlayer and 2 others 3 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacklynn Posted March 30, 2023 Report Share Posted March 30, 2023 I submitted for my passport renewal back on January 12th and as of today it still just says "received". Definitely frustrating. 11 weeks at this point and at the time of applying it was still saying 6-9 weeks. I have cruised recently with just my birth certificate (original, but VA doesn't/didn't have a raised seal which caused me to worry a bit), marriage license and driver license. There were no issues boarding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Va4fam Posted March 30, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2023 1 hour ago, Jacklynn said: I submitted for my passport renewal back on January 12th and as of today it still just says "received". Definitely frustrating. 11 weeks at this point and at the time of applying it was still saying 6-9 weeks. I have cruised recently with just my birth certificate (original, but VA doesn't/didn't have a raised seal which caused me to worry a bit), marriage license and driver license. There were no issues boarding. 11 weeks? Frustrating. I have spent countless hours on hold only to speak with a representative who says that they can't help me unless travel was two weeks away. Or one week away. Or today they said it had to be within 5 days due to a "procedural change." FireFishII 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoomSlayer Posted March 31, 2023 Report Share Posted March 31, 2023 2 hours ago, Va4fam said: 11 weeks? Frustrating. I have spent countless hours on hold only to speak with a representative who says that they can't help me unless travel was two weeks away. Or one week away. Or today they said it had to be within 5 days due to a "procedural change." Don't stress out about it and just use your birth certificates. I just went on a cruise earlier this month with birth certificates for my teens who did not passports. Oldest was over 16 and had to show her driver's license as well, but there was no issue boarding or coming home. You will be fine. And hopefully when you get home, your passports will be waiting for you in the mail. Va4fam 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottD Posted March 31, 2023 Report Share Posted March 31, 2023 Birth certificates and ID is all you need... take the marriage license to be safe, but likely won't need it. You're good to go- you will not be turned away, three of us just did this exact thing, no passports. BC for the kid, BC and DL for us and thats all we needed. Lines were no longer, took no extra time to get on the ship day one or off the ship at the end. We were told since we were travelling together and our names matched on the IDs, that the Marriage license wasn't needed..but I'd take it to be safe. Have fun, stop worrying....and once you board on day one, throw all the certificates in the safe- you don't need it again until the last day Neesa 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacklynn Posted March 31, 2023 Report Share Posted March 31, 2023 3 hours ago, ScottD said: Birth certificates and ID is all you need... take the marriage license to be safe, but likely won't need it. You're good to go- you will not be turned away, three of us just did this exact thing, no passports. BC for the kid, BC and DL for us and thats all we needed. Lines were no longer, took no extra time to get on the ship day one or off the ship at the end. We were told since we were travelling together and our names matched on the IDs, that the Marriage license wasn't needed..but I'd take it to be safe. Have fun, stop worrying....and once you board on day one, throw all the certificates in the safe- you don't need it again until the last day I think the marriage license is a YMMV kind of situation. They specifically asked for mine in December. I am unsure if they would have went as far as denying me boarding if I hadn't had it though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottD Posted March 31, 2023 Report Share Posted March 31, 2023 14 minutes ago, Jacklynn said: I think the marriage license is a YMMV kind of situation. They specifically asked for mine in December. I am unsure if they would have went as far as denying me boarding if I hadn't had it though. Yeah...that's why I suggest bringing it... I can almost bet on the fact that it just depends on the agent you get at the gate. Jacklynn 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinJ Posted March 31, 2023 Report Share Posted March 31, 2023 Went through this exact scenario for our March 12th Wonder cruise. Got off Odyssey late Jan, submitted renewals for my wife and son. Expedited said 3-5 weeks, we had six till Wonder. After 5 weeks and no change in status, we used the Online renewal process, we really started to panic. We had no idea where our marriage certificate was and to further complicate things my wife had been married before and we had nothing showing that. Several hundred dollars spent getting certified copies expedited to us and off we went to the port. Meanwhile we drive 3 days to the port my son flies down and meets us the day before. His passport came in the day before he left so he was all set. Check in went very smoothly. They only looked at my wife's birth certificate, but having everything else was for safety as you never know what a particular agent might want to make an issue of. My wife's passport came in while we were on our cruise, so 7 weeks total. Va4fam and ScottD 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Va4fam Posted March 31, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2023 Thanks for the suggestions and reassurances. I can be a "type A" planner and not having a passport is causing significant stress. Fingers crossed that all will go well at check in. FireFishII and DoomSlayer 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PL8SWPR Posted April 1, 2023 Report Share Posted April 1, 2023 Have done 4 BC cruises with marriage license for the wife. No issues and I think the marriage cert was only asked for once. Passports were in the mail when we left for our last cruise in Jan, so we have them for our Western Caribbean trip in Oct. Va4fam 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Va4fam Posted April 3, 2023 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2023 Update-the online update tool now says our passports are being shipped and will arrive on or around................................... ....embarkation day .............at our house. ......................where we won't be... .......................................because we will have left 3 days earlier to fly to Florida. DoomSlayer, WAAAYTOOO and KevinJ 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoomSlayer Posted April 3, 2023 Report Share Posted April 3, 2023 15 minutes ago, Va4fam said: Update-the online update tool now says our passports are being shipped and will arrive on or around................................... ....embarkation day .............at our house. ......................where we won't be... .......................................because we will have left 3 days earlier to fly to Florida. Maybe stop your mail so it’s not waiting in your mailbox the whole time and pick it up when you get back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Va4fam Posted April 3, 2023 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2023 @Doomslayer.......thanks for the advice. Our son will be home and get the mail for us. Good news is that we will have passports for our cruise in June. DoomSlayer and Villageidiot 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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