Ever forget your passport?

[shofer]

We were booked on the Grand Princess to leave 2/2/08 from Ft. Lauderdale traveling with our adult children and their spouses. The plan was to leave Chicago on Friday, 2/1/08 and stay overnight one night pre-cruise to allow for any weather delays. It started snowing on Thursday and continued for 24 hours, dumping about a foot of snow in Chicago, canceling 600 flights on Thursday and continuing on Friday. Lucky for us, we were flying United which has its hub in Chicago and we not only had an aircraft at our gate but our flight was on time. The anxiety over the weather had overshadowed everything else on our minds.

 

As we winged our way to Ft. Lauderdale, I turned to my DH and asked if he had brought the passports as they had been sitting on his dresser. The horrified look that he gave me confirmed my fears. We weren't going to land for another 2 hours and we frantically discussed this with the kids.

 

The girl sitting next to me suggested that we have someone go to the house and FEDEX them to us. The problem was that no one else had a key to the house. She suggested that we get a friend to get a locksmith to open the house and then send the passports. This sounded like a good idea to me but DH felt that there were too many parts to the plan that could go wrong and his plan was to fly immediately back to Chicago and come back the next day.

 

We called Donna, our trusty travel agent for advice and she called Princess to confirm that we needed passports or a certified copy of your birth certificate which you could get from a national data base here in the States. The fly in the ointment for that idea was that DH was not born in the USA.

 

She started checking flights from Ft. Lauderdale when I mentioned the locksmith idea. She became very excited and said that she had a good friend who was a locksmith and she would call him and ask if he would do this for her. While we went down to baggage claim, we also talked to the Princess rep who met us for the bus transfer to the hotel and told her that DH might not be coming with us.

 

Donna called back and said that while the locksmith would open the house, he would not go in it because of the liability. His best friend however was Donna's ex-boyfriend and he agreed to go along and get the documents off DH's dresser and take them to a FEDEX-KINKOS for next day delivery.

 

We boarded the bus to the hotel and Donna called us about 10 minutes later and conferenced us in with the locksmith who was having trouble opening the lock and he said that he had to make a key and did my key have a number on it. It did and he was able to open the door. We gave Donna the hotel address and she called us later to confirm that the package was on the way and should be delivered by noon, guaranteed.

 

Our SIL asked us to get the tracking number and he would check it for us the next day. Donna called us back that evening with it and we all breathed a sigh of relief. We were so grateful to her for going above and beyond for us; we could not thank her enough! You would not get someone to do this for you from an online agency. She charged the locksmith fee, about $100 and the FEDEX fee about $44 to our credit card. This was a small price to pay for our stupidity.

 

The next day, Jeremy checked the tracking number and said it was in Pompano Beach which was the next town away. We went in for breakfast anticipating that it would be there shortly. By eleven it was still not there and I asked him to check it again and it came up with an "exception". I called 1-800-GOFEDEX and they told me that the address was incorrect! But the package was on the truck and I could pick it up at the facility when the driver came back and they were open until 7:00 PM. Small comfort when the ship was sailing @ 5:00! They asked for the correct address and said that they would leave a message for the driver.

 

The hotel had given us a letter telling us to meet downstairs @ 11:30-12:00 for "pre-check-in". We sent the kids down and checked out of our room and anxiously awaited a call back from FEDEX. Unbeknownst to us, Donna had also noticed the incorrect address that morning and was also calling FEDEX.

 

I tried again around 12:15 and got the same response, that they would send a message to the driver. In the meantime, we pulled our luggage out of the Princess pile so it wouldn't get on the ship without us and waited while the Holland America reps boarded about 12 buses for their cruise.

 

We discussed our problem with the hotel manager and he assured us that the FEDEX depot was only 10 minutes away and most Saturday deliveries were over by 1:00 so we should have no problem getting there to get our package and making it to the ship on time. He even said that he would arrange a Towncar for us that would be the same cost as a cab and would wait for us. So we had an alternate plan. Meanwhile, DH was waiting outside looking for any FEDEX truck that came by so he could throw his body in its path just in case it was the one with our passports.

 

We tried to call again @ 12:50 and the FEDEX person noticed a message that said that the driver would be there in 15 minutes! As soon as I hung up, Donna was calling us with the same news. She was feeling responsible since it was her friend who had put down the wrong address!

 

DH, DS, DIL, SIL all waited outside for the FEDEX truck to make an appearance while DD stayed with me calming my frazzled nerves. A few minutes later, FEDEX pulled up and DH ran to him to claim our envelope. The driver questioned him because our name was spelled incorrectly but DH pulled out his driver’s license to prove it was him and then tipped the guy.

 

And yes, inside were the passports, the bill for the locksmith and the key he had made to get into the house. Princess was still boarding buses and had not yet called our color. Our luggage went back into the pile and we were finally on our way!

 

Had we ever discussed our passports before leaving? Yes, a few days earlier I had asked where they were thinking that if they were in the bank vault, I would have to go get them. But DH had assured me that they were on his dresser. And we then promptly forgot about them with all the anxiety over the weather. From now on, they will be the first thing on my list! Donna saved us from having to make another flight back home and saved our vacation with our children.

[Krazy Kruizers]

You are very lucky everything worked out.

 

How was your cruise?

 

No - we have never forgotten our passports -- they are among the first things that go into my traveling purse. In fact, I keep the passports with our airline tickets as we need them to check in at the airport.

[hammybee]

Oh my stars. What a story. I am happy your persistence paid off cause I do not think Trip Insurance covers forgetfullness.

 

And can you believe, it's snowing again !

 

Welcome home.

[mountainmare]

What a gem of a TA!!! We also have a TA who is local and in a small office in our small town--every time I'm tempted by those low price ads I think about how nice it is to have a person who you know in case something goes wrong.

We are leaving in exactly two weeks and I just took the passports and put them in our travel wallet with the plane tickets and all documents.

[themerle]

I'm glad everything worked out for you. That would have caused me to have a panic attack. My husband is the calm one and would be the one to figure out a solution. We forgot the camera once and our son had to over night it to us. Now, I have a travel "checklist" and passports are one of the first things on the list. The night before travel I check the list to make sure I'm not forgetting anything. Excitement keeps me from getting the rest I should, but at least I'm not awake thinking that I'm forgetting something.

[dakrewser]

Fantastic story! This one deserves to be written up for a travel magazine...

[Starr Mtn]

Whew! I'd definitely keep that TA !

 

We stick a Post-A-Note on the door to the garage -

and list all the last minute things we need !

 

eg - Passports - Tickets - Reservation Receipts -

- Traveler's Checks - Medication ; even list each suitcase !

[Suitegurl]

And we thought it was bad when we forgot the tux once. Glad all worked out for you.

[HamOp]

Fantastic story! This one deserves to be written up for a travel magazine...

 

I agree! At least "Life in these United States" in Reader's Digest!

[FoxyTerrier]

Whew! I'd definitely keep that TA !

 

We stick a Post-A-Note on the door to the garage -

and list all the last minute things we need !

 

eg - Passports - Tickets - Reservation Receipts -

- Traveler's Checks - Medication ; even list each suitcase !

 

Great idea We2Cruise.

 

I usually put our Passports in the HAL cruise doc pouch. All other docs go in my RED travel portfolio with the document filed in the order they will be needed. I also make a photo copy of our passports and they are also filed in my travel portfolio.

 

Shofer - so glad it wall worked out for you and hope you had a great cruise with your family.

[sreed41]

Glad it worked out so well for you. I am the one who's usually responsible for making sure we have everything so I would have been the one in the doghouse, so to speak.

 

What a wonderful TA. Thankfully it all came together and you were able to enjoy your cruise.

[kenlin67]

Had the same problem in November when on a flight from Philadelphia to Miami to catch a Carnival cruise the next day, I remembered that I did not bring my passport nor a birth certificate. I thought about all solutions including flying back to Philadelphia, getting the passports and flying back to Miami but since this was the evening before the cruise, that wouldn't work.

 

When I got off the plane, I called an emergency Carnival 24 hour line and they told me it was up to the port officials if they would let me board. The next morning after a sleepless night, we went to the port early, explained the problem and had no problem boarding after showing a drivers license and signing a paper saying we were citizens.

[leftcoast]

Last year I'm in line to board. The agent asked for ID and I whip out my drivers license. Ahhh where's your Passport she asked? I told her that I read somewhere in the travel doc that my D L was good enough. What I didn't realize was IT HAD TO BE WITH A BIRTH CERTIFICATE. Ooooooppppssss oh S- - -.

Well there I was at the mercy of the agent and supervisor. They really went through a lot of trouble to FIND these other documents which had to be signed by all 3 of us. They also said that ultimately it was up to the captain. Man I was so thankful. They wished me a Bon Voyage and away I went. I still don't realize how close I came to not being allowed on the ship.:eek:

[tomc]

When Mom was still with us, we used to cruise together. Before we left the house, we would show each other our passports, our airline tix and our cruise docs.

 

Yes, we had them and we knew we had them. We still showed them to each other. I've heard too many stories of people who "knew" their tix were in their purses or suit coat pockets and then realized the tix weren't.

 

Swallow your pride and whip them out.

 

Now that I'm alone, I have a desk drawer labeled "Next Cruise" and the necessaries go in there, never to be removed. Before I leave my apartment, I look at my passport, my bus tix and my cruise docs as I put them where they belong on my person.

[cccole]

We leave Friday at 5:00 a.m. for Ft. Lauderdale for a Saturday cruise. After all of these stories I just put passports, birth certificates, and cruise docs in my carryon.

 

You all handled the missing documents a lot better than I would. Thanks for the stories!!!!!!!

 

Cherie

[bepsf]

What a story - and what a great TA!

 

I do similar to TomC: When the tickets arrive for the cruise, all the other necessary documents for the trip start going into the ticket pouch - then the night before the cruise as I'm packing, the ticket pouch is reviewed and it goes into the briefcase with everything in it.