ATSEAMYLIFE

and it will all change before the end of next month. So just hold on for the new requirements. The rules changed twice in the last 30 days, so who knows what will happen in the next 30.

If you read the article this is one of TSA/CBP attempts to fulfill their promise to speed up boarding/crossing times. According to the article they have linked the secure passenger databases for ID and boarding. Well, welcome to the 21st Century. So, they scan your ID and hopefully it matches with the boarding database.

We had the same issue and our TA booked it as TBD for the unknown guest.

It seems both the directors of TSA and CBP are trying to hold true to their recent promises to speed things up.

I'm on an expat FB page for people living in Mexico and almost everybody has GE/Sentri as it saves hours crossing into San Diego. I can tell you people complain about months long waits just to get conditionally approved (I have been waiting 11 months) and then months longer to get an interview. I don't think being near the border makes a difference on the conditional approval, but being away from the border does make a difference on getting an interview appointment. I haven't heard of anybody not getting an interview. A few have gotten video interviews. Sentri is a lot harder since there are fewer interview locations than for GE. The interview upon return option is great if the GE office is open when you come back. Some have limited hours and days they will do GE interviews.

Your configuration seems reasonable. The only consideration would be if you want to buy the Deluxe Bev package for just one adult. You could put one adult and one child in the same cabin therefore you wouldn't have to buy for both adults in the same cabin. We just did that when we took our two GD's on a cruise. I was listed with one and DW was listed with the other GD and only I had to pay for the DBP. Price won't change as the "kids sail free" or discounts for 3rd and 4th would still net the same amount no matter what age the 1st & 2nd person are.

We were on Navigator in July and did formal night and one other night in MDR. We went to dinner around 6:30 PM both times. We were with two GD's (10 & 7) who were restless to go do fun stuff. We probably spent a little over an hour for formal night and little less than an hour on a normal night. If you want to be in/out quicker I'm sure your waiter can make that happen.

Unless you routinely fly from one of the CLEAR airports, they are limited, it doesn't make sense to pay for CLEAR and TSA Pre-Check and Global Entry. You are right on that the extra $15 to upgrade TSA to GE is money well spent, even if you only use it once. Last time I thought about CLEAR it was really expensive and at that time it wasn't at Sacramento. It's still not available in about 15-16 states. My GE with TSA Pre works fine. The few times we have flown from SFO, especially international, I do see where CLEAR would be of benefit.

Interesting, we fly LAX to MCO and back next month. It will be interesting to see how they handle it.

Always been asked for a boarding pass and ID, otherwise how would they know you're a legit passenger to be allowed past security? My boarding pass is either on my phone or on paper.

Wow, that's got to be a record. I know people who have waited months. I have heard some people don't get called for an interview or CBP is even doing video interviews.

I just got another "update" email about 30 minutes ago.

That is a bargain since it's the cheapest Trusted Traveler program CBP offers.

"SALE" is a nebulous term for RCCL. If you see a price that you think is good for you then buy it. Our Thanksgiving cruise on Wonder was $68 when I first checked. Then went to $72 and I bought it. Then went to $78 and yesterday was at $73. For the last "Big Sale" it had been at $78 and for the sale went to $72. Then after the sale back to $78 and about a week ago $73. It's like chasing the bouncing ball. I have never seen it cheaper on board than pre-board.

It's funny all three times in an OS we never had anybody ring our door bell. Plus, I thought I read somewhere that there's a switch to turn it off; can't really recall if there is. Wait, we did have a couple of friends ring the bell, we just didn't answer the door.

On Navigator in July they wanted us to us the app in Jamie's. But MDR gave us real menus.

As I recall when I have used it in the past the turn around time really isn't workable for a 5nt cruise. I would have to send it on day two and hope it's back by day four. No thanks!

I did my check in the first day available and the earliest it gave me was 11:30-12:00. We sailed Navigator in July and all they gave us was a Wellness time after we did that they just pointed us to check in. We had two GD, not VAX, with us and we had to wait for their swabs to be processed. Can we say, "STRESSFULL?"

Just completed my set sail check-in on the app. Under "Health Status", it asked three questions, #1 "Are you full vaccinated for Covid 19?", #2 "Have you received a Covid19 booster?" and #3 "Will you be more than 23 weeks pregnant at any time during your cruise?" After that it showed I was ready to board and my Wellness Check is 11:30 AM. There was also an option to scan my passport in the app, which I hadn't seen before as I had manually entered it on the www site.

Wasn't offered on our 5nt on Navigator in July.

Interesting, so the hack is apply for NEXUS pay $50 and get GE for free. We had to request GE during our interview with CBP for Sentri. It didn't cost us anything since Sentri is more than GE as Sentri includes enrolling vehicles, which GE doesn't unless you pay an extra $40. Had I done better research I would have just done GE as there's many more enrollment locations than Sentri and it's the same lane crossing into the US from Mexico. If you interviewed with CAN officials does NEXUS have any benefits entering Canada from US? MX doesn't care about any CBP programs.

That's how our oldest son did it at LAX returning from Cabo. If you are approved and the GE interview office is open, you just walk up and they do the interview right there. He had his GE cards in the mail five days later.

GE/Sentri renewals are running several months also. However, you can get lucky once you are conditionally approved and reschedule your interview by checking the CBP www site every morning for cancelations. I was able to move DW interview from April 2023 to December 2022. On July 5th I logged in and there were interviews open for that afternoon and all day the 6th.

We are sort of comparing apples to oranges. TSA pre and Clear are only good for departing a US airport. GE is only good for arriving back from overseas. I let my TSA pre expire once I got my GE/Sentri card as I got an entirely different TTN on my Sentri card. We came back from Hong Kong to SFO using GE and it was great. We were at the curb with our luggage in about 30 minutes from walking off the plane. Regular line was about 1.5 hours. Same when we came back from Germany.

There is no rhyme or reason to getting conditionally approved. Our son, who lives in San Antonio, applied for him, DIL, and our grandkids (16, 13, & 11). The grandkids were approved in ten days. DW and I applied for renewal, as soon as we could, in November 2021. She was approved in April 2022 and I'm still waiting. Then I tried to schedule her interview for San Diego area and soonest was April 2023. Luckily I kept checking the CBP www site for cancelations and got one for December 2022. At least they are granting two year extensions.