Anxiety over Traveling with kids Birth Certificates

[Cruise a holic]

Our two year old granddaughter has her own passport.  

[gerif]

9 hours ago, Eddie Wilson said:

 

Thanks so much Bella, that’s what I needed.

They aren’t my children, so I can’t get a passport for them and since they didn’t have them I specifically chose the round trip via Seattle.  I think we pull up to the docks in Vancouver for a cup of coffee then leave.

Also chose Seattle to avoid LONG flights from Anchorage with toddlers, for their benefit and that of the other airline patrons.

 

Just have not travelled with Birth Certs before, which ginned up some anxt.

 

Just wanted to confirm - since they are not your children Will their parents be traveling as well?  If not you would also need a notarized letter from the parent(s) not traveling granting permission to take the children out of the country. 

[topnole]

10 hours ago, Tatka said:

 

Do you thing adding more expenses and headache is worth it?

 

You cannot even fly straight home without passport. So you will incur more expenses for absolutely no reason, Get passports... they are good for 5 years (kids), 10 years adults. It is not even one time trip insurance spending, but for many years! 

Pros and cons to it all.  This risk of flying home is incredibly small and folks can make up their own mind on how

to plan for that risk.   
 

For no reason?   People act Iike the cost is nothing.  If you have a few kids that isn’t true by any stretch.  I just got three kid pass ports and it was over $500 when all was said and done.  If you only get it for a cruise, it may make sense to skip the passport and assume the hassle in the highly unlikely event of needing to fly home mid trip.  Again, everyone can judge for themselves.   

[S.A.M.J.R.]

10 hours ago, Tatka said:

 

Do you thing adding more expenses and headache is worth it?

 

You cannot even fly straight home without passport. So you will incur more expenses for absolutely no reason, Get passports... they are good for 5 years (kids), 10 years adults. It is not even one time trip insurance spending, but for many years! 

It's only insurance "for many years" IF you travel out of the country in those years.  If you never leave the US, it's basically wasted money. 

[Tatka]

3 hours ago, topnole said:

Pros and cons to it all.  This risk of flying home is incredibly small and folks can make up their own mind on how

to plan for that risk.   
 

For no reason?   People act Iike the cost is nothing.  If you have a few kids that isn’t true by any stretch.  I just got three kid pass ports and it was over $500 when all was said and done.  If you only get it for a cruise, it may make sense to skip the passport and assume the hassle in the highly unlikely event of needing to fly home mid trip.  Again, everyone can judge for themselves.   

 

Everyone is aware of cost. I had a child and was buying passport.

However it is a trip abroad. Whole World is traveling with passports.

It is changing in US too. Gradually. Flying to Mexico and Caribbeans used to be without passports, now you must have it.

It is normal to have a passport.

 

If you have 3 kids and traveling abroad with them $500 for 5 years should not be an issue. You are very welcome!

Edited June 23, 2023 by Tatka

[Scottdalfonso]

The answer to your question,without all of the extra parenting advice... THEY ARE FINE. We travel with just our child's BC and that is ALL THEY NEED. 

[Tatka]

3 hours ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

It's only insurance "for many years" IF you travel out of the country in those years.  If you never leave the US, it's basically wasted money. 

 

This is cruise boards right? All cruises sail abroad. Passport by the way is also a Real ID.

 

"A passport is an acceptable form of identification and may be used in lieu of a REAL ID Drivers License or ID to board domestic flights and visit federal facilities."

Edited June 23, 2023 by Tatka

[Fouremco]

10 hours ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

Yes, it's a gamble.  But one where the odds favor NOT needing the passport.  How many tens (hundreds?) of thousands of people cruise that DON'T have to fly back mid way?  

And many people don't bother getting any form of travel insurance for the same reason. The odds favour NOT needing it, but these boards have shown time and time again the foolishness of not being insured. When you consider the overall cost of going on a cruise, the price of a multi-year passport is pretty small potatoes.

[topnole]

20 minutes ago, Tatka said:

 

Everyone is aware of cost. I had a child and was buying passport.

However it is a trip abroad. Whole World is traveling with passports.

It is changing in US too. Gradually. Flying to Mexico and Caribbeans used to be without passports, now you must have it.

It is normal to have a passport.

 

If you have 3 kids and traveling abroad with them $500 for 5 years should not be an issue. You are very welcome!

Yeah. My kids have passports.  
 

But I’m not going to go as far as to say everyone needs them.  It’s clearly a personal choice for closed loop cruises out of the US and it varies by situation.  If close looped cruising is all someone plans on doing (let alone maybe just a one time thing) a passport can be an unnecessary expense.   The odds of young healthy folks needing to fly home early is infinitely small.  Otherwise they would require passports for all.  And if a family has one or two kids, with plans for more, there may well be good reasons for them assuming international travel requiring a passport will not be happening in the next several years.  In many situations it could a total waste of money.  Again, it’s personal choice and there can be good reasons for going either way.  Suggesting otherwise is denying reality.  You’re very welcome as well.  

[topnole]

20 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

And many people don't bother getting any form of travel insurance for the same reason. The odds favour NOT needing it, but these boards have shown time and time again the foolishness of not being insured. When you consider the overall cost of going on a cruise, the price of a multi-year passport is pretty small potatoes.

Insurance has zero to do with a passport.  Absolutely zero.  
 

As far as insurance, other than medical, for many there is no need for travel insurance.  If you can afford a cruise, by definition, the travel component wouldn’t be a catastrophic loss.  Would it suck? Sure.  But it wouldn’t be catastrophic, so that is just for peace of mind.  Losing a vacation isn’t like losing a car that must be replaced. 

And for medical, many folks way over insure because they don’t realize the coverage provided by their existing insurance.   Sure, some folks need it.  But many don’t and buy it not realizing most of the coverage is redundant.   So in fact many buying insurance are also foolish because they don’t know what they want or need. 

Edited June 23, 2023 by topnole

[S.A.M.J.R.]

38 minutes ago, Tatka said:

 

This is cruise boards right? All cruises sail abroad. Passport by the way is also a Real ID.

 

"A passport is an acceptable form of identification and may be used in lieu of a REAL ID Drivers License or ID to board domestic flights and visit federal facilities."

And an actual Real ID is cheaper, easier to get, quicker to get, and easier to store/travel with.  

[S.A.M.J.R.]

24 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

And many people don't bother getting any form of travel insurance for the same reason. The odds favour NOT needing it, but these boards have shown time and time again the foolishness of not being insured. When you consider the overall cost of going on a cruise, the price of a multi-year passport is pretty small potatoes.

What other OPTIONAL "small potatoes" should everyone purchase?   Specialty restaurants?  Coco Cay waterpark passes?  The bottom line is passports are NOT required (US Citizens + closed loop cruise). 

  

[Homosassa]

2 hours ago, gerif said:

Just wanted to confirm - since they are not your children Will their parents be traveling as well?  If not you would also need a notarized letter from the parent(s) not traveling granting permission to take the children out of the country. 

OP, in case you missed the  above post.

 

Your post that the children are not yours sent up flares and red flags for some of us.

[Scottdalfonso]

1 hour ago, topnole said:

Insurance has zero to do with a passport.  Absolutely zero.  
 

As far as insurance, other than medical, for many there is no need for travel insurance.  If you can afford a cruise, by definition, the travel component wouldn’t be a catastrophic loss.  Would it suck? Sure.  But it wouldn’t be catastrophic, so that is just for peace of mind.  Losing a vacation isn’t like losing a car that must be replaced. 

And for medical, many folks way over insure because they don’t realize the coverage provided by their existing insurance.   Sure, some folks need it.  But many don’t and buy it not realizing most of the coverage is redundant.   So in fact many buying insurance are also foolish because they don’t know what they want or need. 

I hate that " if you can afford a cruise" thing everyone says. For me a cruise is a struggle, but we make it work. We pay it off over a long time and save a few bucks here to do it. Spitting out an extra 500 bucks isn't just chump change for people, even if they can "afford to cruise"  

[topnole]

32 minutes ago, Scottdalfonso said:

I hate that " if you can afford a cruise" thing everyone says. For me a cruise is a struggle, but we make it work. We pay it off over a long time and save a few bucks here to do it. Spitting out an extra 500 bucks isn't just chump change for people, even if they can "afford to cruise"  

If your talking about passports I agree.
 

But if your comment is in reference to insurance, I’m not sure I understand your point?  

 

Either way, I agree 500 isn’t chump change for most anyone.  Neither is the cost of a cruise.  But, at the same time, the cost of a cruise is not a catastrophic loss for anyone or they would never be on the cruise.  A catastrophic loss is by definition something you can’t afford.  Insurance exists mainly to protect against catastrophic loss although insurance companies certainly aren’t any to sell insurance for non catastrophic loss items nowadays.  That catastrophic number varies for everyone, but that is why we don’t typically insure $10 or even $100 products (although insurance companies will try to sell you insurance on many things in those price ranges). 
 

I insure my car because the law requires it.  A 50k loss, for example, would be horrible (albeit not catastrophic).  The liability could be catastrophic though, so we all need car insurance.   What I don’t need is $1500-200 insurance on a $1000 appliance.  I can just buy a new new one in the rare event it breaks prematurely. Most people simply self insure moat

things they own.  They only insure the really expensive things that are catastrophic or close to it. 

[topnole]

13 hours ago, Tatka said:

 

Do you thing adding more expenses and headache is worth it?

 

You cannot even fly straight home without passport. So you will incur more expenses for absolutely no reason, Get passports... they are good for 5 years (kids), 10 years adults. It is not even one time trip insurance spending, but for many years! 

It is a solid 750 for passports for a family of 5.  To many it is worth the infinitely small risk to save that kind of money if you only want to do cruises over the next several years. Many with young kids

are not going to travel where you need a passport.  

[mjkacmom]

15 hours ago, RD64 said:

With all due respect - if the cost of a passport amortized over - say - 10 years is going to break the bank, then perhaps it is something that needs to be budgeted for the future. Without a passport you are severely limiting your options to discover the world.

Our family of 7 has valid passports, but it cost close to $1000. Three of my kids traveled internationally this year, but not everyone goes out of the country. It takes a bit to get appointments here, and it was a pain when the kids were little, my husband had to leave work early because we both had to be there.

[mjkacmom]

2 hours ago, topnole said:

Insurance has zero to do with a passport.  Absolutely zero.  
 

As far as insurance, other than medical, for many there is no need for travel insurance.  If you can afford a cruise, by definition, the travel component wouldn’t be a catastrophic loss.  Would it suck? Sure.  But it wouldn’t be catastrophic, so that is just for peace of mind.  Losing a vacation isn’t like losing a car that must be replaced. 

And for medical, many folks way over insure because they don’t realize the coverage provided by their existing insurance.   Sure, some folks need it.  But many don’t and buy it not realizing most of the coverage is redundant.   So in fact many buying insurance are also foolish because they don’t know what they want or need. 

I’m pretty sure most private health insurance in the US can’t be used out of the country, we have Aetna, a pretty good plan, but always get travel insurance for medical.

[cyntil8ing]

We staggered our passports so that we're not renewing them all the same year. If you go on a cruise each year, save an extra $10/month to get or renew a single passport each year.

 

We didn't do that with Global Entry because we had to go over an hour away for the initial processing. Global Entry expires on the holder's birthday, so we could at least stagger renewals by month when we renewed last year.

 

A few years ago, my dad had a medical emergency while we were on a cruise and we were faced with a decision of disembarking the cruise in Nassau. Since we all had passports, all of us left the ship while he was hospitalized then flew home together two days later. Had we not had passports, my husband and the kids would likely have stayed on board, while I disembarked with Dad. Then along with the medical issues, I would have been scrambling to get emergency passports. And since this was Christmas week AND over a weekend, we would not have been able to get them immediately. I was very glad we were not forced into that situation.

[topnole]

33 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

I’m pretty sure most private health insurance in the US can’t be used out of the country, we have Aetna, a pretty good plan, but always get travel insurance for medical.

Mine does.  Including medical evacuation.  But I definitely have a good plan and I have no idea about other plans.  Are you sure Aetna simply doesn’t cover you out of country?  Perhaps it is just out of network?   Regardless, many people most definitely purchase redundant coverage they don’t need.  Everyone should check their primary coverage so they know what they need. 

[topnole]

44 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

Our family of 7 has valid passports, but it cost close to $1000. Three of my kids traveled internationally this year, but not everyone goes out of the country. It takes a bit to get appointments here, and it was a pain when the kids were little, my husband had to leave work early because we both had to be there.

Agree.  It is a total pain and expensive for those of us with several kids.   And the passports are only good for 5 years (effectively about 4.5 when factoring in needing it plenty early and not being able to travel most places right up until it expires).  

[DrD]

17 hours ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

Because THEY. ARE. NOT. NEEDED.  Some people don't like spending money they don't need to.  

 

For the OP... what are you anxious about?  That you won't be allowed to board?  Assuming they are state issued, official birth certificates, you're fine.  

 

If you're anxious about something happening during the cruise and you'll need to fly back from another country, then you might be better with passports.  BUT, keep in mind the lead time to get passports (you don't say when your cruise is).  

Neither is a cruise.  But the OP said she's anxious, so maybe for her it would be worth the money.

[DrD]

2 hours ago, cyntil8ing said:

Had we not had passports, my husband and the kids would likely have stayed on board, while I disembarked with Dad. 

Maybe I won't get a passport then 😉

[Joseph2018Baltic]

My oldest never had a passport while a kid, and my oldest only got one at 16 because of a school trip.  They each were on over 10 cruises and I have NEVER had a passport for those trips.  

[joeyancho]

16 hours ago, Eddie Wilson said:

 

 

Just have not travelled with Birth Certs before, which ginned up some anxt.

 

Gin is very good for that anxt.