Need a New Passport? Bill the Caribbean.
Travel Blog • Terry Ward • 01.16.07 | 2:59 PM ET
Photo by Michael Yessis.When my passport expired late last year, I shelled out nearly $150 in expedited fees and overnight shipping envelopes to have a new one rushed my way. If Morocco hadn’t been calling, however, perhaps I would have waited for the Bahamas to pick up the tab. Nassau Paradise Island is spending big bucks on newspaper ads—I saw one in the Orlando Sentinel—touting a new gimmick to keep passport-shy Americans coming: 19 member hotels are offering to reimburse the cost of passports in exchange for a minimum two-night stay.
An article on MSNBC.com reports that SuperClubs resorts in Brazil and the Caribbean are following suit with a similar reimbursement offer for travelers who book by Jan. 23 (when new passport requirements take effect) for travel this year.
And at one St. Lucia resort (and just in time for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007, it’s worth noting), the deal is even sweeter. According to the article:
The Ladera Resort in St. Lucia is offering a Passport to Paradise promotion for travel in 2007. First-time passport holders simply need to show their passport and original receipt at check-in, and they’ll be reimbursed the $97 application fee. The resort is also throwing in extras like a leather passport case, a 30-minute massage and a custom cocktail. The deal is good for travel from January 1 - December 21, 2007.
Meanwhile, in this week’s South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Thomas Swick has some amusing tips for “passport rookies”:
Even inveterate travelers tend to take a look at the picture, affirm it’s of them, and leave it at that. Not enough. In this age of declining work standards and increasingly poor spelling, a little proofreading is in order. Do not, however, send your passport back because the dates are written backward (day first, month second). This is just your government being a little Continental.
You will also notice that nowhere is it written where your passport was issued, a detail that every foreign visa application will ask you for. When that time comes, just write “Pittsburgh.”
Good call, Tom. Recently, while filling out customs forms, I was stumped by the fact that there’s no “Place of Issue” section on the new passports. Somehow “United States Department of State” just doesn’t have the same ring as the ‘Burgh.
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Terry Ward is a Florida-based writer and a long-time contributor to World Hum.
carol kneeland 06.10.07 | 9:06 AM ET
it concerns me that the cost of a passport is so high for a documentthe government is requiring me to have.our local post office is closed during lunch time so the two or more associates can eat lunch together instead of serving the public and expediating the passbook process why is it so expensive and time consuming for a small fee the internet provides all the necessary infomation about a person to cover the required background check thankyou for the forum to vent my frustration
Sandy Gibbs 08.25.07 | 4:27 PM ET
I was pleasantly surprised when my passport needed renewed. I filled out the online form, printed it, went to the AAA for my photo and mailed in the old passport, form and pictures and the $67.00.
I thought I’d hear from them after Christmas, and lo and behold exactly 30 days after I mailed it in, my new passport arrived. Wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected….
Bob Jackson 09.07.07 | 7:56 PM ET
It’s outrageous that an Administration so concerned with freedom of travel overseas—as in Iraq—can’t provide that same freedom for its own citizens to travel in such “danger zones” as Europe, Japan, or the Caribbean. My partner filed an expedited application for a passport at least a month ago and it still hasn’t arrived, although our flight is in two days. How about some competence in the State Department, somewhere?
BTW 10.09.07 | 12:51 AM ET
Great idea with the hotel re-imbursements - if only airlines started offering the same!
Lucia Williams 02.07.08 | 8:00 PM ET
The passport reimbursement fee is a good idea of the hotels. It allows people to be proactive. The whole passport issue threw some vacationers off, but I guess that is the brave new world we live in. Plus needing a passport to travel isnt too bad, you get to see all the stamps from all over the world in your travel book :)
Royal Caribbean 08.21.08 | 11:13 AM ET
I was very surprised when on my Royal Caribbean cruise we stopped for one night at Cable Beach Resort and they reimbursed our passport fees. Cable Beach Resort is one of the most easy-to-get-to destinations in the Caribbean. Set on Nassau’s most famous and beautiful beach. I think I will go there again next year. Anyway, the passport reimbursement fee is a great and attractive idea.