Passports are being required to get back into the USA as of Jan 23, 2007 if you are flying.  However even if you aren’t planning on flying back in, because you are taking a cruise or driving across a border, you should still have your passport. 

Something may happen while you are gone requiring you to fly back.  In any case by Jan 2008 you will need passport for any travel outside the US to return to the USA.

Some Caribbean countries already require passports instead of the normal picture ID and birth certificate.

In our paper today Walgreen’s is having a sale.  $7.99 for 2 passport photos. AT any rate, the most I’ve seen for pictures is $10.   So at least get your photos made, then apply for your passports as soon as possible. 

The cost of a  passport is $97 for ages 16 and older and under 16 it’s $82.   They do not run sales on passport fees so there is no sense in waiting for a sale.

In normal circumstances it takes about 6 weeks to recieve your passport.  But with so few Americans having passports we look to an increase in the time it takes to process the applications.

There are services that will expedite the processing to as little as 3 days but they cost almost as much as the passport itself.

You never know when the opportunity for international travel will come up and as much as we don’t consider it, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean are international destinations.  So get that passport as soon as possible so you are ready to travel, travel, travel.

 

 

HOTEL KEY CARDS

From the California Bureau of Investigation:

“Southern California law enforcement professionals assigned to detect
new threats to personal security issues, recently discovered what
type of information is embedded in the credit card type hotel room key
used throughout the industry.

Although room keys differ from hotel to hotel, a key obtained from a
well known hotel chain that was being used for a regional Identity
Theft Presentation was found to contain the following the information:

a.. Customers (your) name

b.. Customers partial home address

c.. Hotel room number

d.. Check in date and check out date

e.. Customer’s (your) credit card number and expiration date!

When you turn them in to the front desk your personal information is
there for any employee to gain access by simply scanning the card in
the hotel scanner.

An employee can take a hand full of cards home and using a scanning
device, access the information onto a laptop computer and go shopping at your
expense.

Simply put, hotels do not erase the information on these cards until
an employee re-issues the card to the next hotel guest.

At that time, the new guest’s information is electronically
“overwritten” on the card and the previous guest’s information is
erased in the overwriting process. But until the card is rewritten for the
next guest, it usually is kept in a drawer at the front desk with YOUR
INFORMATION ON IT!!!!

The bottom line is: Keep the cards, take them home with you, or
destroy them.

NEVER leave them behind in the room or room wastebasket, and NEVER
turn them in to the front desk when you check out of a room. They will not
charge you for the card (it’s illegal) and you’ll be sure you are not leaving a
lot of valuable personal information on it that could be easily lifted
off with any simple scanning device card reader.

For the same reason, if you arrive at the airport and discover you
still have the card key in your pocket, do not toss it in an airport trash
basket. Take it home and destroy it by cutting it up, especially
through the electronic information strip!

Information courtesy of:
Pasadena Police Department

They’ve changed again after they’ve had time to see what is necessary. The Atlanta Journal Constitution lists the following changes:

you can carry on Lipstick, baby food and small amounts of liquid nonprescription medicine, low blood sugar treatments including glucose gel for diabetics. 

Wear shoes that you can slip off easily and some type of sock so you aren’t putting your bare feet on the floor.   then you can take the socks off after you’ve gone thru security.

also allow more time to check in.  add an extra hour.

check the rules at www.tsa.gov

WHAT YOU CAN’T CARRY:

Personal items
All creams and lotions (i.e. suntan lotion, ointments, topical creams)
Bug sprays
Bubble bath / gel bath balls
Eye drops / gels
Gel deodorants (solid stick allowed)
Gel caps
Hair styling gels / hair sprays
Hair straightener or detangler
Lip gels / lip glosses / lip liquids (solid lip glosses, blushes allowed)
Liquid foundations
Liquid medications (up to 4 oz. of nonprescription is allowed)
Liquid sanitizers / Liquid soaps
Make up remover / facial cleansers
Mascara
Mouthwash / toothpaste
Nail polish / Nail polish removers
Perfumes / colognes
Saline solution

Food and drinks
All beverages (formula/breast milk allowed)
CamelBaks, similar backpacks and water bottles must be empty
Gel based sports supplements
Gelatin desserts / Puddings
Yogurts
Note: Baby food is permitted

Other Items
Baby teethers (with gel or liquid inside)
Children’s toys with gel inside
Gel candles
Gel shoe inserts

I found this interesting book in the library last week.  They had very few books in their ‘new’ shelf.  But this one looked interesting.  And since they are talking about private space craft going up in the next few years I thought it was very appropriate.

The book is ORBIT by John J. Nance.  About your average guy who won a trip on a private shuttle.  It doesn’t go to ‘outer space’ but low ‘Earth orbit’.   Things happen to passengers so ultimately it’s just our guy and the pilot that goes up.  It’s supposed to be a 6 hour tour passing around the world several times.  But a meteorite hits the shuttle making for an interesting situation.  The rest of the book tells the story of what happens to the shuttle and the two men in it.

The book is interesting, doesn’t boggle you down with too many statistics as some would.  Kept my interest and I read it in two days.

I know that I surely wouldn’t want to be one of the first to go up in a shuttle.  In fact, knowing me I probably wouldn’t ever want to.  An airplane is about as high as I want to go.  These shuttle trips are ranging from $250,000 to over a million.  Sure could do a lot with that kind of money.

Dancer and GymGirl arrived safely. 

I left for the airport about 550am  and was there about 650am after stopping at McDonalds to get my breakfast. 

The airport was a zoo. The Airtran check in line was thru 3 lines of ropes, down the side and around the corner.  No one was there to do gate passes so I wint into the Atrium and had my breakfast.

Finally found the right line for a gate pass and had about 3 hours left until their flight arrived.

Since they had to wait for the flight attendant they were the last off the plane, one other little boy traveling unacompanied too.

The gate attendant checked my ID and I thought we were through and started to walk away.  She called me back because I also had to sign for them.  There’s a form that has to be signed by the person dropping them off and the person that picks them up.

I felt reassured because they carefully checked my ID and compared the picture.  I almost thought they weren’t going to as the girls came running to me.

So all my anxious moments have been taken care of and I will let them come again by themselves without all the worry.

Oh and had I not gotten there on time they have a room they take the children to  until they get picked up.

 

She came back Sunday night after a long day of traveling and no food.  Airport food was expensive and lines were long.  So she had one nutrition bar with her and that was about all she had until she got home.  She connected in Charlotte but just barely had time to make her plane, so there was no time to eat there either.  But you can see her pictures on her blog  Flitting Here and There.

She had a great time, learned a lot and was able to fit in some sightseeing. 

I’m glad she’s back.  Being the selfish mom I am I’m glad I have her to talk to again in the daytime.

My ‘babies’ are coming! In July!   I’m so excited.   Dancer and Gym Girl are flying by themselves in July.  They’re excited and so am I but I’m also terrified because they will be flying into the big Atlanta Airport.

  I’ll be leaving home over 2 hours earlier than I need to avoid rush hour traffic to make sure I’m there on time.

We have to be early on both ends to get gate passes so Gentle Hands and I can go right up to the gates.  We also have to stay until the plane takes off.  No biggie for us as we planned to anyway. 

The way this works is that I made the reservations online as an adult.   And fortunately I caught a sale. Then I had to call the airline and tell them it was for unacompanied minor children (UMC).  Then they charged me an extra $25 each way for the services of the fight attendant.

They have to be at the airport 2 hrs early and I have to be 2 1/2 hours early so we can get checked in and get the gate passes.  Then we get to go right up to the gates.

No special documents are needed other than our ID’s and our names have to be on their records the same way they are on our IDs.

Then we put the girls directly in the hands of the flight attendant, hopefully they’ll be sitting up by them and a flight attendant is supposed to escort them off into my loving hands.  

It’s been a year and a half since we’ve seen each other.  We are all so excited.

Gentle Hands says she doesn’t know which they are more excited about.  Seeing me or flying by themselves.

 

 

 

 

Well  very sad day for me.  Tink flitted in last Wed. and flitted out today.  Not enough time as usual.

Fortunately we arrived at the airport a little more than 2 hrs ahead of her scheduled departure time.  

The Atlanta airport has surpassed Chicago’s O’Hare as the busiest airport.  Not a wonderful boon for travelers.

The place was mobbed.  This is the 5th time I’ve been at the airport, either traveling for myself, getting and dropping off Tink and Gentle Hands.   This is the first time that Airtran had a line all the way past the checkin desks, the baggage handlers and down the side.

We had planned on arriving early, checking in and having nice leisurely lunch.   Well traffic didn’t cooperate.  Major accident at the windy hill exit which of course is the exit before the one we want and that’s just to get on I-285.

Finally parked and walked in to this humongous line.  It really moved pretty fast but still it was an extra 1/2 hour we hadn’t counted on. 

We were sweating the weight of her checkin luggage as I had Tink bring back books, birthday presents, popcorn and poptarts to various family members.  But we lucked out!  Only 46.5 lbs so no overweight fees.  I had brought a tote bag just in case we had to take some things out.  Fortunately we didn’t have to.  Your allowed 50 lbs to a bag.

Lunch at the Atlanta Bread Place took forever.  I was almost afraid we wouldn’t have time to eat it.  But we did and decided that I had better let Tink get thru security.

As long as the tkt counter line was, the security line was that short.   So we said our tearful goodbye and she walked right on thru.

So a warning for you summer travelers.  Get to the airport early.  If your airline allows you to reserve your seat and/or print boarding passes 24 hrs ahead, go ahead and do it.

PUt some kind of a ribbon, scarf, bow or strap on your bag so you’ll know it’s yours when you go to baggage claim.

If you are locking your luggage make sure you have a TSA lock.  (do a search for TSA lock)    Otherwise you’re stuck standing with them until they go through your suitcase.

 

 

Next summer take your Disney Vacation in the   Mediterranean.  The Disney Magic take its passengers on special 10- and 11 night cruises combining the Disney experience with the picturesque port s of Italy, France and Spain.

You will have a memorable vacation to eight different European ports and some of the most popular tourist destinations. 

 In addition there will be two, 14 night trans-Atlantic sailings including exotic ports and mixed with lazy days at sea.

Bookings begin April 4.   I will have the information up on my site this week.  Email me of your interest   cindy@travel-vacation-packages.com

Let the magic take hold of you!