jamieah: I hope you have called your travel agent and told her what is happening, I have never booked w/ my agent who did not say, and I know you probably know this, but you will need a passport for this vacation and do you need one or is yours current (as certain countries require it not have an expiration date w/in three months, etc). She should have then told you when you said no, about the state.gov/passport etc website which has all the info clearly on it including the return envelope for rushes or where to go personally. Your travel agent , as ricky would have said "has some splainin' to do" - shame on her to assume every client knows everything about int'l travel and/or passport requirements. I would speak to her and to her boss if she has one.

WE HAVE PASSPORTS! Thanks everyone for holding my hand through this. I don't care if it rains every day in Barbados - I'm too happy to let anything else ruin this trip.
Good luck to anyone tht has been following this thread & learning from it.

Jamieah..

Oh YAY for passports in hand :-) ! I didn't post, but have been following your travails with all kinds of bureaucracy. You certainly were pro-active in your battle and I am so pleased with a positive result.

ENJOY every second and I'm sure you will have sunshine :-) !

Marion

WONDERFUL...enjoy.....and now that you have a passport, keep it upated so you can fly off at a moments notice ...... praying for only sunny days for you -

Here's another poster who was reading this thread from the sidelines and who is wishing you nothing but perfect weather on your trip to Barbados.

Marion, good to see your name on here again. Hope all is well with you! I've been a bit absent here lately myself.

Hi EJ,

Thanks for your personal thoughts...all is well here.

The tragedy in our world in the last months, has left many of us more inclined to read than to write, I think.

Hope you have not had to build an ark. I hear that parts of Western MA have been especially hard hit with rain.

It is nice to read about jamieah's success :-) ! She sounds like another strong, empowered woman ;-) !

Marion

Happy and safe travels.

GREAT NEWS! Have a safe and wonderful vacation (and don't forget to post your trip report when you return!)

Ditto from the sidelines, jamieah! What a horror story!

Hope you have a wonerful Bajan trip and love it as much as we did. Looking forward to your post trip stories here!

Linda

What a wonderful trip! My sister asked me if it was worth the passport hassle & now I can say "YES". When I get unpacked & situated I'll give you a run down of our vacation.

After reading your post, my hubby and I decided to pay the extra hundred and fifty to expedite our passports. The person at the post office told us we had plenty of time (we are leaving for st. john January 2). Why should she care if something goes awry with our passports?? But I learned a valuable lesson from your experience, and don't want to bite my nails waiting for the mail...thanks for posting your experience for us to share and learn.

I'm glad that writing about my experiences has helped. Don't forget when you're tracking the status, do not use the internet - they don't always put the correct message up. Call the NPIC at 1-877-487-2778.

I wrote a review about our trip but forgot to choose specific islands to post under so you can find it under the main topic of Caribbean Islands.

Please let us know how wonderful your trip was when you return.

We will certainly post a trip report when we get back. Thanks again.