Sorry to read of your honeymoon disappointments. I hope you are able to take a fabulous late honeymoon sometime in the future.

We decided to take a short honeymoon fairly close by and our "real" one the following summer when we had more time off. Thank heavens we didn't consider our first trip our "real" one as we weren't able to get the hotel we hoped for and asked for another recommendation. The room we landed in was crawling with critters! You can bet we checked out early and still laugh about our "romantic" night in that dump!

Congratulations on finding each other and maintaining your sense of humor!

sbarry,that truly sucks about your honeymoon. I have a friend who thought I was worrying needlessly about my passport getting to me in time because she thought no way were people missing trips over this. To anyone else waiting for passports, you need to LIE about your departure date when you call to expedite. Give yourself a 10 day cushion. I hate lying and so I put off doing that and only when I did did I get my passport. If you tell them the true date and they wait until the last minute you have no recourse. If you give them a fake date and it doesn't come you still have time to go down and get it in person.

Monica, how about simply getting a passport BEFORE you have a deadline!
People... if you are reading this and do NOT have a passport and think you might need one in the next year JUST DO IT!

I agree Texastravelpro. Even if you don't plan on going for 3 years, isn't it better to have it now, than to wait and take a chance of not getting it in time then?

I agree TxTravelPro. My daughter put in for her renewal in April of this year although she had several months before the expiration of her passport. She doesn't have any travel plans right now but she didn't want to be stressed if some trip came up as she had summer of 2005 when her in-laws in Rome suddenly both were taken quite ill and they had to fly out of here within 24 hours notice.

She was told that her renewal would take 13 weeks..we will see..but again not a problem.

sbarry2003 I am also sorry all of your honeymoon plans were ruined but you two do sound like you have a wonderful marriage which is the most important. I hope that you can celebrate your 1st anniversary in Ireland. And for sure you will have a story to tell your grandchildren decades from now.

TXTravelPro: A minor's passport is only good for five years. The father, mother and minor all have to be at the passport office at the same time to get one. We applied for her second passport (a renewal except they don't renew passports per se for minors) in March for an August travel date. It shouldn't have been a problem, but it was and resulting in me having to fudge our travel date to get it with a comfortable margin. It's not just as simple as "get it now" in all cases.

My goodness - what an unfortunate set of circumstances for a honeymoon! I join others offering empathy on what should have been a memorable vacation. (I guess it was memorable all right!). Your passport story boggles my mind. Our passports need to be renewed - they expire in April of 2008. In 2007, we were able to go a week in May, a week in October, a week in March, and a week in April to Europe. When would I have renewed my passport given that schedule? Anyway, I'm now sure when to start this process...thanks, again, for sharing your experience.

"In third world countries we would call this expedition fee a bribe."

My thoughts, exactly!

Congratulations on your wedding! I hope you're able to take your trip to Ireland sometime soon. As Lucie said, you may well enjoy it more without all the post-wedding stress, etc.

And thanks for the heads-up on package trips and Budget.

I thought you might all think this is funny but we still have not yet recieved our passports. Monday it will be 18 weeks and 6 since they were expidited. Good thing we didn't continue to sit around waiting on them. LoLo

sbarry2003: I hope the marriage is going better than the honeymoon did!

We really didn't stay long at our honeymoon. Had planned a week, but after a couple days, were ready to return & start our lives together.

You can enjoy some trips later, but sorry you had trouble with the honeymoon!