The clock is ticking and by the end of the year 2007, you will not be able to travel by ship to any destinations outside of the United States without a passport. It takes at least 8 weeks for your local passport office or the post office to process your application and if you don't plan to give it that much time before your cruise in 2008, you might as well cancel your cruise. Border security will have zero tolerance for cruise travellers without a passport.
If you don't like beating the crowds just to apply for your passport, there are several services on line that can assist you with obtaining this much needed travel documentation fast like VisaHQ.com. They even have an expedited passport service where you can get your passport within 24 hours. The same service is also available if you are trying to replace a lost passport, renew your old passport, or add passport pages. How do they make this possible? VisaHQ.com submits your passport applications directly to the US Passport agency for urgent processing.
Don't be caught without a passport when the regulations come into effect!
WOW! I remember that it took me over two months to get mine, and that was with paying for the rush service. Course, that was ten years ago . . . Oh, must be time to renew!
