Feb. 2011 Belize Cruise
Voyager of the Seas
My parents, Wayne & Kathy, had a piece of luggage with a bad zipper to an extra pocket. While rushing through the airport all their passports, cruise papers and other important documents came flying out on to the floor. They quickly pushed them back into the pocket, zipped it and continued on to the flight.
After we landed in Houston, TX, where we were staying over night before boarding our ship the next morning for our Belize cruise, my parents happened to open the pocket with the bad zipper…..they notice my dad’s passport was missing! They quickly called me and I hurried to their room. We tore their entire luggage apart, and no passport. My dad reminds me of the incident at the airport and we are convinced it was left on the floor in the San Diego CA airport. We call the airport a hundred times; they just keep telling us that it hasn’t been found. Unfortunately, without a passport, or a certified birth certificate my dad will be denied boarding tomorrow morning at the cruise pier. We call the bus company a hundred times asking if the cleaning crew found it yet….they keep telling us no. We decide to have the house sitter, Anthony, go to my parent’s house and get his certified birth certificate and give it to the courier service to over night it to us. So, Anthony is very helpful and gets the birth certificate off to the courier service. Prior to the courier picking up the certificate we had Anthony fax over a copy of my dad’s certificate to our at the hotel…..hummm, I keep having Anthony re-fax….it won’t come through right, and I eventually give up on the fax. Everyone in the group was so helpful, and encouraging, Stephanie helped us locate the courier service, but eventually everyone head’s to bed. My dad and I try the airport and bus companies one last time…..still no passport found. Ugh, it’s about midnight, here’s my dad thinking he will be denied boarding and yet he makes the best of the situation by making a joke. He makes a sign, and messes himself up to look homeless. The sign says “Homeless couldn’t make my cruise, can’t fly back to CA until 02-13-11, need food and a place to stay.”
Right before we decide there’s nothing else we can do for the night, I make a comment to my dad about how the certificate wouldn’t fax through right, it looks all wrong. He says “no that’s the way it looks.” I suddenly feel like throwing up, I say out loud “But that’s not a certified copy, they only accept certified copies.” My dad informs me that, that is the certificate he used to get his original passport 20+ years ago. I feel even sicker, I decide not to tell anyone, and I just tell my dad that we should go to bed since it’s after midnight and we have to get up early. I tell him not to worry that we’ll get him on board. Inside I’m just sick as my dad just paid a handsome sum of money to overnight his certificate, and it’s not a certified copy. I’m sick because I now know there is a 99% chance he will be denied boarding because security is very strict now since 09/11. I can’t sleep trying to figure out a plan to get him on board. The next morning the whole group boards the bus heading to the cruise pier except for my dad; he gets on the shuttle to go back to the airport to pick up his overnight certificate. Eddie tells the bus driver, who happens to be the same guy we had the night before, what happened. The bus driver informs Eddie that he knows the bus from last night hasn’t been cleaned yet, he offers to drive us to the bus yard to look through the bus. We gladly accept his offer. I follow him to the bus, I go inside and look everywhere possible, between the seats, the bathroom, the overhead racks….no passport. Now I’m even sadder then before as I step off the bus. He opens the luggage compartments I peer in, I see something way in the back…..could it be…I jump inside the luggage compartment and crawl over to the object, IT’S MY DAD’S PASSPORT!!!!!! I can’t contain myself I start running in circles screaming and crying for joy. The whole bus is cheering! Wait, my dad is on the way to the airport! Eddie hurries and calls him (what would we do without cell phones?) and tells him to get off the shuttle and we will pick him up with the bus. The shuttle says he’s not allowed to stop his route. Somehow my dad gets off and tells us what street corner he is standing on. Our bus driver races over and picks him up, again the whole bus is cheering! My dad is still in disbelief. He said when Eddie told him the passport was found he couldn’t believe it. So, off we ALL went to the cruise pier and we ALL got to have one of our favorite cruises yet.
Travel Tip: If the safe location you have all your important documents in no longer seems secure, take the time to move them to a different location, don’t feel so rushed that you return them to the unsecure spot. Also, if things aren’t going well do what my dad did and just make a joke about it. Why make a bad situation worse? Sometimes a joke can ease the stress.
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