On Apr 16, 9:45 pm, "Uncle Peter" wrote:
> ...
> >But, seriously...we're talking about travel to foreign lands. If the>family can't afford the several hundred dollars for passports, maybe
>
> >they need to rethink their decision to travel out of the country.
>
> >Buying passports should not be a deal breaker for those considering a
> >trip out of the U.S. If it is, then, in my opinion, these people are
> >living way too close to the edge.
>
> Must be nice to be independently wealthy.
Definitely not independently wealthy, but I do know how to live within
my means. I know that if I can't afford to keep my passport up to
date, I should rethink whether spending money to travel to foreign
lands for vacation is really the best usage of my funds.
>I can see where
> a mere additional several hundred dollars could affect a
> family's vacation plans!
Absolutely! That's my point. If the expense of obtaining necessary
documentation for the family puts the vacation too far over budget,
vacation plans need to be revisited and tweaked, to better meet the
family's means.
>Many folks have so much to budget
> for a vacation and that's it.
And, many families have no budget for vacation, at all. Please. If you
want me to start feeling sorry for the family that can only vacation
in the U.S. because they can't afford passports, it isn't gonna
happen. There's a lifetime's worth of places to visit right here in
the ol' USA.
Heck, there are lots of places on this planet that I'd love to visit,
but right now my vacation budget isn't going to let it happen. That's
fine. There are lots of places that I CAN afford to go to, and those
are the places that I'll limit myself to. Passports, like airfare,
food, hotels...are part of the international travel package. It needs
to be worked into a vacation budget, not seen as an expense above and
beyond what a family had intended to spend.
>Considering one can do seven
> cruises for well under 500 dollars a person
> adding another 700 bucks becomes a substantial penalty.
It's not a "penalty", it's part of your travel expenses, just as
cruise fare, airfare, hotels, rental cars, town car service are. You
make it sound as if we Americans are being punished for wanting to
travel, when in fact we're finally catching up to the rest of the
world by requiring passports to travel in and out of our country.
Lee
>
> Pete
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