I need my passport renewing for late May, but my car MOT is due early May and I can't MOT till it early April or I will loose a month so been putting of thinking of my holiday but I think I just need to get it booked.
I need to be getting on with booking my trip to Spain as it is cheaper to do it in advance. My plan is now to get the Eurostar to Lille, and then get the coach to northern Spain from there. It works out very cheap and I am only on the coach for something like 12 hours compared with a day on the package holidays. It also means I can spend a night in Lille breaking up the journey.
Anyway back to my question, the Eurostar is none refundable but the tickets are only £35.00 each way, compared to the £100s if I left it last minute. If I renewed my passport today how long is it likely to come? The government say they aim to process it in four weeks, this that about right? I am wondering if it is worth paying the extra for the premium service?
Last edited by: Webmaster on Thu 4 Apr 13 at 08:56
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Provided you get the formwork right first time and your photo and payment are in order then putting te stuff in the post tomorrow should have your passport back in well under the predicted for weeks.
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I'd do the passport ASAP - any months up to 3 from the old one are added on to the new one. i.e. up to 10 years and 3 months for the new passport.
I'd have thought this time of year the passport would come back in two weeks or less. The last time I renewed mine it came back within a week (it was in December 2009).
I'd pay the little extra to get the post office to check the application before sending it off. More likely to come back without issues.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Mon 25 Mar 13 at 20:35
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Thanks, it expired in Feb 2012, so its well out of date now, but I assume it makes no difference to the renewal process?
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No it will make no difference to the renewal process.
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SWMBO has just renewed hers - 2 years or so expired, came back in little more than a week.
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Just renewed mine and it came back within a week. Much nicer than the old one, though the fee is a bit of an eye opener.
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It is expensive, its good value if you use it all the time, but I have not touched mine since 2007.
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You can get one in a couple of days if you really need to Sheikha, but you may have to go to Peterborough to be interviewed and fill in the forms. It happened to me a year or so back, but there was a place in London too... perhaps there's one near you as well. The other thing is that for the absolute emergency speed job you have to pay 124 quid or something.
That happened to me a year or so back, and very tiresome it was. But you still have time. So I should get onto it now if I were you.
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I know I can go to Liverpool and get it, but its about £50 more expensive and I don't need it till another eight weeks so I think I will just order it the normal way.
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I understand that a lot of the £70+ fee for the new "Chipped" passports is intended to go towards the infrastructure for the identity cards that we now aren't going to get.
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Make yourself an appointment in Liverpool and get it done on the same day service. Take the train over and kill a few hours in Caffe Nero while it's being processed.
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Went to the post office in the end and did that way, cost just over £81. They said it should be take about a week in total, so hopefully I will get it well before the end of May.
Need to have a look into it a lot more, but I am now thinking of getting the Eurostar and then a night train down to Barcelona. I am thinking this:-
11:00ish - Get train to London
1:00 - Arrive in London
4:00 - Get the Eurostar to Paris
7:00 - Arive in Paris
10:00 - Get night train to Barcelona.
Arrive in the morning
I am thinking this is pushing it fine, so I may get the coach to London instead (I can't afford a train earlier than 11) and arrive in London for about 11:00, then getting the Eurostar at about 3:30.
It is a bit complicated, so I am thinking of joining the old fogies on a package coach trip but I will see. I will have some fun in Excel tonight.
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Years ago we did an overnight sleeper from Paris to Florence and had it all planned out. A precise of what could go wrong based on this experience:
- Ticket from Paris to Florence said Bercy so I assumed Paris Bercy was the station... checked with Citalia and they said no it was a Gard de Nord platform.... still thought I was right.
- Travelled overnight on a coach to London to keep costs down (trains for the time we needed to travel were VERY expensive).... nightmare coach journey there and back.... never again! Frightening drivers
- Nice day in London
- Due to landslide in France, our Eurostar train was delayed by hours! Got a bit nervous....
- Asked the 'train guard' on Eurostar about the onward station as we were (a) unsure and (b) we were going to be cutting it fine!
- Told it was Gard de Nord and don't worry
- Got there and it looked like nobody could help and we risked getting to Bercy on the underground
- Got outside there and legged it to the station (guessed directions!)
- Train was ready and waiting there for the overnight sleeper
- No such thing as aircon on the train back in 2001... open the window if you wanted air! And then it was as noisy as anything.
Good break in Florence but a nightmare on the underground in Paris on the way back.
Moral of my story... leave plenty of time for the unforeseen!!! We nearly missed our train to Florence.
Moral two is now my wife is not scared of flying....fly!
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I do worry about that sort of thing happening. At least on a coach tour if anything gets delayed, you can't loose a connection. At worse they will have to put you up some where over night.
I am well used to getting coaches to London so that doesn't bother me, so if I need to be there very early I will get the coach, as you know the trains can be very expensive at 6:00am in the morning.
The final option would be getting a very late train from Manchester to London, getting to London for midnight, then getting the earliest Eurostar train, in which I can get cheap. That will mean I will have 12 hours once in Paris to make the connection.
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I'd also recommend that you look at a fear of flying course, which might help.
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I have no fear of flying.
I'm just terrified of crashing...
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The 5:40 train gets me into Paris for 9:17am so hopefully I can find some where to dump my luggage and spend an entire day capturing Paris with my G2 before getting the night train.
Only downside is I would have to get to London about midnight, so I won't get any sleep that day, I will sleep during the day.
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>> The 5:40 train gets me into Paris for 9:17am so hopefully I can find some
>> where to dump my luggage and spend an entire day capturing Paris with my G2
>> before getting the night train.
There's a decent left luggage facility at the Gare du Nord. In the undercroft, surrounded by tough wire fencing and subject to airport security it uses good old metal lockers in a choice of sizes secured with key or PIN locks. An object lesson to Network Rail in how such things can be provided in current world circs.
OTOH I don't really think your original plan was lacking realism. Even if you were turfed onto a bus from Milton Keynes>Watford four hours slack in London is plenty. St Pancras is ten minute walk from Euston!!
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I know the area very well. The problem is ideally I would probably want something to eat during that time, and I assume all the stations are pretty much closed at the time of the morning?
Just been doing some rough sums, and Training it all the way down to Barcelona only works out £80 more expensive than doing it the package way, but this way I get to spend a good day in Paris and a night in Barcelona.
The train is a shared four berth sleeper, and I do have some anxiety about that. but as others said it so no different to a train seat really. Will probably be a lot more comfortable.
I will be pretty knackered by the time I get to Barcelona though, the key is to get a lot of sleep on the day I travel to London I think. A can get a travel lodge in London for about £35 that is an other option but I would have to be up at the crack dawn anyway, so it doesn't really solve anything in regards to sleep.
So my plan is this:-
Monday evening, get the last train to London from Manchester Piciddily. (2 hrs)
Hang round Euston or St Pancras for a few hours, maybe find a late opening Indian, I remember going to a decent one on a back street in Kings Cross once.
Tuesday morning: Get the first Eurostar to Paris, drop luggage of at Nord station and spend the day doing the usual touristy things in Paris (for the 4th time!) still it is amazing city I always fall in love with from a photography point of view.
Then get the 22:16 sleeper train down to Barcelona. Spend the first night there before going on to the rest of my holiday.
Coming back works out the same pretty much in reverse but once I get to London the deadlines are much less tight as if I miss a train to Manchester I sort myself out.
With a package trip I would be stuck on a coach for more than 24 hours, and it just seems a bit like Butlins by Coach!
Last edited by: Webmaster on Thu 4 Apr 13 at 08:55
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Rattle... consider flying. Cheaper and quicker.
For example Jet2 to Barcelona from Manchester is £105 return for 4-11th May. Leave Manchester at 7:45am and be in Barcelona at 11:15am. A no brainer. Monarch flights available too.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Wed 27 Mar 13 at 00:11
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"The train is a shared four berth sleeper, and I do have some anxiety about that. but as others said it so no different to a train seat really. Will probably be a lot more comfortable."
Best take a book.
tinyurl.com/cjgzred
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Passport still hasn't arrived, I know I am probably worrying about nothing because I am not due to the travel until mid to late May but if the worst came to the worst can I still do the emergency collect from Liverpool thing if I have an application pending?
I sent the application off on 26th of March using check and sent. I am thinking I perhaps should have done the emergency thing and got it from Liverpool. I am just panicking because I have spent £400 on a holiday without a passport but rail fares and everything else go up and up, so I had to book it when I did.
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Sat 6 Apr 13 at 17:59
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It's been less than 2 weeks, with Easter in the middle. I wouldn't be worrying just yet!!
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Yeah the bank holiday will have delayed things, its just with the post office saying I will have it back in a week I start to worry, it wouldn't be so bad if there was online tracker, the worst thing is waiting the post each day.
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Does it matter if it takes 5 or 6 weeks? Don't panic! It will probably turn up next week.
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Yeah I just want to avoid a mad panic nearer the time if it hasn't arrived, but it is out of my hands so no point on worrying yet. I just feel I can't properly look forward it to until my passport has arrived.
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If you haven't received it yet almost in certainly in the hand of of Romanian immigrant smuggling gang. Your indentity has no doubt been cloned multiple times and there are now at least dozen or so new Rattles in container lorries bound for our shores.
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Pop round and borrow mine if you're stuck, Ratto.
Ted
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You see, I think CG is correct. And what's worse, when the Romanian smuggling gang have finished, I suspect they'll sell your passport to a Turkish terrorist group. So once western civilization has been destroyed, the authorities are going to think you did it.
I think there's no hope.
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there are
>> now at least dozen or so new Rattles in container lorries bound for our shores.
Well they wont be flying in, will they.
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Don't forget they'll use it for credit card applications.
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Daughter, SIL + grandchildren are in Turkey, having passed thru' Albania. We have a few pics of Albania taken through the windscreen of their T2 VW camper. Horrendous place.
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Yes all very amusing, but I like to worry about trivial stuff so I don't worry about the important things.
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Worry is like a rocking chair - keeps you busy, gets you nowhere.
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"gets you nowhere."
You mean worry is like a missing passport? ;-)
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Sun 7 Apr 13 at 09:38
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Hardly; Worry is no use to international identity thieves. Whereas a missing passport......
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I shouldn't worry. They never check passports on the way into France. And they'll let you get home somehow; personally I'd just chance it - take your photocard driving licence with you. Actually, an out-of-date passport would have been fine too. Shame you sent it off.
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Young, nervous looking boy? Nah, they will instantly assume drug mule, maybe terrorist.
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aaahh, the sound of a rubber glove snapping against wrist, the long bend down to your ankles....
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It got nearly this far in Termninal 5 for me - and I was only going to Orkney.
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>>Orkney.
Known far and wide as a hotbed of European drug lords and international criminals. Or was it sheep? I forget, but I know there's loads of one or the other.
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>> >>Orkney.
>>
>> Known far and wide as a hotbed of European drug
Thats "dung", easy mistake to make.
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Always liked Hamish Blair's poem about Orkney
b***** Orkney
This b***** town's a b***** cuss
No b***** trains, no b***** bus,
And no one cares for b***** us
In b***** Orkney.
The b***** roads are b***** bad,
The b***** folks are b***** mad,
They'd make the brightest b***** sad,
In b***** Orkney.
All b***** clouds, and b***** rains,
No b***** kerbs, no b***** drains,
The Council's got no b***** brains,
In b***** Orkney.
Everything's so b***** dear,
A b***** bob, for b***** beer,
And is it good? - no b***** fear,
In b***** Orkney.
The b***** 'flicks' are b***** old,
The b***** seats are b***** cold,
You can't get in for b***** gold
In b***** Orkney.
The b***** dances make you smile,
The b***** band is b***** vile,
It only cramps your b***** style,
In b***** Orkney.
No b***** sport, no b***** games,
No b***** fun, the b***** dames
Won't even give their b***** names
In b***** Orkney.
Best b***** place is b***** bed,
With b***** ice on b***** head,
You might as well be b***** dead,
In b***** Orkney
Is that a record for the swear filter?
Hamish Blair
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Mon 8 Apr 13 at 18:40
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Some Inranian in a Pakyan just turned up with it and thanked me for the free entry in the UK.
On a serious note it has just been pushed through the letter box now, rather odd, I thought you would have to sign for something as important as a passport. It even clearly said on the envelope it was a passport.
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That's good, now you can go on holiday. I agree with you about the security aspects of the delivery! BTW, how many elapsed days was it from you getting it checked and applied for to the arrival? Looks like 26th March to 9th April which is pretty good, I reckon.
Last edited by: Meldrew on Tue 9 Apr 13 at 15:35
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I think they use couriers but you don't need to sign for it. They certainly don't come through the post.
With the chipped passports you'd hope taking one and using it is more difficult these days. But I am sure they are easily forged.
See you worried about nothing again with regards the passport. You don't go away for over a month so why worry early?
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>> I think they use couriers but you don't need to sign for it. They certainly
>> don't come through the post.
IIRC there's a risk based approach to delivery based on part of the stuff asked at application. If you live in a family house with one letterbox you're regarded as a low risk so, like R&S, it just comes through the door.
Shared letterboxes, houses in multiple occupation etc may find you called on to sign or even to collect with proof of ID.
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How are passports taking to arrive? - Bromptonaut
