Shock!Horror!

[real mad hatter]

I've put this blog into trip planning because I've just bumped into friend today who is going on his first trip to WDW in May this year,staying at All Stars with his partner and their two kids,infact this will be there first ever holiday to USA. So I was joking to him about making sure their passports were valid,no crimes committed etc,etc,I then mentioned about ESTA forms for all the family.He had no idea what I was talking about,infact he thought I was pulling his leg.This is for tourists outside USA [do south Americans have to get them I wonder] anyway UK residents do and they now cost $14.00 for every traveller,that includes tots. I thought the travel agent would have advised them but they didn't.So this is for all UK residents who are going to WDW for the first time,tho iam sure 99% of Brits will be aware of this form.P.S. It lasts for two years.:wave:

 

[Bolna]

Gotcha! Interesting. I really had no clue but I'm not as well-traveled as some. Canada was my single foray out of the country with the exception of the cruise to the Bahamas last September. Very interesting. Did this ESTA form thing come into use after 9/11 as part of the homeland security effort? Just curious.

ESTA certainly is part of Homeland Security together with taking fingerprints of every non-US resident entering the USA.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Spot on my Texas friend,In 2009 January,USA brought out the ESTA form as a part of homeland security,and long may it continue,I'd pay lots more to make sure that myself and family are safe.:wave:

Gotcha. **thumbs up**

Canadians also don't need them to go to the US...just a passport.

I can't remember what year it was we went to Canada for my brother-in-law's wedding. I wanna say 2004? We didn't even have passports. All we needed were our certified birth certificates. Upon return to the US it was kinda weird the way the Border Patrol agent guy checking us out glared at our little guys strapped in the backseat of the rental car and asked us, "Are these yours?" Ugh...no???? :lol: I'm sure it's more to see what our reaction would be. He was drop-dead serious. Grilled us more about them and poured over their birth documents. THAT made me feel a bit better. Not that my children at such young ages were a danger to anyone, but that they were careful to make sure we weren't hauling off with someone else's kids. Ya know?

ESTA certainly is part of Homeland Security together with taking fingerprints of every non-US resident entering the USA.

Makes sense to do that. Better to have the info and not need it then to need it and have nothing, right?

 

[I_heart_Tigger]

IUpon return to the US it was kinda weird the way the Border Patrol agent guy checking us out glared at our little guys strapped in the backseat of the rental car and asked us, "Are these yours?" Ugh...no???? :lol: I'm sure it's more to see what our reaction would be. He was drop-dead serious. Grilled us more about them and poured over their birth documents. THAT made me feel a bit better. Not that my children at such young ages were a danger to anyone, but that they were careful to make sure we weren't hauling off with someone else's kids. Ya know?

When I was 6 or 7 and went to WDW with my family and on the way back to Canada we were pulled out of the customs line up and I was separated from my family and grilled about what their names were and if they were my parents and where I was from etc etc etc.

Apparently since my family is incredibly white with brownish/blonde hair and I tend to tan quite dark with dark brown hair, they thought my parents were trying to smuggle a small Mexican child into Canada. :lol:

Eventually they allowed them to take me home