Whether you’re planning a Bahamas bareboat charter, or a Monaco Grand Prix yacht charter on a fully-crewed superyacht, as an American traveling abroad,
you’ll need a US passport.
HOW TO APPLY FOR A US PASSPORT
Once a tedious process, new efforts by the U.S. State Department have been implemented to improve customer service and create a more accessible approach to passports.
The State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs now has nearly 8,000 acceptance offices, and promises a 4 to 6-week turnaround on all passports. The passport fee for a first-time adult applicant is $135. For an extra fee, express service can bring the wait down to 2-3 weeks, perfect for planning a last minute island escape.
SPECIAL PASSPORT PROGRAM ON SATURDAYS
Additionally, the Bureau has created a, “Passport Saturdays” program, when parents can register children under 16 on a day that is not a workday, since both parents must be present.
ANSWERS TO PASSPORT QUESTIONS
The State Department’s passport website offers a wide range of resources – from country by country guides, warnings, regulations and background information, to passport forms that can be downloaded.
TRAVELER ASSISTANCE BY THE BUREAU OFFERED
The Bureau has also introduced a Smartphone enrollment notification system created for travelers headed for hot spots or people caught in countries experiencing emergencies or natural disasters. The system can track those who are enrolled and try to reach them in countries undergoing a developing crisis.
Recently, the system proved useful for US citizens in Libya during the current political uprising. The Bureau created a system of tweets to feed trapped US citizens information about the best ways to flee the dangers, such as the schedules and locations of ferries to take them out of the country.
In another instance, the Bureau was able to locate an airplane run by a Canadian company to lift several citizens to safety. In those situations, costs go to the passengers assisted but never exceed the cost of what a full fare commercial ticket would be to manage the same action, no matter how few passengers are carried by that charter.
As private luxury yacht charter brokers, working and living in South Florida is truly a blessing. This is the yachting capital of the world, and we are blessed with warm weather, great beaches, and year-round access to the newest and largest yachts in the world.
This week, on Thursday and Friday, EVERY PERSON AND CORPORATION in South Florida has a unique opportunity to be generous, by participating in The Miami Foundation’s Give Miami Day — a 24-hour period in which donations can be made online to more than 500 charities. The blitz begins 12:01 a.m. Thursday and runs for 24 hours.
POPULARITY AND GENEROSITY GROWS
Now in its third year, Give Miami Day has gained popularity with each campaign, with more and more charities coming on board. This year, Give Miami will include 115 new charities. For instance, Goodwill Industries, the South Beach Chamber Ensemble, the South Florida SPCA Horse and Large Farm Animal Rescue, and Honor Flight South Florida. Returning charities, for example, Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired Inc., and Shake-A-Leg Miami – a sailing program for the physically-challenged.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Here’s how it works: Simply go to the website www.givemiamiday.org, look at the profiles of each charity, and make a donation to any charity (or charities) that touch your heart. Donations between $25 and $10,000 will qualify for a bonus for the recipient, distributed based on how much is raised and how much is collected in the bonus pool on Give Miami Day. The Miami Foundation, Knight Foundation, and other sponsors have contributed to the bonus pool as an “incentive” for giving.
WHO DOES 1-800 YACHT CHARTERS SUPPORT?
One of the participating charities that we at 1-800 Yacht Charters support is Project PetSnip. Their mission is to stem the staggering pet overpopulation problem in Miami by providing free and low-cost spay and neuter services, along with veterinary health care to animals in need. Last year, we are proud to say, our company President, Jana Sheeder, donated over $4000 to Project PetSnip for the purchase of an autoclave – used to sterilized their medical/surgical tools. Jana explained how our participation helps: “By having additional clean instruments available, more animals can be cared for each day.”
WHAT IS GIVE MIAMI DAY’S IMPACT?
Last year, Give Miami Day received more than 10,000 individual gifts like Jana’s, and raised $3.2 million to support 407 local nonprofit organizations.
There are so many worthy charities participating in give Miami Day – certainly there are one or two that will call out to you. ANY amount will help SO MANY!
Please join us Thursday and Friday for Give Miami Day. As Jana likes to say, “You can make a difference and you can change the world.”
TO DONATE
What: The Miami Foundation’s Give Miami Day
When:Thursday, November 17 through Friday, November 18
How: Visit givemiamiday.org and either click on the charity of your choice, or search through the database. Donations between $25 and $10,000 qualify for a percentage of the bonus pool.
Social media:@MiamiFoundation on Twitter and Instagram — and (hashtag) #givemiamiday
Feedspot, a 4-star rated RSS Reader, has selected the luxury yachting lifestyle blog of 1-800 Yacht Charters as one of the Top 30 “Best Yacht Blogs on the Planet.“ The company joins a distinguished list that includes Reddit, and the boating magazines, Yachting and Yachting World.
In recognizing 1-800 Yacht Charters, Anuj Agarwal, founder of Feedspot said,
“This is the most comprehensive list of best Yacht blogs on the internet and I’m honoured to have you as part of this!”
THE SELECTION PROCESS
According to Agarwal, the top 30 sites are selected and ranked based on the following criteria. For instance,
Google reputation and Google search ranking
Influence and popularity on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites
“There are hundreds of yachting-oriented websites and blogs, and to be selected for this award is truly an honor,” said Sheeder. “Our goal was to go beyond just describing the yachts in our fleet, in order to share the joys of the yachting lifestyle with our readers. We make it a point to cover diverse topics such as nautical fashion trends, travel tips, and last-minute vacation specials. Our USP is ‘Delivering the Superyacht Experience™,’ and that process begins with reliable information. Our blog is integral to that process. We work hard on our content for our readers. We welcome their comments and suggestions as to topics for us to cover.”
ABOUT FEEDSPOT
Feedspot is a modern RSS Reader.
“If you’re trying to keep up with news and content on multiple web sites, you’re faced with the never ending task of visiting those sites to check for new content,” says Agarwal. “Feedspot allows you to put all of your reading in one location.” Feedspot arranges their blog feeds in master categories such as Fashion, Education, Business, Health, Sports, and Culture.
FEEDSPOT GOLD
For advertisement-free reading, Feedspot offers their premier service, Feedspot Gold. According to their website, this subscription-based service includes:
Realtime Updates in your Inbox — Get instant updates from your favorite sites right in your email inbox. You can even select specific sites for instant email notifications. This way you will never miss any important updates.
Search Inside Sites — Search for articles only within the sites you’ve added to your Feedspot account. It’s like your own personal search engine – unlike Google, which shows results from the entire web. Advanced search filters is an amazing way to find the content that matters to you.
Saved Searches — Use saved search features to find articles on specific subjects. Create special searches to find articles about your business, brand, and products, and save them for easy reuse.
Additionally,
Ad-free Feedspot — Advertisements are not shown to Feedspot Gold members. Get an awesome reading experience – almost as good as The Superyacht Experience at 1-800 Yacht Charters!
Fast Updates — Get fast news updates from sites and blogs that update less frequently.
News Topics — Get latest relevant news articles based on topics you care about.
Local News — Read local news by simply typing in a city name or zipcode. You can create a local section for any city, state or country in the world and include thousands of sources.
Your Twitter Timeline on Feedspot — Lets you Read, Archive, and Search Your Personal Twitter Feed on Feedspot
Top Priority support
MOREOVER GOLD
Faster support response
Google Alerts — Google Alerts now support RSS feeds so that you can receive and view alerts right from your Feedspot account. Until now, alerts have been delivered via email only, but those days are over. Now your News, Web, Blog, Video, and Groups alerts are more easily accessible than ever.
Dropbox — Automatically backup all your Feedspot data including your feeds, favorite, and tagged articles to your Dropbox account so that you don’t have to worry about data loss.
Evernote — One-click save any article to your Evernote notebook.
RSS Feeds — Combine multiple RSS or atom feeds into one new RSS feed. Get RSS feed for your favorites, shared items, tags, and folders.
Twitter — One-click share any article to your Twitter account.
Pocket — One-click save any article to Pocket. Also lets you save to Instapaper and Readability
Buffer App — One-click add any article to your Buffer app queue.
YouTube Subscriptions — You can add all your favorite Youtube Channels or subscriptions into your Feedspot account and keep track of all your favorite videos from one place.
Customize Homepage — Lets you customize what you want to see by default on your Feedspot homepage. You can opt to see updates only from selected important sites on your homepage so that you read them first whenever you visit Feedspot.
LUXURY TAX ABOLISHED The recent Mediterranean Yacht Charter show in Genoa, Italy, learned that the 3 year old Sardinia Luxury Tax is no more. ABOUT THE TAX The repeal of the Sardinia Luxury Tax is especially good news to charter enthusiasts. Anyone considering a yachting vacation in the Mediterranean is fortunate. The law […] read more
The world of luxury yacht charter has finally arrived in the Seychelles. Motor yacht SEA STREAM, a 76 foot Ferretti with room for 8 guests, is now available for Caribbean yacht charter enthusiasts looking for a new destination. Ferretti yacht SEA STREAM is now available as the only high quality, luxury crewed motor yacht available […] read more
PLAN AND PACK Yikes! What to pack? In just over three weeks, you leave on a week-long Bahama yacht charter vacation. You choose a sleek, performance, basic sailing yacht with crew. Your menu provided to your yacht through your charter broker, and your crew is ready to welcome you aboard. Seriously, what do you pack? […] read more
Recent Comments