New passport - special delivery v. secure mail services

Anyone renewed their US passport lately? I'm going to finally bite the bullet and change my name in mine and I'm looking at the embassy website to get the rules. Anyone have an opinion of this Secure Mail Services thing? Seems less hassle just to use Royal Mail special delivery - that's how I sent my passport to the DVLA and it worked out fine. Anyone have a compelling reason to use SMS?

anne, how long does it take? 

The website claims that you can use the normal (i.e. not expidited) service as long as you aren't traveling in the next 15 days. That seems fast to me, but that's what it says!

I did mine using those Royal Mail things - it was fine.  I don't see why anyone would use the Special Mail thing! 

I used the Royal Mail special delivery with no problems last month.

Cool. Thanks girls. That's what I'm going to do!