no you do not turn over your passport Posted by Sherribaby
Really? On a Holland America cruise in the eastern Mediterranean last October, all passengers had to hand over passports to the Purser's Office for the duration of the cruise.
Does anyone know why they want to keep your passport? It seems odd that they would want to keep them. Posted by Bill Yost
I can only think that it is because the cruise line must inform the Passport & Immigration officers at each port in each country (in my case last year, Turkey, Israel, Greece & Italy) who will be entering their country carrying which passports. At each port the ship's captain has to present documents before getting permission to dock. When the passengers disembark at a port to visit they do not have to go through Passport Control. Just my own thoughts on the subject.
I've have been on more than 50 cruises, only had the passport held on a fraction of cruises ... Most recently an Israel port of call. Passports collected at ship embarkation. Israeli immigration boarded in Palermo (1st port of call) to preprocess disembarkation passengers. We picked up our passports and issue landing cards the next day ... a very brief visual of the passengers to match photos. Simple, fast and well organized.
Depending on your trip------but, it is much easir for the ship to hold your passport. On my last cruise, there were at least a dozen ports of call, and the ship had all passports stamped for us. Can you imagine standingin lind at every port to have your passport stamped? It'd take forever! It'd waste alot of time!
If you are with a cruise tour of the ports, it is also eaiser to not have to fool with your passport. However, I always have a copy of mine with me---just in case.
I've been on several cruises - in the Caribbean, Bahamas and Europe. My passport has never been held. There's a safe in the cabin to keep it in. In some ports, you need to have it with you, but in others, your cruise card is enough for you to reboard the ship. But the cruise line should have extensive information available on their website about all these issues.
last year we did Greece and we did not have to hand in our passports at all, earlier we did the Nile cruise where we did have to So it all depends, some cruises ask and other dont.
Had to hand over our passports on Princess cruise around South America. I always keep a photocopy anyway. Yes Channah, very glad we didn't have to present them at every port, just strolled off the ship with our cruise card.
It varies. On an MSC cruise from Amsterdam to Norway only the passports of non-EU passengers were held. It was also held for all passengers on both Viking River Cruises in Europe. It was not held on a Carribean Cruise You will be sure to pay your bill to get your passport back :-)
We were on an NCL cruise from Venice to Croatia etc., and they never kept our passports. Can you imagine the cruise line keeping 3,000 passports ? Not a pretty picture..
We cruised the western Mediterranean en route to Fort Lauderdale, from Rome last November. For this route we did not have to hand over our Canadian passports.
In some ports,the chance of you beeing robbed of your passport is very high,so among other reasons the cruise line keeps it for safety .It also avoids you standing in line to have your passport stamped which some countries require. Arno Heller
As an American on a Fred Olsen cruise, they held my passport. However this was not true for UK or EU passengers. I have had my passport held by Celebrity on four transatlantic cruises but not on three others. It is a mystery to me.
In the past they kept our passports for a day or two. But at least last year not at all. I think they have better procedures at boarding to take care of the passports. I don't remember what the problem was last year, but they had to check out the passports and it took a few minutes. I think it was because we were taking a grandchild with us. But it was less than 5 minutes.
I just returned from a cruise to the United Arab Emirates and Oman on Royal Caribbean. Our passports were collected when we boarded the ship and returned to us the last night out. When they were returned, they had been stamped going out of the UAE, entering and leaving Oman, and then stamped again entering the UAE. We were given landing cards that we had to show in the ports and then return when we got back on the ship. We did not worry too much because it is an American ship and we had receipts for the passports and copies with us. Another time, we had to hand our passports over for a Greek Island/Turkey cruise, but received a landing card for Turkey.
Out of 13 Cruises around the World, we have never had to hand in on Passports. We keep the Passports in the safe and carry a laminated color copy with us wherever we go, just in case. Yes, this is considered perfectly legal on land wherever we have traveled. It would be nice to get stamps in the Passport though.
AS Canadian cruisers with more than 30 cruises under our belts, I cannot recall ANY cruise line that did NOT require our passports on boarding and returning them on the day before disembarcation. As someone above said, passengers are "cleared" at every port - even if they are in different ports in the same country so the passports are frequently accessed by the cruise line. As I recall, ALL passengers had to pick up passports at the final destination, not just Canadians - although we (non-US citizens) seem to go through a more vigourous examination prior to arrival in Miami. And yes, we carry a copy of the main passport page when we go ashore.
