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Why does one ship take your passport, while another doesn't


AmazedByCruising
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The first cruise I sailed on was with HAL and they took our passports for the entire cruise. The second one was with Celebrity and we just got to keep them.

 

I guess taking them has a good reason, like authorities who want to check a few of them before letting people of the ship. But for example in The Netherlands you are supposed to be able to show an identity card if a policeman asks you to. It's a small risk but still if they do, saying that the ship has it might mean enough trouble and paperwork to miss the ship.

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The first cruise I sailed on was with HAL and they took our passports for the entire cruise. The second one was with Celebrity and we just got to keep them.

 

I guess taking them has a good reason, like authorities who want to check a few of them before letting people of the ship. But for example in The Netherlands you are supposed to be able to show an identity card if a policeman asks you to. It's a small risk but still if they do, saying that the ship has it might mean enough trouble and paperwork to miss the ship.

 

It depends on the itinerary, the nationality of the passport holder, and the cruiseline.

 

Generally, in those ports where a passport is necessary while in port, the ship will return it for that stop.

 

In many cases a driver's license will suffice as an identity card. Passports aren't necessary in all ports.

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Not true. DH is Canadian and the only time we had to surrender was on our Med cruise.

 

...to my understanding, it is typically the European itineraries that may do this but not US based itineraries. It may also have to do with European country's immigration agencies which may board the ship in port to confirm the manifest via passports. Not sure on this and maybe someone else can confirm or correct.

 

There was a time years ago on one of our first US closed loop cruises where we had to show our passports on board to an immigration officer in one of the lounges. But my failing memory can't confirm if it was one time prior to the first port of call for all ports of call or if it was for a particular port of call. (So much fun getting older! :rolleyes:) That of course has all changed long ago.

Edited by leaveitallbehind
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It is not the cruise line or the ship but the requirements of one or more of the countries on the itinerary.

For example, cruises that sail “around the Horn” in South America collect the passports because the authorities in Chile and Argentina require a physical inspection of all passenger passports by their respective agents. Instead of having to line up all passengers to display the passports, the passport control personnel board the ship prior to entering each other’s territorial waters and inspect the passports. The passports are then returned to all passengers when the inspection is complete.

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...to my understanding, it is typically the European itineraries that may do this but not US based itineraries. It may also have to do with European country's immigration agencies which may board the ship in port to confirm the manifest via passports. Not sure on this and maybe someone else can confirm or correct.

 

There was a time years ago on one of our first US closed loop cruises where we had to show our passports on board to an immigration officer in one of the lounges. But my failing memory can't confirm if it was one time prior to the first port of call for all ports of call or if it was for a particular port of call. (So much fun getting older! :rolleyes:) That of course has all changed long ago.

 

I remember doing this too. It was for one port of call, I want to say it was because we went to two back to back US ports (ie Miami to St. Thomas or maybe San Juan). I'm a US citizen and it was long before I had a passport, everyone just had to walk thru a line and declare their citizenship in our lounge room. Non US citizens had a separate room they had to show passports in.

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Each cruise line sets their own rules and procedures. So even if the route and nationality are the same, the policies can vary by line

 

You are correct.

 

When we sail the Caribbean on cruise lines some take them and others don't.

 

The ones that do take them are the ones that hold them for all of our cruises.

 

Keith

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You are correct.

 

When we sail the Caribbean on cruise lines some take them and others don't.

 

The ones that do take them are the ones that hold them for all of our cruises.

 

Keith

 

That's interesting as other than the on board passport check as indicated years ago we've never had our's held by the cruise line on any US based closed loop itinerary. But then again we have only sailed on RCI, so admittedly very limited cruise company experience.

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It's only happened to us once, and that was prior to a visit to Egypt...NCL collected our passports at the beginning, in Barcelona; Egyptian immigration flew to our stop in Turkey, stamped passports and then they were returned to us ready for Alexandria, and the rest of the cruise.

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OP Where did you cruise on HAL? We have a ton of cruises on HAL and the only time they took our passports was for Med and Baltic cruises. They never took it for South America or the Caribbean.

 

It had indeed a bit of the Med (Amsterdam-Malaga and back). At the time I thought it was a normal procedure for ships but I wondered why HAL had this procedure and a lot of extra work where Celebrity apparently couldn't care less. The Celebrity cruise was a Baltic cruise, so the reason cannot be just the destination.

Edited by AmazedByCruising
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...to my understanding, it is typically the European itineraries that may do this but not US based itineraries. It may also have to do with European country's immigration agencies which may board the ship in port to confirm the manifest via passports. Not sure on this and maybe someone else can confirm or correct.

 

There was a time years ago on one of our first US closed loop cruises where we had to show our passports on board to an immigration officer in one of the lounges. But my failing memory can't confirm if it was one time prior to the first port of call for all ports of call or if it was for a particular port of call. (So much fun getting older! :rolleyes:) That of course has all changed long ago.

 

If you weren't a US citizen you had to show it for the Bahamas. I was in the US with a green card (as a Canadian) and I had to go to the lounge.

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If you're NOT from America, most cruise lines will hold onto your passports....

 

Wrong.

 

The first cruise I sailed on was with HAL and they took our passports for the entire cruise. The second one was with Celebrity and we just got to keep them.

 

I guess taking them has a good reason, like authorities who want to check a few of them before letting people of the ship. But for example in The Netherlands you are supposed to be able to show an identity card if a policeman asks you to. It's a small risk but still if they do, saying that the ship has it might mean enough trouble and paperwork to miss the ship.

 

As stated in this thread already, it has to do with the itinerary. It's certain European and African countries that require them to be held and made ready for inspection. It's just how their Immigration works. It's not the cruise line. I can't remember all the countries that require it, but Turkey and Egypt stand out in my mind as being 2 of them.

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As others have said, it has to do with the government clearance (for the ship) procedures in upcoming ports. In some ports the government officials will come aboard and spend part of the day inspecting all the Passports (for passengers and crew) under the supervision of the Purser's Staff. In the olden days (and even in some ports today) it used to be a much worse procedure where all passengers had to report to a certain lounge to be cleared before they could leave the ship. This old procedure can still happen with some countries (it recently happened to us on a cruise where we were going to a UK port). And the Russian's have been known to follow this nasty procedure (they did it to us when we were on a cruise that called at Murmansk).

 

Hank

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That's interesting as other than the on board passport check as indicated years ago we've never had our's held by the cruise line on any US based closed loop itinerary. But then again we have only sailed on RCI, so admittedly very limited cruise company experience.

 

I've had many cruise lines take, and keep, my passport regardless of the location of the cruise. Regent took it for an Eastern Caribbean cruise, Crystal did the same for an Alaska cruise, Seabourn for a New England/Canada cruise, and many others. For some, it's just their rule, but for others it's because the countries they visit require every passport to be inspected, and it just makes it easier for everyone to have Guest Services keep the passports.

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Wrong.

 

 

 

As stated in this thread already, it has to do with the itinerary. It's certain European and African countries that require them to be held and made ready for inspection. It's just how their Immigration works. It's not the cruise line. I can't remember all the countries that require it, but Turkey and Egypt stand out in my mind as being 2 of them.

 

 

Sorry, but you're incorrect. Like I said in a previous post, some cruise lines, mostly the luxury lines, take passports regardless of where you're cruising. Since when does one have to have a passport inspected for a cruise that's mostly in Alaska, with one stop in Canada, and closed loop? Canadians don't come on board and inspect all passports---and passports aren't really necessary for ALL Alaska cruises. And since when are passports required for US citizens for closed loop Caribbean cruises? On both Crystal and Regent, on closed loop cruises in the Caribbean, they took, and kept, everyone's passport, despite the fact that there was not one island/nation that required a passport and not one island nation sent someone to inspect passports. For that matter, many cruise to the Caribbean without a passport. So in some situations, it IS the cruise line that will take all passports even if there are no countries that require passport inspection.

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It had indeed a bit of the Med (Amsterdam-Malaga and back). At the time I thought it was a normal procedure for ships but I wondered why HAL had this procedure and a lot of extra work where Celebrity apparently couldn't care less. The Celebrity cruise was a Baltic cruise, so the reason cannot be just the destination.

 

Yes, it can just be the destination. The ship wishes to clear into a port as quickly as possible, so if by taking passports and handling clearance issues prior to arrival can be achieved by holding your passport, then the ship will do it. We have had our passports taken (by HAL) for Norway, returned so we could clear immigration for the Shetland Islands face to face with Shetland immigration personnel, (which was a huge cluster) then gave them back to the ship for Ireland. We even got a passport stamp from Ireland.

 

Princess just took our passport as we sailed from Perth, for visa issuance for Indonesia. Then gave us the passports back, with visa in them, so we could take the passports ashore in Indonesia.

 

We have, on various cruises, had our passports taken for Ecuador and Nicaragua, Turkey, and a small number of other ports. Those were generally easy ports to go ashore at. But others, where the ship was not allowed to deal with clearance in advance, like Tunis, St Petersburg, Shetland Islands, and the immigration clearance was time consuming. Which would you rather have it?

 

I am sure the ship would rather NOT have to take possession of everyone's passports- it is a liability for them. I am sure they don't just do it for the heck of it.

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That's interesting as other than the on board passport check as indicated years ago we've never had our's held by the cruise line on any US based closed loop itinerary. But then again we have only sailed on RCI, so admittedly very limited cruise company experience.

 

The one and only time my passport was held was on RCI Navigator of the Seas. It was a Mediterranean cruise visiting Italy, Greece and Turkey. We were told it was required by Turkey.

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OK so folks are now giving anecdotal info so we will chime in the same way. Having been on somewhere around 100 cruises (14 cruise lines and about 60 different ships) to 6 continents we have had our Passports held by the ship on numerous cruises (probably over 20). And sometimes it can get really weird. On a Princess cruise last year in Europe (around the UK, Ireland and a few ports in France) we had to turn over our Passports at embarkation. They returned out passports about a week into the cruise. Then a few days before we were to disembark (we were hopping off 1 day early in Le Havre) we got a call from the Purser's Office asking us to bring our Passports to Guest Relations. It seems that the French authorities had decided they wanted to inspect all the Passports of those disembarking at Le Havre (a small number of the total passengers) and required the Purser to have the Passports waiting when they boarded the ship. We were only able to retrieve our Passports a couple of hours after the ship had docked in Le Havre (this was not a problem for us).

 

And we have had Passports taken in South America, Africa, other European Cruises, Asia, and the South Pacific. On the Oosterdam last year (a transpacific cruise) we overheard one couple refuse to turn over their Passports at embarkation. A supervisor finally told them that if they did not turn over their Passports they could not board the ship (and yes, they did turn them over).

 

Hank

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've seen a couple people post on here about having their passports held by the ship for Baltic cruises so wanted to post our experience. We just returned last week from a Baltics cruise on NCL and the ship never took possession of our passports. We did have to present our passports to customs and immigration in St. Petersburg as did every other cruiser. Pretty sure the cruise line didn't hold on to anyone's passport as there were many different countries represented passport wise while waiting in the lines to go through customs including Chile, China, Japan, and the U.S.

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Since when does one have to have a passport inspected for a cruise that's mostly in Alaska, with one stop in Canada, and closed loop?

 

If a person is travelling on a cruise from a US port to Alaska and they are using a passport from a country that is required by Canada to have a Canadian visa to enter Canadian waters then the passports are collected prior to boarding. This is done so that the passengers don't have to be hunted down when the Canadian officials board the ships in Victoria to inspect the passports. At least this is the way it's done for those sailing out of Seattle on Princess. There are over 140+ such countries plus 4 more countries that are a "sometimes required" basis. The two most common countries that this applies to are China and Mexico.

 

Tom

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