Passports held?

We'll be on a Baltic Sea cruise in August. We were wondering if passports were collected and held, or if we would have them to take onshore with us. We tend to tour independently, make sure we have plenty of time to get back to the ship, but still would like our passports with us 'just in case'. We'll be on Princess.

They can't be held for the time you are in St Petersburg, as you need to take them ashore. Otherwise, yes, they might be held. That would be a Princess policy, so I would ask on the Princess board. The ship holding your passport will not affect your going ashore independently in the Baltic area (again, exception for St Petersburg).

We did the Baltic on HAL. As I recall, they held them up to the night before St Petersburg. Then we turned the passports back to the ship.

Remember, holding passports is done so the ship can clear faster, and you can get ashore faster. And it works. The cruise mentioned above with HAL also had a Norway/Ireland/Scotland component. We stopped at the Shetland Islands, where we had to appear in person (with passports)to clear Immigration...it essentially delayed the ship by 2 hours. Then we turned them back in for the balance of the cruise, which included 2 stops in Ireland. We got our passports back, and they had Irish stamps on them...but we never had to wait in line, or show them.

Thanks for the clarification! I just wanted to know we'd have them back for SP. if I remember correctly we've had them held on a NoEurope cruise before. Not a big deal, just one less thing in the safe.

We sailed the Baltic with Princess last year and passports were never taken or held. The only port you would need a passport is St Petersburg and you go through immigration when you dock. If you don’t plan on taking a ship or private tour then you’ll need a Russian visa. Official tours will include a tourism visa.

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