Surrendering Passport at Embarkation

[ChubbyHubby]

This is my first post on Cruise Critic, so don't beat me up too much if I'm posting in the wrong area or in the wrong fashion.

 

My question is this: Have many of you been asked to surrender your passport at embarkation to the Cruise Ship personnel?

 

Specifically, those people just coming back from the Celebrity's Holy Lands Cruise, did Celebrity require you to surrender your passport at dockside embarkation check-in??

 

We have done a few Med cruises and on the last one, Carnival was going from Greece to Turkey and back to Greece and insisted that ALL passengers surrender their passports at dockside check-in, purportedly because Greece was being difficult.

 

Our traveling companions and myself were laothe to surrender our documents and almost refused to board the ship in Civitavecchia. After much dockside discussions, Carnival personnel promised the return of our passports on board, but asked us to keep quiet, since the other passenger's documents were NOT being returned until the end of the cruise.

 

From the time I was 17 years old and travelled outside the USA, it was drummed into me, do NOT lose your passport, do NOT surrender your passport, and do have your passport with you at all times??

 

We will be taking Celebrity's Holy Lands Cruise aboard the Equinox in September 2010, and already the question has come up about the discomfort of surrendering our passports, especially when visiting Greece, Turkey, Israel and Egypt.

 

Can anybody tell me if surrendering their passports was (or will be) required by Celebrity when taking their Holy Lands cruise?

 

Sincerely,

ChubbyHubby

[Rickey 88]

I'm not commenting on Celebrity, but instead this is a comment on the now very common practice of most cruise lines in keeping passports for the duration of the cruise.

 

Maybe others can add whether or not ALL cruise lines do it - (I suspect there are probably some who do not) - but all the lines we have sailed with do it.

 

Why?

 

To speed up the clearance by customs of each country the ship visits. These officials usually come on board before the ship is cleared, and examine the documents of all passengers. In doing so, they are avoiding having everyone stand in line for hours, physically turning in their passports to immigration officers.

 

We always make color copies of our passports which we carry with us while we're ashore. No big deal!

[LHT28]

Only once have we had our passports given back to us!!

Cruise out of Texas

 

All other cruises they keep them.

 

I would think there is a good chance you will have to surrender them.

 

Lyn

[Toyz711]

cruising athens to istanbul, in the mid-90s...on a greek registered cruise ship...all cruiser who were NOT greek had to hand over the passports at check-in. our cruise was with a bunch of travel agents and cruise specialists...no one complained. (no, we aren't travel agents or cruise specialists)

it was explained to us that if we did not hand over the passport the ship one of 2 things could happen at each port: long lines of passengers as each showed their passport and were cleared by the port officials, making everyone late for excursions or the ship could be refused to disembark passengers.

the passports are kept locked in the purser's safe and we had a receipt for them.

[Krazy Kruizers]

The onnly times that our passports were taken from us and hled was when we did Baltic cruises going to Russia and Med ports and South America.

 

Never have we had our passports taken for Caribbean, Mexican, Sea of Cortez, Alaskan, Panama Canal or PanAmerican cruises.

[PennyAgain]

I've had several cruise lines keep my passport for the duration of the cruise. I don't worry about it.

[paul929207]

Princess returns the passports after the last port where they will need them for local officials.

[Cruzaholic41]

I have had to surrender my passport on every Mediterranean cruise I have taken. It is normal.

[Keith1010]

Some cruise lines hold your passport the entire duration of the cruise regardless of where you visit. I can name several including Crystal, Silversea and Seabourn but others do.

 

And then some will hold them depending on where you are cruising. Princess is one of several examples.

 

We are now used to it so for us it is no big deal.

 

Now some who have not had this happen will be surprised by my last statement but it is no big deal for us. If they were not held we would leave them locked in our cabin.

 

Now if per chance we did not make it back to the ship and the ship left they would give our passports to the local port agent, so we never worry about that. But we have traveled on a signfiicant number of voyages and have never had any problems.

 

Keith

[cruisemom42]

Some cruise lines hold your passport the entire duration of the cruise regardless of where you visit. I can name several including Crystal, Silversea and Seabourn but others do.

 

And then some will hold them depending on where you are cruising. Princess is one of several examples.

 

We are now used to it so for us it is no big deal.

 

Now some who have not had this happen will be surprised by my last statement but it is no big deal for us. If they were not held we would leave them locked in our cabin.

 

Now if per chance we did not make it back to the ship and the ship left they would give our passports to the local port agent, so we never worry about that. But we have traveled on a signfiicant number of voyages and have never had any problems.

 

Keith

 

Ditto what Keith said. On these behemoth ships, it's really not an option for the passport officials to ask all folks to line up and get their passport stamped. Perhaps you would prefer to get up at 2am to have this done, or shorten your already-short hours in port, but most people would not and do not mind.

 

I have been reading these boards for about 4 years now and never once have I read of anyone having their passport lost by the ship.

[celle]

This is my first post on Cruise Critic, so don't beat me up too much if I'm posting in the wrong area or in the wrong fashion.

 

My question is this: Have many of you been asked to surrender your passport at embarkation to the Cruise Ship personnel?

 

Specifically, those people just coming back from the Celebrity's Holy Lands Cruise, did Celebrity require you to surrender your passport at dockside embarkation check-in??

 

We have done a few Med cruises and on the last one, Carnival was going from Greece to Turkey and back to Greece and insisted that ALL passengers surrender their passports at dockside check-in, purportedly because Greece was being difficult.

 

Our traveling companions and myself were laothe to surrender our documents and almost refused to board the ship in Civitavecchia. After much dockside discussions, Carnival personnel promised the return of our passports on board, but asked us to keep quiet, since the other passenger's documents were NOT being returned until the end of the cruise.

 

From the time I was 17 years old and travelled outside the USA, it was drummed into me, do NOT lose your passport, do NOT surrender your passport, and do have your passport with you at all times??

 

We will be taking Celebrity's Holy Lands Cruise aboard the Equinox in September 2010, and already the question has come up about the discomfort of surrendering our passports, especially when visiting Greece, Turkey, Israel and Egypt.

 

Can anybody tell me if surrendering their passports was (or will be) required by Celebrity when taking their Holy Lands cruise?

 

Sincerely,

ChubbyHubby

 

At one time I felt exactly like you and I even posted on CC to that effect.

 

Since then, I have been on several cruises where the ship kept our passports. We were given receipts for the passports and we carried a photocopy. The passports are kept secure and we have had no problems with their return.

 

So, I'm much more relaxed about this practice now. It does speed up immigration procedures at the ports, as the passports can be inspected during the wee, small hours of the morning, while passengers are still sleeping.

 

I can't tell you what will happen on your cruise, but I suspect that the ship will require you to give them your passport. Immigration procedures for ship passengers can be quite inflexible in some places, so don't be surprised if you do have to surrender your passsport temporarily.

[TrentS]

It's common practice, have a great cruise and don't worry about it.

 

Make a couple of photocopies of the picture page in your passport and keep them in seperate places (you should do that anyway, even if you do not have to surrender it).

[jocap]

This was normal practice in any hotel abroad at one time: passports were held until the local bobby had cycled by to check on the aliens!

Now things are simpler, and you can be checked by computer at air ports etc- our 1st check for travelling to the US happened in Manchester airport so that we could have been turned back in Florida without stepping out of immigration if we'd been at all iffy. No need to wait for the bobby on a bicycle!

On a cruise, however, we're stopping at so many different ports and countries, that there has to be a constant check. Places in the middle east will fly out an immigration man to the port before- not just to aid with the stamping of visas, but to run us thru' their computers. It's all a matter of security, and I for one am pleased that it's taken so seriously.-jocap.

[kitty9]

Cruise lines do this to enable the local authorities to clear the ship quickly and efficiently. Would you want to miss a lot of port time waiting in line to clear Immigration in every port you visit? I sure would not. I've traveled all around the world, and each time my passport was taken and locked up by the Purser's office. NEVER had a problem with this. Crystal and Seabourn took my US passport for cruises to Alaska and Canada, not places you'd ever expect them to do this.

 

Now, for this Holy Lands cruise, it is imperative for the cruise line to take your passport, not only to clear the ship easily, but for SECURITY reasons. If your cruise stops in Israel, they will do background checks on every passenger before you even get to Israel. Have you ever flown El Al? If you think US airline security is tough, try flying the national airline of Israel---they check everything on everyone and it's the same for incoming cruise passengers. You're traveling in what can be regarded as a dangerous part of the world and the cruise line will be taking your passport mostly for security reasons. You won't be able to talk your way out of that one. I know of one couple who didn't want to surrender their passport and they were denied boarding and lost their cruise fare. It's not worth it to argue about something that's regularly done. Heck, we even had Immigration persons from Hong Kong board our cruise in Honolulu to go through passports before we even got near to Hong Kong.

 

BTW, any non-US citizen who boards a cruise ship in a US port, automatically has their passports taken and kept for the duration of their cruise. They don't seem to have any problem with this happening.

[Toto2Kansas]

Yes, we have had to surrender our passports to the cruise line on several sailings. The two off the top of my head were the Egypt/Aegean cruise (although they did return them before we docked in Port Said) and two Sydney to Signapore cruises. It's no problem at all, it is standard practice.

[hajekfam]

We did the Med cruise - Venice to Barcelona with stops in Venice - Dubrovnik, Croatia - Athens Greece - Kusadasi, Turkey - Naples, Italy, etc. We did have to turn our passports in before arriving in Athens as that stop was in between two non European Union countries (Croatia & Turkey). As soon as we left Greece they were returned to us the next day stamped. Usually you have to show your passports when entering the first EU country. You can travel between EU countries without showing your passport. So it suprised me that we didn't have to turn it back in after Turkey when we arrived in Naples.

When we first cruised in the Caribbean in the early 90's, we hd to turn in our documentation (birth certificates or passports) and they were kept by the cruiseline until the last day.

[upwarduk]

I have had the line ups in Isreal & NZ.

 

In fact in NZ, after having our passport stamped & returned, we had to take it with us every time we stepped off the ship, which I was not happy about, but it was my only form of photo ID ( I still have my original Driving Licencee) and then I did not have a Government issued bus pass. I just wished we had ID cards - but that is another story!

 

In Isreal, I was told off by a 16? year old customs operative, because I had altered my son's address ( next of kin) Since then, I have put the alteration on a piece of paper.

 

At no other time can I remember having my passport taken and kept by the ship, but I do now have the modern one with a readable strip and a chip. When we embarked on our last cruise ( for Norway & Iceland) at Southampton, the passport was placed on the small computer & 'read,' and returned immediately. We then locked it in our room safe.

 

Greece & Turkey are not friendly to say the least. In fact, if you go to Northern Cyprus ( Turkish) & your passport is stamped, you will not be allowed into southern Cyprus( Greek) for the life of the passport.

[celle]

Cruise lines do this to enable the local authorities to clear the ship quickly and efficiently

 

BTW, any non-US citizen who boards a cruise ship in a US port, automatically has their passports taken and kept for the duration of their cruise. They don't seem to have any problem with this happening.

 

Kitty, this is a generalisation and is not true for all cruise lines. We are from New Zealand. When we boarded in Seward (Alaska) for our southbound cruise we showed our passports, but no-one ever asked to keep them.

 

We had flown into San Francisco (where we did US immigration, including fingerprints and facial recognition). Then we flew to Vancouver, where we did Canadian immigration. On checking in for departure, to fly from Vancouver to Anchorage, we again did US immigration (fingerprints and look-at-the-camera again :eek:).

 

US immigration had turned part of Vancouver airport into "little America", so that we did not have to go through any immigration formalities when we arrived at Anchorage.

[agabbymama]

Grand Princess Med cruise (Civitavecchia, Monte Carlo, Livorno, Naples, Santorini, Kusadasi, Mykonos, Athens, Katakolon, Corfu & Venice). Captain announces after Kusadasi, we would have to turn our passports in at a special desk (I wasn't happy about it) and they held them until we cleared Greek waters on our way to Venice. Announcement was made when we could go pick up our passports. So for all the Greek ports, we were without our passports. The purser's desk said it was because we left the Schengen countries (sp?) to go to Kusadasi, then coming back into the Schengen countries is why they have to take the passport.

 

And as ChubbyHubby states, I was also told to always keep your own passport, never release it to anyone. I booked my Northern Europe cruise without St. Petersburg Russia in the itinerary for that very reason, as I've read on this board that they do require passport confiscation for this port.

We each have to decide what is best for us, and I'm more comfortable knowing I have possession of my passport.

[Mary Ellen]

I booked my Northern Europe cruise without St. Petersburg Russia in the itinerary for that very reason, as I've read on this board that they do require passport confiscation for this port.

Well, what you've read is simply not true. We sailed the Baltic cruise last summer. Yes, the Front Desk asked for passports in order to make the photo copies we'd need when disembarking in St. Petersburg. Since we'd taken care of this ourselves before leaving home, we didn't. NOT a problem. This was NOT like the surrender of our passport when doing a South American cruise (hand it over when boarding and retrieve it the day before we disembarked). It was merely a convenience offered to passengers who didn't know enough to have their own copies. Russian Immigration looked at our passports and kept the photocopy. We were required to keep our passports on us while in Russia.

[kitty9]

agabbymama, you were given bad information. I've done four Baltic cruises, three of which went to Russia, and it's actually the opposite of what you were told. Our passports were taken by Crystal/Silversea/Seabourn when we boarded the ship in Copenhagen and they were given back to us in St Petersburg because you are required to carry your passport off the ship and through Russian Immigration in the cruise terminal. When we were leaving St Petersburg, we had to return our passports to the purser and they locked them back up until we arrived at our disembarkation port which was Dover.

[greatam]

As someone who has spent an extended amount of time in the Middle East in the last year, LEAVE your passport in the custody of the ship.

 

I am a US contractor helping plan international perishable logistics for the Middle East, primarily the war zones. But the US has warehouse space/bases in almost all countries in the Middle East and I have been to most of them.

 

When I first landed in Kuwait last winter and met with the Colonels who I would report to, I was told DO NOT go flashing that US passport around off the base. DO NOT leave the base with all your contractor ID hanging around your neck IF you are going shopping or into town. Either leave the passport in the base safe (or other secure place) or get a passport cover with CANADA or even possibly Australia on it. I was told to take only a COPY of my passport, more for ID than anything.

 

While cruises are generally safe, you are going to a part of the world where Americans are NOT particularly well liked. I don't mean to scare you, but if there was a terrorist attack or threat, US CITIZENS (other than in Israel) are the first targeted. The latest intel reports have "soft targets"-hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, any place large amounts of Westerners gather-as the new primary targets, rather than government buildings/military stuff.

 

You will also be targeted in other ways-"rich American" is the favorite theme. You generally will not get the same bargains as others. Even hotel rooms in certain parts of the MidEast cost more if you check in with an American passport.

 

Another thing-US passports in the MidEast are going on the black market for upwards of $40,000, especially the ones WITHOUT the RFID chip. I bet every US contractor in the Middle East has been asked if they want to sell their passport. They are high on the theft list. Don't make yourself a target for theft

 

You will be very safe in Israel, but be prepared for questioning (not so bad for a cruise). Egypt is generally safe on the beaten path. Wandering off by yourself in most of the MidEast could be a recipe for disaster. And your US passport can definitely be a HINDERANCE if you run into the wrong people. Leave it on the ship-it will be safe.

[ChubbyHubby]

Dear Greatam & others:

 

THANK YOU, for sharing your information!

 

I especially appreciated your insights, Greatam.

 

Greatam's suggestions, sound a little like the thoughts a few other people have expressed on other threads.....that a Middle East visitor might actually feel (be) safer in a private car tour vs. a bus filled with mostly Americans from a cruise ship while visiting the sites.......

 

It sounds like a blank white piece of paper on one side, with a photocopy of your passport on the other side, would make it LESS recognizeable as a U.S. Passport and therefore; might also make you LESS at risk.....

 

Once Again, THANK YOU to all of you for your experiences, insights and "food for thought".

 

Sincerely,

ChubbyHubby

[chipmaster]

Welcomde to CC.

 

On our last two cruises we had to surrender the passports on embarkation. I think YMMV depending on where you sail. I personally didn't worry about it, but my parents fretted a bit :rolleyes:

 

I don't think there should be anything to fear. I've also had to surrender my passport several times to hotels on checkin as well.

 

I think insisting on getting them returned for simply the sake of you posessing your documents is a bit selffish. I can see if you do need them in port due to a unique travel risk/condition maybe so. Can you imagine if everyone did this what would happen to the ship :eek:

 

We found that the cabin steward on both cruises had a good system for returning them. Sure they coudl be lost or stolen but I think the ships will have a good system to avoid this being a more probably event then you losing them in your room ;)

[Mary Ellen]

Sure they coudl be lost or stolen but I think the ships will have a good system to avoid this being a more probably event then you losing them in your room ;)

Yes, someone (who works on cruise hips in a position to know) has posted before what hoops the cruise line will go though in the very, very, VERY rare event of a passport being lost while in the ship's possession. You are much more likely to lose it yourself.

 

Look at how many CC'ers there are who sail on cruises where passports must be surrendered when boarding. Can anyone even think of a post where someone has reported even knowing of someone this has happened to???