how do i get passport stamps

[Flatbush Flyer]

US to/from EU: one stamp in & one stamp out.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[sparks1093]

Nostalgia for the old way of travel. The passport used to represent where you have traveled, a vacation scrapbook of sorts.

 

That and having tons of airline luggage tags on your luggage.:)

[Hlitner]

The Venice comments made me smile. The last time we were in Venice on a ship (about 1 year ago) the authorities did, indeed, require that we show our Passports (this is a very rare procedure inside the EU) whenever we returned to the port. To us, it was a royal pain as one must take extra precautions to protect one's Passport since they are a valuable find for professional pickpockets...of which there are plenty in any major tourist center of Europe.

 

So, one day we are waiting in a short queue to get through the Venice security shack, and the lady in front of us showed her Passport and then ask if they would please stamp the document. One of the security guards quickly responded (in excellent English) that they did not even have a stamp! Another Passport story is about a day trip we took a few years ago from Hong Kong up to the China mainland (via boat). When we got to China (keeping in mind that Hong Kong is technically China) our guide had a chat with one of the Chinese security officials and then announced that anyone who wanted their Passport Stamps would have to pay a bribe (I recall it was nearly $10). Got a big laugh from our group.

 

Hank

Edited January 14, 2015 by Hlitner

[TruckerDave]

Can someone explain why people want stamps in their passports? The only stamps I want are the visas I need to enter/stay in certain countries. If I don't need the stamp, I'm not going to actively seek it out! My passport is full enough of legitimately necessary stamps and endorsements without actively trying to get people to stamp it in every island I dock at for a few hours, I'd be buying a new passport every few years!

 

Can anyone explain what they want the stamps for please?

 

 

I'm with you 100%. Plus some of the immigration folks get a little annoyed when they have to search for a place to put a legit stamp, and the last thing I want to do is spend anymore time in front of them than I need to, when I can be enjoying a nice ice cold beverage on some Central/South American or Caribbean beach. :D

[navybankerteacher]

In our experience, both in the Mediterranean (Greece, Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal) and the Caribbean (about a dozen ports) there was no necessity to bring passports off the ship and no visible place to get them stamped if we wanted to. It seems a waste of limited port time to try to find that sort of souvenir.

[aquilegia]

In Italy, the law does actually state that non-Italians must carry their passport with them.

[DonnaK]

In Bermuda (Dockyard), there are agents in the terminal area where the Norwegian ships dock. We were on a Celebrity ship, but had no problem just walking over and asking for the agent. We were directed to a curtained-off area, and the agents there happily stamped our passports. It took all of a few minutes (and we were a party of 9)

[griffy116]

Flew to Italy twice. We had a layover in Ireland both times and only once was our passport stamped. We have been on cruises to Italy, France, Greece and Turkey and we have no stamps in our passport of such travel. In Italy, they required us to leave our passport at teh hotel front desk, but they returned it to us a few hours later. I'm told you can get your passport stamped somewhere in Vatican City, but we just didn't feel it was worth our time. Our most notorious stamp is an actual stamp...from Hell in the Caribbean. We got that on some postcards we sent to friends...lol.

[6rugrats]

In St. Kitts, there is an immigration office at the port terminal building (Port Zante). Knock on the door and ask nicely for a passsport stamp. What you'll get is a pretty illustrated souvenir stamp, probably different if you had arrived at the airport.

 

You are not allowed to have souvenir stamps in a US passport. It's considered altering or defacing an official government document. Probably best to pass on any non official stamps, and get a separate book in which to collect these.

[GoofyCrew]

Probably my biggest disappointment from our trip last week is that we didn't get our passports stamped. It was our first time using them and I was hoping for some stamps.

 

As it turned out, we did not take our passports off the ship (were told not to) but even if we had, we never saw a place at any port that would have stamped them anyway. I supposed we could have wasted valuable time looking, and gone against the advice of the cruise line, but it wasn't worth it.