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Is your passport taken away once you board the ship?

OM234

By OM234,
in Royal Caribbean International

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OM234

OM234

Posted
Posted

I have seen some comments about passports being returned and making sure to get copy of passport as they are taken of you on cruises?

 

is this true? On Jewel of the Seas this Sunday August 7th 2016. not sure how comfortable i would be with someone else minding my passport? :confused:

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freedom750

freedom750

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When we were on the Holy Land cruise we submitted our passports the day before entering their waters and the day we arrived we all had to go for an interview with an Israeli agent. We got our passport back after the interview.

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Ashland

Ashland

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We did the Singapore-Shanghai on Mariner and our passport's were taken away when we boarded....and returned to us the night before we ported in Vietnam...that may have had something to do with RCI obtaining our Vietnam visa's for passengers. That's the only cruise that it's happened to us personally but have heard there are other international itineraries where passports are taken....this shouldn't be of any concern to you..it's just policy.

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Miryam1234

Miryam1234

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They took ALL passports, including EU citizens, Jewel at boarding last week which was new. Explanation was "immigration reasons". We went from Rome to Greece and Turkey. Got ours back after last stop. They set table on each floor. I did get both of ours, without my husband being present, but I cannot be sure if it was just because the person delivering the passports was the Diamond concierge who knew who we were. I saw at least two persons collecting theirs on the guest service line on the morning of departure.

Then again, nobody asked for any kind proof of identification at any port. You only needed your seapass card. We did carry our driver's licenses with us just in case.

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Langley Cruisers

Langley Cruisers

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is this true? On Jewel of the Seas this Sunday August 7th 2016. not sure how comfortable i would be with someone else minding my passport? :confused:

 

Yes - it depends on your itinerary. And just for the record, I don't think anyone is comfortable surrendering their passport but if it is required you really don't have much say in the matter. :o

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riclop

riclop

Posted
Posted
I have seen some comments about passports being returned and making sure to get copy of passport as they are taken of you on cruises?

 

is this true? On Jewel of the Seas this Sunday August 7th 2016. not sure how comfortable i would be with someone else minding my passport? :confused:

 

No it is not.

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PCWalton1

PCWalton1

Posted
Posted (edited)

They will take yours as you are starting in Italy and you will be stopping in Kusadasi, Turkey and they need to present them to authorities. They did the same for us on that itinerary. Make a copy before you board.

 

Edit: I just noticed you are an EU passenger. I was speaking for US passengers.

Edited by PCWalton1
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nekzaadvakil

nekzaadvakil

Posted
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Pretty much had our passports taken away on all 6 of our cruises. No problem, they give you a receipt which you have to present to Guest Services on a particular day and get your passport back. I put this receipt safely in our cabin safe and its never taken more than 3 minutes to get our passports back.

 

I've noticed small immigration like stamps with a ship logo on our passport pages which explains why they require the passports.

 

Note: This is for our Indian Passports. On our last cruise (Alaska), DW's uncle was traveling with us and he is has a New Zealand Passport which was not taken from him.

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Miryam1234

Miryam1234

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No it is not.

 

Well, you are wrong. It is indeed true on Jewel, in Europe, on some cruises.

 

ALL passports were taken away during Jewel July 24-31 cruise. Including our Finnish EU passports, which was new to us. We've done similar route twice (2013 and 2015) when they did not take EU passports, just everybody else's.

 

OP is cruising next Sunday on Jewel in Europe. So if the cruise goes out of EU area, cruise line needs to have the passports for immigration.

 

so, as Langley cruiser stated, it depends on the cruise. For OP, most probably YES, it is true.

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Merion_Mom

Merion_Mom

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First of all, yes, there are many itineraries on which they will take your passport and not return it until the end of the cruise or until after certain ports. (none of those itineraries are in the Caribbean, or in North America)

 

It is for reasons of expediting immigration procedures. If the ship has everyone's passports, then ship's staff can handle the local immigration officers who come on board for that purpose. The alternative is having EVERYONE line up every time you hit a new country. Yuck.

 

The first time I had to do it, I was uncomfortable, but understood the reason once explained to me.

 

:)

 

Funny story:

 

On the infamous Mariner of the Seas Around the Horn cruise (Gigi: are you reading this? DRINK UP! ;) ), they took everyone's passport at check-in, and gave a receipt.

 

I, however, did not know this, because they didn't take mine. I didn't see them doing this. I just checked in, got my passport back, and boarded the ship, going my merry way.

 

Several days later, some of us were drinking and chatting, and someone mentioned the passport thing.

 

I said, "What? No one took my passport. It's in my cabin safe."

 

So I skipped up to Deck 9, got my passport, and took it down to Guest Services.

 

I got SUCH a blank look when I tried to turn it in. She had to call the GS Manager, who accepted the passport without much ado, and without questioning me at all. (nor did I get a receipt, but that didn't matter. I got my passport back at the end anyway)

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Pencruise

Pencruise

Posted
Posted
I have seen some comments about passports being returned and making sure to get copy of passport as they are taken of you on cruises?

 

is this true? On Jewel of the Seas this Sunday August 7th 2016. not sure how comfortable i would be with someone else minding my passport? :confused:

 

Presumably you have an EU passport and are sailing out of Civitavechia, if that is the case no I don't believe they take them, we sailed out of Venice and Barcelona in May and June this year visiting Greece, Croatia, Montenegro, Italy, Spain, France and Turkey and our passports remained in our stateroom safe the whole time.

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Snit13

Snit13

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When we cruised to Antartica from Argentina they took our US passports and gave us a copy. Passports were returned later in cruise. I seem to recall on Baltic cruise they took them or we had to show them in Russia. I have a copy I carry with me and also have copy at home.

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travelgoddess1

travelgoddess1

Posted
Posted (edited)
Yes - it depends on your itinerary. And just for the record, I don't think anyone is comfortable surrendering their passport but if it is required you really don't have much say in the matter. :o

 

You are correct, it depends on the itinerary. And in this day and age, it also may depend on how high the security level is in ports of call. And you are also correct -- you don't have anything to say in the matter. :)

 

Our passports have been taken twice -- on the Mariner 46-night Around the Horn itinerary that Merion Mom mentioned, and on the Radiance southbound transpacific to Australia.

Edited by travelgoddess1
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